Four Years With The Iron Brigade

Four Years With The Iron Brigade PDF

Author: Lance Herdegen

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Published: 2009-06-16

Total Pages: 470

ISBN-13: 0786748451

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The recently discovered journal of William Ray of the Seventh Wisconsin is the most important primary source ever of soldier life in one of the war's most famous fighting organizations. No other collection of letters or diaries comes close to it.Two days before his regiment left Wisconsin in 1861, the twenty-three-year-old blacksmith began, as he described it, "to keep account" of his life in what became the "Iron Brigade of the West." Ray's journal encompasses all aspects of the enlisted man's life-the battles, the hardships, the comradeship. And Ray saw most of the war from the front rank. He was wounded at Second Bull Run, again at Gettysburg, and yet a third time in the hell of the Wilderness. He penned something in his journal almost every day-occasionally just a few lines, at other times thousands of words. Ray's candid assessments of officers and strategy, his vivid descriptions of marches and the fighting, and his evocative tales of foraging and daily army life fill a large gap in the historical record and give an unforgettable soldier's-eye view of the Civil War.

On Many a Bloody Field

On Many a Bloody Field PDF

Author: Alan D. Gaff

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 1999-02-22

Total Pages: 524

ISBN-13: 9780253212948

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On Many a Bloody Field follows one of the Civil War's most famous combat organizations - Company B, 19th Indiana Volunteers of the Iron Brigade, in a vivid account of ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances. Alan D. Gaff follows the men from recruitment through mustering out, from the tedium of camp to the excitement of battle. Marches and battles are described in detail, but Gaff also devotes close attention to how the war affected individuals, both physically and emotionally. Formed into a brigade with the 2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin, these Indiana soldiers fought their first real battle at Brawner Farm. Over four difficult years they fought on many a bloody field: Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Fitzhugh Crossing, Gettysburg, Wilderness, Laurel Hill, North Anna River, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and Weldon Railroad. With meticulous care, Alan Gaff recounts the experience of war from the soldier's perspective, often in the words of the men themselves. This intimate portrait of men at war is an important contribution to the literature of the Civil War.

Letters Home

Letters Home PDF

Author: Henry Matrau

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 1998-03-01

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9780803282421

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This volume comprises sixty-three previously unpublished letters from a young Civil War soldier to his family in Bainbridge Township, Michigan, written while he served in the Sixth Wisconsin Regiment, one of the units of the acclaimed “Iron Brigade.” Only sixteen when he joined the Union army in 1861, Henry Matrau rose to the rank of captain during his four years of wartime service. He took part in many of the major engagements of the war: Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and the siege of Petersburg. In his letters, Matrau describes camp life—the food, uniforms and equipment, reading materials, and medical care available to him and his comrades. Other incidents recounted include the capture and transfer of "contraband" slaves, the execution of a Union army deserter, friendly exchanges between Union and Confederate soldiers on picket, and tours of Richmond's Libby and Castle Thunder prisons after the war. These letters reflect Matrau's maturing as a soldier, from his youthful enthusiasm early in 1862 when he boasts of becoming proficient with a bayonet, to the combat-weary, veteran fighter who admits in spring 1863 that he has "seen the elephant" and is ready to come home.

The Twenty-Fourth Michigan

The Twenty-Fourth Michigan PDF

Author: Donald L. Smith

Publisher: Stackpole Books

Published: 2018-03-28

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 0811766950

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In the tradition of the great regimental histories of the past, this book records the fire which seared the ranks of the Twenty-Four Michigan Regiment of the legendary “Iron Brigade.” Born as the result of a riot, led by a Virginian, met with coldness and hostility by the black-hatted veterans of the brigade, the Twenty-Fourth swore it would win their respect…and so they did with a vengeance. At Fredericksburg, in “artillery hell” and under a murderous crossfire from the guns of “Stonewall” Jackson and “Jeb” Stuart, they performed the manual of arms to stead the line. The first day at Gettysburg they sparked this remark from the confederate ranks…”That ain’t no milishy, there’s those damn black hats again.” With the immortal First Corps they were ordered west of the town to hold long enough for the army to occupy the strategic heights behind them. They held, and by evening they had lost more men than any of the 400-odd Union regiments engaged in the battle. Still later they marched down “that crimson strip across the maps,” which marked Grant’s Wilderness Campaign; they bled at Petersburg and then, their ranks almost decimated, were sent to guard bounty jumpers. The last tribute to their gallant service came as they were chosen the Guard of Honor for Lincoln’s funeral. In a little more than two years of bloody fighting they found their way to nineteenth place on the list of “300 Fighting Regiments.” To read this book is to consort with heroes who, 100 years ago, stood watching their world writhe in agony. It gives hope that in matching their courage, our country will emerge from the cauldron triumphant.

