100 Books Like The Iron Brigade in the Civil War

In my opinion, this is one of the best Civil War memoirs ever written.

Rufus Dawes (the great-grandson of William Dawes, who alerted colonial minutemen prior to the Battles of Lexington and Concord, along with Paul Revere and Samuel Prescott) was only 20 years old when he was commissioned a Captain in the 6th Wisconsin Infantry (a regiment in the “Iron Brigade”). He served his three-year term of service and resigned his commission in August 1864; taking part in all of the regiment’s battles up to that point (and some of the bloodiest of the war).

He often led the regiment in battle; taking command at the battle of Antietam when the regiment’s colonel, Edward S. Bragg, was wounded and at Gettysburg, when Bragg was absent. After his resignation, he was brevetted a brigadier general for meritorious service. 

Drawing extensively on his diaries and letters, Dawes published Service in… show more.

Published in 1993, the book is part of Fordham University Press’ “The Irish in the Civil War” series. The book is a collection of James P. Sullivan’s newspaper reminiscences published in the 1880s in the Milwaukee Sunday Telegraph. 

James Patrick Sullivan, born in Ireland, was a 17-year-old farm hand in Juneau County, Wisconsin when he first enlisted. Sullivan fought in most of the regiment’s battles and was wounded at least three times; enlisting on three separate occasions (the only soldier in the regiment to do so). The “Rebs” just couldn’t keep Mickey down (He was called “Mickey,” in his company).

In his memoir, Dawes wrote that Sullivan was not only “a heroic soldier” but “For genuine sallies of humor at unexpected times, I have never seen his equal.” He had an “unconquerable good humor and genuine wit. Such men,” Dawes wrote, “are of priceless value in an army.”

Sullivan’s… show more.

This “memoir” was originally serialized in 1902 in the National Tribune, a weekly publication aimed at veterans, under the title “Adventures of an Iron Brigade Man.”

Born in Canada, Robert Beecham’s family moved to Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, when he was about five years old. Beecham served as an enlisted man in the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry regiment (part of the Iron Brigade) and fought in the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, where he was taken prisoner.

After being returned in a prisoner exchange, Beecham was commissioned a 1st Lieutenant in the 23rd United States Colored Troops. With them, he fought at the Battle of the Crater in July 1864, where he was wounded and again taken prisoner. After eight months in a Confederate prison, he escaped, but voluntarily surrendered himself in order to be exchanged (again). He rejoined his regiment and was promoted to captain in May 1865, but resigned… show more.

Published in 2025 (hot off the presses), Marten’s book, as he says in his Introduction, is not a regimental history but a regimental “biography.”

As a “biography,” Martin looks at the regiment as a “living organism.” Using a construct that I have often thought about, Martin notes that there were “multiple ‘Sixth Wisconsins.’” As illness, wounds, and transfers took their toll on the initial 1,000 men, another 1,000 joined during the course of the war. This turnover of men; the replacement of veterans by enlistees, substitutes, and draftees, “created an instability,” Martin notes, that must be appreciated in order to fully understand the history of the Sixth.

Using the framework of the “long Civil War,” a long duration view of the Sixth Wisconsin from the creation of the regiment to the death of the last surviving member, Martin explores the history of the regiment “from peace to war and back… show more.

What were the politics of the Union army during the grinding years of the war? How did fighting soldiers, one slice of the complexity of the northern population, feel about the Union and the rising questions of slavery and emancipation? And how was this opinion shaped by a generally conservative officer corps, especially the West Point elite who had trained and served with men who were now leading the Confederate army?

In a prize-winning book, Zachery Fry carefully examines these questions in the Army of the Potomac. He found a consensus on union and a great gradient of opinion on slavery. West Pointers suppressed antislavery views, while antislavery opinion grew in formations led by men coming from the ranks of state militias, either already inclined toward abolitionism or radicalized by their experience of the realities of slavery in the South.

In the end, what unified many Union soldiers in the… show more.

This book took me on a journey with a group of unlikely heroes, starting with their decision to enlist to fight in the war, following them through their training as paratroopers, and ending the conflict. Like many World War II veterans, they were volunteers. But the anticipation leading up to D-Day and the hell they went through in the woods of Bastogne was more than anyone could have ever expected.

Few histories of World War II hit me as hard as this one. As a child of the 1960s and 1970s, the war has always fascinated me. I’d read about the strategy, the epic battles, and the atrocities committed by the Axis Powers, but I’ve returned to this book many times over the past thirty years.

The book tells the story of tanker Clarence Smoyer, who served with the Third Armored Division during the last months of World War II in Europe. Makos expertly tells the personal story of the soldier and his tank as the unit thrust into Germany in early 1945. Smoyer’s tank is involved in a famous one-on-one duel with a German tank in Cologne. It's a thrilling read!

John C. McManus acknowledged the contribution of the film Saving Private Ryan in bringing the Normandy beaches into everyone’s consciousness. I read much of the book and especially the chapter on H-Hour as if I were on the beach crouching beside Joe Zukowski, Frank DeBellis, Howard Pearre, and so many others, crawling, walking laden with far too much equipment, bleeding from machine-gun fire that pierced knees and arms and chests, and ultimately falling.

I found, as McManus wrote: “The soldiers ... were willing to sacrifice themselves and risk death, not just for their cause, not just for the pride of their unit, but in the end, for one another.”

I taught about the Falklands War in my final position within the Department of Defense. I found this unheralded engagement to be as riveting and visually engaging as any publication I have read about this conflict. I found the tales of individual courage, along with the mistaken assumptions, lack of basic survival resources, and the sheer magnitude of their struggle for the cause they believed in, to shed an entirely new light on this forgotten time in the post-Vietnam, pre-Gulf War period.

I came to appreciate the Argentinian force's behavior despite the deprivations on the field and at home. Their resiliency was admirable. The emotional and physical scars on the sides were honestly and sensitively portrayed, many of which linger to this day.

Many war graves in Italy are inscribed with South African names, attesting to the hard-won victories and the tragic losses of the 6th Armoured Division in Italy.

As a stickler for detail, I was impressed by Bourhill’s descriptions and meticulous attention to the minutia that makes for an immersive reading experience. It is especially the first-hand accounts of servicemen that bring this book to life and give a clear picture of what it was like to fight and live in Italy during the war.