2nd Wisconsin, 6th Wisconsin, 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan, Bttry B - 4th US Art.

The Civil War's "Best Fighting Brigade"

This site is dedicated to the men of the Iron Brigade.  The majority of the Iron Brigade was composed of young men from Wisconsin.  Three regiments from Wisconsin and one from Indiana were formed in to the best known fighting brigade in the Army of the Potomac.  To offset heavy losses, a Michigan regiment was latter added to keep this brigade a uniquely "western" unit.  On these pages and links you will find some of the more interesting facts and stories of these regiments --  and the men who lived and died so long ago, but to us, seem only to be just out of reach.

The men of the Iron Brigade first made a name for themselves simply as members of "Rufus King's Brigade".  But as commanders and uniforms changed, and the conflict  advanced to the war's most critical moment at Antietam, they earned some more titles.  The men of the south knew them first as "That damn Black Hat Brigade" and latter to all as the "Iron Brigade" because they "stood like Iron" in the face of withering enemy fire.  The truth is, the history of the Iron Brigade begins like a song of glory and victory assumed, and ends with the brigades virtual destruction on the first day of Gettysburg.   The men were not of iron, but of flesh and blood and they anointed their nations fields with more of themselves than any other regiment in the Union.

Iron Brigade Suggested Reading

       Feature:    Captain Edwin Brown of Fond du Lac

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