A Proud German Soldier

John Hormel, a native of the “Kingdom of Germany”, enlisted on August 9, 1862 and became a member of Company G of the 22^nd Iowa Infantry. The 21 year-old worked as a blacksmith and stood five feet six and a half inches tall with black eyes and black hair; he was discharged in June 1865 from Company K of the 5^th Regiment of the Veteran Reserve Corps. On his discharge papers, he proudly and carefully used red ink to write “In Battles of Port Gibson, Champion Hills, Black River Bridge, and Seige of Vicksburg Where he was wounded.” The 22^nd Iowa Infantry played the key role in the assault on the Railroad Redoubt on May 22, 1863 and suffered losses of 27 killed, 118 wounded, and 19 missing or captured. The sturdy trans-Mississippians went on to serve in the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign, but the assault at Vicksburg was their most memorable fight. For a recounting of the assault see Jeffry C. Burden's "Into the Breach: The 22nd Iowa Infantry at the Railroad Redoubt" in Civil War Regiments: A Journal Of The America Civil War (volume 2, #1, pages 19-35).

A Classic from My Bookshelf

Several times a week, I like to pull a book from my shelves that I haven’t looked at in a long time. Maybe it’s geekish, but I like to become reacquainted with my books. Yesterday, I opened my Camp Pope Bookshop reprint of Reminiscences of the 22^nd Iowa Infantry by Lieutenant Samuel Calvin Jones. Admittedly, I am rather sentimental about this book because it was one of the first soldier accounts of the war that I ever read. The University library in the town where I grew up allowed me as a non-student to check out books including bound copies of the original Confederate Veteran, first editions of Confederate soldier accounts, and even a first edition copy of Reminiscences of the 22^nd Iowa Infantry.

Jones’ slender volume is appealing because it is based on his diary, written in a straightforward fashion, and chronicles a regiment that served in all three theaters of the war. The 22^nd Iowa Infantry was one of Fox’s “300 Fighting Regiments” and was featured earlier in this blog. Jones’ discussed service in Missouri and then his involvement in the Vicksburg campaign where his Iowa regiment suffered severe losses during the May 22^nd assault. Later in the war, the regiment was one of three Iowa units that served in the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign.

Here is a brief sampling about a mud march in Missouri on this date in 1862:

“February 8^th. We leave West Plains. We take up our march going northeast on the Thomasville road, a very muddy one. Marched ten miles and go into camp for the night.

            We start out on our march early this morning. The wagon trains and artillery started out earlier than we did. We found wagons and artillery stuck in the mud, some of the wagons abandoned. The moving of the trains and artillery was almost an impossibility. There was much wrath and confusion. We had it to do and we tried to make the best of it. We reached Thomasville at 3 p. m. Our teams did not come in till ten p. m. We could get nothing to eat until they came, therefore, we got our supper about eleven o’clock.

            We went into camp here on the banks of Eleven Point river” (pages 18-19). 

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).