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Id’d Civil War U.S. Cartridge Box – Pvt. James O. Grant Co. C 7^th Iowa Infantry – This cartridge box is an excellent example of an early war, issue box. The box remains in overall fine condition, retaining both tins and its original box plate. The belt loops, on the back of the box, are firmly attached, as is the front, sewn latch tab. The interior implement pouch is also in excellent condition. The box retains most of its original finish, as well. One of the shoulder sling roller buckles has come loose from the box, but we will have our conservator reattach it. Hand-inked, twice, on the interior flap, in close proximity to the latch tab is written:

“James O. Grant”

Inked in large letters, as well, is the following:

“JOG”

We have included UV and IR photographs completed by the art conservator we use, indicating clearly Grant’s name and initials. James O. Grant enlisted in July, 1861 into Co. C of the 7^th Iowa Infantry. He would serve one year, mustering out in July, 1862. During his tour of duty, Grant’s regiment, as part of the District and Army of the Tennessee, would participate in numerous engagements with Confederate troops in Missouri, suffering some significant losses. According to the regimental history, after its campaigns in Missouri, the regiment “proceeded to Pittsburg landing and was in the battle of Shiloh. It fought gallantly in the ‘Iowa Brigade’ commanded by Col. J. M. Tuttle, which repulsed four charges and held its position for 6 hours, but was compelled to fall back under a murderous fire. On the second day it charged and captured a battery. Col. Lauman was promoted to the command of a brigade and Maj. Rice was made colonel, being succeeded by Capt. James W. McMullin of Co. C as major. On April 27 the regiment joined in the movement on Corinth and on its evacuation took part in the pursuit as far as Booneville.” Private Grant would have been present, utilizing this cartridge box in these various, significant engagements.

James O. Grant

Residence Peoria, IL; 23 years old.
Enlisted on 7/15/1861 as a Priv.

On 7/24/1861, he mustered into “C” Co. Iowa 7th Infantry.
He was discharged on 4/10/1862 at Pittsburg Landing, TN

7th IA Infantry

Organized: Burlington, IA on 7/24/1861

Mustered out: 7/12/1865

Officers killed or mortally wounded: 7

Officers died of disease, accidents, etc.: 4

Enlisted men killed or mortally wounded: 134

Enlisted men died of disease, accidents, etc.: 160

Seventh Infantry IOWA (3 years) Seventh Infantry. Cols., Jacob G. Lauman, Elliott W. Rice Lieut.-Cols., Augustus Wentz, James C. Parrott; Majs., Elliott W. Rice, James W. MeMullin, Samuel Mahon. This regiment was organized in June and July 1861. Most of the companies were mustered in July 23, the remainder on Aug. 2. On Aug. 6 the regiment moved to St. Louis and went into Jefferson barracks. Being armed in a few days it proceeded to Pilot Knob, thence to Ironton to take part in the movement against the forces in Missouri. From this point it moved via Jackson to Cape Girardeau, where it embarked for Cairo, IL. After remaining at Fort Holt a short time it moved to Mayfield Creek, near Columbus Ky., where it was joined by Lieut.-Col. Wentz. It next proceeded to Fort Jefferson, near Norfolk, Mo., thence to Bird’s Point and to Norfolk. It accompanied the troops to Belmont, where it took part in an engagement with the enemy occupying that place, the conduct of the 7th being admirable and winning the praise of Gen. Grant in the work of cutting a way through the enemy’s lines after the command was shut off from the river, and losing in the affair 227 in killed, wounded and missing, Col. Lauman being severely wounded, Lieut.-Col. Wentz killed, and Maj. Rice receiving a bullet in the leg. The regiment passed two months at Benton barracks, Capt. Parrott of Co. E being promoted to lieutenant-colonel. From St. Louis the regiment started for the south on Jan. 13, Twenty miles down the steamer was frozen up in the middle of the river, and after waiting two days for ice to break the regiment went ashore and moved back to St. Louis. Moving by rail to Cairo, it proceeded to Smithland, Ky., thence to Fort Henry, joined the movement on Fort Donelson, took part in the siege and assault of that place and remained until March, when it proceeded to Pittsburg landing and was in the battle of Shiloh. It fought gallantly in the “Iowa Brigade” commanded by Col. J. M. Tuttle, which repulsed four charges and held its position for 6 hours, but was compelled to fall back under a murderous fire. On the second day it charged and captured a battery. Col. Lauman was promoted to the command of a brigade and Maj. Rice was made colonel, being succeeded by Capt. James W. McMullin of Co. C as major. On April 27 the regiment joined in the movement on Corinth and on its evacuation took part in the pursuit as far as Booneville. It then went into camp at Corinth until the last of September; having been in reserve at the battle of: Iuka. At Corinth it was actively engaged in October, losing nearly one third of its numbers engaged. After a short period at Rienzi and Kossuth, it went into camp at Bone Yard, where it remained for a month, when it returned to Corinth for the winter. The summer of 1863 was passed in the work of scouting, foraging and train guard service at Bethel, Tenn., and Corinth, and most of the summer and fall at Moscow and Lagrange. The regiment went into winter quarters at Pulaski in November. Three-fourths of the men reenlisted in December and were given furlough on Jan. 20, Leaving Keokuk on Feb. 27, with 200 recruits, the regiment returned to Pulaski, but almost immediately moved to Prospect, Ala., and joined the army in the Atlanta campaign April 27. It was heavily engaged at the Oostanaula river where it was sent forward with an Indiana regiment to discover the enemy’s left flank. The two regiments found the enemy in position and charged his flank so fiercely that he was driven from the field in confusion, the 7th losing 7 killed and 50 wounded while the enemy lost 36 killed and about 250 wounded. The 7th took part in nearly every engagement in the march upon Atlanta, after which it went into camp at Rome until the forward movement for Savannah was begun. From Savannah the regiment made the wearisome march through the Carolinas, reaching Goldsboro March 24, 1865. From Raleigh it marched thence to Richmond and Washington, participated in the grand review, then went to Louisville, where it was mustered out soon afterward. Its original strength was 902; gain by recruits, 236, total 1,138. Col. Rice was made a brigadier- general, and James C. Parrott, who had been made lieutenant- colonel, commanded the regiment during the latter part of the war.

