The stories behind them, what were some of the men thinking as they participate with this units, and we will end with what they do at gettysburg. With that, we will get started. All right. So, the irish brigade. One might question how do you get interested in this topic . Why would you choose the irish brigade . When i started here as an intern in 1998, the summer of my junior year in college, i was all about history. I wanted to delve more into some of my ancestry and all the stories that i had heard was that we are of irish descent. I was not a great genealogist at that point, but it is still interesting anyway. I had a chance, an opportunity, over the next couple summers as i worked at gettysburg, to really look at this part of the battle. And did a campd fire program on it, somewhat similar to the one you see now, but later on what i was able to do was get married and eventually take a honeymoon to ireland, so what a perfect chance to visit the mother country. We traveled all around, did a huge tour of the country. Sizeountry is actually the of mississippi, ironically, where i was living prior to getting married. We went all through the eastern and western parts of ireland, through the ring of kerry, the waterford factory, of course almost, in dublin, and by the skin of our teeth, got the opportunity to see one of the irish brigade flags housed in one of the government buildings in dublin. The only problem was tony blair was there, former pm of england, so we cannot get in. Security was tight at that point. After that, i came home and really wanted to find out more about who i was, where i came from. I had a friend who offered her services to do genealogy. She was really into it, and i thought wow, that is quite awesome. So she goes through ancestry. Com through all the records, comes back with this binder of materials. Stuff that i probably would have never found. Upon opening the binder, i quickly found out that my people were not irish. I had not a drop of irish blood in me. My people are dutch. In fact, they are not even german. They are french from the alsacelorraine region of france. So my husband was kind of upset we spent all that money going to ireland. Not even related to me, and 13 years later he still brings this up. Thetheless, i still find history of the irish brigade fascinating. I think that they are representative of so many aspects of the civil war. The fact that it is not cleancut, that it is not this or that answer. There was a myriad of reasons why these people joined, why they fight, and for the men who joined the early irish brigades, the reasons are probably not what you are going to expect. That is something that, again, we will look through this evening. Eire . Who are the men of arriving on the shores of american, and eventually getting embroiled in americas civil war. If you look at some of the city populations of some of the son of some of the largest cities in the United States at the time. Places like new york, philadelphia, boston, you can see a breakdown of the percentages of the irish born versus the city population. Some almost a quarter. In new york city, almost a quarter of that population was native born to ireland. So there is a significant presence here in the states of these individuals. You can imagine the information is flowing back to ireland. Things evolve through the 1850s with the election of lincoln, one of the larger questions is going, to be for some of these irishmen, who happened to be living in the United States, why fight for a war that is not your own . Why would you join up for this thing if you literally arrived here a few months ago, had no vested interest as far as you could tell you are not familiar with the politics, with some of the back story why would you join to fight in this war . That is what we will look at this evening. A couple things that are happening. On the political side of the spectrum. Side with the democrats. Keep in mind, Political Parties back then are different than they are now. The Democratic Party in the 19th century was antiabolition. They in no way, shape, or form wanted to flee the wanted to free the slaves living in chattel slavery in the south. Was veryratic party much against republicans, who encouraged abolition, the freeing of the slaves, but who also were not really concerned with the struggles of the poor irish. There was also a very Significant Movement throughout the country called the know nothing party. It was one of the main one of the main tenets was that it had a large degree of nativist thinking. We do not want anybody coming from the outside, ok . Put up the walls, keep your own within those. Anybody from the outside is dangerous or scary. There could be potential problems. The irish are facing that as well. Im sure many of you have heard, later on in history, that there would be signs on doors irish need not apply. This would have its roots in the 19th century. One of the bigger aspects of the concern that the irish have for abolition, and the one reason they will support the Democratic Party, antiabolition, is that, in the social structure, the social hierarchy, the irish are probably just above those living in trout living in chattel slavery. Not thought highly of, not given a lot of opportunities, they are not going to be in a number of highranking positions depending on where they are living. So if you fritos slaves, that is you fritos so if slaves, that is going to be competition for those low paying wage jobs. Those being freed from slavery will have little education, so you now have two classes butting heads, looking for the same employment. That is one thing that the irish do fear. They fear competition for lower paying jobs. So what is going to happen . That is going to be one reason why the irish will join up. It seems kind of ironic that they would join the union army, but there is a deeper reason to that, and probably a more important reason to the irish, as we will discuss. This gentleman is Michael Corcoran. T arrives in the United States in 1849. He will grow up in ireland, joinience the famine, and a group that will reign terror ,hroughout the country preventing irish families from sustaining themselves, just as in gettysburg most of these civilians were subsistence farmers, much of the irish were subsistence farmers as well. He would like to avenge persecution felt by the irish catholics. By being embroiled in a lot of this conflict, he will eventually, to avoid punishment, moved to the United States. He arrives in 1849. He joins the finney and brotherhood and becomes involved in the Irish Nationalist Movement and democratic politics. Eventually, he will organize a small unit of men known as the 69th new york statement initial, a unit out of the state of new is going to be prepared in the sense for prepared to fight in the American Civil War. But sometimes the irish were caught leaning both ways. They wanted the unit the union to remain together, but they could sympathize with the southerners want to secede. Was under attack or pressure from outside entities as well. Men are going to look at the opportunity of the American Civil War as a means to gain military experience to later fight for irelands freedom. The training ground. They probably do not have a vested interest on who wins or loses, but this is a prime opportunity for them to join and to get the skills, learn the weaponry, maybe move up in command, and then possibly take those skills back to ireland. Once there is a firing on fort sumter, the 69th new york state militia was called for service. A small crowd gathered to send them off. Flags and banners streamed from the windows as the ladies waved their handkerchiefs from balconies. One of the people, along with coran, involved in recruiting for the irish brigade is going to be this gentleman. He is a native of ireland. He has some of his own issues. He was involved in some of the plots in ireland. He was eventually exiled and will arrive in the United States , but he is charismatic. He is going to be one that can rally people with speeches, through his voice. Themhing he will bring to is this it is a moral certainty that many of our countrymen who enlist in this structure will in this struggle for the maintenance of the union will fall in the contest. But, even so, i hold that even if only one in 10 of us comes back when this war is over, the military experience gained by in thee will be more service of the fight for irelands freedom than the 10 as they are now. He is looking at this thertunity to train men on american dime and take what they , take take some officers them back to ireland and overall win overall irelands freedom. Begins with the firing on fort sumter. What are these men to do . Keep in mind, in the United States there was no standing army. Professionalpaid army you went into as a career or job. It was very small. That is something that most people dead. Did. Now we have all these volunteers, all these men willingly enlisting [no audio] [no audio], lincoln. Ent you have time taking on. Just because you are in the army does not mean you are going out to fight right away. Lincoln gets concerned as june goes by that nothing is happening. There has been no battles. So what are these guys doing . He starts to push some of the Army Commanders to get involved, get this thing going. Because what was the union belief . Back in maybe a month. The civil war was not going to be a big deal. And many otheren men were following threemonth papers. Once the firing of fort sumter starts, what is three months after that . July. Once those three months are done, youre are good to go home, right . All you did is enlist for 90 days. And lincoln knows this, which is why he starts to push this idea of battle. Drill, their time, they march, but also build fortifications on Arlington Heights down near arlington, virginia. To build some of these fortifications, engineers figured it would require 3000 men and three weeks. Corcoran accomplish the task in one week. The men were green. One of the visitors writing around one of these camps said he was impressed with the layout of the camps. However, when he came upon some soldiers, his enthusiasm waned. To atnessed men running up soldier about to enter a hut. These men were shouting to their friend to gain his attention and rescue him from his oblivion before he entered the powder magazine with his lit pipe. Will come for these men. They will not stain camps all this time. Eventually, they move on towards battle. Thefirst land battle being first battle of manassas or bull run. As they are marching towards that, at this general, William Tecumseh sherman, is going to be there brigade commander. There brigade commander. He is not impressed. The one man shot himself in foot, sherman did not blink twice. That will not endear the irish to this gentleman at all. But they will arrive for the battle of first bull run in july of 1861 and engage that afternoon. They will be advancing past the stone bridge when they come upon louisiana troops. Again, early in the war, things were not always figured out and clearcut. Unfortunately, some of the new york state troops were wearing gray uniforms. Louisiana troops did not fire and allow the new york men very near to their line. They were greatly surprised when in fact they did. The 69th will also prepared for an assault on henry hill. And will see union elements the charge will be pushed back. The 69th will remove their jackets and charge the hill. A writer for harpers weekly ote that the irish head tripped themselves and dashed into the enemy with the utmost. Fury. It appeared that the 69th held for a short time, but was not able to push the confederate troops back. As they attempted to retreat, they were attacked by the confederate cavalry. Flags,ors, which are the and about 30 members of the 69th were all captured. One soldier, after winning this battle witnessing this battle, would say it was a training field. There are two realities now hitting some of these irishmen. One, that this war will won. Be easily number two, you are going to need more men to start with. Also, their papers are up. These 90 days have taken place, so it is time for these men to go home. What happens now . What happens now