The Iron Brigade of the West

In proportion to its numbers the Iron Brigade sustained the heaviest loss of any brigade in the Civil War.” “The Iron Brigade loss at Gettysburg 1,153 out of 1,885 engaged, or 61 per cent.” “It was to the Iron Brigade more than to any other that the nation owes its salvation at Gettysburg.”

A list of Battles, Bull Run, Gainesville, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredricksburg, Fitzhugh Crossing, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Mine Run, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Weldon Railroad, Hatcher’s Run, Gravelly Run, Five Forks, Appomattox, and The Grand Review Parade in Washington 1865

2nd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment

“The 2nd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry sustained the greatest percentage of loss (killed and died of wounds) of any of the 2,000 regiments in the entire Union Army. At Gettysburg it lost 77 percent. Of those engaged.”

6th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment

6th Wisconsin Infantry “The death loss of the 6th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry was 357, or 18.4 per cent. Its total killed and wounded aggregated 867. Under command of Lt. Col. Rufus R. Dawes it won merited distinction at Gettysburg, capturing a part of a Confederate brigade in the railroad cut.”

7th, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment

7th Wisconsin Infantry “The 7th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry had a death loss of 424, or 26 per cent, and it was the third highest of all the regiments in the war, with a total loss in killed and wounded of 1,016. It met with the greatest loss of any regiment in the battles of the Wilderness.”

19th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment

“The 19th Indiana Volunteer Infantries death loss was 317, and its total killed and wounded 712. In its very first battle at [Second] Manassas it lost 259 out of 423 engaged, or 61 percent.”

24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment

“At Gettysburg, the greatest battle of the war, out of over 400 regiments engaged in the 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry sustained the greatest loss, 397 out of 496, or 80 percent. It stands nineteenth in percentage of killed and died of wounds in the entire war.”

Battery “B”, 4th U.S. Artillery

July, 1861, it was put on full war footing under Capt. John Gibbon, who had taken charge of it the year before in the Utah Territory. It was attached to King’s Division of McDowell’s corps when Gibbon was promoted to the command of the Iron Brigade. It was heavily recruited from the brigade and thus the Old Iron Brigade and Battery B became virtually a volunteer battery, it also is the only Regular Army Battery attached to a Volunteer Brigade