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Show The fight over these guns became very -;'!ne erlmilL PressiDS to within c; mister 1 iTFES le Becord of the famous Second to Wisconsin Infantry-Heavy ' Losses. ES IBS riPTEEN ENGAGEMENT?. er Without Parallel in the Union iimy-Other Interesting . War News, ,f4 id i Chi A MONO sub fighting fight-ing regiment whose histories appear in Col. Fox's "Regimental "Regiment-al Losses in the -Civil "War," the Second Wisconsin heads the list with the highest percentage of killed in action during its whole term of service. The regiment eu-tered eu-tered the 'army iu June, 1861, and was disbanded at S at the end of three re .juor the regiment fell kill, . mica, w ithin three weeks of m out of Ml men engaged. The stubbornness of the the tact that the battery engaged witli Uih-taS Uih-taS I1?6' FoUrth United Jus Lh J '" I!illt 9 men killed 3 including the captain, an. 20 horses killed and 7 wounded Gen. Gibbon of the Second, I.leut. Col. Allen, who was wIZ'wD""J atSwond Hun three weeks , -below, was severely wounded ami earned from the field. To have fought on either side In front of the Dunker church at , Antietam was glory enough for a regiment to gain in its whole career, but for the Second it was the third great occasion when it played a distinguished part. At Gettysburg the regiment was reduced to a small battalion aud numbered but 800 men Small as it was it had the fortune of reaping further laurels, for the Iron Brigade was among the first to encounter the Confederates on tho first day and the very first to score a triumph lue brigade may be said to have fought under the eye of the gallant Reynolds in his last hour, for the hero died in tho attempt at-tempt to plant the Union lines securely in McPherson's grove, along Willoughby run, and this body of men under lien. Solomon Meredith was executing his orders or-ders when the fatal sharpshootor's bullet laid him low. ; Of all points along the Chnmbersbum pike, where Lee waa advancing, the grove seemed to impress Reynolds as the place of importance, and the commander of the division in which the Iron Brigade served, Gen. Doubleday, seeing his chief going iu there with nothing but a skirmish line to save him, sent Meredith forward with the injunction to hold the wood at all hazards. "If we can't hold it, where will you find the men who can?" responded the brave Wisconsin jboys. While they pressed on into the grove from the east Archer's Confederate Con-federate brigade, of Heth's division, came in from the west, and the first meeting of hostile lines of battlo on this great field took place then on the banks of the Run. The Confederates had been led to believe that the Union army was many marches distant, and that Gettysburg was defended by militia only, but when the Wisconsin' men came on in orderly ranks and delivered deliv-ered a volley of bullets with veteran cool- The total number enrolled in that iras 1,203, and this Includes non-tants non-tants and tho sick and absent, who !' t go into battle. There were killed ,n 238 men, 19.7 per. cent, of those A and very nearly one out pf every This sanguinary record was not, attained by accident, such as aught in a slaughter pen on some rous field with a sacrifice of half its n at a stroke. Second Wisconsin had men killed in in fifteen battles, commencing at Inn and ending at Petersburg. At 3ull Run, Second Bull Run, South ain, Antietam, Gettysburg and tho mess its losses were heavy, but there cores of Union infantry regiments ist a greater proportion of their men ne one of these particular engage-and engage-and in others as well. The highest iflained byhe regiment in any one tattles named was at Second Bull ivbere eighty-six were killed or mor-ivounded, mor-ivounded, and the lowest at South, tain, where ten fell in action. The Second Bull Run was the result of a spirited fight, and in every one of its battles (it belonged to the famous Brigade of the West") it gained nence through its daring achieve-as achieve-as well as through its roll cf dead, 'irst Bull Run the regiment fought Gen. W. T. Sherman near the War-i War-i pike, and took part in the Union ; on the Henry Hill when an attempt i.ide to effect a recapture of the posi-In posi-In his report Gen. Sherman said, regiment ascended to the brow of 11 steadily, received the severe fire of emy, returned it with spirit, and ad-i ad-i delivering its fire." charge on tho Henry Hill was re-1 re-1 by the regiment, the first having , The loss on this field was twenty-Jlled twenty-Jlled outright and sixty-five wound-p wound-p heavy proportion of killed showing verity of the fighting, the Second Bull Run the regiment n accidental collision, but the fight-uis fight-uis prolonged and severe. At this he Second was in Gibbon's brigade, s division, McDowell's corps. On the f August the corps was at Gaines-ra Gaines-ra the Warrenton pike, and ''Stone- Jackson's was at Manassas Junction, or eight miles southeast of that Longstreet, with the main Confed-foree, Confed-foree, was at Thoroughfare Gap, west of Gainesville, and Jackson's ion depended on bis junction with treet's column. This he attempted ;;t by making a detour so as to avoid ville and McDowell's command, novement was suspected in the Union , and McDowell moved east along entoa piko hoping to hold Jackson of it until other troops could come 4 cut