In any military conflict there are always individuals and groups
that stand out. One such unit during the Civil War was Wisconsin’s
Iron Brigade, often called by its Confederate opponents “them
damned black hats,” in reference to its reputation as a
“hot unit” and distinctive head gear, the Hardee Hat.
The four regiments of the brigade – the 2nd, 6th, and 7th
Wisconsin Volunteers, along with the 19th Indiana – were
the only completely western unit in the Army of the Potomac.
As Fort Sumpter fell in April 1861 Abraham Lincoln issued a call
for 75,000 volunteers. The citizens of many Wisconsin communities
responded to that call with patriotic fervor, none more so than
the city of Beloit. In the space of a few short months, Beloit
had organized five different volunteer rifle companies. The first
two units, the Beloit City Guards and the Beloit Cadet Rifles,
would serve a ninety day enlistment. The third and fourth units,
the Beloit Star Rifles [June 1861] and the Badger Rifles [August
1861], would serve for the duration and become part of companies
G and K of the Iron Brigade. The fifth unit was organized as
sharpshooters. More about that later.
As part of the Army of the Potomac the Beloit Star Rifles and
Badger Rifles would participate in the Battles of Brawner Farm,
Second Bull Run, Fredricksburg, Antietam, Chancellorsville, South
Mountain, and the battle of Gettysburg. In all of these engagements
the brigade honed its fighting skills, culminating in the clash
with the vanguard of the Confederate Army at Gettysburg. In the
next few hours after contact the brigade fought with a savage
tenacity, causing a stall in the Confederate advance long enough
for the Union Army to secure the strategic high points of Cemetery
Ridge and the Big and Little Round Tops.
All of the regiments in the brigade were in action that first
day at the town of Gettysburg, Willowby Run, McPhersons Ridge,
and the charge by the Sixth Wisconsin on the Confederate position
in the railroad cut. Beloit’s Star Rifles and Badger Rifles
were part of that charge. Under a galling fire the Sixth formed
a flying wedge that overran the rail cut, capturing nearly the
whole of the startled 2nd Mississippi and a few of the 55th North
Carolina Infantry.
Most everyone, even if interest in the Civil War is only casual,
will be acquainted with the events during the next two days,
July 2nd and 3rd, 1863: The Confederate attempt at end-runs around
the Union left, stopped by Col. Joshua Chamberlain’s 20th
Maine, and around the Union right at Culp’s Hill, secured
by the remnants of Wadsworth’s division and what was left
of the Iron Brigade. And then General Lee’s desperate but
failed attack on the center of the Union forces on Cemetery Hill
(Pickett’s Charge.) The heavy overall casualties, over 50,000,
left little taste for continued battle by either army. The Iron
Brigade, its numbers severely depleted on the first day, would
not fight again as a cohesive Wisconsin unit. However, the Iron
Brigade name would carry through the next two years, all the
way to the surrender at Appomattox Court House in 1865.
In proportion to its numbers Wisconsin’s Iron Brigade sustained
the heaviest losses of any brigade in the Civil War. Its losses
at Gettysburg were 1153, or 61%. The Sixth Wisconsin, which included
Beloit’s Star Rifles and Badger Rifles, suffered a death
loss of 357, or 18.4%; its total killed and wounded amounted
to 867.
Levi Raymond of Beloit, a member of the Beloit Star Rifles, kept
a very detailed diary of day-to-day activities in this unit.
The diary exists and is today in a private collection. Excerpts
from Raymond’s diary can be found in William J. K. Beaudot
and Lance J. Herdegen’s book, In the Bloody Railroad Cut
at Gettysburg. The Beloit Public Library has a copy in hardcover.
It was mentioned earlier that in answer to Lincoln’s call
in 1861 for volunteers, the citizens of Beloit managed to organize
five separate volunteer rifle companies. One such unit, organized
during the latter part of June, 1861, by Captain W. P. Alexander,
would acquire a unique recognition. The Captain was ordered to
raise a company of marksmen to become one of the contingents
of Col. Hiram Berdan’s famed green-jacketed U. S. Sharpshooters.
Berdan’s requirements for membership were stringent. It
was ordered that “no man be accepted who cannot, when firing
at rest, at two hundred yards, put ten consecutive shots into
a target, the average distance not to exceed five inches from
the center of the bull’s eye.”
At that time Beloit must have had a fair share of competent rifle
shots, for it is recorded that 103 privates and 3 officers left
on September 15, 1861, for service with Berdan’s U. S. Sharpshooters.
As a point of interest, the larger percentage of infantry firearms
during the Civil War, both Confederate and Union, consisted of
muzzle-loading rifle muskets, slow firing and difficult to load
from a prone position. By contrast Berdan’s men were equipped
with the latest technology, breech-loading, lever operated, .52
caliber Sharps rifles capable of firing at a rate of ten rounds
a minute.
Berdan’s marksmen performed their valuable service throughout
the war at Malvern Hill, Harrison’s Landing, Charles City
Cross Roads, Hanover Court House, The Seven Days’ Battles,
Manassas, Antietam, Snicker’s Gap, Fredericksburg, The Ceders,
Chancellorsville, and on to Gettysburg.
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