On this day in history, July 1st, 1863, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia met the Union Army of the Potomac at the small town of Gettysburg.
Union Cavalry held up the initial Confederate advance until the Union First Corps could come up to reinforce them. First of the scene was the 1st Brigade of the First Division of the First Corps known to the Rebs as the “Black Hat Brigade” known to history as the Iron Brigade of the West.
The Brigade consisted of five regiments:
The Second Wisconsin, the Nineteenth Indiana, the Sixth Wisconsin, the Seventh Wisconsin and the Twenty-Fourth Michigan, the only all “western” brigade in the Army of the Potomac. The brigade took 61% casualties at Gettysburg buying enough time (with their comrades in the First Corp for the rest of the Union Army to gather.
Related articles
- Herdegen’s Rock-Solid Study of the Iron Brigade (emergingcivilwar.com)
History and Hobby 