From Poltroons to Heroes: The Redemption of the 17th Iowa

Following his army’s victory at the Battle of Iuka, Mississippi on September 19, 1862, General William S. Rosecrans lavished praise on numerous regiments of the command for their steadfast fighting. One regiment, however, was called out: the 17th Iowa Infantry.

          Burt Axton, reporting for the Cincinnati Commercial on September 23 pointed out that “censure is cast upon the 48th Indiana, 80th Ohio, and 17th Iowa for misconduct in action, but how far their fault is attributable to the incompetency or poltroonery of the officers remains to be investigated.” The subsequent investigation by Rosecrans’ staff absolved the 48th Indiana of misconduct noting that regiment posted on the left of the Union line “held its ground until the brave Eddy fell and a whole brigade of Texans came in through a ravine on the little band and even then only yielded a hundred yards until relieved.” The 80th Ohio was similarly absolved of blame.

But General Rosecrans concluded that “he must mention the conduct of the 17th Iowa whose disgraceful stampeding forms a melancholy exception to the general good courage of the troops,” General Orders No. 130 read. “He doubts not that there are many good officers and men in that regiment whose cheeks must burn with shame and indignation at the part the regiment acted and he looks to them and to all its members on the first opportunity, by conspicuous gallantry, to wipe out the stain on their fair name.”

Just a few weeks later, the 17th Iowa would do just that by capturing the battle flag of the 40th Mississippi during the second day of the Battle of Corinth.

The 17th Iowa first "smelled powder" at the Battle of Iuka and would go on to a lengthy and successful career with the Army of the Tennessee. 

In the wake of Iuka, several soldiers from the 17th Iowa sent missives to their local newspapers to explain what occurred. “I should not have troubled you with this communication but I learn from the commissioners from Iowa that the people are under the impression that the 17th acted cowardly, which I feel bound to contradict,” Orderly Sergeant Littleton W. Huston of Co. B stated.

“General Rosecrans’ order reflects severely on the 17th Iowa, which every member of the regiment regrets and more particularly than they would was it not that they feel conscious that they had done their duty as near as they could under the circumstances,” he continued.

“We were double quicked for more than a mile to the field and were halted in a road running at right angles with the line of battle and stood at least 10 minutes under a galling fire, the general seeming undecided about the position we should occupy,” Huston wrote. “About this time our major was ordered under arrest by General Sullivan which left us with but one field officer, Colonel Rankin who was at the right of the regiment and did not know that the major [S.M. Wise] was arrested until the next morning. Consequently, the left wing of the battalion was without a commander when we were ordered to move into position.”

“The left wing could hear nothing of General Sullivan’s order and was thrown quartering across the road just as some general’s staff and orderlies (it was said to be General Rosecrans’) stampeded along the road and through the left wing of our regiment which entirely disorganized two or three of our companies on the left, some men being knocked down and run over.”

“We formed our companies as soon as possible near the ground we occupied when broken by the staff and went into the field as best we could with the regiment in this disorganized condition. Colonel John W. Rankin was soon disabled by being thrown from his horse [one soldier noted that “Col. Rankin had his horse shot from under him, one of his shoulder straps knocked off and his holsters carried away. His horse in falling, throwed him on his head and disabled him for the fight” while another said that Rankin fell on his head when his horse was shot down which rendered him “perfectly crazy”]; then Captain Archer assumed command and soon fell wounded. Captain Young of Co. A had in connection with Captain Archer assumed command and continued in command during the fight. Notwithstanding all these difficulties, the regiment to a man nearly went into the fight and did their share towards defeating the Rebels, but in such a manner as not to receive proper credit for it,” Huston concluded.

Colonel John W. Rankin
17th Iowa Infantry 

As the 17th Iowa fell back under a severe crossfire from the enemy, they stumbled into a friendly fire from the troops of the 39th Ohio which had just arrived on the field. “The 39th Ohio coming up to our relief mistook us for a Rebel regiment and poured into us a volley which was impossible for human bravery to stand,” one soldier recalled. “The fire flashed in our very faces. The men broke past them, telling them for God’s sake not to kill their own men!”  

Despite these misfortunes, the editors of the Council Bluffs Nonpareil offered that the true reason why Rosecrans’ staff called out the 17th Iowa “is not so much attributed to the unsoldierly conduct of that regiment upon the field as to the fact that their existed a feeling of personal ill-will in the mind of the commanding general toward the commanding officer of the 17th,” the newspaper said. However, the Davenport Daily Democrat and News reported on October 6th that “we have heard from soldiers on that battlefield from other regiments who attribute the disgrace entirely to the drunkenness of the commanding officer Col. Rankin and the incompetency of the other officers. There is the secret of it- whiskey. If it is true that Col. Rankin was reeling in his saddle on that day, let it be known and let the blame fall right where it belongs.” One officer of the 17th argued that “the truth is, the conduct of the 17th Iowa would never have been censured, had it not been for the malice of a certain brigadier, and the disappointment of a certain aspiring captain, who dared in no other way to strike at the reputation of Colonel Rankin.”

