Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1882-01-26
THE OLD IRON BRIGADE.
Transformation Scene for one Day Only-onfcers
as High PriFsies.
BRIGADE HISTORY.

as High PriTates.
BRIGADE HISTORY.
An evening or two ago, following
closely a meeting of the new veteran
regiment, three members of what was
commonly known during the war as
.Old Iron Brigade otherwise the
First Brigade, First Division of the First
Army Corps, by accident met around
table in a hall near where the new
regiment was organized, and soon
learned that they had been comrades of
one of the most historical brigades of
the whole war. The brigade was orig
inally composed of the Nineteenth Indi-
ana, and the Second, Sixth, and Seventh
Wisconsin. After the battle of Antie-
tam, the Twenty-fourth Michigan, a
regiment raised in the fall of 1862, I'M
| der the 600, 900 call, was admitted.
| Nearly every regiment and brigade
commander of the brigade has at some
time since the beginning of the service
acquired some distinction. General
Rufus King, the original commander,
was afterwards made commander OF a
division, and soon after the Bull Run
sent abroad on a foreign mission. Gen
eral Gibbons, the second commander,
won two stars long before the close of the
war, General Sol. Meredith, of Indiana,
the early Colonel of the Nineteenth, ac-
quired reputation for gallantry and
heroism long before
GETTYSBURG,
at which battle he was permanently dis
abled, and the old hero died before his
second star was thought of. General
Fairchild, after losing an arm, became
Governor of Wisconsin, and was after
wards sent to Madrid. General Robin
son, of Wisconsin, was sent to Congress.
Poor old Pap Cutler, of Wisconsin, died
about the close of war General Dawes
now represents in Congress the Mari
eta District of Ohio, and Colonel H. A.
Morrow, formerly of the Twenty-fourth
Michigan, won two stars by brevet and
now holds Colonel's commission in the
regular army with rank of Colonel.
Old General Wadsworth, of New York,
one of the most gallant soldiers the war
produced. commanded the division from
Antietam to the Wilderness, met most
untimely death in the Wilderness, and
REYNOLDS, who commanded the corps,
was cut off in his prime at the very
opening of the Gettysburg fight on the
first day Doubleday, who had at times
commanded the First Division, succeed
ed him to the command of the corps,
and his record is too well known to
need repetition here.
speaking of the Old Sol Meredith, =
said the Nineteenth Indiana man, ere
minds me of some of the old fellows
heroic qualities. He wasn't much of a
stickler after discipline, as you know,
| but he was
HEFTY ON JUSTICE.
One day soon after he took command
of the brigade, he saw the brigade
butcher, great, big, hurley fellow, wal
Looping h--ll out of little fellow belong
ing to the Nineteenth. He jumped
from his horse as soon as he saw what
was up. You know what big, strap
ping man Old Sol was. Well, he went
up to the butcher and said 'D-n you,
I'll have hand inAhis = and he knock
ed the butcher right and left. Then he
quietly mounted his horse and rode
back to his headquarters. Lord you
ought TO have heard how the boys yelled
for him as he rode through the camp !!
tell you, Old Sol was brick -
The conversation then drifted upon
the terrible losses of the brigade from
! Antietam down to the close of the war ;
! how it had gone into Gettysburg on the
| first dav about 1900 strong, and had
come out, after the fierce struggle of
that day, with less than 600 how the
Twenty fourth Michigan had gone into
the fray $40 strong, and had come out
with only ninety-siX men how the
other regiments, though less exposed,
had suffered in almost equal proportion,
and how all five of them had returned
home, after the close of the war, with a
bare average of about fifty of the orig
inal members to each regiment--scarce-
ly five per cent The Twenty-fourth
Michigan brought home only forty flour.
/ The name of the Iron Brigade"
however, as is now known in all the
| histories of the war. was
WON AT ANTIETAM,
and was given it by Mcclellan, directly
after that battle.
Among the party was Captain James
! G. Mann, now of the City Water works,
/
who was wounded through the body at
Antietam, and told rather interesting
story of how the officers of his regiment
had surrendered the command of the
regiment entirely to the privates. No
other incident of the kind being known
during the war, the other two of the
party, who had entered the brigade at a
later period, were anxious to hear its
recital. As well as it can be remem-
bered three days afterward, it ran about
as follows:
1T was during the early summer of
1862, the First Corps, commanded by
General Mcdowell, was camped on the
plain skirting the Rappahannock River,
nearly opposite Fredericksburg, our
brigade, commanded by General Glib
bons, occupying the right of King S
Division, overlooking Falmouth. The
camp w"s one of singular beauty, shad-
owed in the rear of the forest of tall
pines. stretching along the historical
river in a commanding attitude, over the
! sleepy old homes of the Washingtons,
the Fitzhughs, the Lees, and others of
ence here during May aud June was
oNlHp W MISUNDERSTANDING VI OTueTS
to march via Fredericksburg and Bea-
yer Dam to the rear of Richmond, and
thus form junction with Mcclellan,
whose guns We're laundering at the
gates of
THE REBEL CAPITAL,
below, on the James. For some reason
we were ordered back to Fredericks-
burg, though we had crossed the Rap
pahannock, and by forced march
were brought within hearing of Nc
Clellan's guns.
While lying there in camp, after
our return, with nothing to do but bur-
nish our guns and aceoutrements, and
serenade the officers of our respective
commands, the month of May and June
sped away as time can only to soldiers,
with nothing to do, and we were
brought into July, when this incident
occurred.
The officers of the Seventh Wiscon-
sin, Colonel w w. Robinson, now of
Mineral Point, Wisconsin, Major Bell,
now of Green Bay, and Adiutant Cook
had an order read on dress parade, July
third,