To Arthur and Zoe, I have long promised to write for you some of the incidents of my service in the Civil War.

Preliminary, I was born at Charleston, Coles Co. Ill. Lived there until I was four years old. Then removed to Dane County, Wis. where I lived until I was nine years old. We then removed to Fayette Co. Iowa where we settled on a farm five miles west of West Union. My oldest bro. Daniel T. at the beginning of the war, 22, William W. 19 and the younger, John C.H. Quivey then 16 past.

I attempted to enlist in the 3d Iowa Infantry, but my father would not consent, and I was a minor. This was in June 1861. A Company was enlisted for the 9th Iowa in which I enlisted but was taken out by my father. In August, a company was enlisted for the 12th Iowa being mostly students from the upper Iowa University, as I remember, 85 students.

My bro. John C.H. and I enlisted in the company we were sworn in to the state service Aug. 24th 1861, drilled for a month on the campus and then were transferred to Camp Union where we were mustered into the U.S. Service by Capt. Charles Washington, a nephew of Gen. Washington. (He later became colonel of the 22d Iowa and was killed at Vicksburg, Miss.) We drilled until about Dec., and ordered to Benton Barracks Mo., where we became a part of Grant's Army.

My first startling experience was the taking my seat after drilling until tired, upon a bunch of sand burs. Never had seen one before. Our first military experience was being shot at in the city of Dubuque. You know it was a disloyal hole. An attempt to derail us was made near Quincy, Ill. A pilot engine saved us.

Soon thereafter we were sent out to disperse a rebel brigade about 20 miles from St. Louis. It disbanded upon our approach. Grant had formed his command in regular order with advance and rear guard. The commander of the advance guard being a lieutenant by the name Smith. He went into a house and told the woman that he was General Grant and wanted some supper. He got it. A few minutes afterwards Grant rode up and asked the lady if she could give supper to him and his orderly, said he would pay well for it. She replied No. General Grant has just been here and eaten up everything that I have in the house, except one pumpkin pie. Grant had seen the lieutenant leave the house and knew who it was. He replied, "Will you sell me that pie? Here is 50 cents. My orderly will come after it." After supper the four regiments were assembled for orders. Hollow square, the adjutant read, "Lieutenant Smith, having entered the house of the widow so and so and eaten everything she had in the house except one pumpkin pie, it is hereby ordered that he march to the front and center and eat that pie also." He refused, but there was no appeal. Amid the jeers of 4,000 men he was compelled to eat it to the last morsel.

The next excitement was the report that our regiment had had a terrible fight at Cape Girardo, Missouri and had been almost entirely destroyed. We knew nothing of it until letters pored in on us from home.

About this time my brother John took the measles. Was taken to the hospital and did not get back to the regiment until we had been in the Battle at Smi...land, Kentucky, Fort Henry and Fort Donelson Tennessee, and had advanced to Shiloh. He hunted me up and we were much pleased to meet. It was the first time we ever met. While we were talking, the long roll beat and he fell into line. I had been wounded at Fort Donelson and my weakness had run into typhoid fever.

Here I must tell you my dream. I almost never dream, but on the night of October 4th, I dreamed that my brother John, Daniel and I were in a terrible fight that we were loading and firing as fast as we could and presently my brother John disappeared. I seemed to know that I would never see him again. Daniel and I continued to load and fire. Later Daniel disappeared and I knew that I would never see him again. I continued the fight in my dream till I had driven the rebels all away. John died on the day of my dream and Daniel just a month afterwards, John dying at Macon, Georgia and Daniel at Fayette Ville, Arkansas. His grave is 187 in the government cemetery at that place.

From the time of the Battle of Shiloh until the second battle of Corinth, we had many fights but they are all historic. I will tell you of two or three incidents in the second Battle of Corinth. The first is of a woman and her daughter who lived just back of our line of battle. Just before the fighting was to commence, the woman and her daughter who lived in a little house about ten rods south of our line came out to Sargent Worth of our regiment and told him that she had no place to get out of the way of the shot except that if he would call some of his companions and let her down into her well that it was dry and only 14 feet deep. He did so and the battle raged all around her house. There were perhaps forty dead rebels in her yard and twenty five or so of our men. After the battle was over we went back and pulled them out. The girl came first and while she was shocked of the sight, seemed to see nothing more than she had expected. As soon as the mother's head came above the curb, she screamed and fainted. They caught her and pulled her over the curb and as soon as she was fully revived, she pointed to a man lying dead on his gun and said, "That is my husband." Within a week after the battle we could hear among the rebels all over the country, that we had brutally shot the man down in his own yard. It was all true, but he was there fighting us.

