Booknotes: Iowa and the Civil War, Volume 3

New Arrival:
• Iowa and the Civil War, Volume 3: The Longest Year, 1864-1865 by Kenneth L. Lyftogt (Camp Pope Publishing, 2022).

Iowa and the Civil War, Volume 3 completes a trilogy that started in 2018 with the Pate Award-winning Iowa and the Civil War, Volume 1: Free Child of the Missouri Compromise 1850-1862 and was followed two years later by Iowa and the Civil War, Volume 2: From Iuka to the Red River, 1862-1864.

Volume 3 "begins with the spring campaign of 1864 in Georgia and ends with the mustering out of Iowa’s veteran regiments." From the description: "General Sherman’s armies, the Army of the Tennessee, the Army of the Ohio, and the Army of the Cumberland, totaled over 100,000 soldiers; the vast majority of them were battle-hardened, reenlisted veterans who had marched under Grant and Sherman from Belmont to Fort Donelson, to Shiloh, to Corinth, to Vicksburg, and to Chattanooga. The Army of the Tennessee had been Grant’s army. When he was promoted to the top command it became Sherman’s. The Army of the Tennessee was also Iowa’s army. Hawkeyes had been with Grant and Sherman in each of their battles and campaigns, and every victory, every promotion was made possible, in large part, through the blood and valor of Iowa soldiers."

Though it covers the shortest period of time (the final twelve months of the war), this installment is the thickest tome of the three. It also looks like the most predominantly military of the trilogy. This volume details Iowa's contributions to the Atlanta Campaign, Brice's Crossroads, Tupelo, Shenandoah 1864, Price's Missouri raid, the 1864 Tennessee Campaign, the 1865 Carolinas Campaign, and the final stages of the war in the Gulf states and Trans-Mississippi.