A Well Traveled Regiment: The 24th Iowa Infantry

Lieutenant Colonel William F. Fox chronicled many fascinating facts in his histories of 300 fighting Union regiments in his classic, Regimental Losses in The American Civil War, 1861-1865. This is the latest installment in my series on twenty-three regiments from his list of 300 fighting regiments. And what is so special about the twenty-three? They all served at some point in their history in the trans-Mississippi. Among the 300 fighting regiments was the storied 24^th Iowa Infantry that had the interesting distinction of seeing combat duty in all three theaters of the war. Read on…

“Slack’s Brigade — Hovey’s Division--Thirteenth Corps.

（1) Col. Eber C. Byam.

（2) Col. John Quincy Wilds (Killed).

（3) Col. Edward Wright; Bvt Brig.-Gen.

companies.		killed and died of wounds.			died of disease, accidents, in Prison, &c.			Total Enrollment.
		Officers.	Men.	Total.	Officers.	Men.	Total.
Field and Staff		1		1	1	1	2	19
Company	A	1	19	20	1	12	13	107
	B		4	4	1	23	24	127
	C	2	12	14		16	16	107
	D	1	17	18		24	24	137
	E	1	10	11		26	26	117
	F	1	14	15		20	20	123
	G		16	16		22	22	113
	H	1	10	11		23	23	129
	I		12	12		20	20	104
	K	1	5	6		25	25	124
Totals		9	119	128	3	212	215	1,207

128 killed == 10.6 per cent.

Total of killed and wounded, 474.

Battles.	K. & M. W.	battles.	K. & M. W.
Magnolia Hills, Miss.	2	Sabine Cross Roads, La.	6
Champion's Hill, Miss.	75	Rosedale Bayou, La.	1
Black River, Miss.	1	Opequon, Va.	21
Siege of Vicksburg	3	Fisher’s Hill, Va.	1
Jackson, Miss.	1	Cedar Creek, Va.	13
Grand Coteau, La.	1	Guerrillas, La.	2
Nachitoches, La.	1

Present, also, at Duvall's Bluff, Ark.; Fisher’s Hill, Va.

Notes.--Organized in August, 1862, the men having been recruited from the State at large. Leaving Iowa soon after, it proceeded to Helena, Ark., where it was stationed for a few months, and in January, 1863, took part in General Gorman’s Expedition up the White River to Duvall's Bluff. In the spring of 1863, the regiment joined the army in its advance on Vicksburg, having been assigned to Slack's (2d) Brigade, Hovey's Division, Thirteenth Corps. Its first engagement occurred at Port Gibson (Magnolia Hills), May 1, 1863, in which the regiment lost 1 killed and 5 wounded. At the battle of Champion's Hill, May 16th, it sustained a severe loss, having charged, captured, and held a battery of the enemy. It was a daring act, but as it made the advance alone, and without proper arrangement for support, it became the object of a concentrated fire which drove it back in disorder. Its loss at Champion's His was 35 killed, 120 wounded, and 34 missing; total, 189. From January, 1864, it lay encamped at Algiers and in the defences of New Orleans, until March 13th, when it joined Banks's Red River Expedition. It was then in Raynor's (2d) Brigade, McGinniss's (3d) Division, Thirteenth Corps. At the battle of Sabine Cross Roads, this division was commanded by General Cameron. The regiment was then transferred to the Nineteenth Corps, accompanying it to Virginia, where it fought in the Shenandoah Valley campaign, during which Colonel Wilds was killed at Cedar Creek. The regiment was then in Shunk's (4th) Brigade, Grover's (2d) Division, Nineteenth Corps. Its casualties at the Opequon were 10 killed, 57 wounded, and missing; and at Cedar Creck, 8 killed, 43 wounded, and 41 missing” (Fox, p. 412).