to the desire to get the irish to fight for irelands freedom . They are no longer enlisted in the union army. That is where general mehra comes in. The 69th will muster out on august, 1861. He will be charged with forming the irish brigade. Most of the 69th men did not want to reup, so he had to reorganize a new 69th from all new volunteers. He eventually became its captain. He spent the month of september and october focused on recruiting. Now, though, this new 69th new york infantry was to reenlist for three years, much longer did the original 60 nights the 60 nights did. Did. Th eventually he would incorporate the 29th massachusetts, several from new york, and one regiment from pennsylvania. One Common Thread he used during his recruiting speeches was he said for my part, i asked no irishmen to do what i myself am not prepared to do. I mentioned earlier about this nativist thinking, this idea we dont want anyone else in the country during this time. That will come directly into plate with this man and his recruiting efforts. What starts to happen is people in washington are starting to get jittery at this idea of an all irish brigade. Why do we want this many irishmen altogether in one place . That is not good. Not what we are looking for. As a result, they will pick an american. They said it, you can have the brigade. However, it will not be led by irishmen. It will be led by an american. The folks down in washington, d. C. Will select james shields. He served in the mexican war. He was a Brigadier General and a senator from two states. The only problem, though, is that he was not anywhere in the United States when this decision was handed down. Shields was in mexico attending to a mining operation. To thewas so important powerhouses in d. C. That he be pulled into the irish brigade that he was retrieved from mexico and brought back to nana did states and brought back to the United States. Rumors that anr american would eventually fill the role. This will provide even more fuel to the fire. There was a fear that the Irish Community for be lost in lesson irishmen led the. The fuel was how are we going to rally these troops to fight in ireland if in irishmen is not leading them . Is going to end up in some discussions with to homas. Shields will come up with this statement. To say a few words relative to myself in the recruit endeavoring to my shattered health, when i received disappointments. I wasarrival in new york, sorry to find there was a misunderstanding relative to the general and myself. I know the general well. Himdid right in selecting to command your brigade. He is much more qualified for that position than three fourths of the men appointed to similar commands. I hope to have the irish at some future day. Basically, he is said, you can give him your brigade. Of roughly 1400 guys. I will take a promotion and become commander of the division that will hold the irish brigade. While pacifying him, he promotes himself. That is going to realize the american irish have loyalties to the home country. He needs to stress englands abandonment of ireland and the threat of confederacy, linking england with the confederacy. The 20th of massachusetts was not filling the ranks. Just because you ask for volunteers does not mean you will get them. Some leaders are going to feel that organizing strictly irish units did more harm than good. They felt that the irish needed to assimilate into protestant units. And if they kept to their own, it would appear that they were rejecting american traditions. You see how that nativism is coming into play. He needs 2000 men to fill the ranks. He wants to keep the irish brigade alive to further the irish cause. He wants to demonstrate to america that the irish were dedicated to the fight. He wants to provide a home here in the states for the future irish immigrants. The reality during this recruiting trip is that only 250 answer the call. State in 1862 during a recruiting trip to new york, talking about him being charismatic, being able to rally a crowd. He said it should be the vehemence of liars the vehemence and intense ambition of irishmen to have one chord within him that vibrates to that old lyric and marshall land of attic of the verdure. Its soil a paraphrase is rally around the flag and fight for what it represents. This. Unterpoint is the letters that are coming home. The letters that are coming home are not talking about rallying around the flag. The letters coming home are saying this. Anyaptain turner idea you may have of joining the army, give it up at once. The amount of vulgarity, profanity, and utter tierney that exists. He basically said do not bother. Unless youre going to be enlisting substance, in this order is not easy, not fun, and not enjoyable. The work progresses. Still there is no victor. There is no winner decided. Is atietam in 1862, there number of confederate issues facing the army. One is should the Confederate Army continue on a western approach toward the capital of washington dc . Should they move up the Cumberland Valley to the north on the way to harrisburg . Or is there another opportunity for them to draw the troops out of washington in a way that left the door open for an assault . These two armies will eventually clash near sharpsburg, maryland. General George Mcclelland is now general of the army of the potomac. Believing he is outnumbered, mcclelland is wondering if he should attack lee. Mcclelland, though, is loved by the irish brigade. The reason he is loved by the irish brigade is because he is slow and deliberate. For a soldier on the ground, it means that there is no rash decisions. There is no point where he is just throwing men into battle to see what happens. You can imagine that those guys probably appreciate that. However, he will move slowly, be indecisive, and eventually not walk away i major victor at antietam. So where are the irish in this conflict . They attackached toward the sunken road, which is held by the confederates. The sunken road is going to be the area in black. The irish brigade circling green mahara. As they crested the ridge north of the sunken roa