Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/459

 steamer loaded with cotton was one of the exciting events. Finding that she would be overtaken, the crew set her on fire and abandoned her. On the 11th of March the transports reached Hell Mound, three miles above Fort Pemberton. Here the troops were landed and the Thirty-sixth was immediately formed in line of battle and marched to the support of a brigade skirmishing with the enemy. The men remained under fire of the fort for more than two hours with the coolness of veterans, this being their first engagement with the enemy. They stayed at Shell Mound doing picket duty, scouting among the cane-brakes and sadly burying their dead a the base of a little hill until the morning of the 20th when the army, having failed to accomplish its purpose, embarked on the transports and retraced its way to the Mississippi. It returned to Shell mound debarking on the 22d, the gunboats moving down and engaging the fort. Cannon from the gunboats and from the batteries on shore hammered away at the fort till the morning of April 4th, the infantry standing picket, when not in camp, or assisting to plant land batteries, laboring always under fire of the enemy. On the morning of the 5th the expedition was finally abandoned and the retreat begun. The fleet, badly injured, reached the Mississippi on the afternoon of the 8th of April. The Thirty-sixth soon fell into the old routine of garrison duty, digging ditches and building breastworks. It was in the Battle of Helena on the 4th of July and remained at that place until the 11th of August when began General Steele’s Arkansas expedition. Major Woodward had resigned on account of ill-health, Lieutenant-Colonel Drake was disabled by sickness, Colonel Kittredge had command of a brigade, and so in the emergency Captain Varner of Company A commanded the regiment until Lieutenant-Colonel Drake came up at Rock Rea Bayou and assumed command. Major Hamilton, who had been promoted from adjutant, rejoined the regiment at Duvall’s Bluff. Here Captains Varner and Webb and Lieutenant Spooner obtained leave