"I was left for dead...": Captain Michael Ackerman at the Battle of Pleasant Hill

Heavily engaged at Pleasant Hill, the 32^nd Iowa Infantry’s regimental history has many eyewitness accounts of the fighting there. In 2015, I promised to occasionally feature these, and today excerpts are presented from a commissioned officer’s testimony:

“Captain Michael Ackerman, of Company A, now Clerk of Courts at Howard, South Dakota, and who was left on the field, terribly wounded, and without other notice for more than twenty-eight hours than that of the rebels who robbed the dead and wounded says:--

‘Late in the evening of April 8, in the camp among the old graves, some of us were discussing the defeat of our troops in the advance, and their demoralized condition as they came into our lines. In this party were Lieutenant Col. Mix, Captains Miller and Peebles, Lieutenant Howard, myself and others. Colonel Mix, looking up, said: ‘There I see the moon over my right shoulder. It is a good omen for me. I need not fret.’ Within twenty-four hours Colonel Mix lay dead on the field of the hard-fought battle; Miller, Peebles, and Howard, were mortally wounded; and I was left for dead, with my left knee and right hip crushed by the bullets that fell among us like hail upon the house top. My Company went into line of battle with thirty-four men, only five of whom answered the next roll-call; and half the Regiment was wiped out!

I fell near the close of the engagement, and soon after the Regiment left the field it had so gallantly and desperately held. I was stripped of my outer clothing. One of these vultures thrust his hand into my pocket, but drew it out covered with my blood, and with an oath left $85.00 there, which no doubt subsequently saved my life.

I rolled into a ditch near me to escape the still fast falling bullets, and about mid-night was helped out by a rebel chaplain, who was trying to care for the wounded. I crawled to a fire, was soon asleep, and did not wake until the sun was high in the heavens. Some one had thrown a dog-tent over me to shield me from the sun….the ground was all strewn with dead and wounded that it seemed that one could step from one to another as far as I could see, without touching the ground. Here and there a group of wounded were gathered about little fires that had been kindled by those able to partly help themselves….

About 9 o’clock that evening Captain Miller and myself were taken in an ambulance to a log house, and placed on the floor with a single blanket under us. Robert Mack, of my company, and eight or ten others were with us. We were in this house four days before we were discovered by the Surgeons who had been left to care for us,--they having two hospitals that required their continuous attention, and we were over-looked…. [After removing to a hospital] the wife of a rebel officer who lived in the neighborhood, a Mrs. Cole…came every week with such supplies as her home afforded, the tears running down her cheeks as she looked upon the starving men she could not feed!... [He was thankful for] the two army wagons loaded with sanitary stores, that came under a flag of truce, and for which the women at home have our blessings as long as we may live. And of things which my bloody money bought at the rate of one dollar for a chicken, one dollar per dozen for eggs, and four dollars per pound for tobacco. And of our parole, about June 17^th, and a trip of seventeen miles in carts and jolting wagons to the boat on Red River, and of the opium and Louisiana rum the doctor gave me on the road, and how the entire fifty-two who started from Pleasant Hill that June morning, all reached New Orleans!”

Quote from: John Scott, Story of the Thirty Second Iowa Infantry Volunteers (1896), pages 149-153.

"This dance of death": The 32nd Iowa Infantry at Pleasant Hill

Colonel John Scott’s, Story of the Thirty Second Iowa Infantry Volunteers (1896), is one of the better trans-Mississippi unit histories. Dr. Ludwell H. Johnson deemed it as the most useful regimental history in his research on the Red River campaign. Mostly this is due to Scott’s inclusion of a number of eyewitness accounts of the battle of Pleasant Hill. The 32^nd Iowa Infantry experienced heavy combat at Pleasant Hill and ended up losing 86 men killed or mortally wounded there. Scott’s book has been digitized and is available for reading on archive.org. This is fortunate because Scott’s work has never been reprinted and copies can be expensive. Occasionally, I will feature some of the eyewitness accounts from the book and will start with:

“Corporal D. W. Robbins, Company D, now a retired merchant of Colorado Springs, at one time Mayor of that pleasant city, has taken pains to revisit the battle-ground of April 9^th, 1864, and to collect and preserve many relics, and to record many incidents of the battle….Corporal Robbins found in 1891 the old field that lay in front of the line of the 32^nd Iowa had changed to a forest of pines; many of the trees being from twelve to eighteen inches in diameter. Other parts of the battle-ground were equally changed. The village of Pleasant Hill has been abandoned; the smaller buildings having been removed, and the larger ones having fallen into ruins. A railroad now runs between Shreveport and New Orleans, passing about two miles south of the battlefield, the nearest station being named Sodus, but retaining Pleasant Hill as the name of the post office.

