Company “D”—Captain Clark.
Company “E”—Captain Kelly.
Company “F”—Captain Breslin.
Company “G”—Captain Duffy.
Company “H”—Captain James Kelly.
On the 22nd of May a body of three hundred men, known as Meagher’s Zouaves, recruited after the regiment’s departure, joined Colonel Corcoran at the Capitol City. At midnight on the 23d of May the 69th, together with the 5th Massachusetts, the 28th New York, and a detachment of regular cavalry, crossed the Aqueduct Bridge at Georgetown into Virginia. On the following morning the regiment began the construction of Fort Corcoran, which, with Fort Runyon, constituted the first regular works erected by Federalist forces at the beginning of the Civil War, and the ceremonies attending the raising of the flag on the occasion were participated in by Colonel Corcoran, Colonel David Hunter and Captain Thomas Francis Meagher, two of whom subsequently attained the rank of Brigadier General (Corcoran and Meagher) and the third of whom (Hunter) afterwards became a Major General. The 69th, together with the 79th and 13th New York and 2d Wisconsin regiments, and a Battery of Light Artillery, U. S. A., composed the 3d Brigade of the 1st Division of McDowell’s Army, having for its Brigade Commander Colonel William Tecumseh Sherman, of the 13th U. S. Infantry, whose distinguished achievements in after years elevated him to foremost rank among the great Captains of history. Brigadier General Daniel Tyler commanded the division.
On July 21st, the regiment participated in the Battle of Bull Run (Manassas). Col. Corcoran was wounded and fell into the hands of the Confederates. The regiment lost one hundred and fifty of its members, among them its gallant Acting Lieutenant Colonel James Haggerty, of whom the eloquent Meagher said: “No braver soldier was ever produced by the land of Sarsfield and Shields.” The three months period of service having expired, the 69th Regiment, New York State Militia, was mustered out of the United States service August 3, 1861, and returned to New York City, resuming its position as a militia regiment of the State. The time for which the regiment had been called into service had ended but the great war had only fairly begun, and President Lincoln having issued his call for 500,000 men for three years or the war, about 800 of the returned militiamen volunteered to re-enlist, and on August 30, 1861, under orders from the War Department, the 69th Regiment, New York Volunteers, was formed. Robert Nugent was selected as Colonel; James Kelly, Lieutenant Colonel; and James Cavanagh, Major. This regiment was rapidly recruited to full strength, and so many additional recruits presented themselves that it was decided to organize a brigade. The 63d and 88th Regiments, together with the 14th and 15th Independent Batteries, New York Light Artillery, in furtherance of this design, were immediately formed. The organization of the brigade was entrusted to Thomas Francis Meagher, who, on February 6, 1862, assumed its command as Brigadier General. This gifted and daring soldier and patriot, the Commander of the Irish Brigade, will ever be remembered as a conspicuous figure of his time. In his early manhood, by gift of genius, he had leaped to foremost rank among public men in his native isle. He had pleaded the doctrine of armed resistance to tyranny with an inspired eloquence and had defied the might of his country’s oppressors by participating in an insurrection; he had been condemned to death and had suffered a long imprisonment. The electric eloquence of the peroration of a speech delivered by him in Conciliation Hall in Dublin in 1846, during the Repeal agitation, caused him to be referred to thereafter as “Meagher of the sword.” His fidelity to the warlike principles advocated in his youth on behalf of Ireland was demonstrated by gallant conduct in many of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War, and well established his title to high rank among the soldier sons of a fighting race. To tell the story of the Irish Brigade would be to recite the history of the Civil War. It participated rapidly in the Battle of Fair Oaks, May 31st; Gaines Mill, June 28th; Savage Station, June 29th; Peach Orchard, White Oaks Swamp, Glendale, June 30th; and Malvern Hill, July 1st, marching thereafter to Newport News, and proceeding by transports and on foot to Falmouth, Alexandria, Arlington Heights, Falls Church, Fairfax Court House and Centreville, crossing the Potomac at Chain Bridge, and marching to Tenallytown, Rockville and Frederick City, Maryland, crossing South Mountain to Antietam, participating in that battle and leaving two hundred and one of its members either killed or wounded to testify to the character of the resistance offered by these sons of the Gael to the rebel line in front of the “Bloody Lane.” On December 13th the regiment constituting part of Meagher’s Brigade took part in the desperate attempt to carry the impregnable position of the Confederate