The 4th Irish Regiment Brigade Flag
Here is a new regimental flag that I recently completed. All my Irish friends will say this one has been overdue. This is the infamous 4th Irish Brigade flag.N JULY 21st, 1861, at the battle of Bull Run Captain Thomas Francis Meagher of the 69th New York State Militia had his horse shot from under him by a round of cannon-fire. Meagher, that day acting as major for the regiment, sprang to his feet and shouted, “Boys! look at that flag–remember Ireland and Fontenoy.”
The Federal army was badly beaten and routed but the Irish Sixty-ninth, an old pre-war militia regiment, had charged bravely and stubbornly held its ground. Even after its commander, Colonel Michael Corcoran, was wounded and captured, the Sixty-ninth as part of the rear guard retreated in good order while panicked Union soldiers swarmed around them. Union commander General Irvin McDowell personally thanked them for their gallantry.
The Irish Brigade was an infantry brigade, consisting predominantly of Irish immigrants, that served in the Union Army in the American Civil War. The designation of the first regiment in the brigade, the 69th New York Infantry, or the “Fighting 69th”, continued in later wars. They were known in part for their famous warcry, the “faugh a ballagh”, which is an old Gaelic phrase, fág an bealach, meaning “clear the way”.
Captain Meagher evoked the name of Fontenoy that day to inspire his men, a name of deep significance to every Irish soldier. At that place, in 1745, French General Maurice de Saxe triumphed over the British, a victory owed to an unstoppable bayonet charge by the French army’s brigade of Irish exiles. Throughout its long history this brigade performed many such feats of courage, and though its beginnings date back to a time of more than one hundred-seventy years before Bull Run, its deeds were fresh in the minds of the men of the 69th New York.
This is a flag that is rich in history. It is also so very unique.
