surpassed valor had redeemed the disastrous rout and slaughter of the day before by a hard won victory, he ordered a retreat, abandoning his wounded officers and men and leaving the dead unburied. The Confederate army fled in one direction while Banks hurried his army away in the opposite direction. When General Dick Taylor learned the next day of Banks’ flight he faced his beaten army about, returned to the battle-field, took our wounded men prisoners and claimed a victory. But what of the heroic Thirty-second on that fateful day? When its supporting regiments were withdrawn and no order came to Scott to retire, there was but one thing to do—fight to the end. Lieutenant-Colonel Mix and Captain A. B. Miller holding the right of the regiment, fell mortally wounded and three companies gave way before overwhelming numbers. The lines now faced in three directions while a destructive fire was rapidly thinning the ranks. Captains Peebles and Ackerman, Lieutenants Devine and Howard had fallen dangerously wounded. The sun had gone down and the enemy had passed on to the rear. Colonel Scott was now able to move his regiment to the left, where it joined our most advanced troops. The loss of the regiment was two hundred ten men out of four hundred twenty, or one-half of the entire number that had answered to the roll call in the morning. It was a larger per cent. than that suffered by the famous “Light Brigade” in its charge at Balaklava. General Banks in his official report of the battle did not even mention Shaw’s Brigade, which by its heroic fighting and fearful sacrifice, saved the army from utter rout. Neither did he mention an Iowa regiment. But he did a few months later secure the dismissal from the service of the gallant and fearless Colonel Shaw for daring to tell the truth about some of the drunken and cowardly officers high in command at Pleasant Hill. But impartial history rights many wrongs.
Greeley’s “American Conflict” says:
