Experimental results on the collective acceleration of ions using a relativistic electron beam (0.5 MeV, 30 kA, 60 ns) are presented. A gas cloud consisting of either H2, He, or N2gas was used as the ion source. Ion species, charge state, and energy were measured. Ions were accelerated as derived from the hydrogen and helium gas sources but not from the nitrogen gas source. In almost all shots significant numbers of hydrogen and carbon impurity ions were accelerated. The electron beam exhibited asymmetric propagation characteristics in the region immediately downstream from the anode.