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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Posted on 03/17/2003 12:00:15 AM PST by SAMWolf
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are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Their casualties were enormous but their courage and capacity for fun were legendary. General Lee, himself, gave highest praise to these Yankees of the Irish Brigade.  Pausing to regroup behind a slight rise on the plain, they quickly dressed ranks and formed line of battle in brigade front. Then the commands rang out. "Right shoulder, shift arms, battalion forward, guide center, march!" They double-quicked across the plain toward the stone wall amid the seep of musketry and canister. The blue lines staggered and slowed as men fell like leaves in an autumn wind. Passing under the range of the artillery on the hills, they were suddenly met by a sheet of flame as the confederates behind the stone wall fired. A member of the 8th Ohio Infantry noted as they passed his unit that each man had "a half-laughing, half-murderous look in his eye. They pass to our left, poor glorious fellows, shaking goodbye to us with their hats! They reach a point within a stone's throw of the stone wall. No farther. They try to go beyond but are slaughtered. Nothing could advance farther and live." That was the Irish Brigade in the Battle of Fredericksburg, paying with their lives for Burnside's tragic blunder. And for the only time in its short proud history the brigade had to retreat from "the clash of spears," terribly shattered, having suffered 41.4 percent casualties in killed, wounded, and missing. As General Lee remarked after the war, "Never were men so brave." Organized in 1861 shortly after First Bull Run, the brigade's nucleus was the 63d, 69th, and 88th New York Infantry. In the fall of 1862 the 28th Massachusetts and the 116th Pennsylvania were added, and the 29th Massachusetts served with it for a short time. It saw action in the Peninsular Campaign, at Antietam, Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Cedar Run, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg, in the 1st Division of the II Corps. Reorganized in November 1864, with the 7th New York Heavy Artillery replacing the 116th Pennsylvania, it was by then no longer the old organization and certainly could not be truthfully designated the Irish Brigade. It had suffered over 4,000 casualties in killed and wounded, a total which exceeded the number of men enrolled in it at any given time.  Of the five men who commanded the Irish Brigade, three were killed and the other two wounded. Colonel Richard Byrne was mortally wounded at Cold Harbor; Colonel Patrick Kelly was killed at Petersburg; Major General Thomas A. Smyth died at Farmville; and Brigadier Generals Robert Nugent and Thomas Meagher were both wounded. The most colorful and flamboyant of its leaders was the original commander and organizer, General Thomas Francis Meagher. Born in County Waterford, Ireland in 1823, he was described as "the counterpart of some rash, impolitic, poetic personage from Irish poetry or fiction." Son of a wealthy merchant, he was an active disciple of Irish liberty and participated in the various independence movements. In 1845 the British exiled him to Tasmania. Three years later he escaped and eventually made his way to New York City. At various times a lawyer, lecturer, newspaper editor, and politician, his flaming oratory had made him a favorite of the "Young Ireland" group and he soon became the political leader of the Irish element in New York. At the outbreak of the Civil War he raised a Zouave company and commanded it at First Bull Run as part of the 69th New York State Militia. That winter he organized the Irish Brigade and President Lincoln appointed him brigadier general of Volunteers in February 1862. The officers and men of the Irish Brigade were among the most unusual in the Union Army. A surprisingly large number had combat experience in the papal Brigade of St. Patrick and Austrian and British services. Several won the Congressional Medal of Honor during the war. A single company contained seven lawyers as privates. Reporters George Townsend found Meagher's gold-bedecked staff to be "fox hunters...a class of Irish exquisites...good for a fight, card party or a hurdle jumping but entirely too Quixotic for the sober requirement of Yankee warfare."  General Thomas Francis Meagher In early December 1861 the New York regiments took up pleasant winter quarters at Camp California, near Alexandria, Virginia, where they were assigned to General Sumner's division of the Army of the Potomac. Christmas was fondly remembered by those who survived the war. Little John Flaherty entertained on the violin while his father livened the festivities with Irish tunes played on the warpipes. The canteen, which hardly ever seemed to contain water, was eagerly passed around. Said Private Bill Dooley: "It is as well to keep up our spirits by pouring spirits down, for sure, there's no knowing where we'll be this night twelve months." When major General Israel B. ("Greasy Dick") Richardson took command of the 1st Division, Captain Jack Gosson, one of Meagher's aides, decided that the old veteran's first review of the Irish Brigade should be a memorable occasion. Accordingly, he preceded the general along the drawn-up lines of Irishmen, informing the waiting soldiers, "An what do you think of the brave old fellow, but he has sent to our camp three barrels of whisky, a barrel for each regiment, to treat the boys of the brigade; we ought to give him a thundering cheer when he comes along." That they did, startling both Richardson and the army. Gosson's fine Irish hand was recognized when no liquor was subsequently found in camp. The chaplains of the brigade were also rather unusual. Chaplain Dillon succeeded in getting a large number of the 63d N.Y. to take the pledge against the use of alcohol.  