Largely
recruited from the Irish in New York City, the eighty-eighth New York Regiment
marched off to war under the leadership of Col. Thomas F, Meagher. Because his
wife had gone to great pains to secure and to present a U.S. flag to the
fighting men, this unit of ninety-day volunteers was popularly known as “Mrs.
Meagher’s Own.”
Meagher
later organized and led the famous Irish Brigade. Soon a brigadier general, he
served with distinction at Seven Pines, the Seven Day, Antietam,
Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. Always fighting under his wife’s flag.
Meagher tried to resign when told he could not recruit new members of his
command. Republican leaders refused to accept the resignation of the Democratic
brigadier and kept him close to his flag until May 1865.
