Company A has 11, known to be of Irish blood, and then such names as Allison, Fay, Cardin and Young have not been counted in.
Company B has 33 men of Irish blood, and does not count Devine or Young. Company C has 9 men. Company D has 14 men. Company E has 6, and still we find such names as Doane, Leonard and Blake outside the count. Company F has 14 men.
Company G has 40 Irish Catholics, 2 Irish Protestants, 2 Italians, 3 Germans, 3 Scots, 2 Swedes, 1 Nova Scotian, 7 French-Canadians, and 17 of old Yankee stock.
Company H has 13 men. Company I, 24 officers and men. Company K has 12, and still we are not counting such names as Verrily, Kelley, Carr and Crehy.
Company L has 13, and outside of that we find Barnes, Carney, Kingston, Norton and Raymond.
Company M has 22, and beyond that 22 there is a Simmons, a Carey, Daniels, Graham, Manning, Riley and Ward—all good old Irish names.
The count I have given you is in most cases that of the captains of companies, as far as received, and is as close as hasty work can hope to be. I am satisfied that with more time and kindly aid of officers and men, I shall be able to make the roll exact and the number of men of Irish stock much increased.
We may note, too, that our count to-night is only of men Irish born or in the first American generation. Many of the best in the regiment have it farther back, as for instance the gallant colonel himself, who writes me, “My great-grandfather was Patrick Clark who came from Ireland.”
In the regiment was a young second lieutenant, whom the correspondents praised and the artists pictured, and who drew the eyes of Massachusetts to himself by his cool bravery and marvelous skill as a sharpshooter which he used in silencing the murderous Spaniards who fired from the trees at our wounded. A Spanish mauser ploughed through his shoulder, but he is alive and well, and to-day the gentlest and most unspoiled hero of the war is Lieut. Daniel Moynihan of Northampton.
“I myself am of Irish blood, and Second Lieut. Thomas F. Burke is of Irish blood also,” writes the city marshal of Springfield, Henry McDonald, who was captain of Company B.