The Irish standard., 1892-06-25

southern heads and Irish sticks came t
dead issue at Malvern Hill, en- th
Peninsula, July !, 1862. The brigad
was in Richardson's division of Sumner
Second corps. On Malvern Height
Meagher was sent in asEsupport to But
terfeld's division of the Fifth corps
which was getting thesworst of it in {
/ fight with some OF Lee'ssc1ack brigades
under Gems. Armistead, Garnett and
Wright: ~ =. i
The Sixty ninth led the column and
relieved the Ninth Massachusetts volun.
Eteers, that had been cut to pieces and
was passing sickening procession of ite
dead and mangled to the rear. The
Irishmen took their stand cody and fired
with such rapidity that heir guns be-
came overheated and they soon had to
! retire. The Eighty-eighth repeated the
! maneuver and the Sixty-ninth again
moved to the front and was at last re.
lieved for want of ammunition. Two
color bearers had fallen, and II mon
killed outright, no wounded and % mis-
singles in all was the dole exacted
for rallying around tho sunburst ON NAL
vern Heights in one brief twilight hour.
The regiment had done other work on
the Peninsula and at the close Of the
cxmpaign in August numbered 800 rank
and file. 1t went to the field OF Antie-
tam. with a fighting strength Of BIT.
Still in Richardson's division it was in
the reserve line until the battle waxed
warm, and then led the brigade in the
attack on the famous Sunken Road, near
bunker church. Meagher was at the
head of the Sixty-ninth with it's COM
mander, Lieut. Col. James Kelley. The
men advanced bravely under sharp ar
tillery fire to crest overlooking the
Sunken Road, and at that point the for
mation of the ground broke up the divi-
sion line, leaving the Irish brigade alone
on the hill. 1t couldn't advance with
one flank exposed, it wouldn't retreat; SO
it planted it's line with dogged; air and
began to fight. The Sunken Road and
a sloping hillside beyond it were alive
with oonfederates, who found targets to
their. liking in the stubborn Irishmen
perched on the brow Of the adjacent
knoll without square inch of shelter.
The color bearer of the Sixty-ninty ad-
yanced several PAGES and waved the
green flag defantly at the enemy, an act
which drew fire that completely rid
dlsd the banner. One after another the
men who held the staff were shot, until
eight were down. Capt. James McGee
then seized the flag and as he raised it
the staff was cut in two by ball.
The contest was 80 desperate that
muskets became foul and ammunition
gave out, but the gallant fellows held on,
using the weapons Of the dead, OF whom
there were plenty, until relieved by a
fresh brigade, and there on few square
rods of earth the banner regiment OF the
brigade and Of the state of New York
scored a record of II killed and 125
wounded. That means 1856 victims
among 2l7 combatants, and every vete-
ran knows how deadly the fire must be
where the proportion of killed to the
wounded is greater than one or two.
Among the officers the mortality was
even higher. Five were killed and four
wounded. Col. Kelley was hit twice.
True the Sixty-ninth didn't win the bat
tie of Antietam; but suppose it had
Ainched before that biting hail and car
ried back the brigade line with it and
with that the supporting divisions?
What then? Possibly the emancipation
proclamation wonld never have been
issued. Such incidents may decide great
battles and turn the scale of war.
Just three months after Antietam the
Irish brigade was again called into the
breach to try where others had failed.
Anew leader had some to the division
Hancock the Sunsnk-aa successorzto
Richardson, whos slat Antietsm-
In front of M1s|'s Height, onsthe
morning of Dec. 1862, the command
formed in line tosupport the battalion
ef Gen. French IN assaulting the stone
wall Shortly before the battle the old
green flags of the Irish regiments had
been sent home and replaced with new
colors, presented by admirers in New
York. The ranks were SO thin that Gen.
Meagher decided not to risk the new
banners in fredericksburg fight, and
when the men paraded on the flats along
the river and formed for the charge, he
rode up to the ixty-ninth, which was in
front as usual, and taking bunch of
green from q box hedge close at hand,
placed il IN hiscap, with signal to the
men to do the same. In short or
der the hedge was stripped and every
man had waving tuft of green for his
battle plume. The general spoke few
words to the Sixty ninth and then rode
out: beside it's colonel, Robert Nugent,