In the same battle, the rebels tried to take Battery Robbinette. They were attacking it 15,000 strong. They rushed up to the ditch and before they could cross it, their colors fell. A panic seized them and they rolled back about 40 rods. They were reinforced by at least 5,000 and came on again. That time the colors went down again and their leader, General Rogers seized the colors and shouted, "Men the fort is ours." He fell dead on the colors. His men rushed forward to save him and the colors until there were 56 dead men laying on the ground around the general. They have built a white marble monument on the grave where the 57 men are buried with the name of the 56 on three sides of the base and that of the general on the other.

Another matter which came to my attention was that of a boy, a rebel, about 17 years old whose ankle had been struck by a ten pound cannon ball. It was all cut away except the cord on the back of the leg. He wished me to cut that off, but I told him that a clean cut would bleed much faster than a lacerated one, and to wait until the surgeon came. I went a little further and in jumping over a large log, came face to face with a rebel colonel. He showed fight, but I convinced him that he stood no chance.

As I think you know, I had been wounded at C.F. Smith's charge on Fort Donelson. I was well recovered by the time of the Battle of Shiloh, but in the wake of the wound came camp fever which had assumed a typhoid form before Shiloh. I lay in a sibley tent on the top of a hill where the 12th Iowa was camped and where my brother John found me. He had recovered from the measles and looked fine. He was in fact a fine looking young man. As I was helpless, I urged him to stay and take care of me. He said he had never been in a battle and wouldn't like to have the name of staying out of it. He bade me goodbye and I never saw the splendid boy again. I lay in the tent and druing the day it was shot full of holes, perhaps 50. I lay flat down and with that precaution one or two touched my blankets. About five o'clock when our lines were being pressed back, a wounded lieutenant saw me in the tent and asked me why I did not go down over the hill where I would not be so much exposed. I told him my knee was broken and I was sick and dizzy and could not do it. He replied, "I will not leave a comrade in that shape." His left arm was shot below the elbow. He thrust his right arm under me and holding the left against me, dragged me down the hill and put me into a wagon. I lay in the wagon which had been taken down to the river bottom, all night. The rain was heavy that night. I was drenched and my fever seemed to be all gone. I had no dry clothes and suffered a chill with a renewal of the fever. The next morning I looked from my elevated position upon the wagon upon more than two acres covered with the wounded. Some lay in the water where it had run into low places. The battle came on and was in the start for us. Our army rolled the rebels back with immense slaughter. On the 8th, I with thousands of the disabled were transferred to steam beats sent down by Governor Dick Yates of Illinois. I was taken to the 4th and Chesnut Street Hospital where my sister, your Aunt Catherine found me. There was a mystery as to where she got the information. I have some memory as to a benevolent looking old man cross questioning me as to the address of my folks. He got it and wrote to my father. She came down and nursed me through. I went into the hospital on the 11th of April and was discharged from it on the 11th of May, transferred to a steam boat and taken to McGregor, Iowa where my father met us with a covered wagon with a bed in it, and about the middle of May was at home. I was not able to walk until about the middle of June and was unable to return to the Army until July 19th. I remember that I started back on my birthday, 20 years old. Found my regiment at Camp Montgomery near Corinth. Corinth has been characterized as "16 miles square of cemetery". In that way the rebels had more of it than we did. Their losses had been immense there.

To begin anew, I was soon standing guard. The first definite thing that I remember was standing picket guard with more than 100 others in an immense rain. Dr. Finley came out upon our return to camp and gave each one of us a gill of whisky. As the bell rang for hot coffee for us and I had taken the whisky in my tin cup, I drank it. It soon made me very dizzy and I felt very much ashamed of myself. That was my last drink and I think the effect has entirely worn off.

