Not quite war, not quite peace

Due to its proximity to urban centers of immigration, the Army of the Potomac and nearby commands contained a substantial portion of the Irish in the Union Army. War service meant going without the good things in life, but the men and officers of Irish regiments were always up for a celebration. When St. Patrick’s Day arrived each year of the war, the men of the Irish Brigade (69th, 88th, and 63rd New York, 28th Massachusetts, and 116th Pennsylvania regiments) and Corcoran’s Irish Legion (155th, 164th, 170th New York Infantry regiments, and the 69th New York NGA) made sure it did not pass unnoticed. That is, if the gods of war allowed it.
The gods didn’t cooperate on March 17, 1862, the first St. Patrick’s Day of the war. The Irish Brigade was breaking camp and heading south for McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign. Michael Corcoran, who had been captured during the First Battle of Bull Run eight months earlier, would not be released from a Confederate prison to begin forming Corcoran’s Legion for several months. St. Patrick’s Day in 1863, however, would be memorable for both units.
Corcoran’s Legion was stationed in Suffolk, Va. After Mass, Corcoran somehow appropriated every horse in sight and mounted more than 1,000 of his men. The cavalcade was led by Corcoran and his staff, several buglers, and a battery of mountain howitzers. The “mounted host” went on a wild ride around the camps, blowing bugles and yelling. The rest of the Legion marched in ranks with flags flying. Two brass bands played as they paraded noisily through the camps and the town.
Corcoran later hosted a dinner party at a hotel in Suffolk. It was interrupted several times by noisy, torch-lit processions by the regiments of the Legion. He made a patriotic speech to each, and then dispatched them to receive a whiskey ration. Finally, dinner was served and the party lasted until after 4 a.m. During the evening, Corcoran declared publicly, for the first time, that he was a member of the Fenian Brotherhood. (He commanded the Fenians’ military wing.)
Later the whiskey no doubt had taken its effect when a pistol fight erupted in the camp of the 155th New York. Young Cpl. Michael Casey of Company I, quite inebriated, pulled a cocked pistol on Capt. John Byrne. Byrne reportedly “played the coward” and backed down, avoiding an unhappy ending to the matter. Fortunately, no injuries resulted when some drunks actually fired pistols at their compatriots.
The Irish Brigade spent the St. Patrick’s Day of 1863 near Fredericksburg. There they had what was arguably the most famous celebration ever held in the Union army. A rustic church was constructed for Brigade Chaplain William Corby’s Mass and a reviewing stand to hold the “brass” for the horse races. Brigade commander and former Irish revolutionary Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher later warned some troops standing under the stand that if it collapsed they would be “crushed by four tons of major general.”
Gen. Joseph Hooker, the Army of the Potomac’s commander, and his staff attended the festivities. The food included ham, chicken, turkey, duck, a roast ox, and roast pig stuffed with turkey. (The lads must have done some serious “foraging” before this event.) Also on hand were eight baskets of champagne, 10 gallons of rum, and 22 gallons of whiskey.
All manner of games and contests were enjoyed: a foot race, a hurdle race, a weight-casting contest, catching a soaped pig, a sack race, a dance contest (jigs and reels, of course), and a wheelbarrow race. But the highlight of the day was that most popular of Irish events, a steeplechase. With $500 on the line, the competition was spirited. The purse was won by Capt. Jack Gosson, riding a horse named Jack Hinton that was owned by Meagher. More than 10,000 soldiers reportedly watched the races, a welcome diversion for all of them. According to Father Corby, it was an exciting one as well. He hyperbolized that the race between Ben Hur and Messala “would seem tame in comparison.”
The celebration ended with theatricals and recitations, songs, and toasts. In both the units, the day was long and fondly remembered by those who survived the war. One who would not was Michael Corcoran, dead before the next St. Patrick’s Day of a suspected embolism. Meagher would resign command of the Irish Brigade in a dispute over recruiting after the Battle of Chancellorsville in May.
Neither unit could quite match their 1863 revelries the following year, without the two men who had personified them. But it was “The Great Day,” and both units rose to the occasion.
Corcoran’s Legion’s regiments were dispersed and couldn’t hold a massive celebration. The 164th New York was apparently quartered in one camp, so its celebration seems to have been one of the more organized. The soldiers assembled in their Zouave uniforms, and a program of games and festivities began: climbing a 30-foot greased pole; mule, sack, wheelbarrow, and foot races, and a chase after a shaved, greased pig.
The mule races were a source of much amusement. One onlooker noted that “many of the animals mastered their masters.” The day ended with an officer’s reception given by Col. James McMahon. “Conviviality reigned supreme; singing, dancing, etc., was kept up until an early hour next morning,” one participant said.
In the Irish Brigade, whose numbers were rising again, after shrinking to under 500 after Gettysburg, a steeplechase was again the center of the celebration. The great orator Meagher’s absence was felt amid the speeches and toasts that night. It was good that both units were able to enjoy that day, for the carnage of Grant’s Overland Campaign lay directly ahead.
St. Patrick’s Day 1865 was perhaps the saddest spent in the Union army. The regiments of the Legion, having never received new recruits, numbered fewer than 400 men. Little information can be found on their activities in 1865. They may have simply made the short trip to join the Irish Brigade celebration.
Battered by three full years of war, the Brigade still put on a brave face for its last St. Patrick’s Day. A visitor observed it was “an affecting thing to see that handful of earnest Irish heroes, the remains of many terrible campaigns.” As ever, the steeplechase was the highlight of the celebration. Perhaps fittingly, given the Brigade’s history, it ended with Lt. McConville of the 69th New York, who had lived through nearly four years of war, suffering a fatal skull fracture in a fall. But death hadn’t stopped the men for three years; the festivities continued on to the usual dinner, complete with music by the division band.
Merriment and conviviality were seldom absent from their camps, but when duty called and the Rebels were on the march, the Irish lived up to their other reputation as fiercest fighters. In this season of St. Patrick, let’s lift a glass to the memory of our Celtic ancestors who served so nobly in the Army of the Potomac. Beannachta