Letters from the Iron Brigade: George W. Partridge, Jr. 1839-1863 / Civil War Letters to His Sisters

These are the letters of George Washington Partridge, Jr., who enlisted in the Union Army in August, 1861, in the Seventh Wisconsin Volunteers, fought in the Iron Brigade, a Western brigade in the Army of the Potomac, and was killed at Gettysburg in the first day's fighting, July 1, 1863, at age 23. The letters are to his sisters in Erie, Pennsylvania, and in Waukegan, Illinois. Partridge fought in the Iron Brigade from its beginning until its end, from Gainesville, the Second Battle of Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, until Gettysburg, and wrote to his sisters about all but the last.

He writes about life in camp, picket duty, learning courage, discipline, burying the dead, marches, battle, and sometimes boredom, progressing from an eagerness to fight to wishing the war were over, and doing his best by fighting hard to make it so. His letters are direct, colloquial, honest, with little sentimentality and no religiosity. They show his growth in character and an affecting dignity we all would like to share.

I am a native of Erie, Pennsylvania, where George Washington Partridge, Jr. was born more than a century and a half ago. He was my great-great uncle. His letters have come down through four generations and are published here for the first time. I have provided their historical frame, their place in the Civil War, and more particularly, their sequence in the actions of the Iron Brigade.