GETTYSBURG, Pa., Oct. 23 (UPI) -- The citizen-soldiers who earned the name "Iron Brigade of the West" for their tenacious bravery are drawing admiration nearly 140 years later from Americans coping with terror attacks on the country.
"It's one of the most interesting and exciting stories in American history," said Lance Herdegen, 63, director of the Institute of Civil War Studies at Carroll College in Waukesha, Wis.
"Especially in light of Sept. 11, it's like looking for solid ground to stand on in times of uncertainty," he said. "I think about how times were bad then (during the Civil War), and the country worked its way through."
The Iron Brigade, part of the Army of the Potomac, included the 2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin Volunteers, the 19th Indiana Volunteers, and later, after the battle of Antietam, the 24th Michigan Volunteers.
At Gettysburg, the pivotal battle of the war, the brigade lost more than 60 percent of its men -- killed, wounded or missing -- as it held off the Confederates long enough for Union forces to build behind them, leading to the Union victory two days later, Herdegen said.
Len Fortier, 68, of Waukesha, was one of 50 people who came to Chambersburg, Pa., to tour five battlefields as part of a weekend seminar about the Iron Brigade.
"The Iron Brigade men were like the firemen at the World Trade Center -- they didn't run away from fire, they ran into it," he said.
Fortier served on the destroyer USS Ammen during the Korean War and two weeks ago attended a reunion of shipmates in San Antonio, Texas. As he heard shipmates tell of people they knew who were killed in the terror attacks, he said he thought of the Iron Brigade.
"Knowing how the Iron Brigade stood gives me extra resolve," he said.
Miles Ellison, 61, Grahamsville, N.Y., a retired college history teacher who during the seminar wore an NYFD hat in honor of New York firefighters, nodded in agreement as he listened to Fortier describe the valor of both the Iron Brigade soldiers and firefighters.
"It's always good, fitting and in order to honor this type of bravery," he said.
Ted Alexander, chief historian at the Antietam National Battlefield, who organized the seminar for Chambersburg Civil War Seminars, said the Iron Brigade overall "in proportion to its numbers sustained the heaviest loss of any (Union brigade) in the war."
Saturday the group of 50 walked the battlefields of Virginia and Maryland where the Iron Brigade engaged in four pitched battles between Aug. 28 and Sept. 17, 1862 -- Brawner's Farm (Gainesville), Second Manassas, South Mountain and Antietam -- the bloodiest day of fighting in American history, where some 3,650 soldiers died and another 17,300 were wounded on both sides. The Iron Brigade lost 343 men killed or wounded out of 800 that day.
The three deadliest days in American history have been in September. Antietam on Sept. 17,1862, the Galveston, Texas, hurricane on Sept. 8, 1900, in which more than 6,000 were believed killed, and Sept. 11, when more than 5,000 were killed.
Herdegen said Gen. George McClellan is thought to have given the Iron Brigade its nickname at the battle of South Mountain against Confederate forces of Gen. Robert E. Lee, with McClellan remarking to Gen. Joseph Hooker that "they must be made of iron" and that "they fight equal to the best troops in the world."
A newspaper reporter who apparently overheard McClellan, published an account of the general calling the brigade "the Iron Brigade of the West," said Herdegen, a former reporter, editor and executive with United Press International.
A few days later, on Sept. 17, 1862, the Iron Brigade spearheaded the Union attack at Antietam, coming south in line across the Hagerstown Pike in some of the bloodiest fighting on America's bloodiest day.
On Saturday afternoon, as the seminar group walked the route the Iron Brigade took down the pike, Herdegen told the story of the fighting -- and the story of the 6th Wisconsin's Capt. Werner Von Bachelle, who had adopted a big Newfoundland dog. Both captain and dog were killed as Bachelle charged ahead with his company to try to shoot the horses of a Confederate artillery battery being pulled across a rise just ahead of them.
As Herdegen finished describing Von Bachelle's death, a large brown dog slowly ambled out from nearby farm buildings and then went up to nuzzle against the hands of several people.
Earlier Saturday, as the seminar group arrived at the Manassas National Battlefield, 20 Navy midshipmen were touring the battlefield as part of a heritage class for freshmen.
"We're studying what it takes to win -- and how naval support can affect land battles," said Midshipman Fourth Class William Rietveld, 21, Holland, Mich., who served three years as an enlisted sailor before winning appointment to the Naval Academy.
Of the campaign in Afghanistan in response to the terror attacks, Rietveld said he sensed the same resolve as when the military got ready for service in Kosovo: "That we had a mission and knew what we had to do, no matter what it took."
