# THE IRISH VOLUNTEERS- FIGHTING 69TH



## HAMMER11 (Jul 23, 2015)

Video- The Irish Volunteers in the Civil War.


----------



## Red Flag 1 (Jul 23, 2015)

I can't say I thought much of Gen McClellan. The Irish Vol's pulled more than their weight!!


----------



## pardus (Jul 26, 2015)

A northern propaganda song, written in New York during the civil war. Conveniently omitting the numerous Irish units of the Confederacy. 
Obviously during McClellan's command of the Union Army (and I agree with @Red Flag 1, I nor others thought much of McClellan).


----------



## DA SWO (Jul 26, 2015)

Wish I could say I was in the 69 during the war.


j/k.

A lot of good units led by sheep as most of the good generals went south.


----------



## pardus (Jul 26, 2015)

I was in the Fighting 69th for a few years. General Dempsey has attended a few St Patrick's Day functions in which the 69th leads the city's parade each year. Here he is signing The Fighting 69th (I was in the crowd and it was a hell of a good day!).


----------



## AWP (Jul 27, 2015)

The geek in me was curious and tried to look up their casualty rates. I found as high as ~40% during Gettysburgh and 38% for Fredricksburg (specifically Marye's Heights).

Numbers in the link below have the Irish Brigade's losses at 12%.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/the-fighting-irish-brigade/?_r=0

This one says the 69th suffered 17.1% casualties ranking it 7th among Union regiments.

Fox's Regimental Losses, Chapter 1

A brief rundown of the Brigade's casualties:
http://www.civilwarhome.com/irishbri.html

Confederate regimental casualties were much higher.

Given the losses of similar non-Irish Union brigades (+80% in some battles) I'd think any talk of them used as cannon-fodder (not here, but I've seen it elsewhere) is more propaganda than fact. Horrific losses to be sure, but sadly not unusual for that war.


----------



## Red Flag 1 (Jul 27, 2015)

Freefalling said:


> The geek in me was curious and tried to look up their casualty rates. I found as high as ~40% during Gettysburgh and 38% for Fredricksburg (specifically Marye's Heights).
> 
> Numbers in the link below have the Irish Brigade's losses at 12%.
> 
> ...



I concur with the "cannon-fodder" ideation, that was rampant on both sides of the conflict. Irish casualities may have been seen as, well...blunting the number of losses; if you will.


----------

