The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1863-08-08
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sATuRDAY, . Auausr :, .ses.
FROM our war Correspontlent. s.
HELENA, Ark. July 10. 1863.

w. -.>~,s HELENA, Ark., July IL, 1858. /.
/ The Fourth of July has been rendered
doubly sacred to the American people by
the brilliant achievements Of the federal
arms, and as the wheels of time roll on.
3Rasda.a ~
iof rejoicing for . free and happy nation,
the victories won on the ever glorious 4th,
in 1868, will not be forgotten, but be re-
ferred to with pride, and the pages of his
tory, yet uLwritten, glow with the hero
ism of loyal Americans. ~. . Till
The thunderbolt of war broke forth up.
on the stiffness OF Helena, and its immor-
tai band of Spartans, ere the dawn of day
ION the 4th instant, and the swarming le-
gions of Price, Holmes and Marnadake
came onward ike an avalanche. rending
the air with deafening shouts as they fell
upon our little garrison of thirty-five hun.
dred, who calmly and stoically awaited
the onset. ..........s..
Marmaduke with his 5000 mounted
infantry attacked our extreme fright, but
was bravely met by the Goth, which has
immortalized ITSELF and shed new lustre
upon the arms of Iowa and preserved un-
tarnished the reputation of her soldiers.
To oppose this overwhelming force. and
hold the right of our line of battle, we had
only the goth and 36th Iowa, and 5th
Kansas cavalry-with the aid of two small
batteries. The Goth was deployed as skir-
mishers on the crest Of hill, and there,
true Indian style, they fought the brag-
gaat Marmaduke and his boasting forces
teomposed of Missourians and Arkansians,
and hurled with the steady aim of back
Woodsmen, the leaden hail thick and fast
into the face of the proud foe, and taught
him that the spirit of '76 was yet alive, and
that the sanctuary of liberty could not be
desecrated by traitors on our national
birth day Right there among the earth
en- monuments of our departed brothers,
and behind the little hillocks covering
their remains we met, fought, and de-
| feated the insolent foe and did not let
his vile tread disturb the sweet slumbers
of those whose spirits hoyered over and
around us and nerved our arms for the
conflict. Crawling from stumpto stump,
and from log to log, behind graves and
bushes, the Goth made themselves con-
spicuous as sharp shooters, and held at
| bay over five times their own number
from half past 3 o'clock A. VI. till 10 A.
NJ, when the enemy chose discretion as
the better part of valor and retreated to
the depths Of the heavy forest of timber
in the rear of Helena. During this time
the 36th Iowa and 5th Kansas cavalry
were held back as a reserve and did not
participate in the fight, but seemed very
anxious to do so, and were disappointed
when the rebel guns died away in the dis
| tance. For six hours our whole line of
battle from right to left was enveloped IN
smoke as the missiles of death few thicker
and faster, amidst the steady firing of mus
kerry and the heavy boom of cannons,
that moved down whole columns of the
enemy as he attempted to force our lines
and gain the town.
Two of our center batteries were cap
tured and Holmes legions pushing for
ward for Fort Curtis, when her big guns
and those on board the gun boat Tyler
opened upon them. Then it was that
grape shot and canister. round shot and
she'll rained upon them, killing, bruising
and mangling whole companies, literally
strewirig the hill from crest to base and
filing our rife pits with the enemy's
dead. But yet he seemed not to waver'
btit quickly closing up his broken columns
came tearing onward with shouts of de-
/ Isance and darision, until his foremost
ranks we're within three hundred yards
Of the fort, aiming at it's capture. Little
did he think what a warm welcome
awaited him, and it was not until too
late that he discerned his fatal error, by
finding himself so situated that it was
i impossible TO either advance or retreat
Caught in this dilemma, with no chance
of escape without fearful loss, full two
regiments surrendered of the advance
columns and the others broke and fed
pell nell from the field now covered
with the dead and dying. What relief
it was to this Spartan band when the dis
tant rumbling of wheels and far of words
1 of command, told that the fight was over
and the foe in hastv retreat. Each man