The Fighting Sixty-Ninth: Irish New York Declares War

 The Fighting Sixty-Ninth: Irish New York Declares War - Long Island Wins "When Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, it was not clear what New York’s best-known regiment would do. The New York State Militia’s “Fighting Irish” 69th Infantry Regiment was one of the most controversial, and beloved, military units in the United States. But its loyalty to the Union and its willingness to submit to Lincoln’s control were in doubt.

"Today we think of militias as paramilitary groups attached to extremist political movements. Historians like to compare Civil War-era militias to today’s National Guard: part-time soldiers under state control who could be federalized in times of national emergency. Upon closer examination, however, we find that the militia units of 1861 were not exact counterparts of either.

"The 69th New York was formed in 1849. The city was flooding with refugees from the Potato Famine and exiles connected with the failed 1848 revolt against British rule. Irish immigrant leaders saw the formation of an Irish military unit as a way of focusing a dispirited community on a future in which they would be able to challenge their overlords.

"The leadership of the regiment would come from a cadre of recent nationalist exiles associated with the Young Ireland revolutionary movement who believed that Irish in their homeland and in the growing diaspora needed an armed force to win respect.". . . 

. . .