Hawkeyes in Missouri: The 3rd Iowa Infantry

A number of fine regiments served in the Civil War from Iowa; among them was the 3^rd Iowa Infantry that started its combat service in Missouri. The regiment went on to serve on the storied battlefields of Shiloh, Vicksburg, Atlanta, Ezra Church, and several other actions. Links to further information about the 3^rd Iowa follow the sketch included here from Regimental Losses In The American Civil War, 1861-1865 (1898) by William F. Fox.

“ Pugh's Brigade — Lauman's Division--Sixteenth Corps.

（1) Col. Nelson G. Williams.

（2) Col. Aaron Brown.

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	15
Company	A	1	10	11		16	16	104
	B	4	18	22		15	15	117
	C		15	15		8	8	109
	D	1	10	11		13	13	92
	E		12	12		15	15	103
	F		10	10		10	10	116
	G		9	9		13	13	111
	H	1	15	16		12	12	110
	I		13	13		10	10	121
	K		7	7		9	9	101
Totals		8	119	127		122	122	1,099

127 killed == 11.5 per cent.

Total of killed and wounded, 459, died in Confederate prisons (previously included), 12.

Battles.	K. & M. W.	Battles.	K. & M. W.
Monroe, Mo., July 11, 1861	1	Siege of Vicksburg, Miss.	5
Kirkville, Mo., Aug. 20, 1861	1	Jackson, Miss.	36
Shelbyville, Mo., Sept. 2, 1861	1	Canton, Miss.	1
Blue Mills, Mo., Sept. 17, 1861	11	Atlanta, Ga., July 21, 1864	3
Shiloh, Tenn.	40	Atlanta, Ga., July 22, 1864	16
Metamora, Miss.	7	Ezra Chapel, Ga.	1
Greenville, Miss.	1	Siege of Atlanta, Ga.	3

Present, also, at Corinth, Miss.; Bolivar, Miss.; Middleburg, Miss.; Moscow, Tenn.; Resaca, Ga.; Kenesaw, Ga.

Notes.--Organized at Keokuk, Iowa, in June, 1861. It served in Missouri for several months, during which time the regiment had a sharp fight at Blue Mills with a superior force under the Confederate General Atchison. The Third was alone in this fight, and behaved with great gallantry, capturing a piece of artillery. In the spring of 1862, it joined Grant's Army in the advance up the Tennessee River, and was engaged at Shiloh. It was then in Williams's Brigade, of Hurlbut's Division, the brigade sustaining the heaviest loss of any brigade in that battle; the loss of the regiment was 23 killed, 134 wounded, and 30 missing. Under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Trumbull, it fought at Metamora, or Hatchie Bridge, where it lost 2 killed, and 60 wounded, out of about 300 present; the brigade was then under command of General Lauman. At Vicksburg, the regiment was in Pugh's (1st) Brigade, Lauman's Division, Sixteenth Corps. After the fall of Vicksburg the Army invested Jackson, Miss., where the brigade met with a severe loss in an unsuccessful attack on the enemy's works; the regiment losing 17 killed, 57 wounded, and 39 missing, out of 223 men and 18 officers engaged; the missing ones proved to have been all wounded or killed. The regiment participated in Sherman's Meridian Campaign in February, 1864, and on the Atlanta campaign in the following summer. At the expiration of its term of service it was mustered out, and the recruits and reeinlisted men remaining in the field were consolidated into a battalion of three companies, which was transferred November 4, 1864, to the Second Iowa Infantry. During the Atlanta campaign the regiment was stationed at Etowah Bridge until July 17th, when the battalion was ordered to the front and placed in Gresham's (4th) Division, Seventeenth Corps” (Fox, p. 404).

Iowa in the Civil War: links to a history of the unit and the regiment's roster plus links to information on other Iowa units

State Historical Society of Iowa: a history of the unit that contains photographs of flags carried by the 3rd Iowa Infantry