 

Within days, Colonel Rankin submitted his resignation (apparently for health reasons) which was accepted. “I leave the regiment without the slightest ill-will or unpleasant feeling to any member,” his farewell order read. “Inexperienced, I took the command. For a long time sick, I struggled on in the infirmity of a diseased body. If I have ever done a single person a wrong, I ask his forgiveness. As your officer, I tried to do my duty.”  A resolution signed by all of the surviving officers of the regiment praised Colonel Rankin as a “heroic commander whose whole time and energies have been devoted to the improvement, discipline, health and comfort of the men of his command.”

 

The consensus opinion among the members of the 17th Iowa was that Colonel Rankin's reputation (and indirectly that of the regiment) was undone by a combination of poor health and the personal ill-will of his Hoosier brigade commander, General Jeremiah C. Sullivan pictured above. 

Command of the regiment fell to Captain Charles S. Young. As part of the Second Brigade (Sullivan), Third Division (Hamilton) of Rosecrans’ Army of the Mississippi, the regiment redeemed itself fully at Corinth. But as the regiment was marching towards Corinth on October 3, Major Jabez Banbury of the 5th Iowa was assigned temporary command of the 17th Iowa.

“The 17th Iowa, smarting under the censure which the men believed had been hastily cast upon them for their conduct at Iuka went into the battle of Corinth with a stern determination to wipe out the stain from its reputation,” Lurton Ingersoll noted. “There never was a prouder success. They fought during the entire engagement, first on the right of General Sullivan’s brigade and afterwards where they could find the most Rebels. It was at the very crisis of the battle when Davies’ division had given way, the Rebels had penetrated into the town, and all seemed lost, that this regiment by a splendid charge arrested then turned back the column which had till then been making such fearful headway and followed it up in its confused retreat long enough to capture a stand of colors.”

Those colors, belonging to the 40th Mississippi, were captured along with the Confederate color bearer by Corporal John King of Co. G. Major Banbury noted with pride that “not a man evinced the slightest inclination to shirk or fall back, but all, without a single exception, stood up to the work nobly and with an apparent determination to drive the Rebels back at all hazards.”

General Jeremiah Sullivan wrote a letter to Governor Kirkwood of Iowa on October 14 proudly presenting “a stand of Rebel colors captured under my own eye by the regiment on the battlefield of Corinth on the 4th instant in its gallant charge on the advancing column of the enemy which the 17th alone met, broke, and pursued, until ordered to halt. I have never led braver men into action than the 17th Iowa proved themselves in the desperate and bloody battle of Corinth.” The editors of the Nonpareil questioned Rosecrans’ motives in not mentioning the deeds of the 17th Iowa in his dispatches after the battle “while other regiments taking part in the battle have been lauded to the skies. If the men of the regiment feel as we do, we wouldn’t like to sit in the general’s saddle within musket range of the 17th.”

General William S. Rosecrans as 
brigadier general

          Among General Rosecrans’ last official acts in Mississippi before heading to Kentucky to take over command of the Army of Ohio from General Don Carlos Buell was to issue General Orders No. 145 dated October 23, 1862. “The general commanding cannot forbear to give pleasure to many by announcing in advance of the regular order that the 17th Iowa, by its gallantry in the Battle of Corinth on the 4th of October, charging the enemy and capturing the flag of the 40th Mississippi, has amply atoned for its misfortune at Iuka and stands among the honored regiments of his command. Long may they wear with increasing brightness the honors they have won!”

 

Sources:

“The Battle of Iuka- Full Particulars,” Cleveland Plain Dealer (Ohio), September 29, 1862, pg. 2

“Gen. Rosecrans’ Order,” Daily Gate City (Keokuk, Iowa), October 4, 1862, pg. 2

Letter from Orderly Sergeant Littleton W. Huston, Co. B, 17th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, Daily Gate City (Keokuk, Iowa), October 16, 1862, pg. 2

Letters from Alex and J.W. Holmes, 17th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, Daily Gate City (Keokuk, Iowa), October 1, 1862, pg. 3

“The Iowa Seventeenth,” Davenport Daily Democrat and News (Iowa), October 6, 1862, pg. 2

