Sheridan’s Final Charge at the Battle of Third Winchester (Library of Congress)

John Hines was entering his last battle. He was about to receive one of the most feared wounds inflicted during the Civil War- a bullet through his intestines. Captain Lincoln was beside John when he was struck; the agonies he witnessed Hines endure were to haunt the officer for the rest of his life.

At one of those movements when, while at a halt, we were under a sharp fire from the rebels, but a short distance in our front, I heard and almost felt, the zip and dull thud of a Minnié ball, which struck Hines of my company in the groin, – passed directly through his body, and lodged in the groin of his rear rank man, Burnham. Both fell without a word or a groan; – both laid still, as if dead, for a few moments; – when Burnham attempted to crawl away on his hands and knees. Sending a man to his aid, I moved up to, and laid down by the side of Hines. The whole line was down in obedience to such an order. As I laid my hand upon his head, Hines opened his eyes, and recognised me. “I’m kilt, Captain! clean kilt entirely! take care of my money, please.” I took it from his pocket, counted it, and told him the amount. “Yes, Captain! I know! fourteen dollars,”- and closing his eyes again, he laid still,- quiet and peaceful as a child; not a cry, not a groan escaped him. I had in my pocket a flask, with perhaps a half pint of whiskey, which, knowing what work was before us, I had kept for some occasion like this. How I did hate to spare it! Not that then I actually needed it, but that I never was more dry; and hardly ever would a drop have tasted better! But like a hero, I rose to the occasion, and with the spirit of a martyr, devoted it to Hines. Child-like, he sucked till he drew the last drop; and with a fervent “God bless you Captain!” and a smile like a cherub, laid back, to all appearance indifferent to all earthly things. No cheer of comrade,- no yell of defiant foe disturbed him: ”But he lay like a warrior taking his rest”, With the roar of battle around him.

I don’t know how long he remained thus quiet and peaceful; but it seemed a long while, when, with no previous warning, he writhed and twisted in convulsive agony, and gave utterance to the most unearthly cries and groans. I tried to pacify him;- telling him that he would exhaust himself, and that his cries would have a bad effect on his comrades. I might as well have talked to a dead man. He would not be quieted; but, in the most heart-rending tones begged me to put him out of his misery! “I’ve been a good soldier, Capt.? Haven’t I?” “Yes, Hines!” “And never asked a favor.” “No, Hines!” “Then, Capt., dear! do me a favor now, and God forever bless you!” “Take your pistol, Capt.! and for the love of the holy mother, blow out my brains.”

The Bugles blew loud and shrilly the order to charge; and I had time only to lay him on a blanket, which was stretched over a couple of muskets, and send him to the rear. I never saw him afterwards, he died that night; but those yells of his ring upon my ears, at this distance of time, as loud, and piercing, as when uttered on the plains of Winchester. (2)

It is difficult to trace the history of this unfortunate Irishman. Lincoln noted that he had no known family and that his backpay could never be released. However his pension index card suggests that a widow sought to claim a pension in October 1882. What is known is that he lived in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he was enlisted and mustered in on 19th November 1863 at the age of 25. On the 1860 census three members of the Hines family are indicated as living in the city’s 5th Ward; Hannah Hines, aged 60, Dennis Hines, aged 25 and John Hines, aged 23. Presumably Hannah was either Dennis and John’s mother or a female relative. When did John leave Ireland? A John and Dennis Hines appear as passengers with a number of other family members aboard the Telassar, which arrived in Boston from Liverpool on 9th June 1848. There was no older male relative among the group, and it seems likely given the date that this was a family fleeing the Famine then raging in Ireland. If this is indeed the same John Hines, he was far from the only Irish boy to escape the ravages of starvation in his native land only to die a gruesome death on the battlefields of the American Civil War. (3)

(1) Lincoln 1879:363; (2) Ibid: 361-3 (3) Index to Pension Files of Veterans,  Adjutant General 1932:619, 1860 Census, Boston Passenger Crews and Lists 1820-1943;

References & Further Reading

Adjutant General, 1932. Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors and Marines in the Civil War, Vol. 3

Lincoln, William S. 1879. Life with the Thirty-Fourth Mass. Infantry in the War of Rebellion

Wert, Jeffry D. 1997. From Winchester to Cedar Creek

Civil War Trust Third Battle of Winchester Page

The Battle of Gaines’ Mill was the third of what became known as the Seven Days’ Battles during the Peninsula Campaign. Confederate General Robert E. Lee was engaged in a series of attacks to beat back Major-General George McClellan’s advance on Richmond. The Fifth Corps of the Army of the Potomac, under Brigadier-General Fitz John Porter, was isolated from the rest of the Federal army on the north bank of the Chickahominy River when the Rebels struck. Lee would continue to throw repeated ferocious assaults against Porter’s line throughout the 27th June as he attempted to drive the Yankees back across the river.

