Phillip Thomas Tucker PhD - The Irish at Gettysburg

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Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2018 by Phillip Thomas Tucker

All rights reserved

Front cover: Absolution Under Fire by Paul Wood. Authors collection.

First published 2018

e-book edition 2018

ISBN 978.1.43966.418.6

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017960349

print edition ISBN 978.1.46713.852.9

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Seemingly everything possible has already been written about the climactic battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvaniathree nightmarish days of intense combat in early July 1863that determined Americas destiny. Because the decisive showdown at Gettysburg was the largest battle ever fought on the North American continent and because of its overall strategic importance, no engagement in the annals of American history has been more deeply investigated from seemingly every possible angle. The longtime publication of a popular glossy journal, Gettysburg Magazine, has been exclusively devoted to the epic battle. Clearly, Americans have been fascinated with the dramatic story of Gettysburg far longer than with any other Civil War battle. Quite simply, the history of Gettysburg has become the most thoroughly analyzed and dissected battle in American history; seemingly no stone has been left unturned.

However, the flood of 150th-anniversary books about the great battle that raged from July 1 to July 3, 1863, have basically simply rehashed the same old stories of Gettysburg. Therefore, at this late date, the dramatic story of the Battle of Gettysburg has become very much of a dead field of study in Civil War historiography. In 2013, a number of publishers, including from Americas leading publishing houses, released anniversary books that were nothing more than the same general histories about the showdown at Gettysburg. Consequently, for people craving something new beyond the standard narrative so often repeated throughout the past, they were sorely disappointed by the new Gettysburg titles released for the 150th anniversary.

In fact, this unfortunate situation that has fully revealed the overall sterility of the Gettysburg field of study has resulted in the writing of this book to fill this significant void in the historical record. Discovering a long-overlooked and -forgotten Gettysburg chapter of importance has been possible because some of the best Civil War history can still be found, even in this crowded field of study, by digging deeper into the historical record. Hidden stories often reveal more fascinating nuggets than can be found in the most popular narratives of traditional Gettysburg history.

Consequently, this groundbreaking study will prove the validity of this reality by focusing on a little-known subject that has been long ignored despite its overall importance: the story of the Irish and their key roles at the battle of Gettysburg. This important chapter about the vital contributions of the most uniquely ethnic and obscure fighting men, especially in the ranks of the Army of Northern Virginia, has not been previously revealed in full, even in books about the most written-about and decisive confrontation in Civil Warand Americanhistory. Therefore, this analysis of the importance of the Irish role at Gettysburg represents one of the final frontiers of Gettysburg historiography.

Clearly, at this late date, a detailed exploration of the contributions of the most forgotten soldiers at Gettysburg has been long overdue. Like no other previous book to date, this specialized study will focus primarily on the long-overlooked roles of the Souths most obscure soldiers, who represented the single largest immigrant and ethnic group not only in the South but also in General Robert Edward Lees Army of Northern Virginia. Because of their longtime absence from the historical record, the contributions of these young Irish men and boys at the decisive Battle of Gettysburg will be explored for the first time in a single volume.

Besides exploring the significant Irish contributions, including the Norths famed Irish Brigade, on the first two days of combat (July 1 and July 2), this book will also analyze the unforgettable story of the large number of Irish Confederates who played leading roles in the most climactic moment of the battle, Picketts Charge, on the hot afternoon of July 3, 1863. These young men and boys from Ireland, especially the most recent immigrants, were literally caught between two worldsthe ancient homeland and the New Worldwhen they stoically advanced across the open fields in the ranks of Lees greatest offensive effort. The Irish on both sides included soldiers who still spoke ancient Gaelic of the Emerald Isle.

Other Green Isle soldiers spoke with thick Irish brogues of the Irish peasantry (mostly Irish Catholics) and middle class (mostly Irish Protestants or Scotch Irish, the majority of Celtic soldiers who served in the Army of Northern Virginia). These hopeful and optimistic immigrants from the Emerald Isle had made their dreams come true in the South. Large numbers of Emerald Islanders marched to their deaths during the audacious bid to pierce the right-center of the Army of the Potomac at a weak point of the Cemetery Ridge defensive line.

All in all, to provide a representative example, this book will explore the unforgettable story of great courage and high sacrifice of Irish Confederates during the Souths last-ditch effort to win it all. On that fateful July 3, Lee knew that he had to go for broke in a desperate bid to reap a decisive victory before it was too late, because the manpower-short Confederacy was trapped in a brutal war of attrition. This book will reveal some of the best hidden history of the Battle of Gettysburg by focusing on this long-overlooked Irish contribution on both sides in determining the nations destiny in Adams County, Pennsylvania. Indeed, Yankees from Ireland, especially men serving in Pennsylvania units, played a key role in thwarting the attackers at the crucial moment that became known as the High Water Mark of the Confederacy.

Before the most famous attack of the Civil War, Irish Confederates played leading roles in equally determined assaults on the second day at both ends of Major General George Gordon Meades lengthy defensive line centered on the expanse of Cemetery Ridge: East Cemetery Hill on the north, where large numbers of Louisiana Irish Rebels charged the heights with the war cry We are the Louisiana Tigers!; and in the all-important showdown for possession of strategic Little Round Top, where Irish soldiers of the Alabama Brigade and the Texas Brigade performed magnificently in determined assaults on the lines southern end.

One forgotten factor that made the showdown at Gettysburg so murderous was the result of a highly respected intellectual who influenced an entire generation of Union and Confederate leaders, Dennis Hart Mahan. What has been most overlooked about Mahan was the fact the he was the son of Irish Catholic immigrants. He was the influential professor who taught at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. From 1827 and throughout the antebellum period, he brilliantly articulated his tactical theory that partly shaped the thinking of Civil War leaders, including Irish officers on both sides, at Gettysburg and the kind of aggressive tactics that led to three days of bloody combat.

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