Civil War Primer — by Pat Granstra

 

The men of Iowa’s 23rd Volunteer Infantry Regiment

endured much privation for little pay.

 

 

In response to a call from the Lincoln administration for 300,000 enlistees from across the Union in 1862, Iowa’s governor Samuel J. Kirkwood ordered 10 companies into quarters at Camp Burnside near Des Moines on August 4th.  On September 19th, those companies were mustered into the United States army for three years’ service as the Twenty-third Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry.

The severe winter of 1862-63 found the Twenty-third Iowa in Missouri.  Although involved in several minor expeditions, the men suffered more from severe cold, inadequate supplies, and disease than from enemy attack. 

By the spring of 1863, the Twenty-third was in Mississippi where Union forces under Ulysses Grant were struggling to gain control of Vicksburg, the last Rebel stronghold on the Mississippi River. Confederate raiders disrupted Union supply lines, causing food shortages.  On April 26, Lieutenant Aquilla Standifird of Company D noted the arrival of commissary supplies in his diary, saying,  “Rations had ran short and nothing to draw from.”  On May 11, he wrote, “Rations getting scarce again;”  three days later, “We are all out of rations.”

Deprivation did not, however, prevent the Twenty-third Iowa from performing well in battle.  Its brigade was the first into and the last to leave the Battle of Port Gibson on May 1, 1863.  A little more than two weeks later, it earned praise from Generals Grant and McClernand for its participation in the fierce fight at the Black River Bridge.  In June, about 200 men of the Twenty-third were the only experienced Union soldiers participating in the Battle of Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana. General Dennis, commandant of the post there, deemed them worthy of  “the highest praise.”

Following  the surrender of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, the Twenty-third was transferred to the Department of the Gulf and took part in several troop movements but little action in Texas and Louisana. 

From May to October, the Twenty-third was encamped at Morganza, Louisiana; on October 12 it moved to Duvall’s Bluff, Arkansas, where it remained until January of 1865 when it was sent south to participate in the capture of Fort Blakely and the occupation of Mobile before being sent to Harrisburg, Texas, where the men were mustered out July 26, 1865.

*****

 During their first nine months of service, the men of the Twenty-third Iowa suffered greatly, losing their first colonel, William Dewey, to illness and seeing his successor, William Kinsman, court martialed for permitting the men to forage for food during the horrible winter of 1862.  Although Kinsman was acquitted and returned to the regiment, he died in the battle at the Black River Bridge.  Illnesses and combat caused numerous deaths, wounds, and disabilities among the enlisted men, significantly reducing the number of effectives. 

The Twenty-third’s remaining two years of service saw fewer casualties but a new enemy, boredom, faced the Iowans.  Now seasoned veterans, the men chafed against the diurnal duties of camp life.  Private James F. Smith of Company I kept a daily log between July 1st, 1864 and May 10, 1865.  His brief entries (usually no more than a single line) are variations on a single theme:  Nothing much happened today. 

With little activity to write about, Smith included other information in his journal, such as a list of family and friends to whom he wrote letters.  Another item is the following song, which contains sentitments the soldiers may not have included in their letters home.   

 *****

Fifty Cents a Day

 

  I am a humble soldier

Far from my friends and home

Mid scenes of war and hardships

I constantly must roam

With many officers o’er me

And them I must obey

And do just what they tell me

For fifty cents a day

 

I enlisted in the army

  To help my country’s cause

Because I love it dearly

And would sustain its laws.

I felt a freeman’s duty

His country to obey

I came not as a hireling

For fifty cents a day.

 

I enlisted as a patriot,

A freeman, and a man

To do a soldier’s duty

As best a soldier can.

I hoped to fight the rebels;

I hate this long delay.

I came to help my country,

Not for fifty cents a day.

 

I now must yield to hardships

In cold, in storm, or rain,

Perchance with scanty rations,

Nor even then complain.

The right of seeking comfort

Long since I’ve signed away.

My live I am slowly losing

For fifty cents a day.

 

Who sent the soldier to the field

To try his willing hand

With promises so plentiful

Of treatment like a man?

Twas those who in two days

Received a larger pay

Than does a soldier in a month

At fifty cents a day.

 

Who promised to the soldier

His wrongs should be redressed

If tyranny or officer

Should dare his right oppress?

Also, the sword may smite him

Or kick round as he may,

He finds his only redress

Is fifty cents a day.

 

Who promised to the soldier

If sickness should appear,

Good doctors and kind nurses

Was ready and was near

To aid him in his feebleness

As quick as though his pay

Was ten times as much

As fifty cents a day?

 

Twas those who wore the shoulder straps

With arty air of grace,

Who look upon the soldier

As below the negro race,

Who think the soldier’s duty

Is only to obey

His lordship and be content

With fifty cents a day.

 

How often I have seen the soldiers

Here tottering to the ground

Seek vainly for assistance

When it could not be found.

And when told he was not ailing

To go and take his way

One week would end his suffering

And fifty cents a day.

 

How many of the officers

Would be here where they are

If forced to live like soldiers

And take a soldier’s fare?

How few would take the treatment

Even with their liberal pay,

Let alone the poor pittance

Of fifty cents a day.

*****

Author’s Note

As I have been unable to find information about “Fifty Cents a Day,”  I do not know where it originated or to what tune it was sung.  Please leave a comment if you know about its background.  

 

Tags: Aquilla Standifird, Fifty Cents a Day, James F. Smith