Biographical Newspaper clippings, 1861-1930, Vol. 1

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DEATH OF GEN. E. S. BRAGG
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COMMANDED IRON BRIGADE IN THE CIVIL WAR.
Seconded Nomination of Grover Cleve- I' land, of Whom He Said, "We Love f ¦ Him for the Enemies He Has Made" '; —Minister to Mexico and Consul- ¦   General to Hongkong—War Record
Gen. Edward S. Bragg, commander of the famous Iron Brigade during the Civil War, ex-Minister to ''.ii.-, died yesterday In Fond du Lac. Wis., in his eighty-sixth year. . He had been in teeble health for several years.
Gen. Bragg, who "won distinction in tlie -Civil War as commander ot the "Iron Brigade," and who was sufficiently prominent among the conservative gold lOemoerats in 1896 to be asked to >aead the Presidential ticket, placed in nomination by them at Indianapolis, was born in Otsego County, this State, on Feb¬ ruary 20, 1827. He was, therefore, sixty- nine years old in the year o( the gold bolt from Bryan. He declined the honor of heaiding the Indianapolis ticket, because of his age, so it -was changed from Bragg and Buci'<ner to Palmer and Buckner.
He was a st-jdent at Hobart College for three' years, but left before graduation to study law. In 1848 he was admitted to the bar, and the following year moved to Fond «1ii Lac. Wis. In 1854 he became district ¦ ttorney of Fond du Lac County, and,,as a Kouglas Democrat, was a delegate to the Charleston  convention  of  1860.
He entered the Northern array early in ns61, with the rank of captain,  and served
'O^T
brigadier-general.    One of the best war
throughout the war, attaining the full rantc
ijlTlJT^ stories   told   about  him   concerns   an   incir
*-'-'p ' »<Ifnt of the fighting in the woods at Antie-
/ tfni,    Bragg was then a  lieutenant-colonel!
having   command   of   the   Sixth   Wisconsin
Hegiment.    He and his men were standing
In the face ot a heavy fire.   Gen. Gibbon, in
command of the division,, sent Lieut.  Has-
1^ kell to Col. Bragg with the order "for the
Sixth  to  advance  as  far  as  it  was   safe."
Bragg   is   said   to  have   looked   at   Haskell
as  if doubting his -words,  and to have re-
pligdj   "Give Gen. Gibbon my compliments.
and tell him it has been d d unsafe here
.toT thirty minutes." Bragg pulled his hat down, turned to his men, and gave the com- man "Advance, Sixth Wisconsin," -with a |vim.
j Gen. Bragg was among the wounded at I Antietam. As he fell an officer ran to his side and asked where he was hit.
"Never mind me now," was the answer; "they have flanked the brigade and are charg¬ ing the battery," and the wounded colonel fell back exhausted. The prompt warning came not a moment-too soon, for by th? time the regiment was formed to meet the charge the Confederates were close upon the battery, and then ensued one ot those desperate hand-to-hand conflicts so often told  about,  seldom  seen. u
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SAVE   THE   GUNS. ""S
i 1
;    Capt. Stewart of the battery was severe-
|ly -ft'ounded in the onset and carried to the ; irear  a short  distance,  and  as  he  came  to iwhere   Col.   Bragg  lay   on   the   ground  the I i latter saw that he -was weeping. I
"What is the matter, Jim?" the colonel asked.    "It isn't as bad as that, is it?"
"It isn't the hurt, colonel," mourned the captain, "but they -r'HI get the guns and we have no spikes," and he sorrowfully pro¬ duced from a pocket the package of flies which were always carried to render the' guns useless in case of capture.
"Don't he alarmed about that," said the colonel. "Your guns are sate with that outfit."
.«ind the colonel was right. The guns had been saved, but it was the closest call they ever had, and there was fighting for some minutes with clubbed muskets among them imtll the enemy -was repulsed. Battery B ¦was with the iron brigade from the time its old captain, John Gibbon, was assigned to the command of the organizatiou as brigadier-general up to the formation of a regular artillery division ot the Wilder¬ ness campaign, and during all that time It never lost a gun or a harness.
Just before the opening of the battle of th« Wilderness, in which the Iron Brigade bore a conspicuous part, a staff officer rode up to Col. Bragg, just before daylight, and Selivered an order to deploy his regiment as skirmishers at five-foot intervals and beat up the woods iu their front. Bragg looked at him in amazement, thinking that there must be some mistake.
"Why, sir, I have 500 men, and that ¦>'ould give me a front of halt a mile. Can lit be possible that I am expected to oper- [et? a skirmish ot that length in these hvoofls?"  ¦