Four Years With the Iron Brigade

by Lance Herdegen

  59. Heacock, Beetown, enlisted August 19, 1861, corporal, mustered out September 12, 1864, term expired. Wisconsin Roster, 559.

  60. Parker, Patch Grove, enlisted August 19, 1861, wounded Gainesville and Gettysburg, killed June 18, 1864, Petersburg, Virginia, Wisconsin Roster, 560-561.

  61. Cook [Charles], Madison, enlisted August 19, 1861 and resigned December 28, 1862. Wisconsin Roster, 538.

  62. Ray is referring to a series of large engagements outside Richmond known as the Seven Days’ Battles. The campaign was the brainchild of Robert E. Lee, who discovered that McClellan’s right flank was exposed north of the Chickahominy River. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s Valley soldiers were brought from the Shenandoah Valley to fall upon the Federals with the idea of trapping and destroying part of McClellan’s army, or at least punishing and driving it away from Richmond. The plan went awry, but did succeed in driving the large Army of the Potomac away from the Southern capital and down to the James River. Surprisingly few studies of this campaign exist. The best general account is Stephen Sears, To the Gates of Richmond (New York, 1994). An excellent multi-volume series of essays can be found in William Miller, ed., The Peninsula Campaign of 1862: Yorktown to the Seven Days, 3 vols. (Savas, 1994-1998).

  Volume 6

  63. McLin, Fennimore, enlisted September 13, 1861, leg amputated at Gettysburg, mustered out September 1, 1864, term expired; Harris, Plainfield, enlisted August 2, 1861, detached Battery B, from September 13, 1862, to August 1864, mustered out September 1, 1864, term expired; Mann, Clifton, enlisted August 25, 1861, discharged January 17, 1864; Dolphin, Glen Haven, enlisted August 19, 1861, detached Battery B from September 13, 1862 to September 1864, mustered out September 1, 1864, term expired; Craig, Potosi, enlisted August 19, 1861, killed September 17, 1862, Antietam; Bishop, Millville, enlisted August 19, 1861, wounded Gainesville and Wilderness, mustered out September 1, 1864, term expired; Schlosser, Glen Haven, enlisted August 19, 1861, prisoner Gettysburg, died March 19, 1864, Andersonville, Georgia, of wounds; Sixby, Glen Haven, enlisted August 19, 1861, sergeant, killed Gainesville, Va., August 28, 1862; Dexter, Ellenboro, enlisted August 19, 1861, wounded South Mountain, discharged November 28, 1862, disabled; Leppa, Potosi, enlisted August 19, 1861, wounded Second Bull Run, died of wounds; Eustice, Potosi, enlisted August 19, 1861, wounded Gainesville, mustered out September 1, 1864, term expired. Wisconsin Roster, 558-561, 566, 567, 569.

  64. Hollon Richardson was born in Poland, Ohio, December 25, 1838, and moved to Chippewa Falls in Wisconsin in 1859. He entered the army as first lieutenant of Company A, Seventh Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. During the course of the war he served in several capacities and was promoted to colonel of his regiment. Richardson was wounded eight times and was the only Wisconsin man breveted three times for distinguished service in the field. He was one of only two men, of all the officers of his regiment, who remained a member of the Seventh Wisconsin the entire war. Following his muster out, Richardson settled in Baltimore and practiced law. In 1870, he returned to Chippewa Falls. In 1900, he moved to Seattle, Washington. During the Spanish-American War he was a civilian employee of the Quartermaster Department and traveled several times to the Philippine Islands. He died in Seattle in 1916.

  65. Rufus Dawes of the Sixth Wisconsin reported: “July 4th was celebrated with festivities and merry-making. Gibbon’s brigade gathered upon a large plain, where there was horse racing, foot racing, and other amusements and athletic exercises. There was a great mule race, a sack race, and a greased pig.” Dawes, Service, 51.

  66. The hammocks are probably due to the fact the Prairie du Chien company contained a large number of Mississippi River raftsmen.

  67. The consolidated morning report for July 31, 1862, showed the number of men present for duty in John Gibbon’s brigade was 40 companies, 2,664 men, plus about 150 commissioned officers. Dawes, Service, 53.

  68. Kuntz, Tafton, enlisted August 19, 1861, killed September 17, 1862, at Antietam. Wisconsin Roster, 560.

  69. General Rufus King on July 24, 1862, ordered General John Gibbon to make a reconnaissance to Orange Court House and to ascertain the force of the enemy at that point. With three regiments of infantry, sixty sharpshooters, one battery of artillery and a squadron of cavalry, Gibbon proceeded to within five and one half miles of the court house and camped. As he withdrew after ascertaining the whereabouts of the enemy, he was pursued and attacked by enemy cavalry.

