Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/541

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CHAPTER XXXI

THE IOWA ARTILLERY SERVICE

OUR State furnished four batteries of light artillery for service during the Civil War. The First Battery was organized early in the first year of the war and was mustered into the service at Burlington about the middle of August, 1861, having enrolled one hundred and sixteen officers and men. They were enlisted from the State at large. The first captain was Charles H. Fletcher of Burlington, who served until January 8, 1862. He was succeeded by Lieutenant J. A. Jones who was wounded at the Battle of Pea Ridge and resigned on the 24th of March, 1862. Harry H. Griffith, who was a captain of Company E, Fourth Iowa Infantry, was his successor. This battery did excellent service in many important battles and received honorable mention in reports of commanding officers. During its term of service the First Battery lost ten men killed in battle, fifty died of disease, twenty-seven wounded in action and twenty-six discharged fro disability. It was mustered out at Davenport, July 5, 1865.

The Second Battery was raised in the counties of Polk, Dallas, Harrison, Fremont and Pottawattamie and went into camp at Council Bluffs in August, 1861. It consisted of one hundred and twenty-three men and was organized with Nelson T. Spoor as captain. Upon the expiration of his term of service on the 30th of August, 1864, Lieutenant Joseph R. Reed was commissioned captain. Upon the expiration of his term of service, June 19, 1865, he was mus-