Thomas J. Craughwell - The Greatest Brigade: How the Irish Brigade Cleared the Way to Victory in the American Civil War

THEGREATEST

BRIGADE

HOW THE IRISH BRIGADE CLEARED THE WAY TO VICTORY IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

* * * * THOMAS J. * * * *
CRAUGHWELL

Text 2011 Thomas J. Craughwell

First published in the USA in 2011 by
Fair Winds Press, a member of
Quayside Publishing Group
100 Cummings Center
Suite 406-L
Beverly, MA 01915-6101
www.fairwindspress.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

15 14 13 12 11 1 2 3 4 5

ISBN-13: 978-1-59233-478-0
ISBN-10: 1-59233-478-4

Digital edition published in 2011
eISBN-13: 978-1-61058-063-2

Digital edition: 978-1-61058-063-2
Softcover edition: 978-1-59233-478-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

Cover design by Peter Long
Book design by Sheila Hart Design, Inc.
Photo research by Anne Burns Images

Opposite page: A memorial, featuring an Irish wolfhound and cross, to the 63rd, 69th, and 88th New York regiments at Gettysburg. (National Park Service)

Printed and bound in Singapore

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I n the midst of Americas Civil War there was already a consensus in the army, the press, and the general public that the Irish Brigade was an especially impressive outfit. In the years after the war, historians, following the lead of the Civil War military historian William F. Fox, declared that the Irish Brigade was the greatest brigade in the Union army. Fox praised the Irish as the best known of any brigade organization, it having made an unusual reputation for dash and gallantry. The remarkable precision of its evolutions under fire, its desperate attack on the impregnable wall at Maryes Heights, its never failing promptness on every field, and its long continuous service, made for it a name inseparable from the history of the war.

The service of the Irish Brigade is impressive: Beginning with the Battle of Bull Run in 1861 and concluding at Appomattox Court House in 1865, the Irish fought in every major battle of the wars eastern theater. The Irish Brigade played an essential role in the victory at Antietam, rescued artillery that was about to fall into enemy hands at Chancellorsville, and fought with reckless courage at Maryes Heights at Fredericksburg and the wheat field at Gettysburg. The Brigade suffered 4,000 casualties, arguably the highest of any brigade in the Civil War. Several times the Irish Brigade lost so many men as to be on the verge of extinction, yet fresh Irish recruits always stepped forward to replenish the Brigades strength.

When the first shot was fired at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, it was far from certain that the Irish immigrants in the North would fight for the Union. For the most part, the United States had not been especially welcoming. Most of the population of America was Protestant, with a strong anti-Catholic streak and anti-Irish bias. In the 1840s and 1850s, about one million Irish flooded into the United States, most of them impoverished, uneducated refugees from the Potato Famine. Desperately poor, they crowded into squalid urban shantytowns. As former tenant farmers, they had few skills that were useful in the cities (where the overwhelming majority of the Irish settled), and so the men and boys took the dirtiest and most dangerous menial jobs, while the women and girls worked in the mills or hired themselves out as servants. Most Yankees of every class looked on the Irish with contempt.

Although many Irish immigrants found life in America difficult, they also recognized that there were opportunities in the United States that did not exist in Ireland. They could send their children to public or parochial schools. They could practice their Catholic faith freely. Once they became citizens, they could vote. Families who could set aside a little money could send their sons to a Catholic college such as Georgetown outside Washington, D.C., or Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, or a new school in South Bend, Indiana, called Notre Dame. That the son of a tenant farmer would acquire a college education and enter one of the professions such as medicine or law had been unimaginable in the Old Country.

The heart of the Irish Brigade was the 69th New York Infantry Regiment. In 1860, it was a regiment of the New York militia, composed mostly of Irish volunteers and commanded by Colonel Michael Corcoran, who was wanted by the police in Ireland for acts of vandalism and sabotage he had committed against landlords during the Famine. In 1860, Corcoran won the hearts of all Irish when he flat out refused to lead the men of the 69th in a military parade honoring Edward, Prince of Wales. For this act of insubordination, Corcoran was arraigned before a court martial. His trial was proceeding when the war broke out. Because Corcoran called on Irishmen to fight in defense of the Union, the officers of the tribunal dismissed the charges against him and restored to him his command of the 69th.

By the end of the war the Irish Brigade was celebrated not just as a band of brothers, but as a band of heroes.

Inspired by Corcoran and the virtually all-Irish roster of the 69th, another, even more famous Irish immigrant in New York, Thomas Francis Meagher (pronounced Mar), conceived the idea of a much larger force, four or five times more numerous than Corcorans regimentan all-Irish brigade. Like Corcoran, Meagher was an Irish patriot, but unlike Corcoran, he had not managed to escape the law. Meagher was arrested for attempting to incite rebellion in Ireland and was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered; the sentence was commuted to banishment for life, and he was sent to Tasmania, known at the time as Van Diemans Land. But Meagher escaped to America and settled in New York City.

ON JUNE 28, 1963, PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ADDRESSED THE IRISH PARLIAMENT IN DUBLIN. AS THE PRESIDENT SPOKE, A BANNER FROM THE IRISH BRIGADE WAS DISPLAYED BEHIND HIM.

THE JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Shortly after the Battle of Bull Run, Meagher announced that he was forming an Irish Brigade, with the 69th Regiment as its keystone. Overnight, thousands of Irishmen turned out to enlist, all of them eager to fight with fellow Irishmen under the command of Irish officers. The war offered adventure, a chance to prove their courage, and an opportunity to prove that the Irish were as good as the Yankees. And they did. By the end of the war the Irish Brigade was celebrated not just as a band of brothers, but as a band of heroes.

The memory of the Irish Brigade has not merely survived; it has been celebrated for 150 years. Perhaps the most moving tribute ever offered to the Irish Brigade occurred on June 28, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy addressed the Irish Parliament in Dublin. He brought with him the Brigades green regimental banner, which was displayed in the chamber as the president spoke of the Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862. One of the most brilliant stories of that day was written by a band of 1,200 men who went into battle wearing a green sprig in their hats, Kennedy said. They bore a proud heritage and a special courage, given to those who had long fought for the cause of freedom. I am referring, of course, to the Irish Brigade.