Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/460

 of absence on account of illness but all died on the way home. Before reaching Little Rock Colonel Kittredge assumed command of the regiment which now marched in hourly expectation of a battle. The army, however, reached the capital unmolested and went into winter quarters on a beautiful hill not far from the arsenal.

There had never before been a time since the organization when disease had not been thinning the ranks of the regiment. Sickness and death had followed it everywhere. Now the conditions changed and for the first time good health and corresponding goods spirits prevailed in the camp. The regiment now numbering six hundred thirteen men, toward the last of March accompanied the army of General Steele on its way to coöperate with General Banks then marching up the Red River. But learning of the defeat of Banks at Camden, Steele went no farther. In the campaign thus far the Thirty-sixth had taken part in a number of skirmishes and was engaged at the Battle of the Little Missouri, where it repelled an attack with coolness and courage. While at Camden, on the 22d of April, a detachment of the Twenty-sixth with other troops, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Drake, was sent to escort a train of about three hundred wagons in which it was proposed to bring back supplies for the army. The road taken bore northwest crossing the Saline River near Mount Elba. On the third day out the command went into camp on the western border of Moro Bottom, a low marshy margin of a bayou of the same name.

On the evening of the 23d the little army escorting the train heard heavy firing in the direction of Camden. On the morning of the 25th a body of one hundred cavalry was sent forward to reconnoiter the road. It pushed ahead five miles and reported no enemy in sight. Meantime the Forty-third Indiana and one section of the battery were sent forward across the bottom and the train put in motion.