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The 22nd Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Service
The 22nd Iowa Infantry, also known as the "Johnson County Regiment", was organized at Iowa City, Iowa and mustered in for three years of Federal service on September 9, 1862. Companies A, B, F, G, H, I, and K were credited to Johnson County. Companies C, D and E were credited to Jasper, Monroe and Wapello counties, respectively.
After garrison duty in Missouri, the regiment served in Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Vicksburg Campaign of 1863. The regiment was one of the first ashore in Mississippi after the river crossing on April 30, 1863, and was the only Union unit to breach the defenses of Vicksburg, MS during the general assault of May 22, 1863. In late 1863 and early 1864, the regiment participated in operations on the Texas Gulf Coast and in Louisiana. In May 1864, it was ordered to Virginia. The 22nd was one of only three regiments from Iowa to serve in Virginia, including during Gen. Philip Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Campaign of August–November 1864. It suffered heavy losses at the Third Battle of Winchester and the Battle of Cedar Creek.
After several months of occupation duty, the regiment was mustered out in Savannah, Georgia on July 25, 1865.
Sergeant Leonidas M. Godley of Company E was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1894 for his actions during the assault on the Railroad Redoubt, outside Vicksburg, on May 22, 1863.
The regiment is listed as one of Fox's "Fighting 300 Regiments.
A total of 1084 men served in the 22nd Iowa at one time or another during its existence. It suffered 6 officers and 108 enlisted men who were killed in action or who died of their wounds and 1 officer and 135 enlisted men who died of disease, for a total of 250 fatalities.
The 22nd Iowa’s losses at Railroad Redoubt were heavy – 27 killed, 118 wounded and 19 missing. Theirs was the highest toll suffered in any regiment of Grant’s army in the siege of Vicksburg.
Commanders
- Colonel William Milo Stone, later Governor of Iowa (1864–68).
- Colonel Harvey Graham[
Other notable personnel
Lt. Col. Ephraim White, grandfather of football star and Supreme Court Justice Byron "Whizzer" White.
Sgt. Isaac Struble, attorney, and Congressman (1883–1891).
Capt. Samuel D. Pryce, delegate to first GAR convention; author of regimental history, Vanishing Footprints: The Twenty-Second Iowa Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War.