7th Regiment, Iowa Infantry

Overview:

Organized at Burlington July 24 to August 4, 1861. Moved to St. Louis, Mo., August 6; thence to Pilot Knob, Mo. Attached to District of Cairo to February, 1862. 4th Brigade, 2nd Division, District of Cairo, February, 1862. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, District of West Tennessee and Army of Tennessee, to July, 1862. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, District of Corinth, Dept. of the Tennessee to September, 1862. 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, District of Corinth, to October, 1862. 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, District of Corinth, to November, 1862. 1st Brigade, District of Corinth, 13th Army Corps (Old), Dept. of the Tennessee, to December, 1862. 1st Brigade, District of Corinth, 17th Army Corps, Dept. of the Tennessee, to January, 1863. 1st Brigade, District of Corinth, 16th Army Corps, to March, 1863. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, 16th Army Corps, to September, 1864. 1st Brigade, 4th Division, 15th Army Corps, to July, 1865.

Service:

Duty at Pilot Knob, Jackson, Cape Girardeau County, Norfolk, Fort Jefferson, Bird’s Point, Mo., Fort Holt, Ky., and Cairo, Ill., till November, 1861. Affair at Elliott’s Mills, Camp Crittenden, September 22. Expedition to Belmont November 6-7. Battle of Belmont November 7. Moved from Bird’s Point to St. Louis, Mo., November 10, and duty there till January, 1862. Expedition to Fort Henry, Tenn., January 15-25. Operations against Fort Henry February 2-6. Investment of Fort Donelson February 12-16. Capture of Fort Donelson February 16. Expedition to Clarksburg, Tenn., February 19-21. Moved to Pittsburg Landing March 5-18. Battle of Shiloh April 6-7. Advance on and siege of Corinth, Miss., April 29-May 30. Pursuit May 31-June 6. Duty at Corinth till October. Expedition to Iuka, Miss., September 18-22. Battle of Iuka September 19. Battle of Corinth October 3-4. Pursuit October 5-7. Moved to Rienzi October 7; thence to Boneyard and duty there till November. Little Bear Creek November 28 and December 12. Duty at Corinth till March, 1863. Expedition against Forest December 18, 1862, to January 3, 1863. Moved to Bethel, Tenn., March 1863, and duty there till June 1. Moved to Corinth June 1; thence to Moscow and duty there till August At LaGrange till October. March to Pulaski October 30-November 11 and duty there till March, 1864. Veterans on furlough January and February. At Prospect, Tenn., till April. Atlanta (Ga.) Campaign May 1 to September 8. Demonstration on Resaca May 8-13. Sugar Valley May 9. Battle of Resaca May 13-14. Ley’s Ferry, Oostenaula River, May 15. Rome Cross Roads May 16. Operations on line of Pumpkin Vine Creek and battles about Dallas, New Hope Church and Allatoona Hills May 25-June 5. Operations about Marietta and against Kenesaw Mountain June 10-July 2. Assault on Kenesaw June 27. Ruff’s Mill July 3-4. Chattahoochie River July 5-17. Battle of Atlanta July 22. Siege of Atlanta July 22-August 25. Flank movement on Jonesboro August 25-30. Flint River Station August 30. Battle of Jonesboro August 31-September 1. Lovejoy Station September 2-6. Pursuit of Hood into Alabama October 1-26. Reconnoissance and skirmishes on Cave Springs Road, near Rome, October 12-13. March to the sea November 15-December 10. Little Ogeechee River December 4. Eden Station and Jenks Bridge December 7. Siege of Savannah December 10-21. Campaign of the Carolinas January to April, 1865. Salkehatchie Swamps, S. C., February 3-5. South Edisto River February 9. North Edisto River February 12-13. Congaree Creek February 15. Columbia February 16-17. Lynch’s Creek February 25-26. Expedition to Florence, S. C., Mareh 4-6. Battle of Bentonville March 20-21. Occupation of Goldsboro March 24. Advance on Raleigh April 9-13. Occupation of Raleigh April 14. Bennett’s House April 26. Surrender of Johnston and his army. March to Washington, D.C., via Richmond, Va., April 29-May 20. Grand Review May 24. Moved to Louisville, Ky., June. Mustered out July 12, 1865.

