On the historic Cyclorama painting which depicts the epic final conflict at Gettysburg, there is a scene featuring two men, bandaged and limping away from the fight, seemingly oblivious to the battle going on around them.  They are two brothers who survived Gettysburg and the war – and ironically did not participate in Pickett’s Charge.  They are Peter Bird and his younger brother-at-arms, Robert.

The brothers nevertheless fought at Gettysburg, and share a compelling story.

Peter Carroll Bird was born in Romulus, Michigan, near Detroit, on January 21, 1841.  He was the eldest of seven children, all sons, born to Richard and Nancy Marsh Bird, English immigrants who settled in what was then a frontier.  Michigan had achieved statehood in 1837, just four years prior to Peter’s birth.  Robert, four years younger, joined the family in 1845.¹

The Bird brothers and their younger siblings received their educations in the public schools and planned on a life of farming like their parents.  The war changed that.

At the onset of the war, Robert was too young to enlist, and though Peter was of age, he was needed at the farm.  Like many families in the North and South, they did not expect the war to last.  When it continued into the next year, both Peter and Robert enlisted in the 24th Michigan on August 1, 1862.  Their fourteen-year-old brother, George, drove them to Detroit in the buggy, along with the brothers’ two girlfriends, Mary and Marilla.  Many years later, “George confided to his daughter that Peter had spoken harshly to him, a result of the terrible anxiety they all felt,” shared one descendant.  The incident bothered George, who feared he might not see his brothers again, and did not want the cross words to be their last conversation.²

Although the 24th Michigan participated in the battles at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, they were mostly held in reserve as new recruits.  That would change with the Battle of Gettysburg.

The 24th Michigan Infantry, led by Colonel Henry Morrow, was the newest regiment in the famed Iron Brigade.  The other four regiments: the 2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin and the 19th Indiana, had already proved their temerity in battle.  When the 24th crossed the Rapidan prior to the Battle of Fredericksburg in the midst of sniper fire, Colonel Morrow calmly said, “Steady, men.  Those Wisconsin men are watching you!”  All was to change, and drastically, with the Battle of Gettysburg.³

The Iron Brigade, with the 24th Michigan in tow, was one of the first Union infantry units to arrive at Gettysburg.  Their corps commander and current wing commander in the fight, General John Reynolds, personally led the Iron Brigade into the woods west of town on the morning of July 1, 1863.  He was killed within minutes, and the Iron Brigade had to grapple with a superior force of Confederate invaders in the morning and, once they had pushed Archer’s Brigade back, had to deal with reinforcements in the afternoon.⁴

Because it was a recent regiment and had not seen heavy battle before Gettysburg, the 24th Michigan had approximately 765 men and officers in the ranks – with many of them related to one another.  There were 135 brothers, among them Peter and Robert Bird ⁵

The 24th Michigan deployed in the middle of the Iron Brigade line, unprotected and in close proximity to the Confederate line.  On the first day, nearly 5,000 men from both sides fell in and around Herbst Woods on McPherson’s Ridge.  Both of the Bird brothers were among the wounded.  Robert was wounded in the right arm.  He was with the survivors of the regiment when they finally fell back late in the afternoon of July 1.  When the Union men redeployed on Seminary Ridge for a time, then hurried through town to Cemetery Hill, Robert refused to go.  He began looking for his brother, whom he could not find among the wounded taken off the field.⁶

Peter’s wound was far more serious.  Shot in the right thigh, he could not move. He bled profusely from the deep wound.  Robert waited until the Southern forces had left the field, moving through town in pursuit of the Union forces.  Risking capture, he then hurried back to Herbst Woods and searched the wounded and the dead.  He at last found his brother, slowly bleeding to death.  With difficulty, in an attempt not to exacerbate his brother’s condition, Robert carried Peter off the field.  Placing him in a field hospital, Robert tried in vain to stop the bleeding.  Finally, a Confederate surgeon told them to pack mud on the wound.  Robert obeyed, and “worked through the night ” until he succeeded.  Robert’s devotion to his brother saved Peter’s life.  It is not known if they made it to the Union lines before or after the end of the battle on July 4.⁷

