At the climax of the first day’s fighting at Gettysburg, a lone Federal regiment found itself in a desperate, isolated position. The 6th Wisconsin, part of the Iron Brigade, had been cut off and was facing the full weight of a Confederate advance. With over 1,000 of their comrades already dead or wounded, the men were ordered to make a stand that would defy the odds. The regiment’s commander, Colonel Rufus Dawes, realized that a conventional march across the open fields would be suicide.
The ground was raked by artillery and musket fire, and the Confederates held the high ground. In a stroke of tactical genius, he ordered his men to leap into a deep railroad cut, using it as a natural trench to shield them from the deadly fire. Moving at a rapid run, single file beneath the lip of the earthwork, the regiment bypassed the lethal fire zone entirely. They emerged onto Seminary Ridge, reforming their lines just as the Confederate infantry crested the opposite hill.
The two forces collided in a vicious, point-blank exchange that would decide the fate of the Union’s right flank. The 6th Wisconsin, though battered and bloodied, held its ground. The Confederate assault, which had seemed unstoppable just moments before, broke against the regiment’s stubborn resistance.
The stand of the 6th Wisconsin had bought the Union army precious time to solidify its defenses on Cemetery Hill, a position that would prove unbreakable for the next two days.