By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable Historian
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2023-2024, All Rights Reserved
Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the April 2024 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable.
During the Roundtable’s 2023 field trip to Manassas, the participants heard a lot about General Thomas Jackson’s “Stonewall Brigade.” Accordingly, it occurred to me to do a history brief about my top four most elite brigades of the Civil War. I will highlight my top two Confederate and top two Union brigades starting with the “Stonewall Brigade.” I’m sure that many of our members have a similar list in mind for comparison.
The Stonewall Brigade was recruited from the Shenandoah River Valley from numerous towns including Lexington, Wytheville, Pulaski, Augusta County, Harrisonburg, and Charlestown. Jackson trained and drilled his troops endlessly, so they were ready to excel under their leader’s command at First Bull Run. Brigadier General Jackson’s stand on Henry House Hill turned the course of that battle. Rebel General Barnard Bee, who was mortally wounded at that battle, famously called out, “Yonder stands Jackson like a stone wall. Let us go to his assistance.” S. C. Gwynne in his book Rebel Yell puts it this way, “It is noteworthy that as the nickname began to attach itself to Jackson, it also attached itself to his brigade…But his five regiments that had fought so bravely and got so badly bloodied got the name, too. For the rest of the war and into the annals of American history, they would be called the Stonewall Brigade.” Additionally, as hard marchers, they were part of Jackson’s well-known “foot cavalry” for their ability to cover long distances more quickly than most infantry.
Jackson was soon promoted to command the Confederate army in the Valley, and his brigade came under the command of various brigadier generals who led the Stonewall Brigade through other battles including the Seven Days Battles, Cedar Mountain, and Second Manassas. During the Antietam Campaign, they helped capture Harpers Ferry in one of the largest surrenders of troops in the war and soon ferociously fought at the West Woods at Antietam. At Chancellorsville they were part of Jackson’s famous flanking maneuver. However, the brigade suffered heavy casualties throughout the war that diminished its combat power, and after the Wilderness Campaign, with only 200 men, they disbanded and joined other units.
On the Union side, another of the elite brigades is the “Wilder Brigade,” also known as the “Lightning Brigade.” By the summer of 1862 in the Western Theater, General William Rosecrans and other Union generals complained to the war department after Confederate cavalry commanders John Hunt Morgan and “that Devil” Forrest continually had their way with Union cavalry. Rosecrans contacted Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who agreed that a change was needed in quality and quantity. However, in the meantime Rosecrans identified and encouraged Colonel John T. Wilder to convert an infantry brigade to mounted status. Additionally, the creative Wilder also realized the firepower value of repeating rifles and obtained the excellent Spencer repeating rifle, which used a seven-round magazine.
Part of Wilder’s genius was to develop new tactics. By the summer of 1863, he had trained his men on the advantages of the repeating rifles combined with rapid horsebound movement. Wilder’s dedicated leadership soon gave his soldiers an immense feeling of confidence and esprit de corps. Operating with five regiments from Indiana and Illinois and some artillery, the brigade’s uniqueness qualified it as an army-level asset. By the time of the Battle of Chickamauga, its worth had been thoroughly proven during the Tullahoma Campaign. On the eve of the Battle of Chickamauga, Wilder’s maneuverability twice blocked Confederate attempts to cross Chickamauga Creek, holding back an entire rebel corps. In the afternoon on the first day of Chickamauga, the brigade had stymied rebel thrusts and near breakthroughs several times through quick maneuvering and tremendous enfilading fire.
On the second day, the Lighting Brigade was ordered to counterattack after Confederate General James Longstreet charged through the infamous gap in the Union line. Shelby Foote, in volume two of his The Civil War: A Narrative, described it this way: “Wilder brought his mounted troops in hard on the rebel flank and opened fire with his repeaters. That tore it. The southernmost gray brigade lost its momentum, then collapsed in a rush as frantic as any on the other side, falling back.” The effort gave sufficient time for General George Thomas to organize his famous stand on Snodgrass Hill. The brigade is recognized today on the battlefield by the massive Wilder Brigade Monument Memorial Tower. As an interesting aside, the Wilder Brigade was also sometimes known as the “Hatchet Brigade,” since the men were issued long-handled hatchets instead of cavalry sabers.
