Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1861-10-25
From the Third Iowa.
Correspondence Of the Gazette.

Correspondence Of the Gazette.
1.-THE following from correspondent whose letters are
always acceptable reached just late for publication
last week.-Mrs.. GAIL
KANSAS CRY, Mo-, Oct. 9th, 1861.
FRIEND PERKINS: At last Company X is
at rest for few days; part at Hudson, on
the II. q ST. 10. r. R., and part on the shore
of the twisting, twi,ling, cver-changng,
Muddy Missouri
Three weeks ago to-day we left camp at
Hudson, fifty-ninc strong, to go somewhere,
in search of something We went some
where, in Tact we went nearly everywhere
we found something, in fact, found many
things. We went north, south, east, west,
diagonally, and cross-lots; worked DAYS,
nights, and Sundays Found good roads.
bad roads, mud, dust, apples, short rations,
peaches, blisters on our heels, pcrsnmons,
the way to glcry, pawpaws, a few stray
mules, and the enemy We came, we saw.
we backed out Yes the Third Regiment was
the first to retire from the field. But why !?
Simply becaiise we were fighting a concealed
foe, hidden behind natural entrenchmcnts,
eight times our number, and our supcriors in
artillery. Imagin. road half the width of
Main street, with dchsc timber on one side,
and low, swampy land on the other, leading
to circular bluff on the river, and mile of
that circle covered with live Seceshers, thirst
ing for the blood of Iowa. waiting for our
approach by the pass. The only wonder is
that so many Of us escaped with our lives.-
Had the enemy been of the stuff | take the
Iowa Third to be, our bones would have
been bleaching on the Blue Mills battle field.
or we would have been at the tender mercies
of, and depending for our daily bread on the
charity of, Price, McCulloch & Co. As it
was, they did not follow US over fifty rods,
then turned and skadaddled for the south
side of the Missouri We retired to Liberty,
six miles back of the river, hating two or
three times by the way, and waiting for the
approach of the enemy But they did not
return, for fear the folks should be at home"
From Liberty to Ccntrcvlle, then to Platts-
burg, where. we shipped the lame, the halt,
and the blind for the r. r., then to Parkville.
by boat to TT. Leavenworth, by boat to Wy
andotte, and a-foot to Kansas City. There
are thirty here out Of the fifty-nine who
started on the trip. Some left us at Patts-
burg, one, Rose W. Davenport is at Fort
Leavenworth, wounded in the left wrist, but
now doing we'll, and one, poor BIownell, has
gone to his long home. He fell while re-
loading his musket, but did not die until the
next day. Friends watched over him in his
last moments, and friends followed to the
grave. Struck down while manru!ly per-
forming his duty, the first to fall of the nine
ty.four who so gaily set forth on the I'd of
June, it is the sincere and oft-cxpressed hope
that he has found in heaven resting place,
that when his pulse ceased to beat another
angel took his fight.
We stopped at Wyandottc four days, and
were summoned here post haste, arriving in
the night, to defend the city from the attack
of the enemy. Laid around the streets in
rain for an hour or two and with great diff
Guilty found some unoccupied houses to
quarter in for the night. The next morning
learned that it was all false alarm, and that
no enemy had been seen or heard of for some
years. But here we were with our knitting
work, and so we concluded to make visit.
Quarters were next day provided permanent
ly, and, behold us an heterogeneous mass Of
Jayhawkers and general appropriations of BIZ
peds and quadrnpcds, under Lane, Mont
gomery & Co. Two good looking Ohio reg
iments, in blue blouses yellow-strped,
goose feathered, badly mounted horne guards,
and, last and least, the scraggy, fragmcntory,
coatless, blankctless, companies of the once
proud and glorious Third regiment Of Iowa
Could dress parade be had of the regiment
now, in what striking contrast would it ap-
pear to its former imposing front. The fault
is sonewhcrc-and VIC are the best abused