The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1898-12-17
advanced against the rifle pits and bat

3 teries of the enemy.
All day against those awful heights
Our lines were hurled in vain;
All day our shattered ranks closed up,
But to be torn again;
Until the sun withdrew it's light,
3 AS if for very shame.
And night came down upon the field
To end the bloody game.
The next day, little after sunrise,
every officer and man of the brigade,
able again to take the field, recrossed to
Fredericksburg and took up the same
position which we had occupied previous
to the advance. prepared and eager,
Notwithstanding their exhausted num-
bers and conditions, to support the Ninth
corps in the renewal of the assault of the
previous day. OF the 1900 l had led
into action the day before, $50 only APP
peared on that ground that morning.
Thick lay the slain. like sheaves of grain,
Mattered by battle-guns;
And in their caps, unwithered still,
They found sprigs of green.
This remnant of the Irish brigade
unnerved and undetered still full of
heart, still wearing the evergreen, in
spired by glowing sense of duty, sor-
rowful for their comrades, but embold-
ened and elated by the thought that they
had fallen with the proud bravery they
did-this. noble little remnant awaited
the order that was once more to precipi-
tate them against the batteries of the
enemy.
Gen. Hancock, in his official report of
the battle of Fredericksburg, thus tells
of the Irish brigade 1.-The strength of
this brigade, when the action was COM
menced. was 80 officers and 1923 enlisted
men. It's loss was SO commissioned Off
GERS and 4SS men"
Col. Robert Nugent, severely wounded,
commanding the Goth, conducted his
troops with his usual spirit, and was
making final effort to advance when he
was shot. His regiment had 10 commits
stoned officers and 219 enlisted men when
ficers wounded and 1l2 enlisted men
killed and wounded. This gallant regi-
ment was marched off the field by it's
fourth commander that day. the three
senior commanders having been wound
ed.
Col Patrick Kelly, commanding the
8Sth New York volunteers, was active and
resoute. as he always is, and, with his
regiment, performed their usual good
service The SSth numbered 20 officers
and 229 enlisted men when the assault
commenced, of which it lost IL officers
and lis men killed and wounded
Col. Dennis Heenan, commanding the
116th Pennsylvania volunteers, was Sc
verely wounded His regiment suffered
heavily. ard, although comparatively
young in the servie. behaved handsome
ly. This regiment marched on the field
with II officers and $40 men. It's loss
was IL officers and II men killed and
wounded. The fourth officer in COM
mand during the battle brought the reg
iment off the field, the others being dis
abled.
Col. Richard Byrnes commanding the
2Sth Massachusetts, entered the action
with IL officers and 400 men. of whom
seven officers and 149 men were killed
and wounded
Gen. Robert L. Lee thus adds his tes-
at Fredericksburg:
Cleburne. on our side, inherited the
intrepidity of his race. On field Of bat
tie he shOne like meteor in clouded
sky AS dashing military man he was
all virtue; single vice did not stain him
as warrior. His generosity and bene-
violence had no limits. The care which
he took of the fortunes OF his officers
and soldiers, from the greatest to the
least, was incessant His integrity was
prOverbial, and his mOdesty was an equ-
ally conspicuous trait in his character
Meagher, on the federal side, though
not Cleburne's equal in military gem
ius, rivaled him in bravery and in the
affections of his soldiers. The gallant
stand which his bold brigade made on
the heights of Fredericksburg Is we'll
known. Never were men SO brave. They
ennobled their race by their splendid gal
lantry on that desperate occasion.
Though hopeless, assaults on our lines
excited the hearty applause of our Of
ficers and soldiers.
To the Irish brigade, says Moore in his
"Record of the Rebellion" commanded
by Gen. Meagher was principally COM
mitted the desperate task of bursting out
of the town of fredericksburg, and form
ing. under the whitening fire of the con-
federate batteries, to attack Mary's
Heights, towering Immediately in their
'front.'
"Never at Fontenoy. Albuero or at
Waterloo" said the correspondent of the
London Times, was more undoubted
courage displayed by the sons of Erin
than during those six frantic dashes
which they directed against the almost
impregnable position of their foe After
witnessing the gallantry and devotion ex-
hibited by his troops, and viewing the
hillSideS for acres Strown with their