Grenville Dodge: “My flag-bearer, after having been wounded so he could not hold up the colors, would not leave them.”

He sent forward a company of skirmishers from the Fourth Iowa, who soon became sharply engaged with the enemy and the latter opened on us a perfect tornado of round shot, shell, and grape.

This caused the troops to stand and fight, preferring to die rather than to fall into their hands.

After your expedition started I received documentary proof from Captains Sturgis, Schofield, and Totten, and a number of other officers, in regard to his conduct on those occasions, which destroyed all confidence in him.

The only strategy or tactics was the movement of Van Dorn attacking on the right flank and in the rear, and these moves were fatal to his success.