I remember another time when Dr. Finley brought whisky to us when it was largely refused. It was when we lay in line of battle just before the final fight at Corinth. Many of the men said, "No, I wish to die sober."

In connection with the last, I will relate another incident that will show how men sometimes feel who are facing death. We know that soon we would be engaged in one of the most desperate combats of the war. Jacob Ripley lay near me. He was of a strongly religious temperment and remarked that he would feel better if he had been baptized. He asked me what I thought of it. I told him that if the Lord would damn a man who had lived so good a life as he had that I would not care to go to heaven. He was killed within an hour of that time.

Another incident that comes to my mind was the case of a young man who had lived in the south for some ten years before the war and spoke the southern lingo, youans, weuns &c) Owing to his knowing much of the south and his ability to appear to be a southerner, he was used as a scout and often as a spy. He was sent into the camp of the rebel General Forrest. He was accepted as a southerner and was about headquarters for several days. Finally having got all of the information that he wished, Forrest gave him a pass and he started for another rebel camp, really for the camp of the 12th Iowa. He had got past the rebel pickets when he discovered a rebel company following him and apparently trying to overtake him. He gradually increased his speed and the rebels did likewise. They began firing upon him, ultimately killed his horse and wounded him in the left arm. He darted into an immense blackberry patch. In that country the blackberry vines grow so high that in a patch where they are thick, horses cannot make their way through. He came to an East Tennessee house and as they were mostly loyal he thought it his last chance and told them that he was a union scout and added that they could turn him over to Forrest, or could, if loyal, hide him. A big, barefooted young woman was the only one at home and she told him that Forrest had hung her brother the day before, and that they had buried him that morning. The house was log and she took him and secreted him in a closet. She remained about the house. He could see through the cracks and soon the girl's father came into the yard and told his daughter that Forrest was coming and that he must hide again. He went down a gulch and in a little time Forrest's men came in sight. The girl then took a tin pail and went across the road and went to picking blackberries. Soon went out of sight. As the second regiment came up a rifle shot rang out and the colonel fell dead from his horse. The cavalry tried to charge through the blackberries but could not get through. They dismounted and after a long search found the girl. She told them that she saw a man with a gun going up towards the mountain. They finally went back and picking up the colonel, went on with him in an ambulance. Sometime later, the girl came into the yard with a pail of blackberries and her father coming up, as she met him she said in a low voice, "I got one of them, Dad." That night the father and the girl, each taking a rifle, went through byways several miles, to a road that led to our camp.

On the night of October 2, 1862, I was on picket guard at a bridge across the Tuscumbia River, a small stream. The rebel army was within a mile of us. There was, on our post, Ed. Bailey, Dan Hasbrouk, and I. The strange part of this is that Dan Hasbrouk had lived in Oran Township, Fayette County and had formerly, once or twice, gone with Mamma. Well, we expected to be attacked, but were not. But in the first watch of the night, Ed. Bailey stood, then I and at one o'clock a.m. Dan Hasbrouk came on. Dan had got some whisky and as neither Ed or I drank, he had to use it all and got quite drunk. When he went on post he was quite sleepy and leaning on his gun with his right arm and holidng the gun with the left, he went to sleep, staggered and dragged it over a vine. It went off and the bullet went through his right arm severing all of the arteries and veins on the front side. The shock knocked him down. I had just got into my first sleep and as I was near him the wounded arm came into my face. The first thing I felt was the warm blood, in my face. I pushed him off and said, "Who shot you, Dan?" You know there is a severe penalty for going to sleep on the post. He coined a lie in an instant, he said a man rose up on the bridge and shot me. When that blood came into my face, I was badly frightened, expecting to see a half dozen bayonets pointing at me. But there was nothing, no sound except the scurrying of muskrats into the river. I reasoned it over. The shot seemed very near to me. Hunted his gun up where he had dropped it and concluded that it was self inflicted. An accident caused by whisky. Ed and I agreed not to betray him and as the second battle of Corinth came on the next day and more than half of our company was killed or wounded, he passed as wounded in the battle. He was a good soldier when sober.

