by James Marten
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2025. Pp. xvi, 288.
Illus., maps, notes, biblio., index. $35.00. ISBN: 1469684233
A Regiment of the Iron Brigade, in War and After
This book looks at the Civil War through the experience of a single regiment, the 6th Wisconsin, of the Iron Brigade, from its pre-war preparation, through the war, and then the long-term effects of the war on the men and their families, a perspective known among historians as “The Long Civil War.” Prof. Marten (Marquette, Emeritus) argues that the phrase isn’t just historians’ jargon, but a common-sense approach to understanding how the war affected the entire generation that lived through it. Although an academic book, rich in endnotes and bibliography, the author tries to write not just for other historians but for ordinary people interested in the era of the Civil War.
The 6th Wisconsin and the Iron Brigade fought in virtually all of the major battles in the Eastern Theatre from August 1862 through the end of the war. .
Marten offers detailed descriptions of the service of the regiment and how the lives of the nearly 2,000 men who served with it, and those of their families and communities, were affected by their wartime experiences.
To give examples, one soldier, Rufus Dawes, is mentioned throughout the book, having demonstrated outstanding leadership at Antietam and Gettysburg, while seventeen-year-old Madison Brower, who joined the regiment as a substitute in March of 1865, died of disease on May 23rd, the day of the Grand Review.
One of the ground breaking aspects of Marten’s treatment is his use of pension records, which reveal the long-term medical issues suffered by many of the veterans and the treatment, and the effects of the war on their health
The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War is important scholarship for anyone interested in the Civil War, the Eastern Theater, regimental history, and memory of soldiers.
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Our Reviewer: David Marshall has been a high school American history teacher in the Miami-Dade School district for more than three decades. A life-long Civil War enthusiast, David is president of the Miami Civil War Round Table Book Club. In addition to numerous reviews in Civil War News and other publications, he has given presentations to Civil War Round Tables on Joshua Chamberlain, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the common soldier. His previous reviews here include, We Shall Conquer or Die, Dranesville, The Civil War in the Age of Nationalism, “Over a Wide, Hot . . . Crimson Plain", The Atlanta Campaign, Volume 1, Dalton to Cassville, Thunder in the Harbor, All Roads Led to Gettysburg, The Traitor's Homecoming, A Tempest of Iron and Lead, The Cassville Affairs, Holding Charleston by the Bridle, The Maps of Second Bull Run, Hell by the Acre, Chorus of the Union, Digging All Night and Fighting All Day, The Confederate Resurgence of 1864, Building a House Divided, Feeding Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, A Grand Opening Squandered, “No One Wants to be the Last to Die” and A Campaign of Giants, The Battle for Petersburg, Vol. 2.
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Note: The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War is also available in e-editions.
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