Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/492

 escaped, all who were not killed or wounded being taken prisoners. Guns, horses, camp equipage and several thousand dollars’ worth of property were captured by the Union army.

The affair was a most brilliant one and the Iowa regiment returned without the loss of a man. The pursuit of Marmaduke’s army was continued to Chalk Bluff, on the Saint Francis River with skirmishing all the way. Major Caldwell, who had the advance, lost but five men wounded. In March the regiment was armed with Colt’s navy revolvers, five hundred new sabers and six hundred Sharp’s breech-loading carbines, making a much more complete armament than it had ever before possessed. General Steele was now preparing for his Little Rock Campaign and the First Iowa Cavalry accompanied the expedition. When the advance approached Brownsville, midway between the White and Arkansas rivers, on the 26th, there was a sharp skirmish, the Iowa Cavalry having the extreme front. The enemy was driven from his works but on the next day strongly posted behind a bayou, made a stubborn resistance. The First Iowa made a sdashing charge to capture a bridge which afforded the only crossing of the deep and miry stream. The charge was made with drawn sabers on full gallop under a heavy fire from the enemy’s artillery and sharpshooters. But it was not possible to save the bridge as every preparation for this destruction had been made beforehand. Lieutenant-Colonel Anderson had his horse shot from under him and the regiment in the brief charge lost thirty-seven men in killed and wounded. When the army approached Little Rock the Second Brigade of cavalry was placed in the advance the First moving in front as skirmishers. During the fighting which continued nearly all day our regiment was on the extreme front sometimes fighting its way on foot, again charging with drawn sabers, often under heavy and continuous fire. It recaptured from the enemy two howitzers which had been taken from the