Remembering the discussions of Paul Jones' and the story of the return of the colors at Fredericksburg and where the story might have originated, I found this in Fox's Regimental Losses. Mike "At Fredericksburg a color-sergeant of the Sixty-ninth was found dead, with the flag concealed and wrapped around his body, a bullet having pierced the flag and his heart. In that battle the regiment lost 16 officers and 112 men killed and wounded, out of 18 officers and 210 men engaged. The Sixty-ninth lost the most men in action, killed and wounded, of any regiment from the State of New York."

RUDDYsTN wrote: > > Remembering the discussions of Paul Jones' and the story of the return of > the colors at Fredericksburg and where the story might have originated, I > found this in Fox's Regimental Losses. > Mike > > "At Fredericksburg a color-sergeant of the Sixty-ninth was found dead, with > the flag concealed and wrapped around his body, a bullet having pierced the > flag and his heart. ------------------------ Mike, This would be the National colors. The NY regiments had retired their green regimentals and sent them home in November; the new ones arrived too late to be used in the battle and they were not presented until the 15th. The only green regimental flag in the brigade on the 13th was that of the 28th MA, and they brought it off the field with them. The 69th did lose a guidon; O'Grady says this ended up in General McLaws' possession. This could be it, but IMHO anyone who would rip off a general must be nuttier than Murdoch of "The A Team" :-). According to O'Grady (who dismisses this entirely), the recovery and return supposedly happened the night of the battle, which does make the story totally incredulous: Sullivan has to get by an entire wing of the Federal Army just to get to the Rappahannock, swim a very cold river, get shot while doing so by Confederate pickets who were nowhere in the vicinity, locate Meagher in the dark, then somehow get back to his own lines. I noticed Jones places the return some unspecified time after the battle; this at least makes it possible, but both Cavanagh and Conyngham say that a couple of days after the battle Meagher left for New York and was gone for some weeks. AFAIK, neither made mention of the incident. Looks like the Library of Congress has the "Freeman's Journal" for 28 Mar 1914, which first published the story; haven't checked, but I suspect the NY Public Library would, too. Would be interesting to find out for ourselves what it says. Cites: "Memoirs of General Thomas Francis Meagher", by Michael Cavanagh, 1892 "The Irish Brigade and Its Campaigns" by D. P. Conyngham, 1869 "The Irish Brigade" by Paul Jones, 1969 "Clear the Confederate Way" by Kelly J. O'Grady, 2000 Dennis

>According to O'Grady (who dismisses this entirely), the recovery and >return supposedly happened the night of the battle, which does make the >story totally incredulous: Sullivan has to get by an entire wing of the >Federal Army just to get to the Rappahannock, swim a very cold river, >get shot while doing so by Confederate pickets who were nowhere in the >vicinity, locate Meagher in the dark, then somehow get back to his own >lines. > >I noticed Jones places the return some unspecified time after the >battle; this at least makes it possible, but both Cavanagh and Conyngham >say that a couple of days after the battle Meagher left for New York and >was gone for some weeks. AFAIK, neither made mention of the incident. > >Looks like the Library of Congress has the "Freeman's Journal" for 28 >Mar 1914, which first published the story; haven't checked, but I >suspect the NY Public Library would, too. Would be interesting to find >out for ourselves what it says. Dennis Do you know when Jones published his book? The book I have says it is a reprint but does not mention the first printing. Do we know what is his background? The book I have indicates some sort of commission to do the work and he seems to have gone to the right places to find his sources. I agree with the implausibility of the story, but hate to dismiss it out of hand even if it appeared in a "Irish Nationalist" newspaper article. It sure would be nice to see the original article...... New York is far off.... Mike Mike

Hi Mike, RUDDYsTN wrote: > > Do you know when Jones published his book? -------------- 1969 -------------- > Do we know what is his background? -------------- The bio on the end sheet says he was an ex-newspaperman, author, consultant in Office of Inter-American Affairs during WWII, lectured and conducted seminars on international affairs. At time of publication he was a visiting professor at various colleges. He received the Bronze Plaque Award of the Lincoln Civil War Society for "distinguished writing on the Civil War". --------------- > I agree with the implausibility of the story, but hate to dismiss it out > of hand... --------------- Same here. It's true O'Grady blew it out of the water but I'd like to see it for myself - debunking seems to be too fashionable nowadays. Dennis