The Irish Brigade is perhaps the best known military unit of the Civil War, and their tragic sacrifice has endured as a powerful symbol of bloodshed that marked the nation’s deadliest conflict.
The Battle of Fredericksburg, fought on December 13, 1862, led to massive Irish casualties. Attacking the stone wall in front of the Sunken Road, the brigade of 1,600 soldiers were cut to 263 in a matter of minutes.
According to Fredericksburg.com, on Sunday the commemoration of the Battle of Fredericksburg began with a reminder of the valor of The Irish Brigade.
Families, historians, Irish dignitaries and Irish–Americans ancestors gathered on the Rappahannock to re-dedicate the monument honoring the Irish immigrants who fought the South on that soil.
Taking part were an Irish Defence Forces honor guard; National Park Service historian Frank O’Reilly; Ralph Victory of the Embassy of Ireland, representative of Irish Ambassador Michael Collins; the brigade’s descendant unit in the U.S. military and members of the 69th Infantry Veterans’ Corps.
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'What they did on the streets of Fredericksburg did make them Americans so every soldier on this battlefield became a piece of the Irish Brigade as well,' O’Reilly said at the ceremony.
According to Fredericksburg.com, the Irish Brigade's descendant, the New York Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry, sent 75 soldiers to join in the commemoration on Sunday. They rededicated the Irish Brigade monument alongside the Irish Defense Forces members.
Captain John H. Donovan of the 69th New York, who was blinded in one eye in combat at Malvern Hill near Richmond in July 1862, recounted the Battle of Fredericksburg for Northern readers on Jan. 3, 1863 in an statement reproduced in Fredericksburg.com.
'What the government intend to do with the remnant of the brigade I know not,' he wrote, in an account published in the New York Irish–American paper.'I can only say that as an ‘Irish Brigade’ it has ‘fought its last battle.’ Could the spirits of its honoured and immortal dead, whose rude graves spot the soil of Virginia and Maryland, but have the privilege or power to look down upon the future of this Republic, they can now tell whether or not the cause for which they have offered up their lives is to perish.'
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Celtlaw | Dec 12, 2012, 10:49 AM EST
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.
Seanmor | Dec 12, 2012, 02:55 AM EST
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.
teadoir | Dec 11, 2012, 09:36 PM EST
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.
AlunPalmer | Dec 11, 2012, 09:32 PM EST
There were Irish on the right side as well, not just rebels
Cyn | Dec 11, 2012, 06:50 PM EST
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.
Stiofain | Dec 11, 2012, 01:37 PM EST
"Damn those green flags." -Robert E. Lee
handsome68 | Dec 11, 2012, 12:17 PM EST
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.
WoundedKnee | Dec 11, 2012, 12:06 PM EST
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!)
Redneck56 | Dec 11, 2012, 11:08 AM EST
Slainte9....So what? The article was about the Irish Brigade who suffered a massive amount of casualties at Fredericksburg.
slainte9 | Dec 11, 2012, 10:13 AM EST
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.