Organization of the Regiment

• Company A – “Citizen’s Guards” – Captain George H. Stevens
• Company B – “LaCrosse Light Guards” – Captain Wilson Colwell
• Company C – “Grant County Greys” – Captain David McKee
• Company D – “Janesville Volunteers” – Captain George B. Ely
• Company E – “Oshkosh Volunteers” – Captain Gabriel Bouck
• Company F – “Belle City Rifles” – Captain William E. Strong
• Company G – “Portage Light Guards” – Captain John Mansfield
• Company H – “Randall Guards” – Captain Julius F. Randolph
• Company I – “Miners Guards” – Captain Thomas S. Allen
• Company K – “Wisconsin Rifles” – Captain Andrew J. Langworthy

Action at Blackburn’s Ford

Stationed as a reserve on the Centreville Road, 1.5 miles north of Blackburn’s Ford. One man was killed and another wounded from Company B, the regiment’s first casualties.

Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)

General Sherman deemed Colonel Coon unsuitable to command the regiment and appointed him to his staff, leaving Lieutenant Colonel Peck in command of the regiment during the battle. The regiment crossed Bull Run at Farm Ford, one mile north of the Stone Bridge, and marched to Henry Hill.

The 2nd Wisconsin Infantry lost 16 men killed, 75 men wounded, 10 mortally. 37 men were wounded and captured, 23 men captured, 3 men missing, and 2 men deserted.

• Captains Julius F. Randolph of Company and Andrew J. Langworthy of Company K were wounded.
• First Lieutenants Frank Hatch of Company, Alexander S. Hill of Company F and Aaron A. Meredith of Company H were wounded.
• First Lieutenant William Booth of Company C was wounded and captured.

Pope’s Campaign in Northern Virginia

Battle of Gainesville (Brawner’s Farm)

The regiment lost 298 men killed and wounded out of 500 men on the field in a brutal stand-up firefight with the Confederate Stonewall Brigade.

• Captain Julius F. Randolph of Company F was killed.
• Colonel O’Connor and Second Lieutenant Edward P. Kellogg of Company C were mortally wounded.
• Major Thomas S. Allen was hit twice but stayed on the field.
• Captain Lyman H. Smith of Company E and and Charles G. Esslinger of Company K were wounded.
• First Lieutenants Henry B. Converse of Company F, Charles C. Dow of Company G,  and Second Lieutenant Melvin R. Baldwin of Company E were wounded.
• First Lieutenants Francis L. Graham of Company F and Alonzo Bell of Company I were wounded and captured.

The regiment is referenced on a trailside marker on Brawner’s Farm on the Manassas battlefield.

Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Manassas)

• Lieutenant Colonel Lucius Fairchild was promoted to Colonel
• Major Thomas S. Allen was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel
• Captain George H. Stevens of Company A was promoted to Major
• First Lieutenant Henry B. Converse was promoted to Captain of Company A.
• First Lieutenant Nathaniel Rollins was promoted to Captain of Company H.

Battle of Chantilly (In Reserve)

Maryland Campaign

Attached to 4th Brigade, 1st Division, 1st Army Corps, Army of the Potomac

Battle of South Mountain

The regiment fought at Turner’s Gap. Captain Wilson Colwell of Company B was killed. Captain William L. Parsons of Company F was wounded.

Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg)

The brigade was the spearhead of Hooker’s early morning attack down the Hagerstown Pike.

• Captain Colwell of Company B was killed while commanding the skirmish line.
• Second Lieutenant Oliver W. Sanford of Company I was mortally wounded.
• Lieutenant Colonel Thomas S. Allen and Captains George W. Gibson of Company C and George B. Ely of Company D were wounded.
• First Lieutenants William W. Jones of Company A and Alexander S. Hill of Company F were wounded, Jones losing his arm but eventually returning to duty.

From the marker for Gibbon’s Brigade on the Antietam battlefield:

On the morning of the 17th, with its right on the Hagerstown Pike, Gibbon’s Brigade, which three days before had earned the title of the “Iron Brigade”, advanced in the direction of the Dunkard Church. When 135 yards north of this point Confederates, deployed under cover of the ledge and woods west of the pike attacked the flank, upon which the 19th Indiana and 7th Wisconsin were deployed on the plateau and in the woods west of the pike and the 2nd and 6th Wisconsin in the infamous Cornfield east of it. Battery B, 4th U. S. Artillery, went into position west of the pike and a few yards south of Miller’s barn.

Supported by Patrick’s Brigade and the Battery on the right and Phelps’ Brigade on the left, Gibbon’s Brigade advanced to and south of this point but was forced back. Charge and countercharge of the most deadly character were made across the open plateau west of and in the Cornfield and ground south of it, east of the pike, and the Iron Brigade was compelled to retire to the field north of D. R. Miller’s and then to the cover of the high ground north and east of Joseph Poffenberger’s.

