CHAPTER XIV
ELEVENTH IOWA INFANTRY
THE Eleventh regiment was raised in September, 1861, in the counties of Muscatine, Louisa, Cedar, Henry, Washington, Keokuk, Van Buren, Linn and Marshall. Going into camp at Davenport, it was organized by the appointment of the following field and staff officers: Colonel A. M. Hare, Lieutenant-Colonel William Hall, Major J. C. Abercrombie, Adjutant Cornelius Cadle, Quartermaster Richard Cadle, Surgeon William Watson, Chaplain J. S. Whittlesey. It numbered nine hundred and thirty-one men when mustered into service on the 1st of November. The Eleventh was the first regiment provided with United States uniforms before leaving the State, and its first sad duty was to escort to the grave the remains of Lieutenant-Colonel Wentz, of the Seventh Iowa, killed at Belmont. The regiment embarked for St. Louis on the 16th of November and in December was sent to Jefferson City. The winter was spent in that vicinity in various duties and in March the regiment joined General Grant’s army at Pittsburg Landing. In the great battle which soon followed, the regiment was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Hall and was in a brigade under command of Colonel Hare until he was wounded, when Colonel Crocker took command. The Eleventh was in General McClernand’s Division which supported Sherman in the first day’s battle; this was its first engagement and was sustained with varying fortune during that bloody day, losing heavily. It was in front of this regiment that the Confederate General A. S. Johnston, while leading a charge, was mortally
