Leadership in the First Iowa Infantry

The First Iowa Infantry was a three months regiment that fought at the battle of Wilson’s Creek. According to A. A. Stuart’s, Iowa Colonels and Regiments (1865), an unusually high number of its soldiers went on to high-ranking positions in other regiments. Probably many of these men had innate military gifts, but the fact that they experienced combat early in the war probably gave them an advantage in obtaining higher rank. Stuart listed four men who were promoted to major, six went on to become lieutenant-colonels, one became a colonel, one (Charles L. Matthies) became a brigadier-general, and one (Francis J. Herron) became a major general. Pretty impressive!

Franc B. Wilkie: An Embedded Journalist

Today is the anniversary of the battle of Wilson’s Creek, and an appropriate time to recognize Franc B. Wilkie. A native of New York, Wilkie entered the newspaper business when he was in his twenties and was associated with that profession for most of his life. In the 1850s, he ventured to Iowa, and became a correspondent for the Dubuque Herald when the war started. He traveled with the 1^st Iowa Infantry during the campaign that culminated in the battle of Wilson’s Creek, and later in the year, the Dubuque Herald published in book form the thirty-two letters that he sent to the newspaper.

In 2001, the Camp Pope Bookshop published a new edition of this rare book along with Wilkie’s letters about the fall 1861 campaign. These latter include his accounts of the siege

of Lexington (Missouri), a skirmish at Blackwater River, and Second Boonville. Michael E. Banasik ably edited the book, and it is part of the publisher’s important Unwritten Chapters of the Civil War West of the Mississippi series. Later in the war, according to the book’s introduction, Wilkie became a correspondent for the New York Times and then worked for a Chicago newspaper.

Here is a part of Wilkie’s thirty-second letter that was written in Springfield on the day that the battle of Wilson’s Creek was fought:

“…Everybody who was in Springfield was up long before daylight and awaiting with feverish anxiety the event of the day…. About ten minutes past five the heavy boom of the artillery rolled through the town like the muttering of a thunder storm upon the horizon, and sent a thrill through every heart like a shock of electricity. I instantly mounted my horse and set out for the scene of the action, which was fully twelve miles distant, and as I neared it the explosions of the artillery became one continuous roar that only now and then was broken enough to distinguish the sound of individual guns….

As I approached the battlefield, squads of men could be seen galloping madly hither and thither, while out on the prairie were scores of saddled horses grazing peacefully, whose riders had left them in many cases forever. I met also two men getting away from the fatal timber, over which hung a thick smoke, as if hell itself were flaming within. Some of them limped painfully along, others were supported upon the arms of comrades, some were hatless, and with locks clotted and countenances ghastly with blood, while a few had helped themselves to horses, and all were making their way as fast as they could towards town. Going still further, one came to a spring, situated a few hundred yards from the line of fight, in a ravine, and here the wounded were conveyed, and here the doctors were busy in their humane but unwelcome duty.”

Source of quotation: Banasik, Michael E. Missouri in 1861: The Civil War Letters of Franc B. Wilkie, Newspaper Correspondent. Iowa City: Camp Pope Bookshop, 2001, pages 143-144.

Iowans on the March

As some of my previous postings have noted, soldiers in the trans-Mississippi were involved in some incredible marches. One of these marches is documented in Jeffrey L. Patrick’s Campaign for Wilson’s Creek: The Fight for Missouri Begins. The book is part of

the McWhiney Foundation Press’ “Civil War Campaigns and Commanders” series, consisting of shorter books about a variety of topics. Patrick’s book is a clearly written study of the Wilson’s Creek campaign. Notably, it includes a number of helpful maps and sidebars with biographical data about prominent campaign participants.

Patrick’s description of the march is based partly on Missouri in 1861: The Civil War Letters of Franc B. Wilkie, Newspaper Correspondent. Edited by Michael E. Banasik, this excellent source focuses on the activities of the 1^st Iowa Infantry during the Wilson’s Creek campaign; in the second half of the book, Wilkie chronicles the later 1861 fall campaigns.

While crossing the Osage River on July 11^th, Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon learned that Brigadier General Franz Sigel’s force was retreating to Springfield after the battle at Carthage with Confederate forces in pursuit. Lyon ordered a forced march to Springfield to rescue Sigel and his men. The 1^st Iowa Infantry led the way for Lyon’s force and pulled out shortly afterwards at 5:00 a.m. on July 11^th.  Ten hours later, the 1^st Iowa had logged 27 miles. Following a break of about three hours, the soldiers again took up the march and by 3:00 a.m. on July 12^th, they had traveled an additional 21 miles. A two-hour break followed and then the soldiers trudged another five miles. At this point, a courier arrived to announce that Sigel’s force had arrived safely in Springfield. So, from 5:00 a.m. on July 11^th to the morning of July 12^th, the 1^st Iowa infantry marched 53 miles. The men sustained themselves in part by singing “Happy Land of Canaan,” a tune enhanced by the addition of over 200 verses.