|
Re-enactors with the 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry put boxwood sprigs in their hats before the battle.
Re-enactors portraying the 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry march along Sophia Street in the rain yesterday.
Park Service historian Frank O'Reilly leads a tour along the route |
By PAMELA GOULD
The soldiers of the 28th Massachusetts Regiment donned their wool uniforms and dark blue caps, slipped sprigs of boxwood into their capbands, and added black ponchos to ward off the chilly, steady rain as they prepared to march from City Dock to Marye's Heights for a battle they could not win.
With temperatures in the 30s, the wet chill provided yet another enemy.
But that was yesterday.
When the march of the Irish Brigade took place 147 years ago, the weather was sunny and mild, approaching 60 degrees, according to National Park Service historian Frank O'Reilly.
"You people are the craziest people I've ever met," O'Reilly said jokingly to the nearly two dozen men, women and children who assembled beneath umbrellas yesterday for the two-hour living-history walk commemorating the Battle of Fredericksburg and, specifically, the famous Irish Brigade.
O'Reilly, a park ranger, is author of "The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock."
Don Surmacz, who moved to southern Stafford County about seven years ago, said he's a student of the Civil War and is enjoying delving into the history that took place in and around Fredericksburg.
He'd previously visited famous battlefields such as those at Antietam and Gettysburg, but said that now that he lives in a historic area, he wants to "soak up as much information as possible."
Soak was exactly the right word for yesterday's outing.
Six-year-old Finbar Wade started the walk with his 10-year-old brother Seamus and their parents, Jim and Suzanne Wade, but he decided he wanted to get out of the cold before the tour ended.
He and his mother went inside the Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor Center to wait for the others to finish the walk.
Jim Wade was undaunted by the rain, but the large green Irish Brigade 69th Regiment flag he carried got drenched.
"We've been wanting to come to this for a while," said Wade, who lives with his family in Purcellville in Loudoun County. "We're into the Irish Brigade."
The Irish Brigade was composed of five regiments: the 28th Massachusetts, the 116th Pennsylvania and the 63rd, 69th and 88th New York.
Union forces suffered 13,000 casualties at the Battle of Fredericksburg, which was waged over three days on Dec. 11-13, 1862.
Confederate forces suffered 5,000 casualties, said O'Reilly, who called the battle "one of the most lopsided" of Gen. Robert E. Lee's victories.
The Irish Brigade suffered enormous casualties: 545 of the 1,200 men who went into battle were wounded or killed.
The 69th New York--Wade's favorite regiment--suffered an unheard-of toll, with all of its officers killed or wounded, and 112 of its 173 enlisted men meeting the same fate.
The Battle of Fredericksburg has two "iconic images"--the stone wall at the foot of Marye's Heights, and the assault of the Irish Brigade, O'Reilly said.
The Irish Brigade's task was destined to fail through no fault of its own. Yet its men were fighting not only to preserve the Union but also to establish themselves as Americans.
Their performance in the battle forever sealed their reputation for valor.
Yesterday, about 18 people turned out as re-enactors with the 28th Massachusetts. Two women in period costume joined them, ending with dirt-covered dresses.
John Gerlach came well-prepared to yesterday's living-history walk. He had his golf umbrella, his rain-repellent jacket and a digital recorder.
But, most of all, the Fredericksburg resident had done his homework.
"I've read [O'Reilly's] book before--backward and forward," Gerlach said.
Pamela Gould: 540/735-1972
Email: pgould@freelancestar.com
