Irish Brigade honored at Battle of Fredericksburg commemoration

The 69th Pennsylvania, an Irish Regimentof the Philadelphia Brigade also fought on Mayre's Heights, including my GGGF Mathew McSorley of Co. Tyrone, who was killed in the assault.

I puzzled as to why officials of the Southern Irish state attenerd the commeration services at Fredericksburg. The men of the Irish Brigade who fought heroically in this battle represented the whole Irish nation and died by their hundreds in an effort to Reunite the divided American nation.It seems unlikely that they would have supported any government in their homeland that refuses to encourage the Reunification of Ireland.

They should be honoring the Irish boys from the 24th Georgia that crushed them on that day. I'm so sick of hearing about the 69th who continued to be thrown out front and take heavy casualties in battles they lost.

There were Irish on the right side as well, not just rebels

Another fine example of American patriarchal repression. Take them off the boat, let them starve a bit and then sign them up to die. It happens with each new immigrant wave.

"Damn those green flags." -Robert E. Lee

If I remember correctly, Phil Sheridan is reported to have said, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian". When I walk by his statue on Sheridan Square, -- which is often, since I live near there, -- I am reminded of that, and he is not a hero to me. Another fighting Irishman of the time was Thomas Francis Meagher, not mentioned in this article. I have seen statues of Meagher in both Waterford, Ireland and Helena, Montana.

How come they don't mention those Irish volunteers in the CSA who fought at Fredericksburg? The 24th Georgia, for example, which gave the Yankee Irish a bloody nose, were predominantly Irish. But on a wider point, how come the Irish don't commemorate their countrymen who fell--on either side--in the US Civil War? Notice how just recently the Irish were fawning over Irishmen who thought it a good idea to leave Ireland and kill Germans, Austrians, Turks etc., supposedly to gain Irish independence. (The fact that Germany, Austria, Turkey etc. were not standing in the way of Irish independence never appears to occur to these fools!)

Slainte9....So what? The article was about the Irish Brigade who suffered a massive amount of casualties at Fredericksburg.

Fine article, but remember most of the 200,000 Irish immigrants and hundreds of thousands more of their children did not serve in the Irish Brigade: among them Phil Sheridan, George Gordon Meade, John Reynolds and Patrick Henry O'Rorke. Most of the 130 Irish Civil War Medal of Honor recipients did not serve in the Irish Brigade.