Second Iowa Infantry At Bull Run

Fighting at Bull Run

Most Iowa soldiers fought the Civil War in the West. Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga shaped Iowa’s war. But one Iowa regiment got its start closer to Washington than most Iowans would ever get.

When the war broke out in April 1861, Iowa moved fast. Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood called for volunteers. The Second Iowa gathered at Keokuk in May, where drilling started before uniforms and equipment fully arrived. Some men trained in work clothes. Discipline came quickly. So did confidence. The Gate City reported that the camp at Keokuk was “crowded daily with citizens watching the men drill.” The regiment showed “an uncommon seriousness for troops so newly raised.”

 

By early summer, the Second Iowa was sent east, attached to the Army of the Potomac. For many of the men, it was their first time away from home. The camps around Washington were crowded and noisy. Politicians, reporters, and spectators drifted in and out. Everything the army did seemed to be watched. The New York Tribune described western regiments arriving near Washington as “plain in dress but earnest in bearing,” a contrast not lost on eastern observers.

 The regiment was placed in a brigade that would later be known as the Iron Brigade. It was just a collection of western units—rough, serious men who cared little for show. The Iowans fit in easily. Colonel Samuel R. Curtis said his regiment adapted quickly to brigade drill and “required little correction once placed in line.”

 

Their first battle came on July 21, 1861, at Bull Run. The march to the battlefield was more like a parade. Bands played. Civilians followed along, carrying lawn chairs and picnic baskets. Most everyone believed the war would be over by the end of the day. Few understood what real fighting looked like. Newspapers said the army moved “as if on review rather than into battle.”

 

Iowa Governor Samuel Kirkwood issued a
call for volunteers early in the war

They learned fast. Union attacks bogged down in the smoke and confusion. Orders conflicted. The units lost contact with each other. The Second Iowa was ordered forward into heavy fire near Henry House Hill, one of the most hotly contested parts of the field. Colonel Curtis said the regiment advanced “steadily and in good order under a severe fire.”

 

Confederate volleys cut into the line. Officers went down. Men kept firing and dressing the ranks as best they could. Curtis said several companies were exposed to “a destructive cross-fire,” yet continued to hold position. At one point, the Second Iowa captured a Confederate artillery battery. Curtis noted this briefly, saying the guns were taken “by a determined advance.” The position couldn’t be held without support and was soon abandoned under renewed pressure.

 

By afternoon, the field collapsed into retreat. Many units broke and ran. The Washington Evening Stardescribed the withdrawal as “confused and rapid,” with wagons, infantry, and artillery jammed along the roads leading back toward the capital.

 

The Second Iowa fell back under pressure, but stayed together. Officers worked to keep order. Companies regrouped again and again as they withdrew. Curtis said the regiment retired “slowly and in comparatively good order,” despite exhaustion and mounting losses. An eastern newspaper said the western regiments “retreated fighting, not fleeing,” singling out Iowa and Wisconsin units for maintaining cohesion.

 

Bull Run was a Union defeat, but it changed the Second Iowa. The men went into battle as volunteers and came out as soldiers. Casualties were heavy. Curtis reported significant losses in killed and wounded, noting that many fell during the withdrawal.

 

Any belief in a quick war disappeared in a single afternoon.

 

An Iowa soldier wrote home, saying Bull Run “taught us in a day what drilling never could.” The Dubuque Herald said the Second Iowa had “paid dearly for its first lesson, but learned it well.”

 

After Bull Run, the regiment was sent west. In the Western Theater, they earned lasting fame at Fort Donelson and Shiloh. But Bull Run mattered. It taught the Second Iowa how to stand under fire.