The ruins of Gaines’ Mill, Virginia. (Photographic History of the Civil War)

For now the 9th Massachusetts found themselves far in advance of their Corps’ main line, as Gregg began to deploy elements of the 1st South Carolina and 12th South Carolina as skirmishers to contest the crossing of the mill creek. As they approached the bridge, Captain McCafferty’s Company I shot buck and ball into them from their front, while Captain O’Leary’s Company F poured an enfilading fire into their right flank. With the Irishmen protected behind trees, the Carolinians were forced back, but they would continue to contest the crossing. Colonel Cass sent forward Companies A and D under the command of Major Hanley to reinforce his skirmishers. Eventually Gregg was compelled to fully deploy the 1st and 12th South Carolina to meet the threat, and managed to force his troops across the creek in column of companies. As the Rebels formed on the east bank the skirmishers under Hanley continued to pepper them with buck and ball. Soon after Gregg had deployed his entire brigade in front of the Irishmen, and the 9th had no choice but to begin a controlled retreat in the direction of the Union main line, halting at intervals to fire into the advancing Rebels. One such halt during the retreat was beyond yet another small creek, where Hanley shouted instructions at his skirmishers: ‘Now boys, let us give them one more shot, and then fall back as fast as we can.’ Many of the men, heedless of the imminent danger, took the opportunity of the stop to supply themselves with fresh pairs of stockings from an abandoned cart nearby. As more and more Confederates streamed forward the Irishmen fired their final shot, and then made for the safety of their own lines. (2)

Lieutenant Frank O’Dowd was now in command of Company I (Captain McCafferty and 1st Lieutenant Nugent were already amongst the fallen), when the skirmishers started back. As he turned for the rear an enemy shell exploded beside him, breaking his leg above the ankle. Unable to move, he desperately shouted after his friend, Sergeant J.W. MacNamara, ‘For God’s sake, Jim, don’t leave me!.’ MacNamara was not about to leave the man with whom he had served in the ranks and shared a tent. He called on two of his men, Jerry Cronin and William Winn, to help him with the Lieutenant. Winn took the officer on his back while Cronin and MacNamara supported him on either side. The air was now filled with lead as the four men dashed for the rear. Their luck didn’t hold. A bullet slammed into MacNamara’s calf striking the bone, disabling him. At the same time a bullet passed through Lieutenant O’Dowd’s body, killing him, before continuing on to tear through William Winn’s chest, causing a mortal wound. Sergeant MacNamara roared at Cronin to leave them where they were and save himself. The Confederates were on the position within minutes, and one of the Rebels charged his bayonet at MacNamara, shouting ‘Get up, Yank!’ MacNamara told him he couldn’t move and requested water. The enemy soldier threw his canteen at the Irishman and moved on- the Sergeant was now a prisoner. The survivors of the 9th eventually reached the main line and the remainder of their brigade. Maxcy Gregg knew who he had been fighting. In his official report the General would grudgingly state: ‘Among the troops driven from the ground the Ninth Massachusetts Regiment was noticed.’ The 9th Massachusetts were in fact the only troops Gregg’s men had encountered. The Irishmen’s Corps commander Fitz John Porter had noticed them too. After the war he would write: ‘At Gaines’s Mill, Colonel Thomas Cass’s gallant 9th Massachusetts Volunteers of Griffin’s brigade obstinately resisted A.P. Hill’s crossing [Gregg's Corps Commander], and were so successful in delaying his advance, after crossing, as to compel him to employ large bodies to force the regiment back to the main line.’(3)

Colonel Thomas Cass, 9th Massachusetts Infantry. He was mortally wounded at Malvern Hill on 1st July, 1862. (Library of Congress)

Despite this heavy fighting, the day had barely begun for Colonel Cass and his Irishmen. It was now about 2 p.m., and they were finally back on the main Fifth Corps defensive line, where they were positioned near the Corps centre in a wooded area behind Boatswain Creek. Brigadier-General Griffin placed them on the right of his brigade, supporting Captain Martin’s 3rd Massachusetts Battery. The artillery gouged huge gaps through the advancing Confederates who were now approaching down the road from New Cold Harbor. Sometime around 2.30 p.m. the Rebel’s launched a fierce attack to try and capture the deadly guns. The 9th bore the brunt of the onslaught, and although the left of their line wavered for a moment they succeeded in driving the enemy back. But the Confederates weren’t finished. They came on again and again as the afternoon wore on, while the 9th supported by the 62nd Pennsylvania, 14th New York and 1st U.S. Sharpshooters desperately tried to hold on. The Irishmen ran out of ammunition and were forced to strip the dead and wounded for more rounds, but they and their brigade succeeded in repulsing the attacks. The Confederates were now beginning to surge forward up and down the Fifth Corps line in a desperate attempt to break through. As 9th Massachusetts veteran Daniel George MacNamara described it, ‘men fell dead and wounded on both sides like grain before the reaper’s sickle. Guns were captured and retaken by desperate charges and counter- charges. Confederate regimental colors were snatched and taken from their bearers in hand-to-hand encounters. Prisoners were captured in the dense smoke of battle as they became lost and bewildered and separated from their broken and defeated battalions.’ (4)

