THE SECOND IRISH MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT--THE TWENTY-EIGHTH TO THE
FRONT--ANOTHER CHAPTER ABOUT OUR RACE IN THE WAR OF THE UNION.
"To the troops (the Irish Brigade) commanded by General Meagher, was
principally committed the desperate task of bursting out of the town of
Fredericksburg and forming under the withering fire of the Confederate
batteries, to attack Marye's Heights, towering immediately in their
front. Never at Fontenoy, Albuera or at Waterloo was more undaunted
courage displayed by the sons of Erin than during those six frantic
dashes which they directed against the almost impregnable position of
their foe.... The bodies which lie in dense masses within forty yards of
the muzzles of Colonel Walton's guns are the best evidence what manner
of men they were who pressed on to death with the dauntlessness of a
race which has gained glory on a thousand battle-fields, and never more
richly deserved it than at the foot of Marye's Heights on the 13th day
of December, 1862."
Of this brigade of five regiments the Twenty-Eighth Massachusetts
Volunteers, Colonel Richard Byrnes, was the second Irish regiment raised
in Massachusetts in defence of the Union in 1861. The tribute above
quoted is the testimony of the war correspondent of the _London Times_,
the files of which are to be found in our Boston Athenaeum. He was the
famous Dr. Russell, the Crimean and other wars' correspondent of the
_London Thunderer_. He should surely be a judge of heroic service and
undaunted bravery. He was an eye-witness, as was the writer of these
lines, of what he speaks, and could with great truth form a personal
knowledge of the facts, and with ocular proof depict the thrilling and
tragic drama enacted on the bloody slopes of Fredericksburg, Va., on
that midwinter day. The nature of the ground on the left bank of the
Rappahannock afforded ample views of the scenes being enacted on the
other side, and it requires no difficult stretch of the imagination or
of the sympathies of humanity to enter into the feelings of men, who,
seeing this fearful havoc of their Federal comrades, awaited their turn
for Burnside to order them, "his latest chance to try," across the
ensanguined river. When the order did come for the fresh Irish troops,
it was only to find themselves mingled in the slaughter with their prone
dead and dying comrades from the old Bay State, the Twenty-Eighth
Massachusetts, distinguishable by the fresh and natural sprigs of green
with which they had on that fateful morning decorated their military
caps, but which were now in too, too many cases, crimsoned with blood
and brains, or embedded in the crushed skulls of the gallant heroes,
who, only a few short hours before, so jauntily wore them.
[Illustration: COL. RICHARD BYRNES.]
"Why should we be sad, boys, whose business it is to die!" sung Wolfe at
Quebec. The strain was melancholy and its vein mercenary. It was not the
business of these gallant citizen soldiers to die. They should have
lived to see a country restored to peace and greatness as a proof of
their patriotism, valor and sacrifices. "But," says Dr. Russell in
another part of his Fredericksburg letter to the _London Times_, "that
any mortal men could have carried the position before which they were
wantonly sacrificed, defended as it was, it seems to me idle for a
moment to believe." And these valiant, adopted citizens of the Republic
hesitated not to obey the cruel order to charge and charge again and
again up to those impregnable works with a fortitude and persistence
that could not possibly be expected from troops who adopted the trade of
soldier and "whose business it was to die."[2]
On another occasion, General Hancock said of a charge in which the
Twenty-Eighth Massachusetts participated: "I have never seen anything so
splendid." He was a judge of what a good charge consisted. Great credit
is most justly due to Colonel Richard Byrnes, of whom a most excellent
likeness is herewith presented, and of whom the writer will have
something more to say before he finishes a brief record of this famed
Irish-American Regiment.
The evidences of fine discipline and military bearing given by the first
Irish regiment, the Ninth Infantry, organized in Massachusetts, and
which, when it went to the front sustained so admirably those earlier
promises to the great satisfaction of the national and state
authorities, prompted the latter to form a second similar corps.
Accordingly Gov. Andrew and Gen. Schouler consulted with the Right Rev.
Bishop Fitzpatrick of the Boston diocese and Mr. Patrick Donahoe with
this view. The outlook was favorable and the state officials received
patriotic and most cheerful assurances from these and other
Irish-American gentlemen taken into counsel on the subject. The
authority of the general government was at once secured and the
formation of the Faugh-a-Ballaghs, to be numbered the Twenty-Eighth
Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers, was speedily begun. An announcement
appeared in _The Pilot_ stating that on September 28, 1861, the war
office sanctioned the formation of the regiment to be commanded by
Colonel Thomas T. Murphy of the Montgomery Guard of New York, and
accordingly recruiting was begun with head-quarters at 16 Howard Street,
Boston. An address was issued which spiritedly set forth that for this
Irishmen and sons of Irishmen, should rally forth for their country's
cause, "now that Governor Andrew has been granted authority to raise
another Irish regiment.... This is to afford an opportunity to all those
whose allegiance, patriotism and home welfare all combine to enlist
their sympathies for the country of their adoption and the safety and
protection of the Union; to unite one and all to uphold its integrity
and render it inviolable for future ages. Signed Patrick Donahoe and Dr.
W. M. Walsh." Among the gentlemen authorized to recruit for it, were
Messrs. Alexander Blaney of Natick, Florence Buckley of South Natick, E.
H. Fitzpatrick of New Bedford, Owen E. Neale of Fitchburg, S. W. Moore
of Marlboro', C. W. Judge of Haverhill and Daniel O'Donovan of the same
locality, Martin Kirwin of Lawrence, A. A. Griffin of East Cambridge,
John Riley of Worcester, Paul Eveny of Salem, and Lieutenant Ed. F.
O'Brien of Burlington, Vt.
The nucleus of the Faugh-a-Ballaghs was rendezvoused at Camp Cameron,
Cambridge, where the good, pious and patriotic Rev. Father Manasses
Dougherty of St. Peter's Church, Concord Avenue, ministered to the
spiritual and many of the temporal wants of the sick and the well until
a regular chaplain was assigned to the command. Many a gallant soldier
who, shortly afterwards, sank into a bloody grave, recalled with love
and veneration the tender and manly ministrations of this dear Soggarth
Aroon. A chaplain of the regiment, Father McMahon, is now the bishop of
the diocese of Hartford, Conn. Among the first acts of Company A,
Captain William Mitchell commanding, was to pass, by a unanimous vote,
the resolve: "That in consideration of the untiring zeal and patriotic
feelings of Mr. Patrick Donahoe in prompting and aiding the organization
of the Second Irish Massachusetts Regiment (the Twenty-Eighth) this
company will, hereafter, be known and called the Donahoe Guard." This
paragraph was further supplemented with the assurance from the company
to the patriotic gentleman whom they had named as patron, that their
conduct as soldiers and Irishmen in the field would never give cause of
disgrace to the name they had thus, with so much hearty unanimity, voted
to assume. Here let us for the close of this chapter leave the "boys,"
many of whom are looking forward to a glorious future in which the fate
of their native Ireland is romantically blended. How often have they
thrilled with martial fervor, as they read or heard Thomas Davis's
Fontenoy, that famed Fontenoy, which would have been a Waterloo,
"Were not those exiles ready then, fresh, vehement and true."
Ah, yes, they will learn the science of war and if fate reserves them in
the glorious fight for the Union, their practical knowledge, their
tested courage will then be used by the grace of the God of Hosts to
help free their native land.