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The 25th Iowa. \VGreenville, Miss., April 19, 1863.Editor Hawk-Eye—Dear Sir: Since the date of my last communication, the 25th have seen a little more service, and had opportunities never before given them of seeing “slavery as it is,” by a little trip into the interior. I propose, in order to relate events as they occurred, to make copious extracts from my daily journal, in which I have jotted down the occurrences of each day, hoping the relation may prove of interest to your readers:On the morning of April 2d we left our pleasant camp at Young’s Point, provided with fourteen days rations, and embarked on the steamboat1 ‘ Em rna No. 2.” According to order,Ave took with us only our rubber and one other blanket, and one suit of clothes, having neither tents or baggage, and no transportation out pack-mules.— From these indications, we came to the conclusion that we were bound for a foray into the interior somewhere, but were unadvised as to the locality. At dusk we turned nose up stream( in company with twelve other transports, carrying the remainder of the division (Gen. Steele’s).— The following morning we were still mov-levee on the a number of places, and the water was pouring through in torrents, inundating the whole country as far as the eye could reach.At 11a. m., on the 3d, we landed at thlt;, celebrated Plantation on the Mississippi side of the river, known as the “Fanny Bullitt Plantation,” and a more^beautiful place I never saw. The whole Plantation bore marks of careful and judicious cultivation, and the beauties of Kature were increased instead of marred, as is too often the case, by the hand of art. This place is about twenty-five miles south of Greenville. Here wo debarked and sent out a party of cavalry to ascertain the condition of the roads. At 4 p. m. they returned, reporting the roads impassable, the country a few miles from the river being swampy. We therefore returned to the boats, and, the following morning went twelve miles further up the river, and into Washington Lake, where we again landed opposite a the plantation of a Mr. Worthington. An other party of cavalry were sent out, and, in the mean time, in company with a number of officers of the Sd Mql Infantry and our own regiment, I strolled around the adjoiningplantations. Hereagain the hand of industry (the negroes, of course,) was manifest. The Mansion House of Mr. Worthington was a well-built, commodious residence, well provided with all the modern conveniences, and lighted by gas manufactured on the premises. In conversing with the proprietor, he informed mo that the house was built and the grounds laid out by Northern men; and he dwelt with great errnestness upon the fact that he had paid 920,000 in gold to a firm in Indiana for constructing the house, besides purchasing all the fine material, the iron work, etc., in the North. He acknowledged, however, that he had a son in the frebel army, and actually exhibited lliis miniature, representing him in his uniform. On invitation, wo entered the parlor, and soon, accompanied by the piano, the house rang with the stirring notes of tho “Star-Spangled Banner,” sung by a dozen sturdy Union voices, .which perhaps sounded strangely to the ltebcl ears about us. The roads again proved impassable, and \Vo soon embarked and steamed to Greenville, where we arrived in the evening.On Sunday morning, the 5tli inst., we landed our whole force, including Hoffman's and Landgrafrer’s batteries. At 11 a. m. we commenced our march into the interior, a good road having lieen found— our Regiment bringing up the rear. We marched about five miles, wrhen we were halted in order to repair a bridge across “Black Bayou,” which had been destroyed by tho rebels. This job occupied the remainder of the day, and we bivouaoked for the night on the road. The following morning we moved fevward at a bri*k rat,, wwe reached Heor Street, a considered stream, whiA_Empties Into the Yazoo i.iif aliove inimifU Blgff. The road led irn« diately along -the banks of this stream do»n whloE wo rapidly foitoLd ® reunify along la,, Creak i. very rich mJ fertile. Plantations are numerous-well ' stocked with negroes, and the mansion houses, cotton gins, etc, are h? ’ large and magnificent scale. There wsvLn abundance of corn, cattle, sheep, miu£ dec., and the country certainly pksvS few evidences of the ravages ofwap the starvation so much talked of seemSu stranger, and likely to be. In fact/this U said to be the most productive r^on£ country in the State ofMississippi, Son! of the most fertile cotton districts £ the South. Since I arragui’s arrival has cut off the Texas and Louisiana sunnlics fromVicksburg the reliel, £?.«,'bSSutaSgtheir supplies from this district and th«however, disturbing nothihg save a few chickens, and the necessary forage for th* animals. ^On Tuesday, the 7th inst, we started early from our camp in a canebrake resolved to overtake the rebel force which according to the most reliable accounts’ numbered 150rt.with five pieces of light artillery. On this day our regiment was next to the advance. At 3J p. m, as our cavalry were emerging from a canebrake through which the road led, the rebels opened fire upon them simultaneously with their entire battery, but without effect.