Giants in their tall black hats

"The great Western or Iron Brigade ... looking like giants with their tall black hats.... And giant they were, in action." Originally called "The Black Hat Brigade" because its soldiers wore the regular army's dress black hat instead of the more typical blue cap, the Iron Brigade was the only all-Western brigade in the Eastern armies of the Union.

On August 28, 1862, at Brawner Farm in Northern Virginia, the brigade saw its first significant action. From that time forward - at Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg - the Western soldiers earned and repeatedly justified the proud name Iron Brigade. And when the war was over, the records showed that it led all federal brigades in percentage of deaths in battle.

These essays, by some of the best-known historians of the brigade, spotlight significant moments in the history of the Civil War's most celebrated unit.