My second elite rebel brigade is “Hood’s Texas Brigade,” named as such even though John Bell Hood directly commanded it for only six months. The brigade was composed of three Texas regiments along with some Georgians, South Carolinians, and Arkansans. During Hood’s tenure, the brigade fought decisively under Hood’s audacious leadership, notably in the Seven Days Battles, then Second Bull Run, and especially at Gaines’ Mill in June of 1862. General Lee, not yet known as the top southern general that he would soon become, was stalled at twilight near Boatswain’s Swamp. Lee asked Hood if his brigade could break the Union line. Hood said he thought so. As described by Shelby Foote in volume one of The Civil War: A Narrative, “(Hood’s) gray-clad attackers came on, through the (Union) tempest of iron and lead, not pausing to fire…closing ranks as they took their losses, which were heavy…twenty yards from the (Union) line, then ten…and the bluecoats scattered in unison. In the lead, the Texans fired their first shot at a range where every bullet lodged in flesh, then surged over the crest…as the cannoneers tried to limber for a withdrawal. Too late: Hood was out front, tall and blond, gesturing with his sword.” Hood was subsequently promoted to division command over the Texas Brigade. Sent west with Longstreet’s corps, Hood was wounded at Chickamauga, which ended his connection to the brigade. The unit returned east, and at the end of the war it had dropped from its peak of 4,400 men to just 600.
My other top choice for the Union is the “Iron Brigade,” also known as the “Black Hat Brigade” due to their black felt Hardee hats. It consisted of the 2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin and the 19th Indiana; the 24th Michigan was added later. Its organization in Wisconsin was fostered by direct involvement from Governor Alexander Randall, who identified West Point graduate Brigadier General John Gibbon to be its first commander as part of the Army of the Potomac. At the Battle of South Mountain, General George B. McClellan knew excellent troops when he saw them and asked General Joseph Hooker, “What troops are those fighting on the pike?” Hooker answered, “General Gibbon’s Brigade of Western men.” McClellan responded, “They must be made of iron.”
A few days later at Antietam, Gibbon’s Iron Brigade lived up to its new name during the horrific morning fighting centered around the cornfield. As a stalemate developed, the Iron Brigade advanced up the turnpike astride the cornfield, battled aside rebel troops, and entered the cornfield, but were then stopped by a Confederate brigade. The Black Hats returned a withering fire which broke the rebels, giving momentum back to the Union.
At Gettysburg, under the command of Solomon Meredith, it was now officially famously designated the first brigade of the first division of the first corps. On the opening morning of the three-day battle, the Iron Brigade counterattacked against a Confederate thrust through Herbst Woods. Bruce Catton, in volume two of his famous Army of the Potomac Trilogy, Glory Road, described it this way: “The 2nd and 7th Wisconsin got into line, and they ran into (Confederate) Archer’s (brigade) head on, while the 24th Michigan and 19th Indiana worked around the south and took the Confederate brigade in the flank. Rifles blazed all along the slope and in the grove, and the Confederates suddenly realized that they were up against the first team…telling each other…’Here are those damned black hat fellers again’…’Tain’t no militia – that’s the Army of the Potomac’…The Iron Brigade closed in savagely on Archer’s men, getting them off balance, pushing them down into the valley, and driving them back in wild rout.” The Black Hats captured most of Archer’s brigade including General James Archer, himself. This counterattack figured prominently in thwarting the Confederate momentum along the Chambersburg Pike – and arguably delayed the rebels long enough early on for Union troops, and especially artillery, to later establish a solid defensive line before nightfall on Cemetery Hill.
Just as the participants on the 2023 Roundtable field trip saw where the Stonewall Brigade fought at Manassas, the participants on the 2024 field trip saw the Iron Brigade’s hallowed ground at Gettysburg.
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