— Our artillery was then ordered to the front, and shelled them, while the infantry formed line of battle in the edge of the canebrake and facing a large open field, the position of tliexebels being in a strip of timber opposite. Soon the order was given to advance, and as the long line of infantry' in battle array, bore down upon the^ebeLs, panic seized them and they incontinently skedaddled, occasionally firing at our skirmishers, but hurting no one. It was no fight, merely a run, and we reacbed their camp and at once occupied their quarters, where we found plenty of corn bread, just baked, fresh meat yet on the coals, and every evidence of a nasty departure. A section of a battery and a regiment of infantry were sent after the retreating rebels, who drove them two or three miles and then returned. On the following morning, having collected all the mules and negroes in the vicinity and burned the corn cribs, we began to retrace our steps, having gone as far as our orders permitted—the object of the expedition being to draw a large force tom Vicksburg after us, if possible. Now commenced the work of injuring the cause of secession a little, the order being to destroy all the com and take all the negroes, mules horses, cattle, hogs, etc. This was carried out to the letter, and on every side, on our return, could be seen the smoke and flame of burning corn, and (I doubt if such were the orders, however,) tho immense cotton gins also succumbed to tho fiery element. Mules and cattle came in by droves,, and negroes, men, women and children, by the hundred. The negroes brought in the mules and carried the blankets and sometimes the guns of our tired soldiers. Our regiment being now in the advance, soon had an immense reinforcement, which continually increased, and when we arrived at the boats it was hard to tell which numbered the most, the Twenty-fifth, the negroes or the mules. I venture to say that more actual harm has been done to the rebel cause by this one trip into the interior by the 1st Division, than has been done by General Grant’s entire armyBinflB.their arrival at Young’s Point.- _____lt;T think that the visit of Adjutant-General Thomas to this department lias something to do with the change in the policy of our commanders.We were troubled somewhat by tho rebels on our return, who followed for the purpose of picking up stragglers, in which they succeeded. A number of men were taken, and it is reported that some of them were horribly murdered by the incensed rebels, one being burned to death. None of our regiment were so taken, as care was taken to prevent straggling.Qn Friday, the loth, while awaiting the passage of our now extensive train across the rudely constructed bridge over Black Bayou, tho rebels came up and fired on our rear guard, mortally wounding a cayalry-man. General Steele supposing the rebels wore coming in force to attack us, formed line of battle in a large open field, on the adjacent plantation of General French, now in the rebel army, and formerly a classmate of General Specie’s at West Point.— Here we awaited the expected attack for two hours, but the rebels came noUand we crossed the bridge and took up ouf line of march, arriving at Greenville in tlieeve-mules and forage and sent down to Young’s Point. Since that time we have remained here, occasionally making short trips into tho country, collecting negroes, mules and forage. A large quantity of cotton has also been brought In. ,The ablo-bodied negro men are now being formed into companies and being drilled by competent officers, and we will soon have enough material to form a half dozen regiments, if we remain here a few days ionger. _But my communication is already too long. I could relate many incidents of interest, connected with our trip, but defer them until some future time. The hlt;alth of the reigiment is generully good, although our late march of a hundred miles has made some sick, this being our first march of consequence, all our former travel having been on board the transports.Nelson.Doings op the butternut Democracyin the Hairy Nation. Honest(T)Harvey itinerating from disenter-A F..STED MOTIVES. ' He BRAYETII FOR 1 THREE HOURS AT MONTEREY AND RE-POUTKTII HIMSELF.Editor Hawk-Eye:—The Copperheads of this part of the country, have been “kindy holed up” during the winter, operating lie-hind barred dyors and curtained windows, *rit$ no*1 and then a peace meeting in open davJlight, as a sort of feeler of the public pulse, under the patronage of the polite and affable Brftradior General Augustus Casar Dodge, and the uncouth ana immaculate Henry Clay Dean, but their peace meetings fell upon, the public ear like snow in harvest and proved a great waste of the raw material, without any prospect of future success; and after preaching peace all winter and endorsing the insignificant Doc. Rankin (the author of a set of resolutions in which it was determined to resist the get-ernmenltotho death—tho last ditch) they have changed their programme, and now propose to favor a vigorous prosecution of the war, but to oppose the object for which it is prosecuted, provided it is not carried on according to tho Constitution.The Union men of Davis and a portion ot Appanoose counties have been holding a number of interesting and enthusiastic Union meetings at various places over the i country, and nave at each one come out boldly and defiantly in favor of sustaining the government at all hazards by their resolutions, which were nearly always unanimously endorsed by all persons present. But the great defender and endorser ofv al-landigham, and the last of the Coppeflfead stumpers, karvey Dunlavy, (the man that refused to vote tho bare-footed soldiers ol the Iowa first, a pair of show or a decent uniform, but said that American soldiers ought to be patriotio enough to go barefooted, while be misrepresented Davis County at three dollars a day) has arose to his timbers, mounted his old sorrel, and itinerated the country to reply to tliespeech-es made at the Union meetings, and to criticise Uw resolution* passed at such meet-
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Burlington Weekly Hawk
Burlington, Iowa, US
Sat, May 09, 1863
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USA 20 Feb 2025
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