him off completely from Lee's AT GETTVSBURG. ness and aim Archer's men cried: " 'Taint the militia, either. It's the army of the Potomac. There is those black hatted fellows again." The Iron Brigade had been made conspicuous con-spicuous by their black, wide brimmed hats, und after Second Bull Run and Antietam An-tietam even the enemy could not mistake the significance of those unique badges. The Second was now commauded by Col. Lucius Fairchild, and seeing the isolated position of Archer, alone with a stream behind him, he moved the regiment around Archer's flank, cutting him off from the creek and capturing nearly all the brigade with its leader. This little success, though counting for much with saving of time for the Union arms, was but temporary and was dearly bought. The Confederates with high ground in i Jackson had moved with rapidity, Iwut 5 o'clock on the afternoon of the was marching north of Warrenton in the opposite direction from Modi, Mo-di, but on a parallel line. King's di-i di-i had the advance in McDowell's Hatch's brigade had the lead in division, anil when near the village oveton was met by a fire from several f Jackson's artillery. The Confed-leader Confed-leader had discovered this isolated un and resolved to destroy it. Gib-wigade Gib-wigade followed Hatch's, and while utter was engaged in front Gibbon Confederate battery on his left rear upon the rear of the column, and M the Wisconsin Second to march by 'ink and attack it. 're was a hill Intervening between the Mt and the guns, and while ascend- ils the command waa fired upon by inemy's infantry. Turning to face ire the Second was soon engaged with v7 force of the enemy. Jackson had veral brigtides to the attack. Mus- Me was delivered much of the time iventy-flve paces, and here tho regi- lost heavily. The colonel, Edgar "nor, was killed. The major was 1 wounded, but remained in action. athe fighting of the 29th and 30th ond was slightly engaged, but its were confined almost wholly to this "y1! which continued an hour naif, in tj,e battle the casualties of f'Sment were 53 killed outright and glided. Of the wounded and miss-" miss-" "ere subsequently counted with the asking a mortality list of 80. The Der engaged was 6U. But Jackson t seize Warrenton pike that night, their favor had posted sharpshooters to command the grove, and their missiles played havoc with the intrepid fellows who had assumed the task of holding this important im-portant ground. Reynolds fell, and with him was lost the plan of battle. His successor, suc-cessor, Doubleday, knew that the grove was the key, according to Reynolds' actions, ac-tions, and he tried to hold it. On the Confederate side Heth, with bis division re-enforced by Pender, returned to tho attack. For hours tho fight was kept up, the Iron Brigade losing in quick succession three commanders and over 50 per cent, of its effective strength in killed, wounded and missing. The Socond Wisconsin Wis-consin suffered the heaviest and here added 46 to its roll of heroes 46 dead out 300 in lino. With its other casualties the loss was 77 per cent. Col. Fairchild lost an arm, Lieut. Col. George H. Stevens was killed and Maj. John Mansfield was wounded. With this terrible loss the regiment was reduced to a nullity. There were less than one hundred in the ranks. After some addition ad-dition of strength the Second eutcred the campaign of the Wilderness in Crawford's division of the Fifth corps. Here it lost 17 killed, and after further loss at Spottsyl-vania, Spottsyl-vania, its field officers wounded and its numbers less than one hundred, it was detailed de-tailed us provost guard and ordered home June 11. During its term of three years T53 of its men were hit in battle and 133 were captured. In Company A the killed numbered 20 out of 121 enrolled; Company C, 81 out of 132; E, 24 out of 115; G, 29 out of 133; H, 23 out of 122, and in K 30 out ""he story of the Second shows that it won this record by persistent hard lighting light-ing and not by accident. In nearly nil great battles and in somo minor engagements engage-ments there are slaughter pens where certain cer-tain regiments are roughly handled aud men are sacrificed to no purpose, making a record that looks creditable while it is merely appalling. But it was the long, strong effort that won the day for the Union in the civil war. Luck and accident acci-dent played a part and hindered or hastened hast-ened unimportant events. Sharp lighting and plenty of it, however, determined tho result, and all in all no better representative representa-tive regiment could be found for tim Union armv than the Second Wisconsin. - ith its 3 ,v T SEC0K D ULl tUJf. nis reason failed to open com-wn com-wn wkh his colleague, Longstreet. " brigade received the force of attack, and the Second was the M center of Gibbon's line. In fact rj l?e laU and by a heroic front de-ed de-ed the result. h Mountain, Md.. Sept. 14, '62, two iter Second Bull Run, the Second a tilled in a ragged mountain fight, etam en the 17th it was engaged the bloody cornfield eany m the r irst corps, to which the Second . was led by Hooker and attempt-ink attempt-ink the Confederate position iu the Dunker chnr.'h. The topogra- very deceiving and caused many n both sides. Gibbon's brigade across an open field to the "0, which swarmed with Confeder-t-aioa battery was on arjdge |