Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-07-02

and exhaust their strength IN maraudlng
collect it for his own gain or advantage.
Thank God, you, in common with every othe
high minded soldier, hold in adherence sue
base, such ignoble acts. In the Performance
of your more active military duties, you hav
without confusion, without any lawless vic
lence, made many a fatiguing march in sum
mer's heat and winters cold, in dust, in mud
in sunshine and storm without the least fal
tering or murmuring. Such was your disci
pine that you promptly executed every or
der, whatever it might be-.
sYours not to make reply,
Yours not TO reason why,
Yours but to do or die''
this was the sentiment, the esprit du corp,
of your regiment. By your admirable con
duct on the battle field you have elevated
the character of the American solder through
out the world. Participating in many sharp
skirmishes and perilOus recOnnOisances you
never failed to meet every just expectation.
Fearlesslv and firmly have you faced dangers
and difficulties of the most appalling charac-
ter. But on no field, in no place, in no emer-
gency however terrible have you quailed be-
fore danger or failed to do all that human
arms could do to sustain the National cause
and vindicate the National authority. Many
an insolent traitor has, by your blows, been
made to bite the dust. Everywhere have you
essentially contributed by your valOr to avert
disaster from the Army of the Potomac and
materially aided it IN winning the substantial
fruits of victory. Amid the frightful slaugh-
ter, the horrors of blood and gloom which
have made the battle fields of Bull Run,
Gainesville, South Mountain, Antietam, Fred
ericksburg, Charlottesville, Gettysburg and
the Wilderness ever memorable, you bore
yourselves nobly and well. Your regiment was
ALWAYS in its proper position in that brigade,
whose glory or fortune it was ever to be,
con the perilous edge
OF battle when it ragged in all assaults
when death strokes fell the fastest, obstin-
ately contesting every inch of ground with
the enemy-now by an impetuous charge
falling upon his bewildered lines like a thun-
derbolt and hurting his masses before it
then by well directed musketry fire thin
ming his ranks-now repulsing some desper-
ate charge of eavalFy-then unmasking and
taking some battery dangerously posted
now recovering some ground that had been
lost-and then with consUmTlate skill and in
the most perfect order covering the retreat;
such has been the position, the work of that
Brigade which has won for itself the title it
so well deserves title at once suggestive
of its magnificent courage, its uncomfortable
will, its invincible spirit and resolution. Need
| add that that title is The Iron Brigade -
that it is now known and is forever to be
distinguished by that name, so nobly won
So proudly won? And it is called 1.-THE
Iron Brigade because on many a bloody
field has the fact been established that it was
composed of men who, like the Old Guard of
Napoleon, die in their places facing the foe,
but they never fly, they never surrender. 1t
was with that Brigade, soldiers of the Second,
that you were associated. Such were your III
walls in fame, such your companions in glory.
And YOU all achieved for yourselves imper
ishable renOWn. Whatever fortune may be-
tide that Brigade in the future-upOn what
ever fields il may win new hOnOrs or lose its
already hard-earned laurels, the past at least
: secure. When your connection with IL
terminated, its name was respondent with
glory. And when the Muse of History comes
to cOnsign to her immortal records the deeds
of valOr and devotion performed by our sol
diers and sailors in this war, she will find no
page upon which she can dwell with more de-
light than the one which tells the story of
the brilliant career of The Iron Brigade
while YOU were associated with 1t.
But this is not the occasion to recount your
exploits, so marvellous and wonderful. will
add that l know of nothing in your career
that would alter or change were il in mypOw
er to do it. There is nothing in your con-
duct as a regiment, from its first baptism IN
fire and smoke at Bull Run on the 2lst of
july. 1861. down to the recent period, when
in triumph and with garments purple with
blood its men emerged from that Arranged
don, the Wilderness, that your fellow citi-
zens would have otherwise than it is. Quite
true it is that you were not always victorious
that the fortune of war sometimes inclined
to the side of the enemy. True it is that our
hearts we're at times terribly depressed, al
most crushed at the result of some conflicts
in which you had been engaged. We believ-
ed on the first dispatches that no blame for
these sad failures attacked TO you, either as
individuals or a regiment. In this good Opin-
ion of YOU We found ourselves always con-
firmed bv the full accounts of the battle. No,
whatever others did or failed to do, the
Second Wisconsin always did its assigned
work, thoroughly, seasOnably and we'll In
these remarks l make no exception, because
in Justice none should be made. Not even in
the first battle in which you were engaged,
disastrous as it was in its result, did you
disappoint any hope or forfeit any conf
dence we had reposed in you. You, as did
our rank and file generally, acquitted your
selves well on that bloody field. Undisci-
plined troops, as you all were, just from the
farm, the shop, the counting room, the col
Iege and the lawyers Office, unacquainted
with war, ignorant of the country, you were
sent-after a fatiguing march-by regiments,
without concert, into the brush and woods
over hills and through obscure roads
to hunt mp the enemy wherever you
could find him and fight him in his
fortified admirably chosen Positions
Under these disadvantages even, by your des-
perate vaior, you succeeded in whipping him.
But after your strength was exhausted, sud
denly, late in the day, you found yourselves
confronted by fresh troops. Your supports
were at a distance, and not brought into ac-
ton at all, while another force that should
have co-operated with you in the engagement
whose men were burning with Impotence
TO do so-was, under tie command Of its general
rapidly retiring from, instead of advancing
upon the enemy. That you were finally driv-
en- back, defeated, under these circumstances,
was no matter of surprise, no wonder. But
as l have said, not alone your regiment, but
our rank and file generally, cOCducted them
selves well on that day. The first battle oil
Bull Run, then, has its bright features and
great compensatiOns. For, while we can but
admit that the battle was illustrated by nc
eonsummate generalship, no high military
genius planning the movements and directing
the undisciplined valOr of our troops, yet the
discriminating observer will not fail to marx
numerous examples of the greatest bravery
DISPLAYED by regiments and individuals there
engaged-deeds of herOism which illuminC
the gloom of that dark days business with ;
terrible beauty, like the lightning playing oil
the edge of the cloud. | have dwelt for al
instant on the incidents of that battle, be