A lull fell over the battlefield as afternoon turned to evening, but it would prove only a temporary respite. The Confederate’s were simply manoeuvring for a renewed assault, which they launched around 6.30 p.m. Finally, as the light began to fade, the Union defensive line broke, and from left to right Porter’s men tumbled back towards the Chickahominy. Still the desperately thinned ranks of the 9th Massachusetts did not break pell-mell for the rear. As the New York Herald put it: ‘To break and run was not for the men who had covered themselves with glory during the entire day.’ Colonel Cass, who had been suffering from an illness before the battle, was now completely exhausted and unable to continue, so he passed command of the regiment to Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Guiney. The Irishmen, having been the extreme advance of the Corps at Gaines’ Mill earlier in the day, now found themselves acting as its rearguard. (5)

As the Fifth Corps position crumbled, Guiney withdrew his men, who were now being subjected to a galling enemy fire from the front and flanks. Deciding that attack was the best form of defence, Guiney, extolling his men to ‘follow your colors!’ halted the retreat no less than nine times. Each time the Irishmen turned on their pursuers to fire and even charge towards the enemy, buying time to continue the withdrawal. Finally two brigades of the Second Corps which had crossed the Chickahominy to aid the Fifth Corps appeared. One of these units was none other than Meagher’s Irish Brigade. Meagher approached Guiney, and mistaking him for Colonel Cass in the twilight called out ‘Colonel Cass, is this you?.’ Guiney responded: ‘Hallo, General Meagher, is this the Irish Brigade? Thank God, we are saved!.’ The seemingly endless days fighting for the 9th Massachusetts was over. The Fifth Corps retreated south of the Chickahominy during the night and rejoined the rest of the Army of the Potomac. Gaines’ Mill was a Confederate victory, but poor Rebel coordination and the determination of regiments such as the 9th Massachusetts prevented the destruction of Fitz John Porter’s force. (6)

Officers and men of the 9th Massachusetts prepare to celebrate mass in camp near Washington D.C. This photo was taken prior to the 1862 Peninsula Campaign. (Library of Congress)

The 9th Massachusetts Volunteers had endured a day of fighting to equal anything experienced by any regiment of the Army of the Potomac during the war. Their casualties were horrendous. A total of 249 men had been lost in the eight hours since they had first become engaged, 82 of whom were killed or mortally wounded. This was the highest loss of any Union regiment engaged at Gaines’ Mill. Today, The Civil War Trust have an opportunity to purchase a portion of ground near the Fifth Corps defensive line, in a section of land referred to as Griffin’s Woods. It was close to this spot that the 9th Massachusetts, part of Griffin’s brigade, helped to repulse Confederate assaults during the afternoons fighting, before eventually being forced to retreat. To find out more about this parcel of land see the Civil War Trust appeal here. (7)

9th Massachusetts veteran Daniel George MacNamara wrote a history of the regiment in which he served after the Civil War, carefully recording the names of those who died as a result of the fighting at the Battle of Gaines’ Mill. The 82 men who lost their lives are as follows:

Company A: Private William Adams, Private James Doherty, Private James Foley, Private John Gleason, Private Patrick Keating, Private Maurice Lynch, Private John Manning, Private James McGuire, Private Peter McIntire, Private Paul Melanfry, Private Roger Pope, Private Hugh Tiernan

Company B: Private Andrew Conlon, Private John Cullinan, Private Daniel Doherty, Private Thomas Hogan, Private Dennis Hyde, Private Michael Keenan, Private Patrick McGaffany (or McGaffigan), Private John McQuade, Private John O’Brien

Company C: Captain William Madigan, Sergeant George Grier, Corporal Patrick McGee, Corporal James Hughes, Corporal Daniel Leary, Private Charles Greaney, Private John Hyde, Private Michael Slattery

Company D: First Sergeant Patrick Collins, Private John Flynn, Private Neil McConologue, Private James F. McDonough, Private William McFeeley, Private Terence McGrade (died of wounds), Private Francis McKenna, Private John Cartwright (died of wounds, Company I)

