The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Iron Brigade Memorial Highway in Illinois

From the Chicago Daily Herald October 19, 2007.

The Illinois 93rd General Assembly introduced HR-688 calling for the establishment of the Iron Brigade Memorial Highway to honor one of the Union's "fightin'est" (is that a word?) brigades.

This designation will run along US-12 (my favorite non-US-66 road) through the state.

Bob Kurek and Cory Juscius of IDOT designed the sign and did a fantastic job. This is one striking sign. An example is close by us in Spring Grove at US-12 and State Park Road (Chain of Lakes).

Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan have already named their sections of 12 for the famous unit. Michigan did so in 1993.

The brigade consisted of the 2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin; the 19th Indiana and 24th Michigan. No Illinois regiments served in it, but Illinois connects the states and the 24th Michigan did serve in Springfield in 1865 as the honor guard at Lincoln's funeral.

I've read that Confederates were never happy to find they were facing this unit.

One Great Fighting Group Even If They Were Yankees. --Old B-Runner

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