Iron Brigade

The Iron Brigade of the West

The Iron Brigade was the only brigade in the Union's Army of the Potomac whose regiments were all from the West. They would quickly become one of the elite shock units in the Union army. The Iron Brigade was usually in the thick of the fight at places like South Mountain (where a relative of Mr Cooley's, George W. Cooley of the 7th Wisconsin, was killed in action), in the cornfield at Antietam, and of course at Gettysburg as seen with the 2nd Wisconsin in the painting above.

Unfortunately, this type of action almost always resulted in heavy casualties, and Gettysburg was no exception to this. The brigade came into the battle nearly 1,900 men strong and suffered more than 1,100 casualties. The 2nd Wisconsin would lead the sad list with a loss of 77%.