Iowa was a fairly new state during the Civil War, but we still sent 58 regiments. That was 76,000 men. At the time we only had 700,000 people. Of the men that went, 13,000 died and another 8,500 were wounded. This seems like a lot of people who fought and gave all, yet where are the historical records of their fights and valor?
The reason why most Iowa and Minnesota regiments have recieved little fanfare in the halls of history is because their activities were confined mostly to the Trans-mississippi Theator of Operation. This combined with the lack of National Press coverage.
I was unaware what the Trans-Mississippi Theater of Operation even was. I did a little reading on it. I had no idea that there were Civil War battles in (what would be) New Mexico and Arizona! As a matter of fact, I was not aware any battles went on outside established state borders at all. Obviously, it was not covered much. Iowa even sent out an all-black regiment, which I am sure received even less news.
