Who went on to serve the Confederacy, Gibbon was a West Point graduate who would prove his loyalty to the Union with courage and superb leadership, sealed with his blood at Fredericksburg and again at Gettysburg.Īfter assuming command, Gibbon refashioned his brigade – literally. Raised in North Carolina with a slaveholding father and three brothers and two brothers-in-law Gibbon began as a captain of the United States Artillery Battery B, known as “The 140 Thieves,” attached to the brigade. John Gibbon, who took over from Rufus King in May 1862. “a quiet, erect, soldierly appearing little man,” Gen. In their rear.” The 24th Michigan, last to join the Brigade in October 1862, was called the Feather-beds.īut if the brigade appeared ragtag and unprepared when formed, within a matter of months it would become one of the most respected and feared in the Army of the Potomac – thanks largely to its second commander, Guerre, said the veteran Aubrey Cullen, “from the fact that the government contractors had run short of good material when they made the pantaloons … allowing their flag of truce always to be kept It included five colorfully named regiments: the Calico (6th Wisconsin), the Huckleberries (7th Wisconsin), the Babies (19th Indiana) and the Ragged Asstetical (2nd Wisconsin), which won its not-so-fierce nom de The only all-Western infantry brigade serving in the Union’s Eastern Theater armies, Though destined for fame and glory, the Western Brigade inspired neither awe nor praise at its May 1861 debut in Washington. Disunion follows the Civil War as it unfolded.
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