Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/380

Steele’s expedition into the interior of Mississippi, where large quantities of stores were captured and the attention of the enemy diverted from the important movements of the campaign. It joined Grant’s army at Grand Gulf and participated in the brilliant campaign which drove Pemberton’s army behind the intrenchments of Vicksburg, but was not engaged in any of the battles until May 22d. In the assault of that day it lost thirty men, among whom was Captain J. D. Spearman, severely wounded. During the siege which followed its losses amounted to about thirty more. The regiment was sent with General Sherman against Jackson, and returning, went into camp on Black River. In September it was with General Sherman in his march through Tennessee to the relief of Chattanooga and it took part in the battle near Cherokee, where Osterhaus engaged and defeated a Confederate army under Lee and Rhoddy. On the morning that the Twenty-fifth reached Lookout Mountain it went into the battle above the clouds, under General Hooker, and supporting a New York battery, met with no losses but gathered up many prisoners. It was engaged in the Battle of Ringgold on the 27th and lost twenty-nine men. Of the twenty-one officers in the battle, seven were wounded. Colonel Stone was soon after placed in command of a brigade and Lieutenant-Colonel Palmer succeeded to command of the regiment. Near the close of December it went into winter quarters at Woodville, but was sent on several expeditions during that time. The Twenty-fifth was now assigned to the Second Brigade made up of the Fourth, Ninth, Twenty-fifth and Thirty-first Iowa regiments, under command of Colonel J. A. Williamson of Iowa and called the “Iowa Brigade.” Ingersoll says of this famous brigade:

“There was no brigade in the Fifteenth Army Corps which performed more eminent services in the grand campaign of Atlanta than Williamson’s Iowa Brigade. It met the enemy at Resaca on the 11th of May and