“Col. J.W. Rankin and the 17th,” Daily Gate City (Keokuk, Iowa), October 21, 1862, pg. 2

“The 17th Iowa Infantry,” Council Bluffs Weekly Nonpareil (Iowa), November 2, 1862, pg. 2

“Tardy Justice,” Council Bluffs Weekly Nonpareil (Iowa), November 8, 1862, pg. 2

Ingersoll, Lurton D. Iowa and the Rebellion. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1866, pgs. 294-295

Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular Posts

Arming the Buckeyes: Longarms of the Ohio Infantry Regiments

Image
     A common question that comes up in conversation about Civil War Buckeye regiments is "What were they armed with?" We are fortunate in that the state of Ohio kept good records of how the regiments were armed when they went into service, this being especially true for those regiments which went into service in 1861 and 1862. The state adjutant general's reports for 1861 and 1862 have been heavily drawn upon to construct this article, as well as consultation with Phil Spaugy who has done extensive research on how Ohio's troops were armed during the war.      Buckeyes carried a fairly wide variety of weapons into the field, and the below article breaks this down into weapons of both domestic manufacture and imported arms. The early days of the war found the state of Ohio practically bereft of longarms; as an example, when the 1st and 2nd Ohio Volunteer Militia left the state in late April 1861, they left unarmed, being armed at Lancaster, Pennsylvania on t...
Read more

Bullets for the Union: Manufacturing Small Arms Ammunition During the Civil War

Image
       Civil War bullets are perhaps the most common item collected from the era; the two armies expended bullets by the millions during the four years’ conflict and spent or deformed bullets of all shapes and sizes have made fascinating and affordable collectibles since the guns went silent in 1865.       I recently acquired a display piece featuring 35 different types of small arms ammunition used during the Civil War, including everything from a small .28 caliber ball up to a .69 caliber three-ring Minie and it triggered some questions: how did the Federal army obtain its small arms ammunition during the war? Where did the lead come from to make the bullets, and where and how was the ammunition manufactured? This post seeks to answer those questions. A typical .58 caliber 3-ring Minie bullet   “Whenever the blasts of war blow in the ears of men who trade in the implements of destruction, they are apt to experience more joy than the true ...
Read more

Arming the Union: Federal Contract Model 1861 Springfield Rifle Muskets

Image
A t the outset of the Civil War, the Federal government ran into a serious issue when the Confederacy occupied Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, the home of one of the nation’s two armories, and carted the gun making equipment off to Richmond, Virginia. This left just the Springfield Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts as the sole government-operated entity to produce longarms for the Union army.           But it quickly became apparent that production at Springfield would have to be supplemented, so the War Department pursued two tracks to increase the weapons supply. Agents were dispatched to Europe to purchase suitable weapons from England, France, Austria, Belgium, and Prussia. Over time, these agents acquired hundreds of thousands of European arms of different designs and origins that equipped Federal regiments in the first years of the war.           In the meantime, operations at the Springfiel...
Read more

Dressing the Rebels: How to Dye Butternut Jeans Cloth

Image
     In the early days of the Civil War,  the Southern states found themselves with an abundance of cotton but a shortage of cloth with which to make army uniforms. The trade in cloth prior to the war had largely been to send raw cotton or wool north to New England (or Great Britain) where it was converted into usable cloth; but now that trade was broken and the Southern states were thrown upon their own resources in their efforts to properly clothe the Confederate army.  This collection of Confederate enlisted men's frock coats and shell jackets gives some indication of the variety of shades of butternut worn during the war. All of them are shades of yellow brown, some heavier on the yellow and some heavier on the brown. The blue used around the collar or as rank insignia indicates that the soldier was in the infantry. Surviving Confederate uniforms are considered rather rare and command quite a healthy price in the collecting market. For an in-depth study of h...
Read more

The Vaunted Enfield Rifle Musket

Image
     The English-made Model 1853 .577 caliber Enfield Rifle Musket was widely regarded as the best infantry arm in the world at the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861. Favorable international press describing its efficiency in the Crimean War and in suppressing the Indian rebellion led to the widespread desire of American infantrymen (both Federal and Confederate) to be armed with these accurate and well-made arms. The lock plate of this well-worn P1853 Enfield rifle musket produced in 1862 shows the typical markings of a British-made weapon that made it through the Federal blockade.  ( Army of Tennessee Relics ) Enfield-pattern weapons were imported into the states by the tens and hundreds of thousands during the war years; one estimate stated that the Federal government purchased 500,000 while the Confederates purchased another 400,000. The Confederate government dispatched Captain Caleb Huse to Europe in April 1861 to purchase weapons and Huse focused on se...
Read more