A medal was distributed to all who did so. During the Peninsula Campaign this led to much scrambling for the whisky rations of those who were abstainers. Chaplain Ouellet was probably the most colorful. Born in Canada, he had a French accent that amused the soldiers. He was credited with coining two army phrases during the Seven Days battles. It seems that some of the men preferred coffee and breakfast to divine service after a fight or a hard march. At church services one day he shouted, "The good came here this morning to thank God for their deliverance from death, and the rest...were coffee-coolers and skedaddlers during our retreat." The brigade received its first blooding in the Peninsula Campaign. The Columbia and Ocean Queen " about which there was plenty of ocean but not much queen," deposited them at Ship Point, Virginia in the spring of 1862. There they occupied some abandoned Confederate huts filled with "graybacks" thoughtfully provided by their former host. The muddy condition of the Virginia roads added to their discomfort. Then a day at the races, "The Chickahominy Steeple-Chase," was rudely interrupted by the Battle of Fair Oaks. A fierce bayonet charge and a sweeping fire earned the brigade the praise of army commander McClellan that day. At Gaines's Mill they supported the hard-pressed Fitz John Porter. A vicious hand-to-hand struggle at Savage Station was repeated at Mavern Hill. The attrition due to battle and sickness prompted Meagher to secure McClellan's permission to gain new recruits in New York after the Seven Day Campaign. While there he found it necessary to dispel rumors that the Irish regiments were being sacrificed by "Black Republicans." Then the brigade was particularly saddened by the death from malaria of a popular young staff officer, Lieutenant Temple Emmet, grandnephew of one of Ireland's greatest martyrs, Robert Emmet.  Antietam was the next battle honor garnered by the brigade. It was committed in the Union center and had the dubious distinction of attacking the Confederates in the "Sunken Road." With Meagher at their head, the cheering Irish moved against the waiting enemy. A rail fence was quickly torn away under enemy fire. The re-aligned brigade continued the attack when all of their flags were suddenly downed at once. A chagrined aide informed the watching McClellan, "The day is lost, general--the Irish fly." "No, no their flags are up, they are charging." Was the happy rejoinder. Sure enough a captain of the 69th New York gathered a fallen green flag with the gold harp and followed Meagher. As division commander Brigadier General Winfield Hancock then reported it: A severe and well-sustained musketry contest then ensued, continuing until the ammunition was nearly expended, after which this brigade, having suffered severely, losing many valuable officers and men, was relieved by the brigade of General Caldwell which...advanced to...the rear of Meaghr's brigade. The latter then broke by companies to the rear, and the former by companies to the front.... The Irish Brigade had indeed "suffered severely" at Antietam. Meagher was carried from the field unconscious, thrown by his wounded horse. They lost over 500 officers and men killed or wounded. Two of the regiments sustained staggering casualty percentages: the 69th suffered 61.8 percent and 63d, 59.2 percent.
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A toast to some fine laddies!
"Sgt. Major, how did your son obtain his appointment to West Point? It was by Presidential appointment, sir. Did you serve as an officer in the War? Yes, sir, I was a Major in the 69th New York, the Irish Brigade. Still, It is my understanding that only sons of winners of the Medal of Honor receive Presidential appointments. That is my understanding too, sir."
Col. Thursday must have wiped the egg off his face off camera. Great movie. John Ford always had great Irish characters.
That he did, the Irish Sgt. Major in Gettysburg was great too.
Sure was. The Sgt. Major and "Colonel Darlin'" Chamberlain were as different as night and day, but they were both gutty sons of guns.
Reach a little deeper into the pot, I hear the best gold's at the bottom.
Today's graphic
May your blessings outnumber
The shamrocks that grow,
And may trouble avoid you
Wherever you go.
Lousianna had 21 companies with many others represented in the other southern states.
Texas even makes the list with the "Galveston Zouaves".
Several regiments in the French Army still wore the Zouave outfit during WW-1.
Much of the federal dress...both Zouave and non actually originates with the French army.....the Americans modified the cap design by adding more material to the top ..leaving the cap to slope forward to the rim....with a metal unit badge placed inside the hat ring at the top.
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