Corporal Robbins remained in that neighborhood several days, picking up things that had for him particular interest. He cut some bullets from a tree that stood in the rear of the position occupied by his company, cutting to a depth of six to eight inches for them; and also cut some sticks for canes. He found and secured possession of relics that had been picked up by others, and has them among his treasures at Colorado Springs.

In his reminiscences of the battle he speaks of the demoralized troops of Banks passing to the rear, ‘many of them bare-headed, and many having thrown away their guns,’ which were met by the 32^nd Iowa when taking position to check the pursuing foe. He saw Lieut. Col. Mix fall and heard him say “I am killed!’ It also appears that when the right of the Regiment began to fall back, noting the withdrawal of the 27^th Iowa, that the movement extended to Company D, and when checked by Colonel Scott, as being without orders, only a part of the men of that Company heard the order and resumed the former position; in which they remained till they were captured, failing to receive the order to move out by the left flank, at the close of the battle.

Robbins says it was reported among the rebels, and told to the prisoners, that of the bold riders who rushed upon our brigade at the opening of the battle, only twenty-six reported for duty the next morning.

After meeting the rebel battery that was rushing to this dance of death the prisoners met Gen. Kirby Smith, who inquired to what troops they belonged, and on being told he remarked that he knew very well that they were not the sort they had met the day before. As they passed to the rear they saw many of those killed in the battle of the 8^th, lying where they fell, and so covered with the dust raised by the troops that they could hardly be recognized as human beings” (pages 162-165).

A Pen Picture: Colonel John Scott

Captain A. A. Stuart, a veteran of the 17^th Iowa Infantry, wrote Iowa Colonels and Regiments that was published at the close of the war. Judging from the book he made an effort to solicit information from each surviving Iowa colonel although some were not too cooperative. One of these was Colonel John Scott, the commander of the 32^nd Iowa Infantry, a regiment that has been featured in previous postings. This regiment made a remarkable stand during the battle of Pleasant Hill, losing many casualties in the process. One of the enjoyable features of Stuart’s book are the many pen pictures of the colonels plus attractive engravings of some of the commanders. Captain Stuart saw Colonel Scott at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and described him in this way:

“On walking up into the St. Charles, I saw, perched in a chair in the north-east corner of the bar-room, a man that attracted my notice. His chair was tipped against the wall, one foot stuck on the front stretcher, and the other thrown across the leg thus supported. His elbows were resting upon the arms of the chair, his head thrown forward, and his hat drawn over his eyes. In the small space between his lap and his face was a newspaper, which he was reading. I thought I never saw a man doubled up so before, and walked round to take a better look at him; when, my impudence attracting his attention, he looked up to me as much to say: ‘Who are you?’ A prominent trait in his character I read in that glance.

Colonel Scott is a man of middle size, and compactly built. His hair and whiskers are more red than sandy, and his eyes gray and sharp. His round, florid features are set off by a pair of gold-mounted spectacles.

I believe him to be among the ablest and best informed men of Iowa; and yet he has that sort of something about him which has kept him back. It may be the trait to which I have alluded; for he is incorrigibly suspicious, and never gives his confidence to a stranger. When I wrote to him for information relative to his biography, he replied: ‘If I can be convinced that the book is not to be a catch-penny affair, I will furnish data;’ but I could never convince him of that, and for what I have I am indebted to one of his friends. One thing is certain, Colonel Scott was never intended for a politician; and why, I believe, we heard no more of him in the army, is, he always stayed at his quarters, and minded his own business. I venture the assertion that he never asked to be made a brigadier-general. Had he less of the negative about him, it would be well; for, with the same honesty, he would be a much more popular and useful man in society.

