Changes

With the departure of Mitchel and the support of the Catholic Church, Thomas Meagher departed from his position as a passive Southern sympathizer and embraced the role of outspoken advocate for the Union Army. Though not blind to the low wages, scarce jobs, and rampant racism, Meagher maintained his great appreciation toward the United States for being a refuge for his countrymen. He showed his appreciation when he did not hesitate to enlist in Company K of the 69th New York Volunteer Regiment. <ref> McCarthy, Green, Blue, and Grey, 45.</ref> After the Union’s crushing defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Virginia, the 69th returned to New York where Meagher spoke in order to bolster recruitment among the Irish. He urged his countrymen to “rise in defence of the flag,” that harbored them safely from the “poison of England’s supremacy.” <ref> D.P. Conyngham, The Irish Brigade and Its Campaigns, ed. Lawrence Frederick Kohl (1866; repr., New York: Fordham University Press, 1994), 49.</ref> While trying to enforce the sense of “Irishness”, both Meagher and Mitchel actually introduced a new nationality to their Irish followers, which emerged as the defining factor of identity when these men met in Fredericksburg.

The Battle of Fredericksburg

Against the advice of his subordinates, General Ambrose Burnside, then commander of the Army of the Potomac, ordered his troops across the Rappahannock River and into Fredericksburg. The Confederates retreated across an open field behind the town and dug in atop a hill known as Marye’s Heights. Burnside then deployed a massive infantry assault to take the Heights; with the hope of proceeding southward to the Confederate capitol of Richmond. Hence, on December 13, 1862, the Irish soldiers of the Union came into direct conflict with Irish soldiers of the Confederacy.