Service with the Sixth Wisconsin (Illustrated)

Service with the Sixth Wisconsin (Illustrated) PDF

Author: Rufus R Dawes

Publisher: Rw Classic Books

Published: 2019-03-26

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 9781946100146

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NEW: Fifty-five (55) Illustrations, Notes, Bibliography, Index, and General Rufus R. Dawes' Battle Record! They were fierce! They were tough! The famous Iron Brigade was one of the most celebrated brigades in the history of the Civil War! Detailed accounts of battles and military life. Available in hardcover, paperback, ebook.

The Iron Brigade in Civil War and Memory

The Iron Brigade in Civil War and Memory PDF

Author: Lance J. Herdegen

Publisher:

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781611211061

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The Iron Brigade is one of the most celebrated military organisations of the American Civil War. Although it is primarily known for its remarkable stand on the first bloody day at Gettysburg, its stellar service from the earliest days of the war all the way to Appomattox Court House is routinely ignored. The Iron Brigade in the Civil War is based on decades of archival research and includes scores of previously unpublished letters, photos, journals, and other primary accounts. This well researched and written tour de force, which includes reunion and memorial coverage until the final expiration of the last surviving member, will be the last word on the Iron Brigade for the foreseeable future. "When we were young", explained one Black Hat veteran many years after the war, "we hardly realised that we had fought on more fields of battle than the Old Guard of Napoleon, and have stood fire in far greater firmness." Here, at long last, is the full story of how young farm boys, shopkeepers, river men and piney camp boys in a brigade forged with iron helped save the Union. AUTHOR: Lance J. Herdegen is the award-winning author of several books on Civil War topics. His latest work, Those Damned Black Hats: The Iron Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign, won the Army Historical Foundation's Distinguished Writing Award. Lance is the former director of the Institute for Civil War Studies at Carroll University and presently chairs the Wisconsin Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission. He was recently inducted into the Milwaukee Press Club's Hall of Fame and lives in Spring Prairie, Walworth County, Wisconsin. SELLING POINTS: The first book-length account of this legendary combat unit from Bull Run to the grand march up Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington ILLUSTRATIONS: 68 b/w photographs & 15 maps

The Iron Brigade

The Iron Brigade PDF

Author: Alan T. Nolan

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 1961

Total Pages: 466

ISBN-13: 9780253208637

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"I am immensely impressed . . . this particular Brigade needed a book of its own and now it has one which is definitely first-rate. . . . A fine book." —Bruce Catton "One of the '100 best books ever written on the Civil War.'" —Civil War Times Illustrated " . . . remains one of the best unit histories of the Union Army during the Civil War." —Southern Historian ". . . The Iron Brigade is the title for anyone desiring complete information on this military unit . . ." —Spring Creek Packet, Chuck Hamsa This is the story of the most famous unit in the Union Army, the only all-Western brigade in the Eastern armies of the Union—made up of troops from Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Jo Shelby's Iron Brigade

Jo Shelby's Iron Brigade PDF

Author: Jo Shelby's Iron Brigade

Publisher: Pelican Publishing

Published: 2007-07-15

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 9781455606757

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An in-depth biography of the Confederate cavalry commander who fought in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the Civil War. When the Confederacy collapsed, Gen. Joseph Orville Shelby refused to surrender. In 1861 he had started a Missouri company that grew into the greatest Confederate cavalry brigade west of the Mississippi. This book follows the triumphs of the Brigade of the Confederate States Army all the way to the crossing of a contingent of the brigade into Mexico at the end of the war. A planter and rope manufacturer from Kentucky, Shelby operated entirely in the trans-Mississippi West. He served in the Missouri State Guard as a company commander at Carthage, Wilson’s Creek, and Pea Ridge. He then returned to Missouri to raise a regiment. A daring raid to the Missouri River in the fall of 1863 earned him a promotion to brigadier general. Shelby's Brigade fought valiantly at the Battle of Westport, the Gettysburg of the West, and repeatedly saved Gen. Sterling Price's army from capture on the retreat south. A descendant of a Shelby’s Brigade member, Deryl P. Sellmeyer offers an evenhanded view of this impressive military leader and his men. The author’s decades-long research of Shelby’s life and his principal officers is evident as he details the history of the famous brigade.