Tramps and Triumphs of the 2nd Iowa: Part III- Corinth

In the spring of 1885, the Omaha Bee newspaper in Nebraska ran a 12-part series of articles written by John T. Bell of the 2nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry covering the entirety of his service with that regiment. 

    A resident of Omaha at the time of his enlistment, he joined the ranks of Co. C on December 2, 1861, at the tender age of 19. He would survive the war with the rank of second lieutenant and 20 years after his discharge penned these reminiscences. The following year, these articles were published in book form as Tramps and Triumphs of the 2nd Iowa Infantry.

     Bell’s reminiscences are simply superb, really giving the reader an intimate look at life in the ranks of the famous 2nd Iowa. Three of his articles will be featured in this series; the first, covers the regiment’s baptism of fire at Fort Donelson in February 1862. Part 2 covers the regiment’s role at the Battle of Shiloh and the third covers the Second Battle of Corinth in October 1862. Bell’s rank at Fort Donelson and Shiloh was that of a private; by the time of Corinth, he had gained his first stripes as a corporal.

 

Battery Robinett in 1863

The night of October 3, 1862, found our lines encircling Corinth and but a few hundred yards distant. Whiskey was brought out in barrels, the heads knocked in, and the men told to help themselves. It was the general supposition that the place would be captured and arrangements were made to burn the immense commissary and quartermaster stores collected there. Our forces were commanded by General William S. Rosecrans who had been defeated by Van Dorn at Iuka, Mississippi two weeks previously and the Union army had little confidence in his military skill.

          Notwithstanding the abundance of whiskey during the night few men drank to excess. We knew that a big battle would be fought on the morrow and the men had no disposition to add to their desperate situation by getting drunk. In town, all was uproar and confusion, stores and dwellings were broken open and our colored cooks returned to our bivouac loaded with crackers, cheese, ginger snaps, sardines, canned fruits, etc. as their share of the plunder so easily obtained.

          At midnight we fell in line and the regiment marched from the south to the west side of town and took position on  a ridge from which the ground gradually sloped to the westward with considerable open space in front, a portion of which was covered with fallen trees, an abatis formed by the Confederates when they held Corinth and Halleck was approaching it by slow degrees.

          Ay daylight our company [C] was sent out in advance as skirmishers and took position behind scattering trees about 300 yards in front of the regiment. It was a beautiful day and as the sun rose clear and bright it was difficult to believe that two armies of about 40,000 men lay within a short distance of each other even then arranging for battle. To the left, on a commanding point, were Batteries Robinett and Phillips, heavy earthworks surrounded by deep ditches and manned by heavy siege guns so trained as to completely sweep the space in front for a great distance and thought to be impregnable. An occasional shot is fired in our front by the Rebel skirmishers in a lazy kind of way to which we respond in like manner.

          The sun rises higher and higher and we sought shady places, keeping a lookout for developments. At 10:30 there is a stir among the enemy’s skirmishers and the bullets fall around us in a lively fashion. We are sheltered behind scattering trees so that no one is hit. Five minutes later the cry is heard, “Here they come!” and a line of battle composed of six regiments marches out of the woods directly in front of us, followed by others of equal strength and moves swiftly towards us. The commands of their officers are plainly heard and as it was not the intention that one company of the 2nd Iowa should repel an attack by the entire Rebel army, we “about face” and fell back on our main line, still deployed as skirmishers.



          Spit, zip, bang, spat! The musket balls fly past us and our common time develops into quick and that into double quick. We pass rapidly up the hill which seems entirely unoccupied, save by a battery of 12-pdr brass pieces ready for work the instance we have passed behind it. Just over the crest of the hill, we find the ground covered with bluecoats, the main part of our army being concentrated at this point awaiting the attack, the men lying flat on the earth.

          We rushed to our proper place in the regiment and dropped down as the Rebel musket balls cut the ground all around us. A bullet passed across my hip and plunges through the body of Private Downs, lying behind me in the rear rank, killing him instantly. Meanwhile, the enemy has swept up the hill, captured the battery referred to, and turned it on us. There is so much confusion and excitement when we rise to our feet that before we can advance the enemy is upon us and we fell back and form a new line 500 yards in the rear.

          Here we reorganize and move forward with a cheer, recover the crest of the hill, recapture our battery, and drive the enemy back down the slope with terrible slaughter. Our ammunition is soon exhausted but an abundant supply is furnished by the cartridge boxes of the dead and wounded lying all about us. Here Cearly, who was one of the few who drank too much of the whiskey so plentifully dealt out, made his appearance in the company for the first time since the night before, unarmed and demoralized to the last degree. Bursting into tears, he rushed from one comrade to another exclaiming, “Give me a bayonet while I shoot somebody!” A bullet passed through the high hat of Sergeant Harry McNeil and in speaking of it afterwards he said, “You boys have made fun of my high hat, but you see it has saved my life for if I had a low-crowned hat on that ball would have gone through my head.”

          In the meantime, Battery Robinett has been stormed by a heavy force which moves across the open space in full view of the position we occupy. No braver or more desperate assault was ever made and as the shot and shells of the siege guns accurately trained by months of skillful practice tore dreadful gaps in the ranks of the enemy with the only effect of causing them to close up these gaps and press relentlessly forward, apparently as devoid of fear as wooden men. I thought “these are not human beings, they are devils.” On they go, the ground shaking under our feet with the firing of artillery, pausing not an instant, onward, still onward. They reach a point so near the earthworks that the big guns cannot be depressed enough to do harm then rush pell mell into the ditch, 12 feet deep and 15 feet across with sloping bands. They clamber up the far side, capture the position, and drive our gunners from their places and turn the big guns against us. Magnificent daring; courage unsurpassed in the annals of warfare, but all in vain.

          Battery Phillips commands Battery Robinett and hurls into the small space a shower of shot and shell which cannot be withstood, aided by the fire of many field guns which have, in the meantime, been trained upon that band of heroes and the few remaining alive are forced to surrender. The entire attack has proven a failure and son the Rebel flag has disappeared from our front and we go down among the fallen trees to assist the wounded. At one point I met a tall Confederate coming up the road with one leg hanging useless and using two muskets for crutches. The thigh of his left leg had been shattered by an exploded shells and after receiving directions as to where he could find a surgeon, he moved off, the noise of the broken ends of the bons distinctly heard as they were thrown past each other by the winging limb, refusing all offers of aid from stretcher bearers.

Source:

“War Recollections: The Closing Battle at Corinth-Desperate Assault on Robinett,” Corporal John Thomas Bell, Co. C, 2nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry, Omaha Evening Bee (Omaha, Nebraska), March 28, 1885, pg. 4


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