forces on Marye’s Heights at Fredericksburg. The valor displayed by the officers and men on this memorable day must dwell forever in the memory of mankind. Inspired by the traditions of the old brigades, the brigades of O’Brien, Dillon, Lally, Sarsfield, the brigades of Landen, Ramilles and Fontenoy; aroused by the burning eloquence and encouraged by the intrepid daring of their fearless leader; mindful of the wrongs which exiled them from their native shores; grateful to the free, fair land that welcomed them to home and liberty, there was no danger too great for them to face, no suffering too severe to endure, no odds too overwhelming to encounter. Five hundred and forty-five soldiers of the Irish Brigade fell in that heroic charge in that most bloody quarter of a mile ever dashed over by armed men in the annals of civilized warfare. The testimony of the London Times correspondent will be regarded at least as not coming from an unduly partial source. This is his description of the charge of the Irish Brigade: “Never at Fontenoy, Albuera, nor at Waterloo was more undaunted courage displayed than during those six frantic dashes which the Irish Brigade directed against the almost impregnable position of their foe. That mortal man could have carried the position, defended as it was, seems idle for a moment to believe, but the bodies which lie in dense masses within forty-eight yards of the muzzles of Colonel Walton’s guns are the best evidence of what manner of men they were who pressed onto death, with the dauntlessness of the race which has gained glory on a thousand battlefields and never more richly deserved it than at the foot of Marye’s Heights on the 13th day of December, 1862.” In his official report General Meagher says: “Of the 1,200 men I took into action, only 280 appeared on parade next morning.”
To the achievements of Meagher’s Brigade must be added a reference to the gallant services of the renowned Corcoran Legion, for, in simple justice, all of the regiments composing the Brigade and the Legion must be regarded as branches of the parent tree, the root of which was the old 69th Regiment of ’51, which has continuously flourished so far for nigh a decade more than a full half century. The exchange of Colonel Corcoran as a prisoner of war was effected through the instrumentality of President Lincoln, August 15, 1862, more than a year after his having fallen into Confederate hands, and he was at once commissioned Brigadier General, with rank and pay dating from the day of his capture over a year before. His reception upon his return to the City of New York was most enthusiastic, he having endeared himself to its people, not only by his brilliant and daring actions in the field, but by his heroic conduct in refusing liberty upon the condition that he would not again take up arms in his country’s cause. The Legion was at once organized and was composed of the 155th, 164th, 170th and 69th (subsequently changed to the 182d to avoid confusion) Regiments, New York Volunteers. General Corcoran reported with his command to General John A. Dix, at Fortress Monroe, in November, 1862. The Legion was in active service for nearly three years and participated in many of the bloodiest battles of the war, among them Suffolk, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Reams Station and Port Hudson. Upon these and other fields it served and fought, lavish of blood, reckless of life, mindful only of the honor of the race and the preservation of our glorious Union of States. After Fredericksburg, the remnant of the 69th Regiment continued in the service, fought at Chancellorsville May 3d, 1863, and at Gettysburg July 1st, upon whose historic ground a beautiful Celtic Cross has since been erected by the State of New York as a testimonial of appreciation of the splendid services rendered to the Union cause by the Irish Brigade and of the heroism, sacrifice and patriotism of its members.
After Gettysburg, recrossing the Potomac, the regiment participated in actions at Auburn Ford, Bristow Station and the Mine Run Campaign. By this time it was practically wiped out and returned to New York City January 2, 1864, where it was recruited nearly up to its original strength and returned to the front. On May 4th, crossing the Rapidan, it took part in the Battle of Spottsylvania, May 8, where it met with heavy loss. It was again in action May 27th at Totopotomoy Creek, and at Cold Harbor on June 3d. It later participated in the siege of Petersburg. Colonel Nugent, who had commanded the regiment through the greater part of its long campaigning, was again with it at Hatchers Run, Five Forks, Southerland Station, South Side Railroad, Amelia Springs, Farmville, and down to Appomattox, April 9, 1865.
When General Grant determined upon demanding the surrender of the Confederate forces, the first communication upon this subject was carried by Colonel Nugent to an officer of General Lee’s Army. This famous order was as follows: