CHAPTER XXV
THE THIRTY-THIRD IOWA INFANTRY
SAMUEL A. RICE, formerly Attorney-General of Iowa, was largely instrumental in securing the enlistment of the men who formed the Thirty-third regiment. Companies A, G and I were raised in Marion County, B, F and H in Keokuk County, and C, D, E and K in Mahaska County. The regiment was organized in August, 1862, and went into camp at Oskaloosa, numbering nine hundred eighty men. Samuel A. Rice was commissioned colonel; Cyrus H. Mackay, lieutenant-colonel; Hiram D. Gibson, major, and F. F. Burlock, adjutant. On the 20th of November the regiment started south, stopping at St. Louis, where it remained until December 21 when sent to Columbus, Kentucky. On the 1st of January, 1863, the Thirty-third was sent to assist in defending Union City which was threatened, but no attack was made and it returned to Columbus. On the 8th the command went down the river to Helena, Arkansas, where it suffered the misery of that unhealthful camp until February 9, when joining the expedition to the Yazoo Pass, for two weeks it assisted in clearing the channel, then went with the army to Fort Pemberton. Upon the return to Helena, Colonel Rice on the 11th of June, was placed in charge of a brigade composed of the Twenty-ninth, Thirty-third, Thirty-sixth Iowa regiments and the Thirty-third Missouri and never after returned to his regiment, which was led by Lieutenant-Colonel Mackay from that time.
THE BATTLE OF HELENA
Lieutenant-General Homes had succeeded in assembling a Confederate army over 15,000 strong for the pur-
