Excerpt from A Charge at Fort Donelson, February 15, 1862 My story this evening relates to the surrender of Fort Donel son, Tenn., February 16, 1862, but more particularly to the part taken in the engagement by the Second Iowa Infantry in a charge made resulting in the occupation of the outer entrenchments of the enemy on their extreme right the after noon of the 1sth. General Grant, in a congratulatory order dated February 17, 1862, said: The victory achieved at Fort Donelson is not only great in breaking down rebellion, but has secured the greatest number of prisoners of war ever taken in one field on this continent. Fort Donelson will hereafter be marked in capitals on the maps of our united country. Undoubtedly as the year 1862 dawned there was a feeling of uncertainty, if not to say despondency, among the loyal people of the North over the military situation, and of anxiety as to the future. The severity of the winter and effects of exposure of our troops in the field, illy prepared as thev were for such hardships and exposures - as well as the rather negative results achieved during the preceding summer and fall - caused these sentiments to exist; and the people at home, as well as the forces at the front, were eagerly expectant as to the spring campaigns contemplated, as the opening months of the new year progressed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This is the forgotten story of the Second Iowa Infantry and one of the most stirring chapters in the annals of Iowa and the Civil War. The regiment was the first enlisted in the state for three years' service, and the 989 men mustered into its ranks were the first Iowa troops to take the field in June, 1861. Fully 2,000 Iowans fought and died in the service of this gallant regiment before the end of the war. Nearly half of them succumbed to exposure and disease or fell in a score of bitter battles. Few regiments of the Civil War volunteers had a more notable battle record. The men of the Second Iowa led Grant's victorious charge on Fort Donelson in February, 1862, to give the North its first good news of the war. They fought stubbornly in the "Hornet's Nest" at the bloody battle of Shiloh, and suffered nearly one-third of their 346 officers and men killed or wounded in helping to repulse the Confederate attack at Corinth, Mississippi, in October. The survivors of the Second Iowa returned to their homes and families in July, 1865, having endured their full share of misery and horror of the war. The brief but valuable recollections of Lt. John T. Bell provide one of the few remaining original sources of a fighting regiment of Civil War volunteers. Lieutenant Colonel John Bell rose from the ranks at the age of 19 to become company commander after joining the Second Iowa Infantry in December, 1861.