A Damned Iowa Greyhound: The Civil War Letters of William Henry Harrison Clayton

7. “We Will Be Apt to Wake Things Up in Alabama”

CHAPTER 7 "We Will Be Apt to Wake Things Up in Alabama" While a Union force under General Granger had succeeded in capturing the forts guarding the entrance to Mobile Bay by the end of August 1864, it soon became apparent that Granger lacked sufficient numbers to move on the fortifications defending the city of Mobile itself. Therefore, his superior, General Canby, decided to build up his troop strength gradually to prepare for that stage of the campaign. A number·ofpossible strategies for such an undertaking presented themselves, and Canby carefully weighed his options. He finally selected a plan that would utilize two converging approaches on the city. First, a force under his command would move against the city along the eastern shore of Mobile Bay from Dauphin Island, with Spanish Fort as its initial objective. And second, troops under the command ofMajor General Frederick Steele would advance overland from Pensacola against the Confederate fortifications around Blakely, Alabama, the major barrier along that route to Mobile. The 19th Iowa became part of Canby's expeditionary force. Deployed initially on Dauphin Island at the mouth of Mobile Bay, the 19th soon joined a detachment that threatened Mobile with an assault from a position in southeastern Mississippi. After weeks of service there, the 19th Iowa rejoined Canby's main force on the shore of the bay for the final campaign against the defenses ofMobile. Clayton's fourteen letters from this period once again cover a broad range of experiences. He would look upon his days on guard duty in Mississippi quite fondly; the same can hardly be said for his description of the siege operations around Mobile. Most important, during this period Clayton hears of, and comments on, the series ~143 of developments in the East that would bring the Civil War to its conclusion. ~ Camp of the 19th Regiment Iowa Infantry Vols. Company((H" Fort Gaines, Ala.1 Dec. 12th, 1864 Dear Brothers: You will see by the heading of my letter that the ((19th" has again changed its stopping place, this time for the worse. We had just got ourselves well fixed over at Barrancas, each squad having either a stove or chimney to its quarters so that we cared little what kind ofweather we had. On the 6th however the steamer Alabama brought orders for us to move to this place shortly after we got our tents down. It commenced raining, and continued several hours, giving us a good wetting. We got aboard of the boat finally, and started about 2 o'clock P . M. The waters of the gulf were rolling considerably, and our boat pitched about a good deal, many ofthe boys were sea sick, but it did not affect me any. We arrived here about 10 o'clock P.M. and went into camp near the fort the next morning. There was but few troops here, the only ones being the 3rd Maryland dismounted cavalry, and a detachment of the 6th Michigan in the fort. Day before yesterday, however, two more regiments, the 69th Indiana and 97th Illinois, arrived from Morganza on the Mississippi. Fort Morgan lays several miles across the channel, too far offto get a good view of it.2 Fort Gaines is a very nice fort, larger considerably than I expected to see. It is on Dauphin Island.3 The weather since we came here has been very windy, and cold, the north wind sweeps down on us from offthe Bay, and on the other side is the Gulf. On the other side, in the vicinity of Morgan, are the 20th Wisconsin and 94th Illinois regiments, the ones that we were brigaded with while in Missouri. A movement is expected soon, upon Mobile. That place is about 35 miles from here up the Bay. A cavalry force left Baton Rouge a short time since, supposed to 144~ "We Will Be Apt to Wake Things Up in Alabama" ·0" ~: ... :: MISSISSIPPI '~ . . ~.,.~;.;-~> ALABAMA Mississippi and Alabama, 1864-1865. The Ladies Sanitary Aid Society of Fairfield, Iowa, preparing a shipment of food, 1864. "Auntie" Woods leans against an apple press, resting her chin on her hand, to the left of center. Courtesy of the State Historical Society of Iowa, original owned by the Fairfield Public Library. [be] destined for that place.4 There is not force enough here yet to do much in that direction but more troops are looked for. Maj. Gen. Granger commands...