THE IRISH VOLUNTEERS- FIGHTING 69TH

[HAMMER11]

Video- The Irish Volunteers in the Civil War.

 

[Red Flag 1]

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

 

[pardus]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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:
The Irish Brigade

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.

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.