Regiment lost during service 7 Officers and 134 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 4 Officers and 160 Enlisted men by disease. Total 305.

7th Iowa Infantry Regiment

The 7th Iowa Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Service

The 7th Iowa Infantry was organized at Burlington, Iowa and assembled into Federal service between July 24 and August 4, 1861.

The regiment was sent out on July 12, 1865.

Total strength and casualties

Unit strength was 1552. The regiment lost 7 officers and 134 enlisted men who were killed in action or who died of their wounds and 4 officers and 160 enlisted men who died of disease, for a total of 305 fatalities.^[1] 354 were wounded.

Commanders

• ColonelJacob Gartner Lauman
• Colonel Elliott W. Rice
• BrevetColonel James Corner Parrot

The Tug of War: A Hawkeye Captain at Corinth by Dan Masters

Two weeks after the Battle of Corinth, the camps of the 2^nd and 7^th Iowa regiments seethed with anger. Despite the hard-fought Union victory, the men were appalled to read in the columns of the Cincinnati Commercial a dispatch about the battle in which the newspaper reporter William D. Bickham labeled General Thomas A. Davies’ division “as cowards and poltroons and worthy of nothing but execration.” A correspondent from the 2^nd Iowa called Bickham “a parasite of Rosecrans” and grieved that “we expect trouble with Rosecrans, he is trying to ruin our division.” Little did he know that events in Kentucky would soon call Rosecrans and the “parasite” to another field of action far removed from northern Mississippi, but he was determined that the homefolks in Iowa received an accurate picture of the services rendered by her troops. “Our division, composed of ten skeleton regiments, bore the brunt of the battle both days and lost more men than all the other divisions put together,” he argued.

Captain Curtis F. Conn of Co. E of the 7^th Iowa Infantry was among the troops pilloried by Bickham for their actions at Corinth. He wrote his letter before the publication of Bickham’s riposte and it reads as an honest account of the difficulties Davies’ Division encountered in their struggles with the Confederates on October 3, 1862. During the fighting on October 3rd, although the good Captain doesn’t mention it, he sustained a wound in the neck. Conn’s account was published in the Burlington Hawk-Eye newspaper on October 25, 1862.

Corinth, Mississippi

October 5, 1862

I embrace this, the first opportunity since the close of the great battle, to give you a hurried account of the two days’ engagement of the 3^rd and 4^th instant. It will be understood, of course, that I do not pretend to give a full or general account as that would be impossible, but simply to state such facts as came under my own observation.

On the morning of the 3^rd at daylight, our division was leaving camp and marched to the west of Corinth. We had been on our way but half an hour when we heard the roar of cannon apparently four or five miles nearly due west of us which continued at intervals until we reached our lines of breastworks some 2-1/2 or 3 miles northwest of town when our skirmishers discovered the enemy advancing rapidly in front of the brigade to the left of the 2^nd Iowa and 7^th Iowa.

