**WINNER FOR OPERATIONAL / BATTLE HISTORY, 2008, ARMY HISTORICAL
FOUNDATION DISTINGUISHED BOOK AWARD
**
The Iron Brigade--an all-Western outfit famously branded as The Iron
Brigade of the West--served out their enlistments entirely in the
Eastern Theater. Hardy men were these soldiers from Indiana, Wisconsin,
and Michigan, who waged war beneath their unique black Hardee Hats on
many fields, from Brawner's Farm during the Second Bull Run Campaign all
the way to Appomattox. In between were memorable combats at South
Mountain, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Mine Run, the Overland Campaign,
and the grueling fighting around Petersburg. None of these battles
compared with the "four long hours" of July 1, 1863, at Gettysburg,
where the Iron Brigade was all but wrecked.
Lance Herdegen's Those Damned Black Hats! The Iron Brigade in the
Gettysburg Campaign is the first book-length account of their remarkable
experiences in Pennsylvania during that fateful summer of 1863. Drawing
upon a wealth of sources, including dozens of previously unpublished or
unused accounts, Herdegen details for the first time the exploits of the
2nd, 6th, 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, and 24th Michigan regiments
during the entire campaign. On July 1, the Western troops stood
line-to-line and often face-to-face with their Confederate adversaries,
who later referred to them as "those damned Black Hats." With the help
of other stalwart comrades, the Hoosiers, Badgers, and Wolverines shed
copious amounts of blood to save the Army of the Potomac's defensive
position west of town. Their heroics above Willoughby Run, along the
Chambersburg Pike, and at the Railroad Cut helped define the opposing
lines for the rest of the battle and, perhaps, won the battle that
helped preserve the Union.
Herdegen's account is much more than a battle study. The story of the
fighting at the "Bloody Railroad Cut" is well known, but the attack and
defense of McPherson's Ridge, the final stand at Seminary Ridge, the
occupation of Culp's Hill, and the final pursuit of the Confederate Army
has never been explored in sufficient depth or with such story telling
ability. Herdegen completes the journey of the Black Hats with an
account of the reconciliation at the 50th Anniversary Reunion and the
Iron Brigade's place in Civil War history.
"Where has the firmness of the Iron Brigade at Gettysburg been surpassed
in history?" asked Rufus Dawes of the 6th Wisconsin. Indeed, it was a
fair question. The brigade marched to Gettysburg with 1,883 men in ranks
and by nightfall on July 1, only 671 men were still to be counted. It
would fight on to the end of the Civil War, and do so without its
all-Western makeup, but never again was it a major force in battle.
Some 150 years after the last member of the Iron Brigade laid down his
life for his country, the complete story of what the Black Hats did at
Gettysburg and how they remembered it is finally available.