[
393]
Second Wisconsin Infantry.
Iron Brigade —
Wadsworth's Division--First Corps.
| companies. | killed and died of wounds. | died of disease, accidents, in Prison, &c. | Total Enrollment. |
| Officers. | Men. | Total. | Officers. | Men. | Total. |
| Field and Staff | 2 | 1 | 3 | | 1 | 1 | 17 |
| Company | A | | 20 | 20 | | 7 | 7 | 121 |
| | B | 2 | 17 | 19 | | 7 | 7 | 124 |
| | C | 1 | 30 | 31 | | 7 | 7 | 132 |
| | D | | 15 | 15 | | 8 | 8 | 116 |
| | E | | 24 | 24 | | 7 | 7 | 115 |
| | F | | 22 | 22 | | 5 | 5 | 107 |
| | G | | 29 | 29 | | 16 | 16 | 135 |
| | H | 2 | 26 | 28 | | 9 | 9 | 122 |
| | I | 2 | 15 | 17 | | 4 | 4 | 101 |
| | K | 1 | 29 | 30 | | 6 | 6 | 113 |
| Totals | 10 | 228 | 238 | | 77 | 77 | 1,203 |
238 killed == 19.7 per cent.
Total of killed and wounded, 753; of missing and captured, 132; died in Confederate prisons (previously included), 17.
| battles. | K. & M. W. | battles. | K. & M. W. |
| Blackburn's Ford, Va. | 1 | Wilderness, Va. | 17 |
| First Bull Run, Va. | 25 | Spotsylvania, Va., May 10 | 4 |
| Catlett's Station, Va. | 1 | Spotsylvania, Va., May 21 | 1 |
| Gainesville, Va. | 86 | North Anna, Va. | 1 |
| Manassas, Va. | 1 | Petersburg, Va. | 2 |
| South Mountain, Md. | 10 | Hatcher's Run, Va. | 2 |
| Antietam, Md. | 30 | Gunboat detail | 7 |
| Fredericksburg, Va. | 2 | Artillery detail | 2 |
| Gettysburg, Pa. | 46 | | |
Present, also, at
Cedar Mountain; Fitz Hugh's Crossing;
Chancellorsville;
Mine Run; Bethesda Church; Cold Harbor; Weldon Railroad.
notes.--This regiment sustained the greatest percentage of loss of any in the entire Union Army.
It was a fine regiment and well officered.
Leaving the
State June 20, 1861, it went to
Virginia, where it was brigaded under command of
Colonel William T. Sherman, with which command it marched to
First Bull Run; its casualties in that battle were 24 killed, 65 wounded, and 23 missing. In August, 1861, it was assigned to the command which afterwards became so famous as “The Iron Brigade of the
West.”
This brigade, under
General Gibbon, encountered hard fighting at
Manassas (1862), in which the regiment lost 53 killed, 213 wounded, and 32 missing,--a total of 298.
Nearly all these casualties occurred at
Gainesville, where the opposing lines faced each other at a distance of 75 paces;
Colonel O'Connor was killed there.
The loss at
Antietam was 19 killed and 67 wounded; at
Gettysburg, 26 killed, 155 wounded, and 52 missing;
Colonel Fairchild lost an arm at
Gettysburg,
Lieutenant-Colonel George H. Stevens was killed, and the casualties in the regiment amounted to 77 per cent. of those present.
The Second fought at the
Wilderness and at
Spotsylvania, after which it was detailed as a provost-guard, having become reduced to less than 100 men present for duty, with both field officers wounded and in the hands of the enemy.
On June 11, 1864, it was ordered home for muster-out, the recruits and reenlisted men having been consolidated into a battalion of two companies, A and B, which were transferred in November to the Sixth Wisconsin.
