[1] Clear the Road.
[2] At this battle of Fredericksburg, the Nineteenth Massachusetts
Volunteers, for the time being, became the Faugh-a-Ballaghs--"clear the
road." It was they that went in boats across the river and with
assistance cleared the Confederates from the rifle pits in the lower
streets of the town, and thus admitted the laying of pontoon bridges
over which passed the troops to charge the Heights. The Nineteenth had
many Irishmen in it.