On the fifth a few of the warm friends of Jake Ripley buried him. He was a grand man a sergeant and in line for promotion. His father came down the next week and brought a metalic coffin and took him home.

Up to this date from the time of our departure from St. Louis to this battle we had been incessantly either fighting or maneuvering for position but soon after this a demand was made on our regiment for twenty men to go on detached duty as gunners in Battery "K" 1st Mo. Light Artillery. It required those having some knowledge. As the place was less laborious than an Infantry man's work and we could keep cleaner, I was one who accepted and went into the battery. I was soon sick of the change. Company "C" 12th Iowa was one of the best companies in the service and we found Battery "K" to be one of the worst. There were some 70 Irish R.R. men, all Catholic and continually fighting among themselves. We had the good fortune to have a young collegian of our number who was trained for the Ring and who could whip any of them. He told us to stand by him and prevent their doubling up on him and he would do the rest. They tried the doubling up process and after they found that we would use our guns for fair play and after Cornish had whipped about twenty of them, they kept hands off. Once, however, when the rest of us were on duty, they tried the doubling up process, and he used his gun, shot three of them. They got well, but let us severely alone. If the 12th Iowa company savored of Heaven, then Battery K would certainly represent Hell.

To show the Company C character, I will relate an instance that occurred after we left it. It was the battle of Tupalo. The 12th held the key to our position. They lost 47 men killed and about 150 wounded. The Rebs fled. Company C had always had a Thursday evening prayer meeting. After the fighting ceased, the company took care of its wounded, buried its dead, got their suppers and then late at night had their prayer meeting. It was a very solemn affair.

One more instance of their service and I will switch to Battery K. The 12th were sent to the mouth of White River Arkansas to prevent Reb boats running up the river. They stayed there until it was deemed safe to leave two companies of the 12th there and sending the rest to Vicksburg. Soon after they left, leaving Company A and F there to guard the river, a union man came in and informed them that a regiment was coming to capture them, 54 men in all. They constructed a stockade of logs and had got it complete except the entry 20 feet wide. They worked until it was too dark to work and laid down pulling off their pants. It was August and warm. They had not expected an attack so soon, but on the morning at dawn about 400 men came charging upon them. They had no time to dress, but buckled on their cartridge boxes over their shirts and proceeded to the unequal contest. The charging regiment rushed for the gate and the belleagured held their fire for short hand work. It lasted about thirty minutes. A and F had lost about fifteen and the gate was piled full of killed and wounded. They had lost in killed and wounded over sixty. A and F has but 54 muskets. The Rebels fled.

Reverting to the battery, our duty was with an infantry support to guard the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, and to take care of Forrest's cavalry. We chased them all over west Tennessee and northern Mississippi. Early in the Spring of 1863 we were ordered to Helena, Arkansas as part of Grant's Army. At this time I was offered a commission as Lieutenant in a Negro Regiment. My father objected and I declined it. Father's words seemed prophetic. He wrote me that the Rebels, having their slaves arrayed against them, would resort to massacres and all that to intimidate them. The battalion to which I would have belonged was butchered to a man, officers and men.

We proceeded to Helena, becoming a part of General B.M. Prentiss's division to keep the Mississippi open for navigation. The new men were trained to handle a 10 pound cannon. We had many skirmishes and finally on July 4th, 1863, the Rebels attacked us 18,000 strong. The captain stationed my piece upon the Levee. That is the embankment that holds the Mississippi River back. Helena is five or six feet below high water mark and is held back by a dyke 8 feet high and 8 rods wide. We stood on that embankment and fired until our guns were almost red hot, then pumped water into them until they were cool and then used them again. As I was operating this gun, the Rebels ran a gun onto the top of the hill into a grave yard that is more than a hundred years old. We turned loose on them and in a few minutes they seemed wildly excited. We learnt afterwards that when our shells exploded they knocked the tombstones and monuments to pieces so that their men were cut and bruised by the fragments to such a degree that they had to abandon the place. They retreated at 1 p.m.

