Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/456

344 effect upon the troops from which they did not soon recover. From Keokuk they were sent to the malarious swamps of the Yazoo River and from there to the deadly region about Helena. Disease reduced their ranks until but a fragment was left of the nine hundred seventy men who enlisted.

The field officers were: Colonel Charles W. Kittredge of Wapello County, Lieutenant-Colonel Francis M. Drake of Appanoose, Major Thomas C. Woodward of Wapello, Adjutant A. G. Hamilton of the same county, and Moses Cousin of Monroe, surgeon.

The regiment was sent to Benton Barracks on the 24th of November, from there to Helena where it was in camp the first of the year 1863. For a time the Thirty-sixth was the only regiment at this post where garrison duties were constant and severe. When the regiment joined the Yazoo Pass expedition on the 24th of February the ranks had been so depleted by sickness that but six hundred officers and men were fit for duty. The Twenty-ninth, Thirty-third and Thirty-sixth Iowa Infantry regiments accompanied this expedition, which started with a fleet consisting of thirty six transports, two iron-clads, several gunboats for musketry and mortar rafts. The object of the expedition was to clear the channel of trees and brush which obstructed the navigation of Yazoo Pass. When the channel was cleared the fleet entered the narrow pass and by means of steam, ropes and poles dragged its slow length along making but three or four miles progress a day. For five days the boats moved forward smashing the projecting limbs which often tore off their upper works, finally reaching Cold Water River. The entire country was flooded so that it was difficult to find landing places; the boats were densely crowded and the water was filthy and sickening. The voyage brought disease and death to hundreds of brave men. There were but few exciting incidents during the journey; guerrillas fired on the transports and a few men were wounded. The chase of a