Battle of Fredericksburg

“Mud March”

Fitzhugh’s Crossing

Battle of Chancellorsville

Battle of Brandy Station

Two companies were temporarily attached to the 7th Wisconsin Infantry and were part of one of the composite infantry brigades that took part in the battle.

Gettysburg Campaign

Captain Henry B. Converse of Company A was discharged for disability. Captain ALexander S. Hill of Company G resigned. First Lieutenant William Jones was promoted to Captain of Company A and First Lieutenant Charles C. Dow was promoted to Captain of Company G.

Battle of Gettysburg

July 1 – morning

The 2nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment was among the first Union infantry to reach the field on July 1. It was commanded by Colonel Lucius Fairchild and brought 302 men to the field. 

The regiment marched as part of General Reynold’s First Corps north on Emmitsburg Road and took a short cut across the fields behind the McMillan House to McPherson’s Ridge. There they formed line of battle just as Heth’s Confederate Division launched an attack on what they thought was Buford’s line of dismounted cavalry that had been troubling them all morning. 

They were surprised to find not cavalry or even local militia but “them black hatted fellers” of the Iron Brogade of the Army of the Potomac. The 2nd Wisconsin launched their own attack into Archer’s Confederate Brigade. Private Patrick Maloney of Company G captured Confederate General Archer near Willoughby Run, the first general officer of the Army of Northern Virginia to be captured in the war. Many prisoners were taken, and Archer’s Brigade scattered. This stalled the Confederate attack for some time.

July 1 – afternoon and evening

More Confederate reinforcements arrived through the day, and a series of intense assaults was launched on the Union position. Colonel Fairchild was wounded, losing his arm. He would survive and became Governor of Wisconsin. Lieutenant Colonel Geeorge H. Stevens had been mortally wounded moments before Fairchild was wounded, so Major John Mansfield briefly took over the regiment until he, too, was wounded. Captain George H. Otis then took command.

About two thirds of the regiment became casualties as the Union line was pushed slowly back to the Seminary. Finally, the collapse of the Union line north of town forced the First Corps to withdraw through the streets of Gettysburg, losing many captured in the confusion. The survivors reached the Union line that was forming on Cemetery Hill. To extend that line the 2nd Wisconsin was posted to the north slope of Culp’s Hill.

July 2 and 3

The men dug in and defended the position for the rest of the battle. It is marked by two position markers.

Most of the casualties in the battle happened on July 1:

• Second Lieutenant William S. Winegar of Company H was killed.
• Lieutenant Colonel Geeorge H. Stevens was mortally wounded.
• Colonel Lucius Fairchild, Major John Mansfield, and Captains Ebenezer P. Perry of Company D, William L. Parsons of Company F and John H. Spoerri of Company K were wounded.
• First Lieutenants Alured Larke of Company A, William A. Jamison of Company D, and Samuel H. Morrison of Company G and Second Lieutenant Levi Showalter were wounded.
• Captains Robert H. Hughes of Company B, Melvin R. Baldwin of Company E, and Nathaniel Rollins of Company H were taken prisoner.

From the monument in McPherson’s Woods at Gettysburg:

Iron Brigade, July 1st 1863. 2nd Reg. Wis. Vol. Inf., 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 1st Corps. Position July 2 & 3 on Culp’s Hill. Effective strength July 1st 1863, 302. Killed 26. Wounded 155. Missing 52. Aggregate 233.

< See Major John Mansfield’s Official Report for the 2nd Wisconsin in the Battle of Gettysburg >

Bristoe Campaign

Mine Run Campaign

Campaign from the Rapidan to the James River

Battle of the Wilderness

• Captain John H. Spoerri of Company K and First Lieutenant William Noble of Company I were killed.
• Colonel John Mansfield and Major William L. Parsons were badly wounded and taken prisoner.
• Captain Alured Larke of Company A was taken prisoner.
• Captain George W. Gibson of Company C and First Lieutenant William A. Jamison of Company D were wounded.

Battle of Laurel Hill

Captain Robert H. Hughes of Company B was killed. Second Lieutenant Henry B. Harshaw of Company E was wounded, losing his left arm.

Battle of Spotsylvania Court House

Assault on the Salient

North Anna River

First Lieutenant Dennis P. Dailey was promoted to Captain of Company B.

Totopotomoy

Battle of Cold Harbor

First Assault on Petersburg

Siege of Petersburg begins

Weldon Railroad

Captain Dennis B. Daily  of Company B was wounded. Lieutenant Albert T. Morgan took command of the battalion, then Lieutenant Henry Naegley

Attached to 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, 5th Corps.

Boydton Plank Road, Hatcher’s Run