They came up across a hill in splendid style notwithstanding two batteries that were playing upon them at short range and with murderous accuracy. On they came, apparently heedless of danger and regardless of life. An involuntary acclimation of admiration burst forth from the whole brigade on beholding the gallantry and daring of the charge. The heroes of Belmont, Fort Donelson, and Shiloh had to acknowledge that they had seen nothing equal to it.

Our cannon plowed their ranks, mowing them down, but on they came, shouting and cheering, storming and carrying the breastworks in less than 15 minutes from the time they came in sight. Their success in gaining the breastworks flanked us on the left and caused us to fall back which we did in good order for nearly a mile when we formed another line of battle, our regiment as usual supporting a battery, with the gallant 2^nd Iowa on our right.

We had not more than fairly dressed up in line of battle when on they came again. Then came the tug of war- we were ordered to fall flat upon our faces, which we did, whilst they rained down upon us such a storm of shot, shell, grape, and canister as nothing it seemed for a time could resists. Some idea of the force of the shooting may be formed from the fact that a majority of my company and I think of both the 2^nd and 7^th Iowa regiments were struck by either pieces of shell, grape, and canister, or limbs of trees. The number killed at this place in the ten regiments I do not know. General Pleasant Hackleman, the commander of our brigade, was killed, shot through the neck. General Richard Oglesby, Colonel James Baker of the 2^nd Iowa, and Lieutenant Colonel Mills of the same, Major McMullin and Lieutenants Hohn and Irwin of our regiment were wounded, and Lieutenant Camp taken prisoner.

“I was in the room with General Hackleman where he was lying in full uniform on a couch breathing his last. His robust frame and strongly developed muscles indicated a man in the acme of efficiency in marked contrast with his pallid face and labored breathing. His adjutant was kneeling by his side with an ear close to the dying General’s lips to receive the last faltering words for the family at home.” ~Assistant Surgeon Pierre Starr, 39th Ohio

After our batteries had exhausted their ammunition and after they had been gone some time, we again fell back being unable to hold the hill any longer. Our policy, of course, was to draw the enemy back to within range of our siege guns and fortifications around the town. The enemy seemed very willing to follow on, which they did, but stopped outside the range of the guns upon the fortifications. We fell back in town somewhere about half past 3 o’clock. The firing had now pretty much ceased. Towards evening it was reported that a flag of truce had been sent in with a demand for us to surrender or remove all women and children, and sick and wounded men out of the town as they would commence shelling the town at 3:30 in the morning. The proposition of surrender was not entertained for a moment.

The sick and wounded were removed to the eastern limits of the town, the non-combatants and what few women and children there were retired in the same direction. Promptly at the time the confident Rebels opened their batteries which were immediately replied to on our part. The cannonading was kept up until after daylight when the enemy ceased, the shots from our batteries being too hot for them. Their shells struck the Tishomingo Hotel but did not great amount of damage. A few other houses were struck but none of our men killed that I could hear of.

After we found the enemy had ceased firing, we knew they were either retreating or preparing to storm the forts and batteries. We did not wait very long when we discovered that they were changing their position and were endeavoring to reach a point further to the right and east of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad. A battalion of sharpshooters was put forward as skirmishers and our regiment followed them for support. We had not advanced far, and we were ordered back to our posts next to a battery. We were just fairly in position again when the Rebels came forward in great force marching straight up towards the cannon in four places at once; they came in sight so fast and in such large numbers that we could not cut them all down until some of them got into two of our forts. Our brigade charged upon them gallantly supported by others to our right and drove them back with great slaughter. They attempted and partially succeeded in rallying, but the fortunes of war were against them. They were shot down and driven back very rapidly. Flesh and blood could not withstand the charge that was made upon them and the rout became general.

In this final charge, the 17^th Iowa came nobly and gallantly up to the work supporting the 2^nd and 7^th Iowa regiments in fine style. In this second day’s battle, Colonel Parrott, Lieutenant Colonel Gale, Lieutenant Bennett, and Sergeant Major Cameron were wounded and Captain Smith of Oskaloosa, a young man of great promise, was killed. The loss of either side is not known yet, only thus far, that our loss counts by hundreds while that of the enemy will have to count in the thousands. This is not a victory made by official or any other kind of reports, but by hard fighting in which the valor of the Iowa troops was as conspicuous as it has become proverbial, as we are still lying without tents, camp equipage, or anything else except hard bread, coffee, and ammunition, waiting for another attack from a force said to be advancing from the east. My accommodations for writing are rather limited and I must close. We had 345 officers and privates in the action, 120 of whom are killed, wounded, or missing.