Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/482

 F. Cooper of Poweshiek, lieutenant-colonel; S. G. Smith of Newton, major, and L. A. Duncan of Iowa City, adjutant. On the 15th of November, 1862, the regiment, nine hundred strong, was mustered into service at Iowa City, where it remained in camp a month. The men were armed with Enfield muskets and on the 17th of December started for Cairo, going from there to Columbus, Kentucky. Here the regiment remained during the winter. Sheltered only by dog tents, the men were exposed to the sudden and severe changes of that climate, a succession of cold driving rains, deep mud, snow and hard freezing. Unaccustomed to such exposure many were stricken by disease and died. The monotony of post duty unrelieved by the excitements of active service in the field was depressing in the extreme and there was great rejoicing when the order came to embark for Paducah, seventy miles up the river. Here in comfortable quarters the men soon recovered their health. They remained at Paducah nearly three months, on light duty, becoming well drilled and disciplined. On the last of May the regiment moved down the river to join General Grant’s army, then engaged in the Vicksburg campaign. It was not called to take part in the numerous brilliant battles which followed in rapid succession but was employed in the swamps of the vicinity where sickness and death thinned the ranks. Bad water and the malaria of the swamps were more fatal to the men than hard fought battles. In August the Fortieth joined General Steele’s army in the campaign against Little Rock. With about 12,000 men General Steele marched against that city. On the 10th of September the Fortieth led the advance in crossing the Arkansas River at a point below the city, where the enemy was thought to be in force on the opposite side in the timber. It supported the batteries during the laying of the pontoons, a part of the time under fire, but met with no losses either there or at the crossing. The enemy fled and Little Rock surrendered. The colonel being ill the regiment was under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Cooper,