Just as we took 3,000 prisoners that we had got cornered, we heard the screaming of an express boat coming up the river and upon its arrival, we learnt that Grant had captured Vicksburg with 35,000 prisoners at the same time we were marching 3,000 prisoners on board of boats that we had just captured.The Rebels beat a disorderly retreat. We followed capturing more prisoners and picking up many wounded who had been deserted in their disorderly retreat. We began preparations to advance on Little Rock and September 7th took it. In the battle on the 7th, we had an artillery duel across the Arkansas River, giving them a decided defeat. The Rebels deserted the city and all they had in it. As they deserted their guns and fled, the 10th Illinois Cavalry charged them and took many prisoners. As they charged through the retreating horde, a rifleman of theirs shot Major Brown who was the son of Emily Brown, (formerly Olmstead). I can't forbear relating an incident that I witnessed as we advanced into the streets of the City. We halted in the street in front of a hotel. As we stood there, a Rebel Colonel came out on the porch of the second story as he saw our blue uniforms, he rubbed his eyes, looked up and down the street. The Colonel in command of us ordered him down. He continued to stare and finally broke out with the exclamation, "By God, the beats Rip VanWinkle to go to bed in the Confederate States and to wake up in the United States." He had been drunk and had slept through the battle.

I was in several excursions up the Arkansas River as far as Fort Smith. And was in many small fights and skirmishes. Was discharged from the 12th Iowa January 1st 1864. Enlisted in Battery K 1st Mo. on the 3d and served in it to August 4th, 1865, when I was discharged by reason of the end of the war. Our battery took part in the expedition down to Alexandria, La and did some hard fighting. I was not with them as I was absent on furlough. Southern Ill was so disloyal that we were directed to take our revolvers with us which we did. We tried to leave our guns with the Provost Marshall at Cairo, but they ordered us to load them and keep them with us. We knew that the Knights of the Golden Cirdle had killed several soldiers and we had only to go up the Illinois Central Railroad to Williamson Company to be made to see the wisdom of the order. We stopped at a wood station and as we pulled in we saw a large number of men gathered around the little depot. There were five of us and General Mower was on the train with us. They shouted, "Kill the damned Lincoln Hirelings," and General Mower took out his watch and said, "If one of this mob is left in this car, he will be shot dead." Then to us, "Aim so as to kill as many as possible." They went out of the Car with such a rush that they trampled some of their number so that they had to be carried out. General Mower then went out on the platform with us and told them that if there was a jeer or insult offered as we started on that he would open fire on them. They were as still as death.

The battery, as a part of a force of 1,000 men made its 4th and last raid through western Arkansas to Fort Smith. We had in this raid some startling experiences. The Rebs drove our wagon train back, but failed to capture it. This left us without rations for more than ten days. We were put on quarter rations. As our armies had captured nearly all of Price's Army, we were ordered back to Little Rock. We had already crossed the Boston Mountains. To recross and reach rations was a labor of ten days on quarter rations. At the end of the tenth, we knew that were close to relief. We were out of the hills and had clear marching. Camped near Profile Rock on the bank of the river, Guerillas ascended the Rock and fired across at us but one shot from one of our 10 pounders dispersed them. We were camped on a big well kept plantation. I was hungry and having seen several of our men run into well kept Negro quarters where there were kept a large number of slaves, I went in. One of the Old Aunties gave me what they called a hoecake. It was ample for two meals, but as we were not certain of rations before the next day, I ate half and kept the rest for the next meal. These were two of the best meals that I had in the Army. We arrived at the camp safely. You would have been surprised at the fortitude of the nearly starving men. During our preparation to march in the mornings we frequently heard the soldiers say one to another, well, how many holes have you shortened your sword belt, today?

All of the rest of our time was spent in camp and in preparation correspondence, aprising our friends of the glad news of our discharge. We were taken North and on the 4th of August, 1865, discharged.

Finally, let me say, that while I did not make a great record in the Army, I did make a good one. I was never under arrest, but once. Then I slipped away from the guard and they did not even get my name. My home was never the same any more. Before my enlistment we were a jolly crowd of twelve. Grandfather Olmstead had died. My two brothers left with the dead in the South. My sister Almira had died and all seemed new and strange.

This is all that can be told, in a small degree, connecting it with the history of my service.

Aff'ty,
Papa

Received from Michael Wilson of Salt Lake City, Utah on 12 March 1997