An American Tragedy at Fredericksburg: Clash of the Irish Brigades

Today marks the 155^th anniversary of the Union defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg.  There are many heroic and tragic stories from the Civil War. The clash of Confederate and Union Irish brigades at Mayre’s Heights was both.  Many of the combatants on each side of the battle had only recently immigrated hoping to make a new life in America.  Many came from the same towns and counties in Ireland.  By chance, they found themselves at odds on a snowy hill in one of countless tragedies brought about by the Civil War. 

As 1862 came to a close, President Abraham Lincoln was displeased with the state of affairs in the East.  General George McClellan had attacked and nearly destroyed Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in September at Antietam.  Despite being heavily outnumbered, Lee escaped due to McClellan’s overcautious nature.  Lincoln replaced McClellan with Major General Ambrose Burnside.  Richmond, the Confederate capital, lay within 100 miles of Washington, a distance an army could reach in a matter of days.  However, almost two years into the war, the Union seemed no closer to victory. 

Generally Civil War armies did not fight in the winter, but Lincoln pressed Burnside for an offensive before the close of the year.  The recently defeated Confederates might be weakened and vulnerable.  Lincoln had seen what boldness could accomplish in the western theater.  General Ulysses S. Grant made significant strides in 1862 through determined, relentless campaigning.  The same sort of moxie should make capturing Richmond feasible. 

Burnside was skeptical.  Lee as far more formidable than western Confederate commanders.  Nevertheless, Burnside relented to Lincoln’s pressure and his army left winter quarters in late November to march to Fredericksburg.  On December 11 and 12 of 1862, Burnside’s engineers began building pontoon bridges to cross the Rappahannock.  Confederate sharpshooters hiding in Fredericksburg easily picked off Union engineers as they tried to assemble their bridges.  Lee was a master of defensive warfare and having dug nearly impregnable fortifications on the hills south of Fredericksburg.  He welcomed a Union attack.  Lee recalled his sharpshooters allowing the Union army to cross. 

On December 13, 1862, fully assembled on the south side of the Rappahannock, Burnside focused his main attack on Lee’s left flank.  From Fredericksburg, Northern soldiers looked up at Mayre’s Heights.  About a mile uphill, Confederate infantry awaited Burnsides’ men in a sunken road behind a stone wall.  Above the infantry, the bronze and iron barrels of well entrenched artillery stared menacingly down on Fredericksburg. 

By noon, Burnside had launched four separate charges towards Mayre’s Heights.  Confederate artillery raked each advance.  The Confederate infantry were four and five men deep on Mayre’s Heights.  As soldiers at the wall fired, two or three men behind them re-loaded muskets creating a devastating constant rate of fire.  Predictably the Union charges resulted in heavy casualties while the Confederates remained safe behind the stone wall.  At 12:30, Burnside called up the Irish Brigade commanded by General Thomas Francis Meagher (pronounced “Marr”) to for a fifth charge. 

Meagher was an Irish immigrant himself and had risen to prominence as a New York City politician.  Like Meagher, many Irish had immigrated from Ireland in the wake of the Great Potato Famine (1845-1853).  At the outset of the war, Irishmen mostly joined the Union armies without regard to their ethnic background.  Meagher raised a brigade specifically for Irishmen living in New York.  Meagher’s regiments proudly highlighted their heritage carrying green flags emblazoned with the gold harp, a prominent symbol of Ireland.  

As the Irishmen began their long charge, Confederate artillery opened holes in the blue lines.  The men bravely pressed on at the double quick.  Soon Confederates from the sunken road opened fire as well.  Meagher’s men were not the only Irish brigade on the field that day.  One of the two Confederate brigades in the Sunken Road, the 24^th Georgia Regiment under the command of General Thomas R. R. Cobb, boasted its own green flag with a golden harp.  The Georgian Confederates had also immigrated to escape famine from the same Irish towns and counties.  Instead of landing in New York, they arrived at Savannah.  When the war broke out they joined Confederate ranks. 

As Meagher’s men advanced, the Confederate Irishmen could see the green flags of the New York brigade through the smoke.  They lamented having to fire on their countrymen.  Meagher’s men managed to get within 50 yards of the Sunken Road and exchange volleys.  Protected by the wall, the Georgian Irishmen inflicted heavy casualties and within a few minutes Meagher’s men began retreating.  As they fell back, the Georgians saluted the retreating New Yorkers with loud cheering for their brave if futile effort.  Meagher’s brigade lost 14 of 15 officers and 512 of 1,000 men.  Overall, Union brigades suffered thousands of casualties, most on Mayre’s Heights and no one got no closer than the Irish.  Confederates at the sunken road reported fewer than 100 killed.

Fredericksburg was another embarrassing defeat for the Union at the hands of Robert E. Lee.  Watching the slaughter, Lee noted the success of his defensive plan even as he recognized the awful carnage it caused saying “it is well that war is so terrible lest we grow too fond of it.”  Lincoln relieved Burnside shortly after the battle.  The Irish Brigade replenished some of their losses but were never the same.  A year later after Gettysburg, fewer than 300 remained in the ranks of the Irish Brigade and by 1864 it ceased to exist as an independent unit.  The 24^th Georgia fared no better.  When Lee surrendered at Appomattox in 1865, only 4 officers and 36 soldiers remained.  Union and Confederate Irishmen suffered great hardship from the famines in Ireland, to the difficult transition in immigrating to a new country culminating in devastating losses in the Civil War.  It is worth re-telling their stories to remind us all of how our ancestors struggled to make a life and build a nation from which we enjoy great blessings. 

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For other Civil War articles, please click on one or more of the links below:

The story of Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley’s historic achievement in becoming the first submarine to sink an enemy warship in combat and the 149 year odyssey in recovering the Hunley and attempts to discover why it failed to return after its historic first:

Confederate Submarine H. L. Hunley’s Historic Night and the Mysteries That followed

Stonewall Jackson achieved lasting fame and military immortality in 1862 in his Valley Campaign of 1862.  This article provides an interactive map of Jackson’s maneuvers and engagements:

Stonewall Jackson’s Valley Campaign

Read more about Ulric Dahlgren’s controversial 1864 raid on Richmond:

Dahlgren’s 1864 Raid on Richmond Generates an Ongoing Controversy

Recently founded Virginia Military Institute played a significant role in filling the officer ranks of the Confederacy and a pivotal role in the Battle of New Market:

November 11: Veteran’s Day and Founding of VMI