OUR RIFLES SPOKE

onfederate Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s report of the August 28, 1862, Battle of Brawner’s Farm during the Second Bull Run Campaign noted that the Federal regiments his men faced “maintained their ground with obstinate determination.” Four of the six Union regiments battling Jackson’s troops that day comprised a brigade commanded by Brig. Gen. John Gibbon in Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell’s 3rd Corps of the Army of Virginia. Just weeks after their baptism of fire at Brawner’s Farm, sometimes referred to as Gainesville, those regiments from Wisconsin and Indiana that opposed Jackson became known as the Iron Brigade. ¶ William W. Hutchins fought in one of Gibbon’s regiments at Brawner’s Farm. Hutchins, a native of Brandon, Vt., moved before the war to Prescott, Wis., where he worked as a commission merchant. Hutchins enlisted in the “Prescott Guards,” Company B, 6th Wisconsin Infantry, at Camp Randall in Madison on July 16, 1861, at the age of 27. By Brawner’s Farm, he was a corporal. ¶ Portions of a letter about Second Bull Run written by “Willie” Hutchins to his brother appeared in their hometown newspaper, the (Vt.) , on October 10, 1862. The letter begins with Hutchins describing the 2nd Wisconsin and 19th Indiana of Gibbon’s brigade advancing north of the Warrenton Turnpike late in the day on August, but among those commanders and units that performed well were John Gibbon and his Iron Brigade. Paragraph breaks have been added to Hutchins’ account to enhance readability.