which cost the lives and health of hundreds of those who composed that unfortunate army.
Upon the return to Helena the old camp and city were found to be inundated and a new encampment had to be prepared on a range of hills. When the floods subsided, mud almost unfathomable prevailed everywhere. A rainy winter came on, in which drilling was almost impossible, and long dreary hours and days were passed by the men cooped up in the cheerless quarters with nothing to relieve the depressing monotony. The hospitals were crowded with the sick and a feeling of hopeless despondency settled down upon the army. Late in February, General Washburn’s expedition started from Helena to open the Yazoo Pass, and this aroused the army from the lethargy that had prevailed, and gave hope of active service in the field. General Fisk’s Brigade went with the expedition, and from this time forward our regiment had daily drill and frequent dress parade. Under the instruction of Lieutenant-Colonel Wilds, now in command of the Twenty-fourth, the regiment was becoming distinguished for its fine discipline and general efficiency. When the army was reorganized in the spring for the Vicksburg campaign, the Twenty-fourth was attached to the Thirteenth Corps under General McClernand, Hovey’s Division. During the three months the regiment had been in camp at Helena, fifty members had died and many were in the hospitals. Of nine hundred fifty men who left their Iowa homes in October but little more than six hundred could be mustered in the ranks on the 11th of April when the fleet attempted to open the way to Vicksburg. The Twenty-fourth supported artillery at the Battle of Fort Gibson and was here first under fire. Not a man flinched and but six men were lost. It was at the
BATTLE OF CHAMPION’S HILL
fought on the 16th of May, that this regiment made its great sacrifice and won undying fame. General Grant
