![]() ![]() He had a reputation as a “martinet,” a commander who valued the rule book over the comfort and well-being of his soldiers. ![]() A few days earlier the 69th had been brigaded with other regiments and placed under the command of a then-unknown colonel, William Tecumseh Sherman. At 2:30am they began what for some of them would be the last day of their lives. The Irish Fighting 69th Infantry Regiment of the New York State Militia, commanded by Colonel Michael Corcoran, was in motion long before daylight. 2 ( Click here for an animated, narrated map of Bull Run) They could not have known it, but more than 15,000 Union soldiers were on the march towards the Tigers’ position on the Confederate left. 1ĭuring the hours after sunrise, the Tigers heard men moving into position across Bull Run. Beauregard, who had placed the Irish New Orleanian soldiers there, had decided that the Union attack would hit his right and that the Tigers would see little action early on beyond some light skirmishing. ![]() Fewer than 500 men, they were the last unit on the far left of two combined Confederate armies of more than 30,000 men. The rest of the Confederate army was far to the right of them. They were guarding the one dry way to cross the creek: the Stone Bridge. Up close they were quite a sight: Among the most colorful units on the field at Bull Run, the men dressed in the uniform of the Zouave, and looked like Berber troops in French North Africa. They hunkered down in the dense bushes on the west side of Bull Run, a small Virginia stream, on the morning of July 21, 1861. The 1st Louisiana Tigers Special Battalion was a unit mostly composed of Irish immigrants. Scroll to the bottom for a complete list of articles. This article is part of The Immigrants’ Civil War. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |