SHEET MUSIC- 1863 CIVIL WAR - IRON BRIGADE QUICKSTEP – LITHOGRAPH COVER ART
Sheet music, 10 x 13 ½, 7pp complete. L Composed and published by H.N. Hempsted.  Has an illustrated cover with 5 vignettes of senior officers of this historic Wisconsin unit: Colonel E.S. Bragg, 6th Wisconsin, Colonel Williams, 19th Indiana, General "Sol" Meredith, Colonel Robinson 7th Wisconsin, and Colonel L. Fairchild, 2nd Wisconsin.   Above the vignettes are a panoply of flags with an eagle surmount.  Published by Hempsted in Milwaukee, 1863, The Milwaukee Litho. & Engr. Co., Dedicated to the Western Troops of the Army of the Potomac.
From bound volume, with accompanying bindery marking along spine, exhibits some light Use and wear, overall Fine condition.
The Iron Brigade, also known as The Black Hats, Black Hat Brigade, Iron Brigade of the West, and originally King's Wisconsin Brigade was an infantry brigade in the Union Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War. Although it fought entirely in the Eastern Theater, it was composed of regiments from three Western. Noted for its excellent discipline, ferocity in battle, and extraordinarily strong morale, the Iron Brigade suffered 1,131 men killed out of 7,257 total enlistments: the highest percentage of loss suffered by any brigade in the United States Army during the war.The brigade fought in the battles of Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Mine Run, Overland, Richmond-Petersburg, and Appomattox. At Gettysburg, it played a prominent role in the first day of the battle. It repulsed the first Confederate offensive through Herbst's Woods, led by the 2nd Wisconsin, capturing much of Brig. Gen. James J. Archer's brigade, and Archer himself. The 6th Wisconsin, along with 100 men of the brigade guard, are remembered for their famous charge on an unfinished railroad cut north and west of the town, where they captured the flag of the 2nd Mississippi and took hundreds of Confederate prisoners. The rest of the Iron Brigade were counterattacked in the early afternoon of July 1. The Brigade initially held their ground against the rebel counterattack. The pressure was eventually too heavy, and the Brigade slowly fell back to Seminary Ridge. The Brigade survivors defended the north slope of Culp's Hill on July 2,3, where the 6th Wisconsin made a night counterattack to restore Union positions previously lost to Confederate troops. Out of the 1,883 men the Brigade initially went to battle with, only 671 reported for duty at the battle's end.
Solomon Meredith was an Indiana farmer, politician, and lawman who became a controversial Union Army general in the American Civil War. One of the commanders of the Iron Brigade of the Army of the Potomac, Meredith led the brigade in the Battle of Gettysburg. Although he never fully recovered from the wounds he received that day, he became a prize-winning farmer and cattleman at home and hosted veterans of his unit.