  The second reconnaissance, or “Fredericks Hall Raid,” was also under the command of Gibbon and began August 6, 1862. The aim was to destroy a portion of the Virginia Central Railroad. The Sixth Wisconsin, with a small force of cavalry and artillery and under the command of Lysander Cutler of the Sixth Wisconsin, proceeded to Frederick Hall on the Virginia Central and destroyed two miles of track. The men penetrated to within 30 miles of the enemy’s lines. Gibbon’s force was about 3,000 and included six companies of the Harris Cavalry and two guns of Garish’s New Hampshire Battery. Quiner, Wisconsin, 258-259, Dawes, Service, 53.

  70. The order directed Rufus King’s division to join General John Pope at Cedar Mountain, 45 miles distant, where Union General Nathaniel Banks was engaging the corps of Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.

  71. Although Jackson outnumbered Banks at Cedar Mountain, he only managed to squeek out a limited victory. Banks lost nearly 2,400 men while Jackson suffered nearly 1,350 casualties. For an excellent account of this fascinating battle see Robert K. Krick, Jackson at Cedar Mountain (Chapel Hill, 1990).

  72. The Third Wisconsin went into battle with 423 men, of whom 107 were killed, wounded, or missing. See Adjutant General Reports, 111, E. B. Quiner, The Military History of Wisconsin (Chicago, 1866), 486-487.

  73. Manning, Waterloo, enlisted May 20, 1861, wounded Gainesville and Rappahannock River, transferred Veteran Reserve Corps July 1, 1863. Wisconsin Roster, 355.

  74. Called Gainesville by the Federals and Groveton by the Confederates, the engagement at dusk August 28, 1862, is more commonly known today as Brawner’s Farm. The fighting erupted when Confederate General Stonewall Jackson opened fire on Rufus King’s brigade as it marched along the Warrenton Turnpike near the old battlefield of Bull Run. Heavily outnumbered, the four Western regiments stood their ground for 90 minutes with the two lines at times only 50 yards apart. The Second Wisconsin was the first engaged. The Nineteenth Indiana went in on the left of the Second, the Seventh Wisconsin on the right. The Sixth Wisconsin was slightly to the right of the three regiments. The Seventh Wisconsin lost 164 of 580 engaged, including Private William Ray. Reports later showed 725—more than one-third of the brigade—were killed, wounded, or missing. Eight of the brigade’s 12 field officers were wounded, including all three field officers of the Seventh Wisconsin. OR 12, pt. 2, 378. Colonel William Robinson was shot through the body; Lieutenant Colonel Charles Hamilton through the thighs, but maintained his seat in the saddle as his boots filled with blood. Major George Bill suffered a slight head wound.

  The Second and Seventh Wisconsin were consolidated under Lucius Fairchild of the Second Wisconsin, the senior field officer still on his feet. The brigade was lightly engaged the next two days and covered the retreat of the defeated Union army. “The best blood of Wisconsin and Indiana was poured out like water, and it was spilled for naught,” Rufus Dawes of the Sixth Wisconsin said later. Herdegen, Stood Like Iron, 95-113.

  Volume 7

  75. The fight at Gainesville (Brawner’s Farm) where Ray was wounded revealed Jackson’s location to Pope, who spent much of August 29 assailing his strong position along an unfinished railroad cut. The battle became known as Second Bull Run (or Second Manassas). It was a bloody fight often waged at close quarters, but Jackson successfully beat back Pope’s attacks. Ray’s Western Brigade took part in the attack and suffered additional losses. The Seventh Wisconsin, for example, lost 164 men killed, wounded, and captured during the campaign. Unbeknownst to Pope, however, General Lee and the balance of the Army of North
ern Virginia arrived on the field around noon that afternoon and had taken up a position on Jackson’s right flank.

  On the day Ray was writing this entry, the battle of South Mountain occurred (September 14, 1862). Federal soldiers discovered a misplaced copy of Lee’s campaign plans wrapped around several cigars, which prompted McClellan to advance in the hope of destroying his enemy while widely separated. The slow-moving McClellan forced Turner’s and Fox’s Gaps in the South Mountain range after a sharp and prolonged engagement. It was while the Western Brigade was advancing up the National Road that the Second, Sixth, and Seventh Wisconsin, and Nineteenth Indiana, were given the name “Iron Brigade” by General George McClellan. For a more detailed account of this, see Lance J. Herdegen, The Men Stood Like Iron: How the Iron Brigade Won Its Name (Bloomington, Indiana, 1997), 145-146.

