The Irish standard., 1886-06-19


an excellent tactician-much better
than Meagher, whose chief value was
in his fame and eloquence-and. could
in moment assume command, WELD
it with clear eye and sure grasp. Pat
Kelly was the most quiet, gentle, kind
ly soul in existence, loved for his sweet
and genial traits. And this modest ma
ture was fred by the most heroic cour-
age and inspired by single-hearted
patriotism and devotion to duty that
modestly recalled that noplest Roman,
General George H. Thomas.
Lientenant-C Colonel Jim Kelly: of the
Sixty-third, belonged to the combative
type of lrishmen OF which Cavanagh
was so good an example, one Of the
men with SO many and such sharply
defined angles that it is not easy to
avoid running into some one of them.
Rather narrow and obstinate at times,
but frank and warm-hearted, with d
courage conspicuous among this emil
nently brave race. At Antietam he
was shot through both cheeks, making
a CHASTITY wound; but still, with his
speech 50 choked that he could not ar
ticulate: he tried to command, until
Meagher positively ordered him off the
field. The Sixty-third was a small
regiment, out not a whit behind the
others save in strength. In the close Of
the Seven Days retreat occurred little
incident which fastened the brigade to
General Summers heart with hooks OF
steel. Serae- muskets were, of course,
lost and thrown away on that prolonged
retreat, but astonishingly few, all
things considered. Every case that
came to General Summers notice
angered him beyond bounds. When
one morning AN officer Of the Eighty
eighth came to him with a requisition
for quite number of nluskets, Sumner
broke out violently, denounced bitterly
men who would lose or abandon their
arms, and ended by saying, Z Iou shall
not have these muskets, sir. I'll take
them all away from you and make your
men dig trenches. Such men are not
fit to carry arms.''
The officer istensd calmly to this
TRADE, and then said, ''You're mis-
taken there, General. We've not lost
them nor thrown them away"
''Where are they, then 2" said Sum
ner.
':Outside, sir. L thought maybe
you'd be wanting to see them"
The General went out, and found q
pile of muskets with cracked and splin~
tered stocks, bent barrels and twisted
bayonets.
"TIow is this?" said he.
''It7s the Eighly-eighth, sir, said the
officer. "The boys got in scirlnmage
with the Tigers, and when the bloody
villains took TO their knives the boys
mostly forgot their bayonets, but went
to work and licked them we'll, slr.''
AS Sumner gazed on these speaking
witnesses of desperate pluck his rugged
face softened, and, generous as he was
hasty. he said a few words which
warmed the heart of every Irishman in
the army that heard OF them, From
that time we used to say that the gen.
eral thought he could whip Lees army
with the Irish brigade and Pettit's bat
terry.
An Antietam came the crowning
glory of the Irish brigade. When
French's division, containing many
new troops, was SO roughly handled,
the brigade was sent on the left of
Dunker's church, and slowly forced the
enemy back beyond the famous sunken
road, which had been filled with corpses
by ali enfilading fire from one of our
batteries, and presented the most
CHASTITY spectacle of the war. Using
this nine as breastwork they held
it to the close OF the fight, losing not a
prisoner, but at a loss Of life which was
appalling. One regiment lost nearly
fifty per cent. another over thirty. The
rebels seemed to have special spite
against the green flag, and FIVE color
bearers were shot down successively in
short time. AS the last man fell even.
these Irishmen besitated a moment to
assume task synonymous with death
Big Gleason, captain of the Sixty third,
six foot seven, sprang forward and
snatched it up. In few minutes a bull.
let struck the staff, shattering it to
pieces; Gleason tore the flag from the
broken staff, wrapped it around his
body, putting his sword-belt over it,
and went through the rest of that fight
untouched.
AT Fredericksburg the brigade had
the honor Of leading the attack on their
portion or the line across the open
plain against the concave line, brist-
ling with artillery, of which Marye's
Heights was probably the very strong
est point. Their behavior on that day
can best be summed up By saying that,
when they came to gather the corpses
that blotted that CHASTITY plain, the
dead OF the Irish Brigade lay in the line
nearest to the fatal stone wall Of all
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