Contending with Western Men: A Mississippian Recounts Iuka

For one Confederate soldier, the sheer intensity and violence of combat during the Battle of Iuka changed his opinion on the war.

          “There was one continuous roar of small arms while grape and canister howled in fearful concert above our heads and through our ranks,” he commented in a letter to the Jackson Mississippian newspaper. “The troops against which we were contending were Western men, the battery manned by Ohio troops who fought bravely and well. I know this: that the events of that evening have considerably increased my appetite for peace and if the Yankees will not shoot us anymore, I shall be perfectly satisfied to let them alone.”

          This letter, written by an unknown soldier serving in the 40th Mississippi, provides a frank and candid Confederate eyewitness view of Iuka and was included in Volume 5 of the Rebellion Record.

 

A dug example of a Mississippi Militia cartridge box plate.
(Army of Tennessee Relics) 

Baldwin, Mississippi

September 24, 1862

Dear Cooper,

          I wrote you a short communication from Iuka announcing its peaceable capture on September 4 by the army under General Sterling Price. I believe I was a little congratulatory in my remarks and spread out on the rich fruits of the bloodless capture. Indeed, it was a sight to gladden the heart of a poor soldier whose only diet for some time has been unsalted beef and whit leather hoecake; the stacks of cheese, crackers, preserves, mackerel, coffee, and other good things that lined the shelves of the sutlers’ shops and filled the commissary stores of the Yankee army.

But alas, the good things which should have been distributed to the brave men who won them were held in reserve for what purpose I know not, unless to sweeten the teeth of those higher in authority whilst the men were fed on husks and I suppose were devoured by the flames on the day of our retreat. Had these things been given to the men, they could have eaten them during the time of our occupancy of the town and saved to the Confederacy subsistence (such as it was) for its army during that time. Will our government and our generals never learn that it is policy as well as duty to protect and preserve the private soldiers? It is no trouble to get officers but when neglect and bad treatment has killed the privates of our army, where shall we supply their places? But I am digressing…

The 40th Mississippi held a position on the left center of the Confederate assault on the position held by the 11th Ohio Battery at the center of the image above. The fighting at Iuka, as brief as it was, ranked as some of the hardest of the war in the West.
(American Battlefield Trust) 


We held peaceable possession of Iuka one day and on the next day were alarmed by the booming of cannons and were called out to spend the evening in battle array in the woods. Shifting our positions, we lay in the woods until the evening of September 19th when we were ordered to move again and supposed we were going back to camp to rest awhile when the sharp crack of musketry on the right of our former lines told that the enemy was nearer than we had imagined. In fact, they had almost penetrated to the town itself. How on earth, with the woods full of our cavalry, they could have approached so near our lines is a mystery. They had planted a battery sufficiently near to shell General Price’s headquarters and were cracking away at the Third Brigade when our brigade (the Fourth) came up at a double quick and formed on their left.

And then for two hours and fifteen minutes was kept up the most terrific fire of musketry that ever dinned my ears. There was one continuous roar of small arms while grape and canister howled in fearful concert above our heads and through our ranks. General [Lewis Henry] Little, our division commander whose bravery and kindness had endeared him to the men under his command, was shot through the head early in the action and fell from his horse dead. He was sitting by General Price and conversing with him at the time and both generals were no doubt marked for death by the same hand.

General Lewis Henry Little
Killed at Iuka

The Third Brigade was in the hottest of the fire and most nobly and gloriously did it bear itself. Hereafter, let it be known as the Salamander Brigade for it literally lives in the fire. They charged and took the battery [11th Ohio Battery-see here] which was doing so much damage after a desperate struggle, piling the ground with dead. The 3rd Louisiana regiment of this brigade entered the fight with 238 men and lost 108 in killed and wounded; the 3rd Texas fared about as badly. What a glorious brigade it is! The 40th Mississippi I am proud to say is in this brigade and gallantly shared the glory of the day.

The troops against which we were contending were Western men, the battery manned by Ohio troops who fought bravely and well. Of the part borne by our brigade and regiment, I will not speak but leave to others the chronicle of our deeds. I know this: that the events of that evening have considerably increased my appetite for peace and if the Yankees will not shoot us anymore, I shall be perfectly satisfied to let them alone. It was a terrible struggle, and we lost heavily though victory was with us as we drove the enemy from his chosen position and slept at night within 100 yards of their army and beyond their line of battle in the evening.

All night could be heard the groans of the wounded and dying of both armies, forming a sequel of horror and agony to the deadly struggle over which night had kindly thrown its mantle. Saddest of all, our dead were left unburied and many of the wounded on the battlefield to be taken in charge by the enemy. During the night, the enemy was reinforced and as our strength would not justify us in trying the issue of another battle, a retreat was ordered for this place.

As we marched through the town, the enemy began to shell us, directing their aim (as we judged) at the headquarters of General Price, but the old hero was not at home but on the road directing our march. The retreat, made in the face of a foe outnumbering us by odds, was perhaps more brilliant than the victory and General Dabney Maury, whose division brought up the rear, deserves the highest honor for the skill and courage displayed under circumstances so perilous.

General Dabney H. Maury

The enemy pressed our rear all day on the 20th until General Maury placed a battery commanding the road and as their cavalry closed upon us, sent a volley into their ranks which settled the sardines of about 60 of them and taught them caution the balance of the route. During the entire retreat, we lost but four or five wagons which broke down on the road and were left. Acts of vandalism disgraceful to the army, however, were perpetrated along the road which made me blush to own such men as my countrymen.

Cornfields were laid waste, potato patches robbed, barnyards and smokehouses despoiled, hogs killed, and all kinds of outrages perpetrated in broad daylight and in full view of officers. I doubted on the march up and on the retreat whether I was in an army of brave men, fighting for their country, or merely following a band of armed marauders who are as terrible to their friends as foes. I once thought General Bragg too severe in his discipline, but I am satisfied none but the severest discipline will restrain men upon a march.

The settlements through which we passed were made to pay a heavy tribute to the rapacity of our soldiers and I have no doubt that women and children will cry for bread which has been so rudely taken from them by those who should have protected and defended them. This plunder, too, was without excuse for rations were regularly issued every night and though the men did not get their meals as punctually as in camp, still there was no absolute suffering to justify such conduct and it deserves the severest reprobation.

Source:

Letter from unknown member of 40th Mississippi Infantry, featured in Frank Moore, editor. Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events with Documents, Narratives, Illustrative Incidents, Poetry, Etc. Volume 5. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1866, pgs. 487-488 (originally published in Jackson Mississippian newspaper)

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