BRAVE SIXTY-NINTH.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 270, 12 November 1892, Page 4 (Supplement)

BRAVE SIXTY-NINTH.

THE CRACK IRISH REGIMENT OF THE AMERICAN ARMIES. AD all the volunteer regiments of the civil war which were distinguished, in the recruiting camps as "crack" organizations maintained their barrack celebrity after entering the fight, the cruel conflict must have ejided long before itdid. Sheet lack of enemies to overcome would have spoiled the occupation of those doughty fellows who were expected to hew a way through living breastworks sti-aight from the Potomac and the Big Sandy to the Gulf. But it is the fortune of war that all cannot be great. To the majority the bubble reputation breaks and is gone before eager hands can toss it in the air to be seen of all men. Those who built great hopes on the Sixtyninth New York volunteers, however, nevei had causa to regret their enthusiasm. The Sixty-ninth volunteers sprang iron. that old Sixty-ninth militia, which fell into disgraco for refusing to parade at the Prince of Wales' reception in 1838. Irish to tho backbone in their hatred of England, but not less co in their love for their adopted country, when Lincoln called for militia troops in April, IS6I, they asked to be purged of contempt for insubordination in order that they might march to the defense of Washington. On April 20 the charges against their colonel, Michael Corcoran, wero dismissed, and three days later the regiment with overflowing ranks started for tho capital. The order for transportation called for 1,000 men, but over 1,800 wero borne on. the rolls, and the display they mads marching down Broadway was unique even for those days. The city was carried away with excitement, and their line of march was almost carpeted with bouquets flung at them from windows, balconies, pavements and even housetops. The column was headed by a banner drawn by four horses, bearing the motto: "Sixty-ninth! Remember Fontenoy."

Soon after the regiment reached Virginia it was joined by a company of boy Zouaves, known as the "Meagher Guards," and led by the famous Irish patriot, Thomas Francis Meagher. Tho Sixty-ninth made a spirited charge at Bull Run—the men impetuously stripping oil their knapsacks in order to have free swing, and came out minus the colonel captured, the lieutenant colonel killed, and a loss altogether of 192. Tho killed outright were 38, the second highest in the battle. Capt. Meagher led the regiment borne, and was the hero of the hour. His Zouave company, in bright red uniform, had been conspicuous at Bull Run, and one of his men, John D. Keefe, had brought off the green flag after the first bearer bad been shot down. Keefe was himself wounded whilo defending the banner. After his musket had been torn from his hands he shot down two assailants with a revolver and made another one prisoner.

After Bull Ron the floodgates of eulogy and adulation were again opened, and the new Sixty-ninth, formed from a nucleus of the militia regiment, took the field handicapped with a reputation that only the fiercest heat of battle could bring to a proper temper. It was the current notion that that three commitnils had done the execution at Bull Run—the Black Horse cavalry and tho Louisiana Tigers on the southern side and the Irish Sixty-ninth on the northern. Meagher became colonel of the regiment, and in accepting its services for three years the war department suggested the formation of a brigade composed entirely of Irishmen. The idea spread like wildfire; recruiting began in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and the west, and in a few weeks tho Sixty-ninth volun-

HE SHOT DOWN TWO ASSAILANTS. tecrs, 750 strong, marched down Broadway under a span new banner of green, bearing Erin's well known symbols—the harp, tho sunburst and the shamrock. The vanguard of numberless battalions of Irish heroes, the new regiment was destined not only to lead that fighting race in the contest for glory upon American battlefields, but to stand number one among 300 regiments sent out by the Empire State when tho roll of honor should bo made up from an actual count of tha killed in battle. Needless to say that a hot place would bo reserved for the alien band with tho ohaflenaiug battle cry, "Remember Fontenoyl" Tho Sixty-ninth was soon followed by the Sixty-tbird and the Eighty-eighth New York, the three constituting the Irish brigade with Meagher' as brigadier general. After a few trifling encounters, southern heads and Irish sticks came to a dead issue at Malvern Hill, on the Peninsula, July 1, 1803. The brigade was in Richardson's division of Sumner's Second corps. On Malvern Heights Meagher was sent in as support to Butterficld's division of the Fifth corps, which was getting the worst of it in a fight with some of Lee's crack brigades under Gens. Armisbead, •Garnett and Wright. The Sixty-ninth led the column and relieved the Ninth Massachusetts volunteers, that had been cut to pieces and was passing a sickening procession of its dead and mangled to tho rear. Tho Irishmen took their stand coolly and fired with such rapidity that their guns became overheated and they soon had to retire. The Eighty-eightl-repeated the maneuver and the Sixty-nintn again moved to the front and was at last relieved for want of ammunition. Two color bearers had fallen, and 17 men killed outright, 110 wounded and 28 missing—lss in all—was the dole exacted for rallying around the sunburst on Malvern Heights in one brief twilight hour. The regiment had done other work on the Peninsula and at the close of the campaign in August numbered 300 rank and file. It went to the field of Antietain with a fighting strength of 317. Still in PJchardson'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 Eoad, near Duuker church. Meagher was at tho head of the Sixty-ninth with its commander, Lieut. Col. James Kelley. The men advanced bravely under a sharp artillery fire to a crest overlooking the Sunken Road, and at that point the formation of *Jie^oundJt>rfik.o,w? tbedivisi^JiJuUtfw-

