The 2nd Iowa Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Service
The 2nd Iowa Cavalry was recruited in the following counties and organized at Davenport, Iowa they mustered in at Camp Joe Holt for three years of Federal service between August 30 and September 28, 1861.
- Company A - Muscatine County
- Company B - Marshall County
- Company C - Scott County
- Company D - Polk County
- Company E - Scott County
- Company F - Hamilton County and Franklin County with Scott County
- Company G - Muscatine County with Scott County
- Company H - Johnson County with some Scott County
- Company I - Cerro Gordo, Delaware and other counties with Scott County
- Company K - Des Moines County with Scott County
- Company L - Jackson County with Scott County
- Company M - Jackson County with Scott County[2]
The men numbered 1,050 and Captain Washington L. Elliott was appointed colonel. On the 7th of December the Second Cavalry left Davenport for Benton Barracks near Saint Louis. While here the men were crowded into closed quarters where a great amount of sickness prevailed resulting in sixty deaths.
Among other engagements, the Regiment took part in Grierson's Raid through Mississippi in April 1863, being detached from the main column (6th and 7th Illinois Cavalry) after a few days to decoy the Confederate pursuit. They engaged the 2nd/22nd Tennessee Cavalry (Barteau's) at Palo Alto, Mississippi on April 21 and 22, 1863 and reported six missing after the skirmish.[3] The regiment was mustered out of Federal service on September 19, 1865, in Selma, Alabama.
Total strength and casualties
A total of 2053 men served in the 2nd Iowa at one time or another during its existence.[4] It suffered a total of 269 (275?) fatalities: 1 officer and 59 enlisted men who were killed in action or who died of their wounds; 8 officers and 207 enlisted men who died of disease.[5]
Commanders
- Colonel Washington L. Elliott
- Colonel Edward Hatch
- Colonel Datus E. Coon[6]
See also
Notes
- ^ "History of the Second Iowa cavalry; containing a detailed account of its organization, marches, and the battles in which it has participated; also, a complete roster of each company". Burlington, Iowa, Hawkeye steam book and job printing establishment. 1865.
- ^ https://lccn.loc.gov/09005239 Library of Congress: Dyer, Frederick H., A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion
- ^ Edwin L. Drake (1879). Chronological Summary of Battles and Engagements of the Western Armies of the Confederate States: Including Summary of Lt. Gen. Joseph Wheeler's Cavalry Engagements. Tavel, Eastman & Howell. p. 25.
- ^ http://iagenweb.org/civilwar/books/logan/mil602.htm Iowa Genweb Iowa in the Civil War Project after Logan, Guy E., Roster and Record of Iowa Troops In the Rebellion, Vol. 1
- ^ http://www.civilwararchive.com/Unreghst/uniacav.htm#2ndcav The Civil War Archive website after Dyer, Frederick Henry. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. 3 vols. New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1959.
- ^ Iowa Genweb Iowa in the Civil War Project after Logan, Guy E., Roster and Record of Iowa Troops In the Rebellion, Vol. 1
References