Speaker: Lance J. Herdegen

The Black hats from Bull Run to Appomattox

The Iron Brigade is one of the most celebrated organizations in the American Civil War. Originally composed of the 2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, and Battery B of the 4th U.S. Artillery, it fought in the Western and Eastern theaters of war. Yet it was at Gettysburg on July 1st where the brigade was immortalized at the railroad cut and helped save the high ground west of town that proved decisive but was nearly destroyed for its brave stand. When we were young, explained one Black Hat veteran many years after the war, we hardly realized that we “had fought on more fields of battle than the Old Guard of Napoleon, and have stood fire in far greater firmness.” Herdegen has produced 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.

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