The battle in which the Irish Brigade played such an outstanding role was
the Battle of Fredericksburg [Virginia] in December 1862. The attack on
Marye's Heights by the Union Army under General Burnside's command resulted
in one of the worst, if not the worst, Union defeats of the entire War. The
slaughter below the heights was awful. A large % of those Union men
slaughtered belonged to various Irish units.
I live about 50 miles from Fredericksburg & am a member of the Rappahannock
Valley Civil War Round Table which meets in Fredericksburg & I've taken many
walking tours with the group over the years. The area of the Sunken Road and
the Stone Wall has been restored just last spring. Currently, the government
is buying out a few blocks of houses to the east of the Wall. Those houses
will be removed and the open field over which these Irish-American & other
troops charged to their doom will restored, even if just a bit more.
There are many good books on this battle.
If there was a low point in the Civil War, this was it. The Democrats had
won just major victories in the November election & the Army ran into
disaster in December. Another President just might have given up on the war
at this point.
I hope some Irish-American group or some historical preservation group in
New York gets on to this situation & restores the monument.
Walter, thanks for posting this. You helped make my 1/16 Irish blood proud
of my heritage. Too bad Irish-Americans have allowed this situation to get
as bad as it is.
David
David Roberts
Hollywood, MD
----- Original Message -----
From: "Walter Greenspan" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, March 26, 2006 10:40 AM
Subject: [NYHIST-L] Civil War monument at Calvary Cemetery is decaying
> According to today's (Sunday, March 26) NYC NEWSDAY, "Towering 50 feet
above
> the tombstones around it, a granite obelisk marks the spot in Calvary
Cemetery
> where New York's Civil War soldiers were buried even as the war raged on."
>
> NEWSDAY continues, "The column is the centerpiece of a once-proud monument
> commissioned by New York City in 1866. It is believed to be the city's
earliest
> Civil War memorial. Sadly, it's also one of its most decayed. Dedicated
to
> the Irish Brigade, a group of predominantly Irish soldiers who sustained
> catastrophic losses during two battles in 1862, the monument hasn't been
tended in
> many years."
>
> Calvary Cemetery is located in the Woodside neighborhood of the NYC
Borough
> of Queens (coterminous with the NYS County of Queens).
>
>
> For the complete NYC NEWSDAY article, "Battle-worn marker needs care",
please
> go to:
>
>
<http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/newyork/nyc-nydiar264677017mar26,0
,3
> 130954.story?coll=nyc-nynews-print>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Walter Greenspan
> Great Falls, MT & Jericho, NY
>
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