Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/504

 prisoners. On the 28th of November Colonel Hatch in command of his own regiment, the Sixth and Ninth Illinois, moved out to Moscow where Lee was threatening the garrison. A battle was fought in which Lee was defeated with heavy loss. Hatch lost eleven killed, thirty wounded and forty missing. Hatch received a dangerous wound with a Minié ball which passed through his lungs. In February, 1864, the Second Iowa under command of Major Coon accompanied an expedition under General W. S. Smith, sent to coöperate with General Sherman who was marching on Meridian in Mississippi. Hepburn was in command of a brigade. The expedition was a failure. On his retreat from West Point there was heavy fighting, in which the Second Iowa bore a conspicuous part. At one time it fought and retreated for sixty consecutive hours, saving the whole column by its bravery and endurance. The losses of the regiment during the expedition were heavy. In March, a sufficient number of the regiment having reënlisted, the Second Iowa Cavalry Veteran Volunteers were mustered into the service. The regiment now numbered 1,028, of which three hundred and sixty were veterans. On the 7th of April the veterans departed for home on furlough and on the 15th of the following month returned to service. Major Coon was now colonel, while Captains C. C. Horton, Gustavus Schmitzer and Charles P. Moore were promoted to majors of the regiment. The men were remounted and armed with Spencer seven-shooting carbines. In the summer of 1864 the regiment took part in General A. J. Smith’s campaign in central Mississippi fighting in the Battle of Tupelo. It was with General Thomas in his campaign against Hood in Tennessee and won additional fame. Hatch, who had been made a Brigadier-General, commanded the Fifth Cavalry Division and won great renown. In the Battle of Nashville, General Hatch’s Division took a brilliant part and, with the Second Iowa, was in the severest of the fight. In this battle and the pursuit