"I think this is going to be a much harder process -- but the determination to win is even stronger, because they hit our homeland, which has not happened since the War of 1812," he said.
Sunday, the seminar group traced the route of the Iron Brigade on July 1, 1863 -- the opening day of the three-day Battle of Gettysburg.
One of the most dramatic actions of July 1, 1863, came as the 6th Wisconsin charged across 175 yards of open ground to an unfinished railroad cut, where they captured soldiers of the 2nd Mississippi. Later in the day the 6th fell back in a disciplined retreat to Culp's Hill.
Herdegen told the story of 6th Wisconsin Private Mickey Sullivan, who jumped down into the railroad cut and was offered the sword of a surrendering rebel officer. Seeing another rebel break for the rear, Sullivan threw the sword at him. As he turned to throw, he was shot through the left shoulder. When the fighting stopped a few minutes later, the wounded Sullivan tried to reach for a canteen containing buttermilk, but couldn't bring it to his mouth. A soldier of the 2nd Mississippi uncorked the canteen and raised it for Sullivan to drink.
Herdegen said that act for him symbolized the war and its aftermath.
"I think of that one act of kindness by two soldiers that were desperately trying to kill each other minutes before," he said.
Sullivan's son, 94-year-old Fitz Sullivan, lives in Florida and is a member of a re-enactment unit that portrays Company K of the 6th Wisconsin, his father's unit.
Herdegen said the example of the Iron Brigade for modern times is that the young men were not professional soldiers, but citizens called to war.
"The sense of the citizen soldier is so engrained in the American psyche," he said. "We want to think (that) in times of extreme crisis we can become those citizen soldiers that are the equal to the best professional soldiers in the world."
The seminar opened Friday night with a 20-minute service in memory of the Sept. 11 victims, and those attending drew parallels and contrasts between the Civil War and how Americans are coping with the terror attacks and anthrax scare.
Herdegen said "I think there is a lot of fear in the country," particularly in young people who do not have the perspective of older adults who lived through the Great Depression and World War II.
"It's real hard for college kids to come to grips with what's happened -- they haven't known a lot of national tragedy," he said. "There is a lot of worry about anthrax, but also kids are realistic in realizing that it's not very likely it's going to reach them."
James Grimes, 49, Stockton, N.J., who teaches history to high school students in Woodbridge, N.J. -- eight miles from the World Trade Center -- said students touched by the terror attacks have shown a greater interest in history.
"The kids are personally affected -- nearly every kid I've got," he said. "They want to talk. And there's more of an interest among the kids in history in general. They are asking questions like, 'Why do they hate us? Did we do something against them?'"
He said he told his students that the extremists "don't think like we do."
Perry Abe, 47, Sacramento, Calif., a hospital laboratory technician, said he sensed the country was resolute.
"The resolution will be as strong as in past tests -- the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the world wars -- I don't think the resolution will weaken this time," he said.
Abe also said he was not worried about anthrax. "I'm more worried about driving in rush-hour traffic," he said.
As the group walked in the footsteps of the Iron Brigade, some wondered whether new generations would recall the sacrifices of the past as the time from the Civil War lengthened and the country faced new tests.
Paul Dobbs, 50, a San Diego, Calif., a screenwriter who wrote a screenplay with Herdegen about the 6th Wisconsin, said there is renewed interest at the moment in the passion, ideals and patriotism shown by the Iron Brigade and other soldiers on both sides -- but he said the virtues otherwise have been lost, particularly to the young.
"All of these virtues are completely lost to us. We're spoiled now," he said. "The feelings of patriotism, belief in God, loyalty, those are all lost to us."
Others said they are keeping the traditions alive.
Dale Brasser, 69, Manitowoc, Wis., a retired school administrator, is a veteran re-enactor who portrays soldiers from the 2nd and 3rd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He said it helps him connect with his heritage -- his great-grandfather served in the 27th Wisconsin.
"When I'm out marching, I feel close to him," he said.
Brasser said his 10-year-old grandson asked to tour Gettysburg last year, after having seen a video of the movie "Gettysburg" -- a movie for which Brasser helped recruit re-enactors for battle scenes and took part himself.
"When I showed him where they fought, I think it made a connection," he said.
Brasser said teaching the human side of history -- not just facts and dates, but people -- is important.
"It gives kids a sense of their roots as to what democracy is about and why we have it," he said. "If you don't know what it took to have our present society, how are you going to appreciate it?"
