Second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
of Wisconsin in the Civil War
And The Iron Brigade of the west
Second Wisconsin 2025
Second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
honorably discharged, but at the judgment day
I want to be with Wisconsin soldiers,”
Gen. John Gibbon 1880
Gather up the fragments; let nothing be lost,
To show the coming ages what liberty cost
The Grand Review
And here are passing now those yet spared from earth and heaven of that “Iron Brigade,” of Meredith’s, on whose list appear such names as Lucius Fairchild, Henry Morrow, Rufus Dawes, and Samuel Williams, and such regiments as the 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan, and 2d, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin, which on the first day’s front line with Buford and Reynolds, in that one fierce onset at Willoughby’s run, withstood overwhelming odds, with the loss of a thousand, a hundred and fifty-three of highest manliness.
Here draws near a moving spectacle indeed, the last of the dear old First Corps; thrice decimated at Gettysburg in action and passion heroic, martyr-like, sublime.
Sit down again together, Army of the Potomac! all that are left of us,-on the banks of the river whose name we bore, into which we have put new meaning of our own. Take strength from one more touch, ere we pass afar from the closeness of old.
The old is young to-day; and the young is passed. Survivors of the fittest,-for the fittest, it seems to us, abide in the glory where we saw them last,-take the grasp of hands, and look into the eyes, without words!
Who shall tell what is past and what survives?
For there are things born but lately in the years,
which belong to the eternities.
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
Brevet Major-General U.S. Volunteers-
We thank the following organizations for their excellent
facilities and help over the years:
in the research of the Second Wisconsin,
Iron Brigade of the West and Wisconsin Military History
We also wish to acknowledge the help and interest of National Park Service staff at Manhattan Sites, Antietam, Shiloh, Gettysburg, Bull Run.
Music has been sourced from the websites linked above unless otherwise credited.