ing too msn Dnrgaae atone on tno ran. « couldn't advance with one flank exposed, it wouldn't retreat; bo it planted its line with a dogged air and Ittgan to fight. The Sunken Eoad and a sloping hillside beyond it were alive with Confederates, who found targets to their liking in the stubborn Irishmen perched 051 the brow of the adjacent knoll without a square inch of shelter. The color bearer of the Sixty-ninth advanced several paces and waved the green flag defiantly at the enemy, an act which drew a fire that completely riddled the banner. One after another the men who held the staff were shot, until eight were down. Capt. James McGee then Beized the flag and as he raised it the staff was cut in two by a ball. The contest was so desperate that rmiskets became foul and ammunition gav^ 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 a few square rods of earth the banner regiment of the brigade and of the state of New York scored a record of 71 killed and 135 wounded. That means 196 victims among 317 combatants, and every veteran knows how deadly the fire must be where the proportion of killed to the wounded is greater than one to two. Among the officers the mortality was even higher. Five were killed asd four wound-

THE BEARER OF THE COLORS WAS FOUND

ON THE FIEM). cd. Col. Kelley was hit twice. True the Sixty-ninth didn't win the battle of Antictain; but suppose it had flinched before that biting hail and carried back the brigade line with it and with that the supporting divisions? What then? Possibly the emancipation proclamation would 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. A new leader had come to the division—Han cock the Superb—as successor to Richard son, who fell at Antietam. In front of Marye's Height, on the morning of Dec. 13,1862, the command formed inline to support the battalions of Gen. French in assaulting tho stone wall. Shortly before the battla the old green flags of the Irsh regiments had been sent home and replaced with new colors, presented by aainirers in New York. The ranks were so thin that Gen. Meagher decided not to risk the new banners in the Fredericksburg fight, and when the men paraded on the flats along the ffrer and formed for the charge he rode up to the Sixty-ninth, which was in front as usual, and taking a bunch of green from a box hedge close at hand placed it in his cap, with a signal to the meH to do the same. In short order the hedge was stripped and every man had a waving tuft of green for his battle plume; The general spoke a few words to the Sixty-ninth and then rode out beside its colonel, Robort Nugent, leading it by column to the point of assault, Shot and shell swept the ground; a deep mill race and two fences obstructed thitf march, and the Sixty-ninth was obliged to halt under fire to allow the rear of the line to close up. At the base of the hill the brigade formed in two columns, the Sixtyninth in front, on the right. Forward the doomed ranks marched against the deadly stone wall, over the dead and wounded of French's shattered brigades, up to the third fence, which had not yet been passed by any boy in blue. Halting there, the men knelt or lay down and fired at the enemy above. A supporting brigade soon reached the spot, and then the survivors of French's battalions and the few Irishmen yet unhurt arose and joined tho charging ranks. The last fence was passed, and a handful rushed for the stone wall to die nearest the works, the only thing left to do. The Sixty-ninth was literally wiped out. About 40 men who had been in skirmish line were all that remained for duty. The roll call that morning showed 18 officers and 210 men present, and the casualties were 16 officers and 103 men killed and wounded. The mortality in the ranks was again enormous, the dead numbering 33 against TO wounded. The bearer of the United States colors was found on the field with the flag wrapped around his chest, his arms folded across it, and a bullethole througli the flag and through his heart as well. Among tho wounded officers were Col. Nugent and the major, and two captains that had succeeded them in command.

For some reason the Irish brigade was not allowed to recruit its ranks, and after Fredericksburg the Sixth-ninth was consolidated into two companies. At Gettysburg it responded to Hancock's call and charged across the Wheat Field, losing 19 killed and wounded and 6 missing out of 69 engaged. Alter Gettysburg the survivors re-en]isted, the brigade was kept up and the regiment fought under Hancock in the Wildorness and Petersburg. In its last hard fight, March 25, 1865, its killed numbered 26, with only 32 wounded. In its whole career, not including Bull Bun, the casualties scored 1,177, of which 574 were killed and wounded. The total deaths on the field were 2(51. The regiment carried 1,513 men on its-rolls. The percentage of killed was a trifle over IT, the highest amons; all the New York, regiments and the fifth from the top in all the Union army. A few more such and England could well have paid us to keep the war a-going. Her old hereditary foe would soon have been "Wearing o' the Green" out of harm's way, that is wearing it over their;gravea. For a Timid Lover,

Dora to Jack—Come over and see om new lamp. It turns down beautifully.— Life. Duped. I lavished on her every care, To concerts and to balls I took her. We went everywhere, In short, where pleasure calls. I was her most devoted slave For nearly half a year. Of her uncounted hours I'd rave To all who cared to hear. I sent her flowers, and candy, too, In tokon of nay love. It thrilled my being throughand through. To button up her glove. Then why, you ask, am I bo hurt And troubled and enraged? Well-Pve jost-leanxed the little flirt