February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The first test for the 69th was the Battle of Bull Run, the first major clash between Union and Confederate forces in the war. Stationed at Fort Corcoran near Washington, D.C., the 69th joined a force of 30,000 Union soldiers under Gen. Irwin McDowell as it headed south toward the town of Manassas, site of an important railroad junction. Their objective was to attack a smaller Confederate force under Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard.
They clashed on July 21, 1861 in what proved a battle of inexperienced armies. At first it appeared McDowell might drive the Confederates from the field. Beauregard, however, managed to stabilize his troops and when reinforcements arrived late in the afternoon, they staged a furious counter assault. Exhausted and undisciplined, Union soldiers panicked and began a chaotic retreat to Washington.
One of the few Union units that earned praise in the wake of the inglorious defeat was New York’s 69th Regiment. They routed the 4th Alabama but eventually were forced to retreat before the larger Confederate counterassault. Unlike most other units, the retreat of the 69th was orderly and they were among the last to leave the field that day. This explains why they suffered such high casualties — 38 killed and 59 wounded. Another 95, including their leader Colonel Michael Corcoran, were taken prisoner.
Following Bull Run, the 69th returned to New York to reconstitute their tattered ranks (done in by battle but also expiring 90-day enlistments). Thousands of Irishmen responded to the recruiting effort, prompting the regiment’s new commander (in Corcoran’s absence) Thomas Francis Meagher to form a larger entity, what came to be called the Irish Brigade. It included the 69th, as well as the 88th and 63rd New York regiments and, later, the 28th Massachusetts and 116th Pennsylvania.
Not everyone in these units were Irish or Irish American, but Hibernians clearly constituted a majority. Indeed, at least 200,000 Irish-born men would serve in the Confederate and Union armies (three-fourths in the latter) by war’s end, with countless thousands more Irish Americans. They joined for many reasons. Some impoverished immigrants were drawn to service by the offers of $300 signing bonuses (a laborer’s annual income), plus their regular pay. Others were motivated out of a sense of patriotic duty toward their adopted homeland. Military service also exposed the fallacy of the nativist charge that the Irish were disloyal and a threat to the republic. Still more donned the Union blue as an act of Irish nationalism, seeing diplomatic and military links between England and the Confederacy.
The Irishmen who filled the ranks of the 69th Regiment and the Irish Brigade would witness some of the war’s most pivotal battles, from the first (Bull Run) to the last (Appomattox). Space limitations will allow us to look at three of the most notable engagements.
On September 17, 1862 the 69th was part of a massive federal army under Gen. George B. McClelland that squared off against Robert E. Lee’s army in Maryland. The battle of Antietam produced the deadliest day in American history, with 23,000 killed and wounded (Union and Confederate). The 69th was again conspicuous in its discipline and physical courage under fire. Meagher led the charge shouting, “Irish Brigade! Raise the colors and follow me!” as they assaulted a Confederate stronghold along what came to be known as “Bloody Lane.” Meagher had his horse shot out from under him and was carried from the field unconscious. The Irish Brigade as a whole suffered 540 casualties (including 113 killed); the 69th sustained 194 casualties (61 percent).
“The Irish Brigade sustained their well-earned reputation,” wrote General McClelland in the aftermath, “suffering terribly in officers and men, and strewing the ground with their enemies, as they drove them back.”
Three months later, on December 13, 1862, the 69th and the Irish Brigade assaulted Confederate entrenchments along a ridge known as Marye’s Heights, in Fredericksburg, VA. Fourteen waves of attackers were sent across open fields against the fortified Confederate position. All were shattered by repeated volleys of Confederate fire. The Irish Brigade was in the third wave, and achieved international fame with the tenacity of their attack. Eliciting cheers from their Confederate adversaries, many of whom were Irish themselves, their attack collapsed when the Brigade’s officers were felled. Of the fourteen attacks, the Irish came closest to attaining the ridge – some men falling just twenty feet from the ridge. The next day, only 280 of 1,300 men were able to report for duty. Gen. Robert E. Lee later commented on the extraordinary courage exhibited by the men of the Irish Brigade.
Never were men so brave. They ennobled their race by their splendid gallantry on that desperate occasion. Though totally routed, they reaped a harvest of glory. Their brilliant, though hopeless assaults on our lines excited the hearty applause of our officers and men.
Eight months later, a newly reconstituted Irish Brigade (which included the 69th Regiment) played a critical role on the second day at Gettysburg. On July 2, 1863, after receiving absolution from their regimental chaplain, Fr. William Corby, the Irish Brigade was sent into battle. In an afternoon of fierce fighting, they successfully countered a surging Confederate offensive near Little Round Top. The cost in lives was again staggering: 202 men killed out of 530.
The Irish Brigade and its 69th Regiment underwent many changes in make-up and leadership over the final 21 months of the war. But when Lee finally surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in April 1865, they were present. Doubtless they were among the many celebrating Union soldiers Grant ordered to quiet down out of respect for the vanquished Confederates.
In the aftermath of the Great War, Irish Americans still faced formidable problems of poverty and discrimination. Yet while many Americans remained leery of Irish Americans, they accorded them a new lever of respect. It was no longer possible to claim that the Irish cared more about Ireland than America — tens of thousands had made the ultimate sacrifice in defending the Union. It had come at a dreadful price, but the Irish in America had earned through the blood and anguish of the 69th Regiment and other like units, a measure of respect that they would continue to build upon in the coming decades.
Sources: Richard Demeter, The Fighting 69th: A History (2002); Joseph G. Bilby, Remember Fontenoy!: the 69th New York and the Irish Brigade in the Civil War (1995). Learn more at www.edwardtodonnell.com/irish.htm.
HIBERNIAN HISTORY WEEK
Oct. 19, 1989: A British court nullifies the guilty verdicts against Guilford Four, jailed for 14 years for a bombing they did not commit.
Oct. 23, 1969: Playwright Samuel Beckett is awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.
HIBERNIAN BIRTHDATES:
Oct. 20, 1674: Colonial Pennsylvania official, James Logan, is born in Lurgan, Co. Armagh
Oct. 22, 1920: Harvard psychologist and 1960’s LSD advocate, Timothy Leary, is born in Springfield, Mass.