  76. Marlow, Hurricane, enlisted August 19, 1861, wounded Gainesville, discharged June 16, 1863, disabled. Wisconsin Roster, 560.

  77. The battle Ray heard raging most of the day was in fact much more intense and bloody than the September 14, 1862, fight at South Mountain. Pope attacked again on the morning of August 30, but was beaten back with heavy losses. With Jackson holding firm, Lee launched Longstreet’s First Corps against Pope’s left front and crushed the Federal army. Pope lost some 16,000 men to all causes, while Lee suffered about 9,200 casualties. The defeat cost Pope his command. For an excellent account of this campaign, see John Hennessy, Return to Bull Run: The Campaign and Battle of Second Manassas (New York, NY., 1993).

  78. Ray is referring to military police.

  79. Liberty Poles became common during the Revolutionary War when Americans, known as “Liberty Boys,” erected poles sporting liberty caps to mark the repeal of the Stamp Act.

  80. The Descriptive List was a regimental document which allowed a soldier to be mustered for pay.

  81. Following John Pope’s disastrous outing at Second Bull Run, McClellan had command of the troops during the Maryland Campaign, but lost the confidence of President Lincoln following his lethargic pursuit of Lee’s army after the fighting at Antietam on September 17, 1862. General Ambrose Burnside was appointed to lead the Army of the Potomac on November 7, 1862. Although he doubted his abilities to lead an army, Burnside assumed the post and decided to attack Lee around Fredericksburg, Virginia, midway between Washington and Richmond and moved his army accordingly opposite the city.

  82. The rumors Ray heard and read were again incorrect. With Lee’s army deployed on the heights behind Fredericksburg, Burnside crossed his army over the Rappahannock River and attacked. Wave after wave of Federals were mowed down in the attempt to breach the Confederate front. The only success came on the Federal left flank, where Jackson’s Southern line was temporarily pierced. Casualties were about 12,600 for the Federals and 5,200 for the Confederates. Fortunately for the Iron Brigade, it did not directly participate in the attacks of December 14. Total casualties for the brigade were 65 killed and wounded, most from the long-range effects of artillery. OR 21, 138, 475-477.

  Volume 8

  83. It is disappointing that Ray’s journal is missing pages for much of the period dealing with the army’s tenure under Union General Ambrose Burnside and Ray’s return to his company. Following the Federal defeat at Fredericksburg, the Army of the Potomac settled into winter camp at Belle Plain along the Potomac River. The men constructed wooden shebangs and settled into a routine of drills and picket duty as the army waited out the winter. Ray also missed the futile march through inclement weather that became known as Burnside’s “mud march.” By the time the army returned to its camps on January 23, 1863, many of the Wisconsin men were exhausted and sick from exposure. The march also coincided with a general crisis of confidence in Federal leadership and enthusiasm for the war. Burnside was subsequently removed and a new commander, Major General Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker, elevated in his stead. Hooker was the commander of the First Corps at Antietam. A new regiment, the Twenty-fourth Michigan, reinforced the diminished Iron Brigade after Antietam. One of the changes instituted by Hooker made the Western regiments the First Brigade of the First Division of the First Army Corps, Army of the Potomac. It was a move greeted with quiet pride and some boasting. See Nolan, Iron Brigade.

  84. The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln following the Union “victory” at Antietam. It declared that as of January 1, 1863, all slaves in rebellious sections would be free and that the government would not repress those attempting to gain their own freedom. Faust, Civil War Encyclopedia, 242.

  85. Norman, Madison, enlisted September 19, 1862, absent sick at muster out of regiment. Wisconsin Roster, 560.

  86. Dean, Harrison, enlisted August 19, 1861, wounded Gettysburg, transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps January 15, 1864, and mustered out September 1, 1864, term expired. Wisconsin Roster, 559.

  87. Alexander [Thomas C], Millville, enlisted August 19, 1861, wounded North Anna, promoted first lieutenant Company H, January 6, 1865. Wisconsin Roster, 558.

