Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1910-02-09
SAW LIEUT.. ANDERSON SHOT.
Dubuque COmrade of Late Lieut.. o.
A. Anderson Relates Story of
Battle i'm Which He Was
Wounded.

Referring to the death of Ole An
derson of Decorah, Col. p. w. Craw-
ford, in conversation with repre-
sentative of the Dubuque Times
Journal, remarked that he knew An
derson well during his army SER
vices in the civil war.
1--WE were lieutenants in the same
regiment, the Third Iowa Infantry,
Co. A, from Dubuque. We had en-
tered the service in May, 1861, and
were thrown much together.
ION sept. 16, 1861, our regiment,
while marching from Liberty, Clay
county, Mo-, in the direction of Lex
ington, then being besieged by Gen.
Prices army, became engaged with
a large force of rebels at point on
the Missouri river, about six miles
southeast Sof Liberty. The road,
which was very narrow and crooked,
following the windings of the river
bank, ran through the Missouri
river bottom, which was densely tim
bered. The trees were covered with
a thick tangie of vines, which hung
to the ground, and were so inter-
laced as to render it almost impos-
sible for us to form line, or to do
any maneuvering whatever.
| have always thought that our
commanding officer displayed great
want of caution, and objectionable
recklessness in marching us into
such trap, especially without
throwing strong force of skirmish-
ers ahead.
The rebels were in strong force
ahead of us across the bottom, and
under the river bank on our right
flank. Not man of them was in
sight until We received a volley. The
rebels were mostly armed with dou-
BILE barreled shotguns, loaded with
buckshot, which at such close quar-
ters made a deadly fire. AS a mat
ter of course, the regiment was
thrown into more or less confusion
at fiYst, but the company officers
used their best efforts to keep their
men together, and were wonderfully
successful, considering the nature of
the ground and the surprise. There
was a great amount of individual
and desultory fighting, but the men
of dinerent companies held their
ground stubbOrnly, and with surpris--
ing steadiness. until the orders were.
given to fall back, which was done,
in perfect order.
Lieut.. Anderson's company was ON
the left of Co. A, and l saw him
several times d-ring the fighting..
rallying and encouraging his men.
although l had my hands pretty full
with my own affairs.
In falling back l passed Lieut.. An
derson lying on his back in the
road. l saw what appeared to be a
hole in his forehead, from which
blood and brains were oozing. He
was perfectly motionless and / sup
posed he was dead, of course, and
so reported him, and l was never
more surprised than when I saw him
several weeks later being brought
into camp between two men. But
he then seemed perfectly dazed and
he did not recognize me. He never
returned to the regiment, but was
sent home when able to travel.
never knew whether a bullet had
actually penetrated his brain or not,
but the wound had every appearance
of it as l stepped over him in the
road.
Our regiment in the action just
described lost 105 killed and wound
ed and it did not last long either.
1t is known in history as the battle
OF Blue MAS Landing.