The Rambling Regiment: The 22nd Iowa Infantry

Union Army veteran William F. Fox featured many interesting units in the section titled “300 Fighting Regiments” of his book, Regimental Losses in The American Civil War, 1861-1865. This is the twelfth entry in a series that features the twenty-three infantry regiments from Fox’s list of 300 that served at some point in the trans-Mississippi. There has been no particular order in this series although I have selected the unit that, in my opinion, is the most distinguished of the group in terms of this series: that regiment will be the last one featured.

The featured regiment today had the unusual distinction, along with the 24^th Iowa Infantry, of serving in all three theaters of the war. In the trans-Mississippi the 22^nd Iowa Infantry began their service in Missouri and later campaigned in Louisiana and then along the Texas Gulf Coast. Their most significant combat duty was during the Vicksburg campaign and in the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign. For other information on the 22^nd Iowa Infantry consult the sources below:

The Online Home of the 22^nd Iowa Infantry: photographs, artifacts, gravesites, and other information

Burden, Jeffry C. 1992. Into the Breach: The 22nd Iowa at the Railroad Redoubt. Civil War Regiments: A Journal Of The American Civil War 2, no. 1: 19-35.

Jones, Samuel C. Reminiscences of the Twenty-Second Iowa Volunteer Infantry. 1907. Reprint, Iowa City: Camp Pope Publishing, 1993.

Pryce, Samuel D. Vanishing Footprints: The Twenty-Second Iowa Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War. Edited by Jeffry C. Burden. Iowa City: Camp Pope Publishing, 2008.

“Lawler's Brigade — Carr's (E. A.) Division--Thirteenth Corps.

（1) Col. William M. Stone;Bvt. Brig.-Gen.

（2) Col. Harvey Graham;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	2	1	2	3	16
Company	A	1	4	5		11	11	92
	B	1	10	11		11	11	109
	C		14	14		19	19	107
	D	1	18	19		14	14	108
	E	1	10	11		16	16	105
	F		8	8		11	11	106
	G		8	8		13	13	117
	H		16	16		13	13	103
	I	1	13	14		15	15	99
	K		6	6		10	10	105
Totals		6	108	114	1	135	136	1,067

114 killed == 10.6 per cent.

Total of killed and wounded, 421.

Battles.	K. & M. W.	Battles.	K. & M. W.
Magnolia Hills, Miss.	3	Jackson, Miss.	1
Vicksburg, Miss. (May 22d）	70	Opequon, Va.	22
Vicksburg Trenches, Miss.	9	Cedar Creek, Va.	9

Present, also, at Champion's Hill; Black River Bridge; Iberia; Opelousas; Fort Esperanza; Indianola; Port Lavaca; Bermuda Hundred; Halltown; Berryville; Fisher’s Hill; Woodstock.

Notes.--Organized at Iowa City in August, 1862, leaving the State on September 14th. It was stationed at Rolla, Mo., during the rest of the year, and at other points in Missouri until March, 1863, when it joined Grant's Army, then commencing the Vicksburg campaign. It was assigned to Lawler's (2d) Brigade, Carr's Division, Thirteenth Corps. It was engaged at Port Gibson, the opening battle of the Vicksburg campaign, where it lost 2 killed and 21 wounded; was in reserve at Champion's Hill; was slightly engaged at Black River Bridge, where the brigade carried off the honors of the day.

In the assault on Vicksburg, May 22d, it sustained the greatest loss of any regiment engaged, its casualties amounting to 27 killed, 118 wounded, and 19 missing. The brigade was formed for this assault by column of regiments, with the Twenty-second in advance, the point of attack being a fort on a hill in front of the column. The regiment passed the abattis, gained the ditch and planted its flag on the parapet, where it remained waving for nine hours. The assault having failed at other points, the gallant regiment was obliged to abandon the position which it had fought so hard to gain. At one time during the assault, Sergeant Joseph E. Griffith, of Company I. with a squad of twenty men, climbed the wall of the fort, and, effecting an entrance, engaged in a hand-to-hand fight, from which the sergeant and only one man returned alive.

In August, 1863, the division (Washburne's) moved to New Orleans, and the regiment served in that department during the ensuing twelve months. In July, 1864, the regiment was transferred to the Nineteenth Corps, with which it proceeded to Virginia and fought under Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. At the battle of the Opequon it lost 11 killed, 63 wounded, and 31 missing; total, 105. It was then in Molineux's (2d) Brigade, Grover's (2d) Division, Nineteenth Corps” (Fox, 411).