Irish Volunteer (2017) – An American Civil War Poem by Ephemeral Dawn

Behind The Words:

Written in close proximity to some other American Civil War poems of mine (War Ghost, Guns on the Prairie, and Fathers and Sons), Irish Volunteer is the closest snapshot of a real engagement, from the perspective of the Union, in contrast to the aforementioned three, which were true in spirit but not based on any specific event.

The Battle of Fredericksburg was bloody and painful for both sides, but often recounted in popular history for a specific moment that has been mythologised in the years that followed – the moment was where the Confederate and Union Irish clashed at Mayre’s Heights.

They were not the only ones involved in that fight; many regiments were choked there and endured the harsh fighting that followed, but in popular memory – and later in popular media – the most emotionally enduring tale has been of the Irish fighting the Irish. It’s in the wake of this, as a young teenager, that I wrote this poem, and it isn’t therefore to be treated as completely sound where accuracy is concerned (see footnotes below), because my impression of it was formed largely from its depiction in Gods and Generals.

The battle epitomses the pain, bloodthirstiness, and humanity of war: the extremes of human vice and virtue, from the bloodbath at Mayre’s Heights and Slaughter Pen to the heroic and humanitarian efforts of General Richard Kirkland rendering aid to Union wounded, it’s a subject ripe for poetry being steeped, as it is, in such deep emotion.

The asterisks denote references to reality that I’ll outline below for those who didn’t while away their teenage years learning about the American Civil War:
 

1. The Irish carried two flags: a green one bearing the Harp of Erin, and the Standard of their Army. In this poem, the Irish brigade is serving the United States of America. Second only to the not-to-be-confused Iron Brigade, the Irish Brigade suffered the highest number of casualties of all Union brigades during the American Civil War. ↩︎
2. Ambrose Burnside was the Major General in command of the Union Army of the Potomac at Fredericksburg. The ‘Sideburn’ beard style is named after him, owing to his distinctive use of it. ↩︎
3. General Robert E. Lee, revered commander of the Confederate States Army of Northern Virginia. ↩︎
4. At the battle of Fredericksburg, there was a stone wall at Mayre’s Heights that fifteen Union brigades were ordered to advance on, but couldn’t reach. It’s also a play on words. A very famous and revered Confederate commander, “Stonewall” Jackson, was present at the battle with his mythologised First Brigade of Virginia volunteers, better known to history as “Stonewall’s Brigade”. ↩︎
5. Slaughter Pen was a part of the battlefield at Fredericksburg. Four thousand Condeferates and five thousand Yankees would be killed or wounded here alone. ↩︎
6. This is a reference to a story from the battle that deeply moved me, shining a waning light of humanitarian hope in a bloodthirsty and needless war. Known later as the “Angel of Mayre’s Heights, Confederate General Richard Rowland Kirkland repeatedly went out to provide aid to wounded Union soldiers under the watchful eye of both sides. It was feared he may be shot at by Union soldiers, which would in turn be met with Confederate counter-fire, likely killing Rowland in a crossfire. Such a tragedy did not materialise; some reports claim he didn’t stop going out into the field until he’d helped all 8,000 wounded men. Regrettably, Kirkland was killed at the Battle of Chatamauga the next year. ↩︎
7. The 24th Georgia were an Irish Confederate Regiment serving in Cobb’s Brigade (which was not itself an Irish Brigde, but a Brigade of other non-Irish Regiments under which the 24th, an Irish Regiment, served. The Confederate Irish present at the battle were thus a Regiment; Union Irish, a Brigade (formed of other Irish Regiments). This is noted in correction of the view oft-held that it was two Irish Brigades fighting each other. It’s sometimes simplified that way for emotional impact but it’s not the tactical truth. ↩︎
8. Johnny Reb is simply a term for a Condeferate Soldier. ↩︎
9. This line is a poetic embellishment that I thought was true when I wrote the poem in 2017. Writing in 2026, no formal order to retreat was issued by Union forces. Their assault was uncoordinated and repulsed, and officers were killed at alarmingly high rates which broke down the chain of command. Most regiments hugged the ground close to the wall at Mayre’s Heights and began, under cover of darkness, giving ground. No panicked ‘every man for himself’ happened: the men clustered under cover in desperate groups until they could retreat. ↩︎
10. This line (writing in 2026) is not actually true, and unfair to Mulholland’s legacy. St. Clair Augustine Mulholland was the commander of the 116th Pennsylvania, an Irish Regiment forming part of the Union Irish Brigade at Fredericksburg, himself wounded in the action leading the famed charge that mythologised the battle. He did not call a retreat. The Irish Brigade took cover, like the other bridages in the assualt, and waited for the darkness of nightfall to retreat. Short of ‘giving up the cause’, Mulholland later went on to lead his men at Chancellorsville the next year, and distinguished himself in the ensuing action, recovering the artillery of the 3rd Maine which had been previously been taken by the enemy. He survived beyond the end of the war, was honoured severally, and wounded many times in service to the Union. ↩︎