Iowa 20th Volunteer Infantry (Union)

Prairie Grove

Nine months after their victory at Pea Ridge, the Union Army of the Frontier in the area was geographically divided. One division under Brig. Gen. James Blunt remained in the northwestern part of Arkansas, and the second under Brig. Gen. Francis Herron was stationed around the Missouri capital of Springfield. The Confederates, hoping to use Arkansas as a base for operations into the border state of Missouri, looked to defeat the Union armies in the area. Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman gathered a Confederate f…READ MORE

Vicksburg

In mid-May, 1863, after six months of unsuccessful attempts, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee finally converged on Vicksburg, defended by a Confederate army under Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton. Capture of the Mississippi River town was critical to Union control of the strategic river. Vicksburg was located on a high river bluff defended with artillery, and Pemberton's men had constructed a series of fortifications in an 8-mile arc surrounding the city on the landward side. After crossing the…READ MORE

ColonelWilliam M. Dye

CaptainEdward Coulter

Colonel Henry Bertram

Major General Gordon Granger

Mobile Bay

In the late summer of 1864, a Union combined Army-Navy force began operations to close Mobile Bay to blockade-running vessels from the port city of Mobile, Alabama. On August 3, infantry and cavalrymen under Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger landed on Dauphin Island and laid siege to Fort Gaines west of the main ship channel. Two days later, Rear Admiral David G. Farragut's fleet of eighteen ships, including four ironclad monitors, entered Mobile Bay and received devastating fire from both Fort Gaines and Fort Morg…READ MORE