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EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT erastus b. soper, company d Excerpts from the ‘‘History of Company D, 12th Iowa’’ The following excerpt from Erastus B. Soper’s ‘‘History of Company D, 12th Iowa’’ is newly annotated from Mildred Throne’s edition in the Iowa Journal of History 56 ( July 1958): 207–274. Members of the 12th Iowa in the Union Brigade fought at the Battle of Iuka on September 19, 1862, and were stationed in the area, monitoring the rebel cavalry. Soper reports that shots were occasionally exchanged, but ‘‘no attack was made.’’ They remained encamped until orders came in early October. On October 2nd orders came to break camp and abandon the post and report at Corinth, and on the same evening, we marched as far as across the Tuscumbia river, where we halted for the night, and the following morning, after destroying the bridge over that stream, resumed our march to rejoin Hackleman’s Brigade at Camp Montgomery. No August day was ever hotter and no roads ever drier or dustier. The men were not used to marching, and the opportunities for getting water were few, but after a hard and fatiguing march, in which many of the men were left overcome with heat, Corinth was reached, when we were ordered out on the Chewalla road12 where our Brigade was engaged retarding the advance of the enemy. At this time the Union Brigade formed a part of the 1st Brigade, commanded by Gen. Hackleman of Indiana, of the 2nd Division commanded by Gen. J. A. Davies of the Army of the Tennessee. This Division was charged with the duty of holding in check the advance of Price and Van Dorn’s forces until the troops at Iuka and other points around could be concentrated at Corinth. Marching out on the Chewalla road, we met the Division retiring before the enemy, and taking our place in our Brigade, we formed a line of battle a mile or more outside the fortifications between the two railroads13 that cross each other at Corinth and northwest of the town, and throwing ourselves upon the ground, we awaited the attack. { 175 } The Union Brigade was formed on the edge of the timber just behind an open field. Soon the rebel batteries began shelling the woods, and branches of trees and pieces of shell flew around in the wildest confusion . During this time an incident occurred that we, all of Company D who were present, will remember. There was a private in the Company named Andrew Jackson Bunn, but unlike his illustrious namesake, his courage disappeared when the enemy appeared. He dropped out of the ranks at Donelson and Shiloh and skulked, and the non-commissioned officers determined that he should face the enemy, and the Sergeants were watching him. Nevertheless as the lines of the enemy appeared, the shrieks of the bursting shells were too much, and Bunn started for the rear as fast as his legs would carry him. At the cry ‘‘there goes Jack Bunn,’’ a long legged Sergeant took after him, and after a short race collared and began dragging him back to the line. Just then a shell exploded, and Bunn screamed ‘‘I’m shot; I’m shot,’’ and begged piteously to be allowed to go. The skeptical Sergeant was only convinced by the torn blouse and bleeding shoulder that he had been hit, and when released, Bunn lost no time in getting to the rear. During his whole term of service, this was the nearest Bunn ever came to getting into a fight. The enemy advanced in two unbroken and continuous lines of battle, extending to the right and left as far as the eye could reach and extending far beyond our line, the extreme left of which was occupied by the Union Brigade. We poured volley after volley into the advancing lines with seemingly little effect, as they continued to advance, and when they were closing in upon us in front and flank and the veteran Regiments to our left had broken, the Union Brigade, not wishing to join their comrades bad enough to be willing to do so in Southern prisons, fell back, about as fast as their legs would carry them, through the woods, into the abatis and thence within the fortifications, where the survivors of the command slowly gathered. There was left of Company D on the field, Sergt. Edward W. Calder, killed, shot through the head and bowels, and private Allen M. Blanchard...

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