  Volume 9

  88. The missing pages include the fighting of the Iron Brigade during the Chancellorsville Campaign. The regiments left their camps in late April and marched to Fredericksburg, where they were selected for a mission to cross the Rappahannock River in pontoon boats, and seize and hold the Confederate entrenchments on the opposite shore until engineers could construct a bridge. Several attempts failed and finally First Corps leader John Reynolds ordered the brigade to storm the Confederate positions at FitzHugh’s Crossing. “It now seemed that the Rappahannock must be reddened with our blood if the crossing was to be forced,” said one Black Hat. Led by the Sixth Wisconsin and Twenty-fourth Michigan, the First Division, commanded by General James Wadsworth of New York, quickly crossed the wide river, capturing several dozen Confederates and taking the high ground. “It was the grandest fifteen minutes of our lives,” said one Badger. “Worth a man’s life to enjoy.” The brigade missed the heavier fighting in the Union defeat at Chancellorsville. Total losses for the Iron Brigade were 10 killed and 39 wounded. The Seventh Wisconsin had two officers and one enlisted man killed and one officer and three enlisted men wounded. William J. K. Beaudot and Lance J. Herdegen, An Irishman in the Iron Brigade: The Civil War Writings of Sergt. James P. Sullivan, Co. K, 6th Wisconsin (New York, NY., 1994), 74-89; Marc Storch and Beth Storch, “Like So Many Devils”: Giants in Their Tall Black Hats: Essays on the Iron Brigade (Bloomington, IN., 1998), 86-100.

  89. The rumor circulating during the closing days of May and early June was that Confederate General Robert E. Lee was planning to once again invade the North. The rumor was true. On June 4, Lee shifted two of his three corps west out of Fredericksburg toward Culpeper Court House, leaving only A. P. Hill’s Third Corps behind to watch Hooker’s army. Also important those days was the arrival of hats for the new Twenty-fourth Michigan, making the Wolverines true “Black Hats.”

  90. Hooker had indeed pushed men across the river at Franklin’s Crossing, above Fredericksburg, where he found Hill’s Confederates in position. Skirmishing there would continue for several days.

  91. Desperate for information, Hooker dispatched Brigadier General Alfred Pleasonton and his cavalry, supported by infantry and artillery, some 11,000 men, to find out what Lee was up to. Pleasonton’s troopers crossed the Rappahannock at a pair of fords and attacked Jeb Stuart’s Southern cavalry early on the morning of June 9, 1863, just seven miles northeast of Culpeper, Virginia, along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad at Brandy Station. Pleasonton’s action triggered the largest cavalry action of the entire war. Charges, counter-charges, and hand-to-hand fighting marked much of the contest. The fighting ended late that afternoon with about 500 Confederates and twice as many Federals killed, wounded, or captured. Stuart and his men held the field by a razor-thin margin.

  92. The information reaching Ray was generally correct. Called the battle of Second Winchester, Union forces commanded by Major General R. H. Milroy were attacked at the city
in the northern Shenandoah Valley by Ewell’s Confederate corps when Milroy delayed his retreat to Harpers Ferry. E. B. Long, The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac 1861-1865 (New York, 1971), 367.

  93. The vanguard of Lee’s army began crossing the Potomac River on June 16, 1863. Hooker wanted to shift the Army of the Potomac north of the capital and bring Lee to battle, while Washington officials wanted Hooker to relieve Harpers Ferry and follow Lee. This disagreement eventually proved to be the beginning of the end of Hooker’s tenure in command of the army.

  94. General Stoneman was relieved of command for his inept handling of the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac during the Chancellorsville campaign. Alfred A. Pleasonton was promoted to major general on June 22, 1863.

  95. Lee’s army was strung out from Pennsylvania down to the Potomac River, and the bulk of his cavalry under Jeb Stuart was beginning a controversial ride that would carry he and his men away from the main army and out of much of the campaign. Longstreet’s and Hill’s corps began crossing the river the day before (June 24), while Ewell’s Corps was skirmishing near McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania.

  96. Ray is referring to the time in September 1862 when General George B. McClellan referred to the Westerners as a brigade of “iron.” Herdegen, How the Iron Brigade Won Its Name, 145-146.

  97. Ray’s news was correct. Lincoln and General Halleck, his chief of staff, had their doubts as to whether Hooker was up to the task of stopping Lee’s invasion. When Hooker offered to resign over a dispute on how to handle the army, Lincoln accepted on June 27, 1863. George Gordon Meade, commander of the army’s Fifth Corps, was selected to command the Army of the Potomac. Changing leaders in the middle of a campaign was a dangerous gamble.

  98. The Iron Brigade crossed into Pennsylvania on June 30, halting at Marsh Creek, south of Gettysburg.