Arming the Empire State: Arms Issues to New York Infantry Regiments in 1861

Image
     During the Civil War, the state of New York provided more than 400,000 men to the Union army, the highest number of soldiers of any state, and as can be imagined, the task of arming those hundreds of thousands of volunteers was a very difficult one. At the outbreak of hostilities, the state militia numbered 19,000 men but the state possessed only about 8,000 long arms nearly all of which were utilized to arm the eleven militia regiments which left the state in the earliest days of the war. The state dispatched an agent to England on April 24 th to purchase 25,000 Enfield pattern rifle muskets but upon his arrival, he found those weapons hard to find as Confederate agents had already been busy buying up the stock. Eventually, he was able to secure 19,000 Enfields at a cost of $335,000; these weapons arrived in bits and pieces over the next several months and were issued out soon after their arrival to newly formed regiments.  A perusal of the adjutant general’...
Read more

Grant's Bodyguard: An Illinois Trooper at Fort Donelson

Image
Continuing on last week's theme of brushes with the legends of the Civil War, this week's post features a letter from Illinois trooper Private George M. Bradley of Co. A, 4th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry. Bradley, a native of Akron, Ohio, enlisted September 26, 1861 in the 4th Illinois Cavalry and served three years as a Private, mustering out November 3, 1864.  Perhaps one of the most noteworthy things about his service was the time he spent as a bodyguard for General Ulysses S. Grant during the Battle of Fort Donelson in February 1862. Interestingly, Bradley joined up with the 2nd Iowa Infantry on February 15, 1862 and participated in their celebrated attack that broke the Confederate right and precipitated the surrender of the fort on the following day. The charge of the 2nd Iowa will be the feature of my next blog post as I have a number of accounts from Ohioans who participated as members of the 2nd Iowa. Bradley's letter saw print in the March 13, 1862 issue of the...
Read more

Old Abe: The Magnificent War Eagle of the 8th Wisconsin

Image
       In September of 1861, Captain John E. Perkins and the Eau Claire Badgers went into Camp Randall, in Madison Wisconsin with an unusual company mascot: a fledging bald eagle who they soon named Old Abe.           Old Abe had been captured near the Flambeau River in Chippewa County, Wisconsin by Agemahmegezhig (Chief Sky), a member of the Chippewa tribe during sugar season in the spring of 1861.   “His captor cut down a large pine tree in which was the eagle’s nest and secured this one caught in spite of the screams and menaces of the parent birds,” Captain James H. Green of the 8 th Wisconsin later wrote. Daniel McCann of Eagle Point, Wisconsin soon purchased this fledgling eagle by trading a bushel of corn with the Chippewa. Captain Perkins was then in Eau Claire organizing a company and it was there that McCann sold the eagle to Perkins’ company for $2.50. Perkins, who was later killed at the battle of Farmi...
Read more

A Different Vista on the Civil War: An "Ohio" Marked Lorenz Rifle

Image
          While the focus of this blog has been almost exclusively on chronicling the services of Ohioans during the Civil War through their own words, once in a while it is worthwhile to look into object-based history to help further illuminate the times. Object-based history provides a different vista through which to view past events, by studying the manufacture, use, and history of the objects themselves. Today's post marks my first entry into studying the Civil War through its relics and objects. Unidentified Yankee private holding a Lorenz rifle and Colt revolver (Library of Congress)            I recently acquired an Ohio-marked M1854 Austrian-made .54 caliber Lorenz rifle from a longtime Civil War collector. When I decided to purchase the rifle, I knew little beyond the fact that I had come across dozens of references to this usually well-regarded longarm in my research over the years and it was one of the more att...
Read more

Cotton Burning on the Levee: A Civilian Witnesses the Federal Seizure of New Orleans

Image
F or one Ohio-born resident of New Orleans, the arrival of Admiral David Farragut’s fleet on April 25, 1862, marked a day of liberation. “Yesterday about half past 1 o’clock, the cry was raised that the Yankees were upon us,” wrote Louis M. Beyers in a letter to his mother. “I started toward the levee where the Federal vessels were said to be lying. Reaching the river, what a sight breaks upon my view. The steamboat William Morrison was one mass of flames. All the shipping was sending forth the most dense black smoke. The Mississippi , a ram which was nearly finished and which, if completed, would have demolished the whole fleet in one hour, floating slowly by with the smoke issuing from every opening and several other important like vessels in various parts of the river, all showing that the torch has been applied to them.” “Together with the thunder which came peal after peal gave a scene of the utmost grandeur. There proudly floating in the smoke and rain were the glorious old ...
Read more