Peter was hospitalized for his dangerous wound, and was soon discharged.  Robert continued to fight with the 24th Michigan, and was wounded twice more in 1864.  He was with his regiment at war’s end, serving in Springfield, Illinois.  The regiment served as the honor guard at Abraham Lincoln’s burial there.⁸

The veteran Bird brothers had survived the war.  Both married in 1865: Peter wed Mary Morris and Robert married Marilla Smith, the two young women who had driven with George to Detroit in the summer of 1862.  Both had numerous children.⁹

While Robert continued with his plan to become a farmer, Peter could not endure the physical labor required for farming due to his Gettysburg wound.  He worked for nine years as the keeper of the lighthouse at Eagle Harbor on Lake Superior.  By 1880, his wound still plagued him and he was forced to retire, living on his Union pension.¹⁰

The brothers came to Gettysburg on a few occasions, at least once for a reunion in 1878 and during the time when artist Paul Philippoteaux and his group came to Gettysburg to interview veterans before beginning work on the historic Cyclorama painting.  When Peter and Robert were interviewed, the artist who spoke to them was deeply interested in their harrowing experience on July 1.  Even though they did not participate in Pickett’s Charge, the artist determined to place them in the painting.  He drew a sketch and gave them a copy.  For many years, the sketch remained with the family.¹¹

Peter died in 1912 and Robert followed him in 1925.  Their descendants, along with their younger brother George and his posterity, were all eager to see the Cyclorama.  They wondered if Peter and Robert were indeed depicted in it.  Because Michigan was a considerable distance from Gettysburg, none of the family were able to make the journey.  Finally, in the early 1950s, Time magazine printed a copy of the historic painting; the Bird descendants, to their surprise and joy, found their ancestors on one of the panels.  At the battle’s centennial commemoration in 1963, one of the descendants of George Bird wrote to the park’s acting superintendent and shared the story of the two brothers in the battle.¹²  

There are many memories of note in the Gettysburg Cyclorama, and even more are documented in writing for the most pivotal fight of the Civil War.  Two farm boys, brothers, joined the fight, and thankfully, one was able to spare the other.   They are immortalized for all time at Gettysburg.

Sources:  24th Michigan Memorial, Gettysburg, PA.  1850 U.S. Census, ancestry.com.  1910 U.S. Census, ancestry.com.  Bird Family Tree, ancestry.com.  Coddington, Edwin B.  The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command .  New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1968.  Curtis, O.B.  History of the Twenty-Fourth Michigan of the Iron Brigade .  Detroit: Winn & Hammond, 1891.  Herdegen, Lance J.  Those Damned Black Hats! The Iron Brigade and the Gettysburg Campaign .  New York & California: Savas Beatie, 2008.  Letter, Ronald E. Bird to Robert E. Davidson, 1963, 24 th Michgan File, Gettysburg National Military Park (hereafter GNMP).  Pfanz, Harry W.  Gettysburg: The First Day .  Chapel Hill & London: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

End Notes: 

1.  Bird Family Tree, ancestry.com. 

2.  Letter, Ronald E. Bird to Robert E. Davidson, 1963, GNMP. 

3.  Herdegen, p. 59. 

4.  Coddington, p. 269.  Pfanz, p. 100. 

5.  Hadden, p. 19.  24 th Michigan Memorial, Gettysburg. 

6.  Letter, Ronald E. Bird to Robert E. Davidson, 1963, GNMP.  

7.  Ibid.

8.  Curtis, p. 336. 

9.  Bird Family Tree, ancestry.com.  Letter, Ronald E. Bird to Robert E. Davidson, 1963, GNMP. 

10.  Ibid. 

11.  Ibid.  Apparently the brothers were on a committee for reunions and were asked to come to Gettysburg for the planning meetings on the Cyclorama.

12.  Ibid.