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HDQRS.(IRISH
BRIG.) 2D BRIG., SUMNER'S CORPS,
HANCOCK'S DIVISION, ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
In Camp on Bolivar Heights, Va., September 30, 1862.
Captain
HANCOCK,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Division Headquarters.
CAPTAIN: I have the honor to submit the following statement of
the part which the brigade under my command performed in the battle of
the Antietam:
Being encamped 1 mile outside
Frederick City, on this side, on the morning of the 14th of September
the brigade received orders immediately to proceed to the support of
General Hooker, who was at the time hotly engaged in the passes of the
South Mountain with the enemy. Being halted for an hour or so,
owing to the favorable reports from the headquarters of General Hooker,
the brigade had an hour or so to take rest and refreshment, the first
opportunity they had of doing so after a rapid and exhausting march over
the rocky hills and through the tangled woods from their encampment
outside Frederick City.
The Irish Brigade had the
honor of leading the pursuit of the rebels from South Mountain through
Boonsborough and Keedysville. Along this road and through these
villages, in this pursuit, the brigade passed with the utmost alacrity
and enthusiasm, Major-General Richardson, commanding the division,
riding prominently at the head of the column and directing all its
movements.
Early in the afternoon the
enemy were discovered in full force, drawn up in line of battle on the
heights near Sharpsburg and overlooking the Antietam. The brigade
was halted and deployed in line of battle to the right and left of the
Sharpsburg turnpike, the Eighty-eighth and Sixty-third Regiments New
York Volunteers being on the left of the road and the Sixty-ninth New
York Volunteers and the Twenty-ninth Massachusetts Volunteers being on
the right.
Whilst in this position,
though greatly protected by the hill on the slope of which they lay, the
regiments forming the right of my command were constantly annoyed by the
well-directed artillery of the enemy. The Eighty-eighth and
Sixty-third Regiments were also annoyed in a similar way, and the
brigade lost several good men even in this comparatively safe position.
In this position, however, we remained until the morning of the 17th,
when, the men having breakfasted, a sudden order came for the brigade to
fall in under arms, and take up the line of march, which Major-General
Richardson would indicate. Filing by the right and proceeding at a
rapid pace, the brigade crossed the ford of the Antietam a mile or so to
the right of the bivouac of that morning, and as hastily, in compact
order, following the lead of Major-General Richardson, who conducted the
brigade to the field of battle, under cover of the rising ground and
depressions which intervened between us and the enemy, we arrived at a
cornfield, where Major-General Richardson ordered that everything but
cartouch-boxes should be thrown off. The men of the Irish Brigade
instantly obeyed this order with a heartiness and enthusiasm which it
was rare to expect from men who had been wearied and worn by the
unremitting labors of a nine months' campaign.
Deploying from column into
line of battle on the edge of this cornfield, they marched through it
steadily and displayed themselves in admirable regularity at the fence, a few hundred paces from which the
enemy were drawn up in close column, exhibiting a double front, with
their battle-flags defiantly displayed. Crossing this fence, which
was a work slow and embarrassed, owing to the pioneer corps of the
several regiments of the brigade having been reduced by their previous
labors on the Peninsula, I had the misfortune to lose the services of
many good officers and brave men.
Lieut. James E. Mackey, of the
Sixty-third New York Volunteers, whom I had appointed on my staff in
place of Lieut. Temple Emmert, whose death from typhoid fever the whole
brigade affectionately and sincerely deplore, fell while the brigade was
deploying into line of battle at this fence.
The enemy's column, with their
battle-flag advanced and deftantly flying in front, was at this time
within 300 paces of our line. A clover field of about two acres
interposed. Then came the plowed field in which this column of the
enemy was drawn up, and from which from their double front they had
delivered and sustained a fire before which Sedgwick's forces on the
right and French's on the left were reported at the time momentarily to
have given way. The fact is, owing to some reason which as yet has
not been explained, the Irish Brigade had to occupy and hold a gap in
the line of the Union army, which the enemy perceiving had flung a
formidable column to break through, and so take the two divisions last
named on their flank and rear. This movement was suddenly checked
by the impetuous advance of the Irish Brigade, which in a great measure
filling up the gap through which the rebel column was descending to the
rear of the Federal lines, drew up in line of battle within 50 paces of
the enemy, the Sixty-ninth and Twenty-ninth being on the right of the
line, and the Sixty-third and Eighty-eighth Regiments on the left.
On coming into this close and fatal contact with the enemy, the officers
and men of the brigade waved their swords and hats and gave the
heartiest cheers for their general, George B. McClellan, and the Army of
the Potomac. Never were men in higher spirits. Never did men with
such alacrity and generosity of heart press forward and encounter the
perils of the battle-field.
My orders were, that, after
the first and second volleys delivered in line of battle by the brigade,
the brigade should charge with fixed bayonets on the enemy. Seated
on my horse, close to the Sixty-ninth Regiment, I permitted them to
deliver their five or six volleys, and then personally ordered them to
charge upon the rebel columns, while at the very same moment I ordered
Captain Miller, assistant adjutant-general of the brigade, and
Lieutenant Gosson, first aide on my staff, to bring up the Eighty-eighth
and Sixty-third immediately to the charge. It was my design, under
the general orders I received, to push the enemy on both their fronts as
they displayed themselves to us, and, relying on the impetuosity and
recklessness of Irish soldiers in a charge, felt confident that before
such a charge the rebel column would give way and be dispersed.
Advancing on the right and
left obliquely from the center, the brigade poured in an effective and
powerful fire upon the column, which it was their special duty to
dislodge. Despite a fire of musketry, which literally cut lanes
through our approaching line, the brigade advanced under my personal
command within 30 paces of the enemy, and at this point, Lieut. Col.
James Kelly having been shot through the face and Capt. Felix Duffy
having fallen dead in front of his command, the regiment halted.
At the same time Lieutenant-Colonel Fowler and Maj. Richard Bentley, of
the Sixty-third, on the left of our line, having been seriously wounded
and compelled to retire to the rear, the charge of bayonets I had
ordered on the left was arrested, and thus the brigade, instead of
advancing and dispersing the column with the bayonet, stood and
delivered its fire, persistently and effectually maintaining every inch
of the ground they occupied, until Brigadier-General Caldwell,
bringing up his brigade, enabled my brigade, after having been reduced
to 500 men, to retire to the second line of defense.
Of other transactions on the
battle-field in connection with the Irish Brigade I will not presume to
speak. My horse having been shot under me as the engagement was
about ending, and from the shock which I myself sustained, I was obliged
to be carried off the field. It was my good fortune, however, to
be able to resume my command early next morning.
For what occurred subsequently
to my being carried away from the field I refer you, with proud
confidence, not alone to my regimental officers, who remained on the
field, but also to many eye-witnesses of superior rank who noticed the
opportune action of the Irish Brigade on that day. But I cannot close
this communication without specially mentioning the names of Capt. Felix
Duffy, of the Sixty-ninth; Captains
Clooney and Joyce, of the Eighty-eighth, who, after distinguishing themselves by
unremitting assiduity in the discharge of their duties in their commands
throughout a very long and very exhausting campaign, fell with their
feet to the rebels, with a glow of loyalty and true soldiership upon
their dying features.
I have the honor to be, captain, yours truly and
respectfully,
THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER,
Brigadier-General, Commanding the Irish Brigade. |