CHAPTER XX
THE TWENTY-THIRD IOWA INFANTRY
THIS regiment was recruited from a large number of counties, among which were Polk, Dallas, Story, Wayne, Page, Montgomery, Jasper, Madison, Cass, Marshall and Pottawattamie. The companies went into camp at Des Moines in July and August, 1862. The regiment numbered nine hundred sixty men and was mustered into the service on the 19th of September. The first field officers were: Colonel William Dewy, Lieutenant-Colonel William H. Kinsman, Major Samuel L. Glasgow, Adjutant C. O. Dewey. Its first service in the field was in Missouri, where several months were spent on various expeditions, including hard marches, skirmishes, to which were added suffering from hardship and disease. Colonel Dewey died of erysipelas at Patterson, Missouri, on the 30th of November, and was succeeded by Kinsman, who was commissioned colonel on the 1st of December, 1862. The regiment was engaged in the hard march to Iron Mountain in February and soon after was sent down the Mississippi to Milliken’s Bend to join General Grant’s army in the campaign against Vicksburg, being assigned to the First Brigade of the division commanded by General Carr, where it remained drilling until the army marched to encompass the Confederate stronghold. Many of the gunboats and transports having run the batteries at Vicksburg and Grand Gulf, the army was concentrating at Bruinsburg. The Twenty-third joined in the march into the interior and was warmly engaged in the Battle of Port Gibson, where it did good service and lost thirty-
