Literary notes about brigade (AI summary)
The term brigade in literature is most commonly employed to evoke the structure and valor of military units, often highlighting themes of leadership, camaraderie, and the chaos of battle. In historical memoirs and military narratives, it frequently denotes a specific group of soldiers acting under a commanding officer—as seen in detailed accounts of combat maneuvers and charges ([1], [2], [3], [4]). At times, the word transcends its strictly military meaning to symbolize any organized group undertaking a challenging task, whether in the context of a rebellion or in more metaphorical settings ([5], [6], [7]). Furthermore, its use across diverse texts—from strategic dispatches in war memoirs to poetic allusions to disciplined forces—underscores the term's capacity to evoke both the grim realities of conflict and the inherent unity of collective action ([8], [9], [10]).
- Henry E. Davies, Jr. Second Brigade, Col. J. Irvin Gregg.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - He found pickets at the bridge, but they were soon driven off by a brigade of Willcox's division, and the stream was crossed.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - On the extreme right, however, his reserve brigade carried the enemy's works twice, and was twice driven therefrom by infantry.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - Commanded the 4th British Brigade at Waterloo.
— from The Waterloo Roll Call by Charles Dalton - Would he inculcate subjugation to the law of duty he gives us the funeral ode on Wellington, The Charge of the Light Brigade , and Love and Duty .
— from The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson by Baron Alfred Tennyson Tennyson - As a last resort I offered him to the Governor for the use of the “Brigade.”
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain - We were so starved that we ate up the rest of the Brigade’s provisions, and then set out to Carson to tell them about it and ask their forgiveness.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain - He was gallantly leading his brigade at the time, as he had been in the habit of doing in all the engagements in which he had previously been engaged.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - The brigade was hurrying briskly to be gulped into the infernal mouths of the war god.
— from The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War by Stephen Crane - My third brigade did break much too soon, and I am not yet advised where they were during Sunday afternoon and Monday morning.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. Sherman
