Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/241

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pated in the grand review. Soon after it was transported to Louisville where it was mustered out, as the war closed. The record of the Seventh Iowa, from the day it left its first camp to the end of the war, was one of which every member had reason to be proud. The people of the State will never cease to remember its deeds of valor.

EIGHTH IOWA INFANTRY

This regiment was raised during the months of August and September, 1861. The ten companies were enlisted largely in the counties of Scott, Clinton, Louisa, Washington, Benton, Linn, Marion, Keokuk, Iowa, Mahaska and Monroe. They went into camp at Davenport, in September, nine hundred and twenty strong. The first field and staff officers were: Frederick Steele, colonel; J. L. Geddes, lieutenant-colonel; J. C. Ferguson, major; G. H. McLaughlin, adjutant; William McCullough, quartermaster; James Irwin, surgeon; and C. G. Vandeveer, chaplain.

The regiment was sent to reënforce General Fremont’s army in southwest Missouri and suffered severely in the hard marches over bad roads. Returning to Sedalia in November, most of the winter was spent in camp and field in that vicinity. Early in February, 1862, Colonel Steele was promoted to Brigadier-General; Geddes became colonel of the regiment; Major Ferguson was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and Captain Joseph Andrews, of Company F, became major. On the 12th of March the Eighth joined General Grant’s army at Pittsburg Landing. In the Battle of Shiloh, on the 6th of April, the regiment was in the division commanded by General W. H. L. Wallace, which was stationed in the rear of General McClernand, with its right near the Landing. As the Confederate army advanced, gradually forcing our troops in the front from their positions, the Eighth came under fire. For an hour it supported a battery on the front and suffered from the enemy’s artillery. Later the regiment was ordered