From "McNulty, Eamonn" <Eamonn.McNulty@health.wa.gov.au>: > > The Burns TV serial and book states that the Georgians behind the wall > at Maryes Heights were also Irish. I know it was the Georgian 24th > Regiment behind the wall. > > Why does Burns and co. say these Georgians were Irish. ---------------------- It's an oft-repeated and accepted story, but I wonder if anyone ever checked it out. It might be more folklore than fact. Question is, how Irish was the 24th? The regiment was commanded by Robert McMillan, an Antrim* man. 3 sons were also in the regiment, and Company K - the McMillan Guards - is ID'd by Kelly J. O'Grady as having a "green tint", although "not wholly Irish". He doesn't go into any specifics, and mentions only two other Irish members. While there certainly were Irishmen in the 24th, calling it an Irish regiment is a different matter. Looking at the roster at the 24th web site, not that many surnames leap out as being definitely Irish, but that doesn't mean much; there's a lot of Irish running around with monikers that originated elsewhere. Without checking the roster against, say, the 1860 census, it's hard to say whether the story's an exaggeration. It might be the story got its start in an article published by the Charleston Daily Courier entitled "A Gallant Irishman at Fredericksburg": "Meagher met his match at Fredericksburg in a gallant son of the Emerald Isle, Colonel Robert McMillan, of the Twenty-fourth Georgia. We should like to see McMillan at the head of the lamented Cobb's brigade, pitted against Meagher or Corcoran in an open field..." Once a commander's ethnicity is publicized, it doesn't take much for the public to extend it to the entire unit. Facts from "Clear the Confederate Way" by Kelly J. O'Grady, Savas Publishing, 2000; opinions are just my own. * Not sure about this; in the text, O'Grady says McMillan was born in Antrim, but in the preface he says Tyrone. Dennis

Dennis There is a much more elaborate story of this incident in THE IRISH BRIGADE by Paul Jones. Perhaps the origin of the story comes from sources used by Paul Jones. In the book Jones tells the story of a sergeant in McMillian's (Cobb's) Brigade named Michael Sullivan who crept out onto the battlefield at night after the Battle of Fredericksburg and recovered a green flag from a dead color bearer and then swam across the Rappahanock amid the firing of his fellows and requested to be taken to Meagher to whom Sullivan returned the flag. Meagher offered to accept him into the Irish Brigade but he wanted to go back to his regiment. He was wounded and was bandaged up by the Irish Brigade medical staff and with the help of Fenians on both sides rejoined his outfit. From the amount of information given it would seem that this comes as a story written perhaps in the Confederate Veteran or perhaps by the man himself, who, according to Jones, took part in the invasion of Canada and later became a "prosperous merchant in Savannah." Unfortunately I have not run across the story anywhere else yet and Jones did not footnote his sources in the book although he indicates he used the archives of The American Catholic Historical Society, Kean Archives and Notre Dame Archives in his research. An interesting sideline: The only sergeant Michael Sullivan in GA Infantry listed in HDS was a fellow who transferred into the 63rd GA (was that in any brigade at Marye's heights?) one day before the battle of Frederickburg and then deserted 2/25/1864 to the Union side. There is one other Michael Sullivan listed as a private in the 11th GA who went AWOL 2/28/1863 All that aside it is a great story and I would really like to know if anyone runs into the origin used by Jones. Mike