Rosecrans at Iuka

[tony_gunter]

I've never seen this before, and it offers a great explanation for Rosecrans' decision to pitch into the Confederates with darkness looming.

Apparently, the only approach to the city was bounded for miles on both sides by marsh. The Confederates had extended their pockets to cover the area where the road opens up to dry ground.

"The country was exceedingly difficult of passing, being but little better from Thompson's Crossroads to within about two miles of Iuka an uninterrupted swamp, extending indefinitely on either side of the road upon which the column was moving. From the northern margin of this extensive bog to Iuka, the face of the country is broken into innumerable hills and ravines, the hills riding gradually higher and higher toward the north with southern slopes admirably suitable for the maneuvers of battle, or at any rate, admirably adapted to the posting of troops so that their fire could be simultaneously effective."


https://dan-masters-civil-war.blogs...A3pntVhkOBRFgmpRaimDDykrmmQEKGY8er4DTuA8g&m=1

 

[limberbox]

Great set of first-hand Iuka accounts from the Fifth Iowa on Dan Master's blog; thanks for posting the link.

Included in the blog is a good picture of the lock area of an M. 1841 Whitney contract rifle such as the Fifth Iowa carried. A real beauty from George D. Moller's collection (pictured on pages 157-58 of vol. III of Moller's American Military Shoulder Arms) sold earlier today for $5k at the RIAC auction. Colt altered 10,411 or 10,462 M. 1841's to long-range rifles from mid-1861 to mid-1862, re-boring them to .58 caliber, installing three-leaf rear sights of the same pattern used on Colt revolving carbines, and adding bayonet stud rings and saber bayonets. While most of the first 2000 were Robbins & Lawrence contract rifles from storage at the Watertown Arsenal, most of the rest were Harpers Ferry rifles from Washington Arsenal or Whitney's from storage at the New York Arsenal. 8400 of these Colt-altered M. 1841's were shipped with their sword bayonets to the St. Louis Arsenal between May 4 and June 4, 1862. The Fifth Iowa evidently received part of those shipments and used them a few months later at Iuka.