Colonel Scott’s military record is without blemish. He was brave, a fair tactician, and a good disciplinarian” (pages 485-486). One wonders what Colonel Scott thought of this assessment…

Contrasting Opinions

Two distinguished historians and two contrasting opinions of a book. Just for fun, I’ve included each of their opinions below, and then I’ll give my evaluation of John Scott’s, Story Of The Thirty-Second Iowa Infantry Volunteers published in 1896.

Dr. James I. Robertson, Jr., from Civil War Books: A Critical Bibliography, Vol. 1:

“A poor effort toward a history; the author borrowed heavily from official sources and some letters published in newspapers; there is no evidence that Scott relied on any manuscript sources” (page 156).

Dr. Ludwell H. Johnson from Red River Campaign: Politics & Cotton in the Civil War:

“This was by far the most valuable regimental history used. Scott was more compiler than author, and he gathered some very informative eyewitness accounts of the campaign. The map of the field at Pleasant Hill was extremely helpful in reconstructing the battle. The book also contains much information on the battle itself, and on A. J. Smith’s proposal to arrest Banks” (page 298).

So which opinion do I agree with? The winner is Dr. Ludwell H. Johnson in this instance. Most of Dr. Robertson’s evaluations in Civil War Books are reasonable to me, but his evaluation of the Scott book is puzzling. Yes, Scott’s book does include excerpts from the Official Records as did many regimental histories written by veterans. However, Scott’s inclusion of eyewitnessaccounts of the regiment’s campaigns makes his book particularly valuable to historians. Altogether Scott devoted 158 pages of his 526-page book to coverage of the Red River campaign. This is appropriate since the 32^nd Iowa Infantry served actively in the campaign, and lost 86 men killed or mortally wounded at the battle of Pleasant Hill. Scott’s book is anything but “a poor effort toward a history.” 

The Stand of the 32nd Iowa Infantry

Today is the anniversary of the surrender of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Courthouse, but it is also the 150^th anniversary of the battle of Pleasant Hill. Fought just a few miles away from the Mansfield battlefield, Pleasant Hill was one of the largest, possibly even the largest battle fought west of the Mississippi during the Civil War. Like Mansfield, accounts of Pleasant Hill usually take a Confederate perspective, but there are some compelling stories on the Union side such as the story of the stubborn stand of the 32nd Iowa Infantry.

Organized in the fall of 1862, the 32^nd Iowa had campaigned actively in Missouri and Arkansas before the Red River campaign, but had seen no heavy combat. On April 7, 1864, the men of the 32^nd Iowa marched steadily from Grand Ecore, Louisiana, until they “encountered the headquarters train of Major-General Banks, entirely blocking the way and hindering our progress.” Colonel John Scott went on to wryly report “The wagons were overloaded, and were said to contain articles ranging in weight from paper collars to iron bedsteads.” The next day the regiment reached Pleasant Hill where the soldiers heard “the wildest stories of disaster and loss” about the battle at Mansfield. Colonel Scott perceptively observed, “These were the moral surroundings as my command was moved to the extreme front…” Attacked by elements of Walker’s Texas division, the regiment found itself isolated during the battle and facing in three directions. Eventually the regiment “was completely enveloped, without orders, and virtually in the hands of the enemy, had he dared to close in and overwhelm us with his masses now around us. This was my position until after sunset, by which time the enemy had left my front…” Regimental losses were reported as 35 killed, 115 wounded, and 60 missing, but many wounded were abandoned the next morning when the Union army retreated. Colonel Scott confessed, “I fear the number of fatal casualties will exceed the number stated, and that of those marked ‘missing’ many are killed and wounded.” He turned out to be correct for the regiment suffered 86 men killed at the battle which ranks as one of the highest losses for any Union infantry regiment during the war. If you would like to learn more about the 32^nd Iowa check out Colonel John Scott’s Story Of The Thirty-Second Iowa Infantry Volunteers (1896) that is available on the Internet Archive.

Note: Quotes are from the Official Records, vol. 34, pt. 1, pages 365-367.