ing terribly in
officers and men, and strewing the ground with their enemies as they
drove them back, their ammunition nearly exhausted, and their commander,
Gen. Meagher, disabled from the fall of his horse shot under him, this
brigade was ordered to give place to Gen. Caldwell's."

Now, I say from personal observation that the Irish brigade was never
farther in advance than the position it occupied when it was relieved by
the Sixty-first and Sixty-fourth N. Y., that the Irish brigade did not,
up to the time it was so relieved, pass over any ground that had been
occupied by the enemy and on which they had left any of their battle
flags. The battle flags captured by the Sixty-first and Sixty-fourth New
York were taken from the sunken road. No one ever heard me say a word in
derogation of the bravery of the Irish brigade. It was manifested at
Antietam, and on a score of other battlefields. The glorious history of
the second corps could not be written with its deeds left out. The Irish
brigade stood in its tracks and took its terrible punishment at Antietam
as heroically as did anything of Wellington's at Waterloo. Having said
all this, the fact remains the brigade was NOT tactically well placed.
Had it advanced to where the Sixty-first and Sixty-fourth later went, it
would have done much greater execution, and with smaller loss to
itself. The action of Barlow at Antietam proved beyond question his
exceptional military ability.

On my way home after Gettysburg, I spent one night in the Citizens'
hospital in Philadelphia. My cot was next to a Pennsylvanian's, who had
lost a leg at Chancellorsville. When he learned I was of Barlow's
regiment, he told me that about the finest sight he ever saw on the
battlefield was seeing Barlow lead his command into action at Antietam.
He was where he had a full view of the display. The regiments were in
line of battle, and he, with sabre in hand, was ahead of the line. Such
is the plain fact, as all who were there can testify.

On the 19th of September, Gen. McClellan was informed that during the
night Lee had pulled out, and placed the Potomac between him and us. The
Army of Northern Virginia crossed the river at Shepardstown. Thus ended
their proud invasion of Northern States.

We remained in our position for a number of days, burying the dead,
picking up the fragments, and getting ourselves together. The after view
of a battle field is a horrible sight--wreck, ruin and devastation a