Publication Date

1963

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Owens, Kenneth N.||Sewell, Richard H.

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of History

LCSH

Iron Brigade.--History--Civil War; 1861-1865; United States. Army. Iron Brigade; Morale; United States--History--Civil War; 1861-1865--Regimental histories

Abstract

The five regiments which composed the Iron Brigade are numbered among the outstanding military organizations of the Civil War. Recruited from the states of the Old Worth West, the Brigade, or portions thereof, took part in every major action of the Army of the Potomac from First Bull Run to Appomattox, except for the Peninsula Campaign. In the course of its service, the Iron Brigade suffered the largest percentage of casualties of all brigades in the Union A ray. It also earned a reputation as a hard-fighting, spirited force whose morale and esprit de corps remained firm in spits of appalling casualties sustained more frequently in general defeats than in victories. This paper investigates the reasons for the Iron Brigade's outstanding performance and its superior esprit de corps, as well as the decline of its effectiveness during the last year of the war. Closely examined are the volunteer status of its original membership, the quality of regimental and brigade leadership, the type of training it received, and the battlefield experience of the organization. The materials used in this study were primarily the regimental histories of the individual regiments, letters, journals, and diaries of the man in the Brigade, and contemporary newspaper articles, finally, the results of the study are discussed in relation to current military policy.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

viii, 89 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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