The Irish Brigade Fought in America's Civil War | HistoryNet MENU

The Irish Brigade Fought in America’s Civil War

6/12/2006 • Army Of The Potomac, Battle Of Antietam, Battle Of Antietam Casualties, Battle Of Fredericksburg, Battle Of Seven Pines, Battle Of The Wilderness, Bloody Lane, Civil War, Civil War 1861, Civil War 1862, Civil War 1863, Civil War 1864, Civil War Guns, Civil War Soldiers, Civil War Swords, Civil War Times, Cold Harbor, Confederate Generals, Confederate Soldiers, First Battle Of Bull Run, Peninsular Campaign, Seven Days Battle, Stonewall Jackson, Ulysess S Grant, Union Soldiers

Out Hanover Street in Fredericksburg they marched that December morning in 1862, sprigs of green in their caps, a bright green battle flag, with gold harp and the ancient Gaelic words ‘Riamh Nar dhruid O sbairn lan‘ (‘Never retreat from the clash of spears’) defiantly emblazoned on it, held high as shot and shell exploded all around in a blaze of red and orange. Ahead was an open plain and then two hills known as Marye’s Heights, covered with Confederate artillery. At the base of the hills was a sunken road behind a stone wall.

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.’



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.



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 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:





Prior to crossing a pontoon bridge into Fredericksburg that bleak December day, the command shook out its colors. The nearby 14th Brooklyn (84th N.Y.) cheered the marching Irishmen, as the band of Hawkins’ Zouaves (9th N.Y.) struck up the brigade’s marching tune, Garry Owen. Less cheering was the presence of professional embalmers who passed out cards advertising their ‘patriotic services.’ One brigade member refused with a scathing ‘be damned to yez.’


Despite the tragic outcome of the battle of Fredericksburg, a previously planned banquet to receive new colors for the New York regiments was held in a Fredericksburg theater. The Irish colors (the regiments carried no state flags) had been donated by an appreciative citizens’ committee of native Americans. About 300 officers, including twenty-two generals, attended the ‘Irish wake.’ The bereaved Meagher made an unfortunate reference to political generals’ (after all, he was one himself) in a speech which was held against this Democrat in his later efforts to gain permission to recruit his brigade.


After Fredericksburg the contending forces settled down in winter quarters. As usual, the Irish Brigade believed it incumbent upon them to enliven things a bit. The day chosen was, naturally, St. Patrick’s Day, March 17. As was customary, the day began with church services. Shortly afterwards about 30,000 gathered to watch the ‘Grand Irish Brigade Steeple-Chase.’ General Hooker, the new army commander, was given wine with which he proposed ‘The Irish Brigade–God bless them!’ which was followed by three resounding cheers. After two races Meagher invited his guests to partake of sandwiches, wine, and spiced whiskey punch. The main feast of thirty-five hams, a side of roasted ox, roasted pig stuffed with boiled turkey, chickens, ducks, and small game, washed down by eight baskets of champagne, ten gallons of rum, and twenty-two gallons of whisky would come later, just before the evening’s theatricals and excitations. Nor were the enlisted men forgotten. Their events included a half-mile run, half-mile hurdles, weight throw, greased-pig contest (winner got the victim), sack race, blindfolded wheelbarrow race, and Irish dance contests. At one point Meagher chased onlookers from beneath the grandstand with the exhortation that they stood in danger of being crushed ‘by four tones of major generals.’





The reduced brigade was then led into battle at Gettysburg by Colonel Kelly. By this time the three New York regiments had been formed in battalions of two companies each, while the 116th Pennsylvania was one battalion of four companies. During the famous Confederate charge of July 3, one thought kept recurring to the commanding officer of the 116th. ‘It was Fredericksburg reversed.’ A more profound thought, perhaps, occurred to a private when he was informed his regiment would be held in reserve. ‘In resarve, yis,’ he muttered, ‘resarved for the heavy fightin’.’

There was more ‘heavy fightin” and ‘heavy marchin’,’ahead for the brigade. In the withdrawal from Cedar Run it fought two major engagements and marched seventy-six miles in fifty-six hours, capturing two stands of colors, five guns, and 450 prisoners.


This article was written byJohn F. McCormack, Jr. and originally published in the December 1998 issue of Civil War Times Magazine. For more great articles, be sure to subscribe to Civil War Times magazine today!

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