A severe and well-sustained musketry contest then ensued, continuing until the ammunition was nearly expended, after which this brigade, having suffered severely, losing many valuable officers and men, was relieved by the brigade of General Caldwell which…advanced to…the rear of Meaghr’s brigade. The latter then broke by companies to the rear, and the former by companies to the front….

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The Irish Brigade had indeed “suffered severely” at Antietam. Meagher was carried from the field unconscious, thrown by his wounded horse. They lost over 500 officers and men killed or wounded. Two of the regiments sustained staggering casualty percentages: the 69th suffered 61.8 percent and 63d, 59.2 percent.

The brigade recuperated somewhat from its ordeal while encamped on Bolivar Heights at Harper’s Ferry after the battle. Here the 116th Pennsylvania joined them. Before they were again committed, the electrifying news reached them that McClellan had been relieved of command of the army. Many of the angered officers of the Irish Brigade, nearly all of them Democrats, resigned on the spot. Only Meagher’s persuasiveness kept them with the army. As it was, at McClellan’s final review of the Army of the Potomac, the brigade broke ranks to swarm around their departing hero.

An unusual incident is reported to have occurred as the Irish Brigade was enroute to Fredericksburg. As the men passed the house of the slain Confederate General Turner Ashby’s mother, a disheveled-looking woman rushed into the midst of the marching soldiers, shrillingly invoking the curse of God upon those who had taken her son’s life. To some of the more superstitious Irish her cries must surely have seemed akin to the dreaded wail of the feared banshee (signifying in Celtic lore a death to come).

Prior to crossing a pontoon bridge into Fredericksburg that bleak December day, the command shook out its colors. The nearby 14th Brooklyn (84th N.Y.) cheered the marching Irishmen, as the band of Hawkins’ Zouaves (9th N.Y.) struck up the brigade’s marching tune, Garry Owen. Less cheering was the presence of professional embalmers who passed out cards advertising their “patriotic services.” One brigade member refused with a scathing “be damned to yez.”

Once in town some of the “byes” joined in the plundering. One Irishman staggered under the weight of a huge feather bed, while two others sported women’s bonnets and a more practical fellow carted off a ten-gallon coffeepot. The men of the 116th amused themselves by fishing up the contents of some sunken tobacco barges.

Despite the tragic outcome of the battle of Fredericksburg, a previously planned banquet to receive new colors for the New York regiments was held in a Fredericksburg theater. The Irish colors (the regiments carried no state flags) had been donated by an appreciative citizens’ committee of native Americans. About 300 officers, including twenty-two generals, attended the “Irish wake.” The bereaved Meagher made an unfortunate reference to political generals” (after all, he was one himself) in a speech which was held against this Democrat in his later efforts to gain permission to recruit his brigade.

It was, incidentally, at Fredericksburg that the 69th thought they had lost their national standard. The next day the color-sergeant was found dead, sitting up against a tree with this hands clasped upon his chest. Further examination revealed the Stars and Stripes wrapped around his body. The regiment and the Irish Brigade could still maintain their claim to Appomattox that they had never lost a flag.

After Fredericksburg the contending forces settled down in winter quarters. As usual, the Irish Brigade believed it incumbent upon them to enliven things a bit. The day chosen was, naturally, St. Patrick’s Day, March 17. As was customary, the day began with church services. Shortly afterwards about 30,000 gathered to watch the “Grand Irish Brigade Steeple-Chase.” General Hooker, the new army commander, was given wine with which he proposed “The Irish Brigade–God bless them!” which was followed by three resounding cheers. After two races Meagher invited his guests to partake of sandwiches, wine, and spiced whiskey punch. The main feast of thirty-five hams, a side of roasted ox, roasted pig stuffed with boiled turkey, chickens, ducks, and small game, washed down by eight baskets of champagne, ten gallons of rum, and twenty-two gallons of whisky would come later, just before the evening’s theatricals and excitations. Nor were the enlisted men forgotten. Their events included a half-mile run, half-mile hurdles, weight throw, greased-pig contest (winner got the victim), sack race, blindfolded wheelbarrow race, and Irish dance contests. At one point Meagher chased onlookers from beneath the grandstand with the exhortation that they stood in danger of being crushed “by four tones of major generals.”

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