Company E: Private Timothy Cahill, Private James Condon, Private Michael Fitzgerald, Private Joseph Lambert, Private Thomas Marrin, Private Joseph F. Smyth (or Smith, died of wounds 29th June 1862), Private Michael Sullivan (died of wounds 29th June 1862), Private Michael Horan (died of wounds 29th June 1862)

Company F: Private Robert Farrell, Private John F. Finney (died of wounds 6th July 1862), Private Peter McNamara, Private Patrick Meagher, Private James Reagan

Company G: Captain John Carey, Private Patrick Clark, Private John Crowley, Private Bartholomew Finnerty, Private Cornelius Long, Private Charles Quinn, Private Patrick Scolland

Company H: Captain Jeremiah O’Neill, Private Thomas Cummings, Private Simon Curley, Private Samuel Day, Private William McBrian (or McBrine), Private James McGovern (died of wounds 7th August 1862), Private Jeremiah Murphy, Private John O’Neil, Private John Haggerty (died of wounds 27th June 1862)

Company I: Captain James E. McCafferty, First Lieutenant Richard P. Nugent, Second Lieutenant Frank O’Dowd, Corporal Maurice Cotter, Private Patrick Curran, Corporal Charles Kearney, Private John Fitzgibbon, Private John Garrity, Private Patrick Nagle, Private William Winn

Company K: Corporal Hugh O’Hare, Private John Butler, Private Patrick Dennison, Private Daniel Riordan, Private Daniel Riordan (different from previous), Private Bartlett Tully

(1) D.G. MacNamara 1899: 114-117; (2) D.G. MacNamara 1899: 117-118, M.H. McNamara 1867: 96, Official Records Series 1, Volume 11 (Part 2): 854; (3) D.G. MacNamara 1899: 118-119; Official Records Series 1, Volume 11 (Part 2):854, Porter 1887: 336 (4) D.G. MacNamara 1899: 122-124, M.H. McNamara 1867: 96-98,  Samito (ed.) 1998: 113, Official Records Series 1, Volume 11 (Part 2): 313; (5) Porter 1887: 339-340, D.G. MacNamara 1899: 125- 127, Samito 1998: 114; (6) D.G. MacNamara 1899: 126-127, Conyngham 1867: 186; (7) D.G. MacNamara 1899: 126-128, Samito (ed.) 1998: 115, M.H. McNamara 1867:  100- 103;

References & Further Reading

Conyngham, David Power (edited by Lawrence Kohl) 1994. The Irish Brigade and its Campaigns (1st Edition 1867)

Guiney, Patrick R. (edited by Christian G. Samito) 1998. Commanding Boston’s Irish Ninth: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Patrick R. Guiney Ninth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry

MacNamara, Daniel George (edited by Christian G. Samito) 2000. The History of the Ninth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Second Brigade, First Division, Fifth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, June 1861- June 1864(1st Edition 1899)

MacNamara, M.H. 1867. The Irish Ninth in Bivouac and Battle; or Virginia and Maryland Campaigns

Porter, Fitz John 1887. ‘Hanover Court House and Gaines’s Mill’ in Battle and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. 2.

Official Records Series 1, Volume 11 (Part 2), Chapter 23. Report of Brig. Gen. Maxcy Gregg, C.S. Army, commanding Second Brigade, of the battles of Mechanicsville and Gaines’ Mill

Official Records Series 1, Volume 11 (Part 2), Chapter 23. Report of Brig. Gen. Charles Griffin, U.S. Army, commanding Second Brigade, of the battles of Mechanicsville and Gaines’ Mill, engagement at Turkey Bridge, and battle of Malvern Hill

Richmond National Battlefield Park

Civil War Trust Seven Days Battles Page

Civil War Trust Battle of Gaines’ Mill Page

Sergeant Thomas Plunkett with the bloodstained flag of the 21st Massachusetts (University of South Florida)

Irishman Thomas Plunkett lived in West Boylston, Massachusetts before the war. He mustered into service on 23rd August 1861 as a 21 year old, joining Company E of the regiment. On 13th December 1862 the Sergeant and his comrades in the 21st Massachusetts were serving under Lieutenant- Colonel William Clark, part of Ferrero’s Brigade of Sturgis’s Division in Willcox’s IX Corps. (1)

Thomas had watched as soldiers of the II Corps, including his countrymen in Meagher’s Irish Brigade, dashed themselves against the almost impregnable Confederate positions on Marye’s Heights. It was now up to the Massachusetts men to try to breach the stone wall. Even as they dressed their line for the attack,  shells began to rain down. Warren Webster of Company I was decapitated before the men could surge forward at the double-quick. As they closed the range on the Confederates, canister and small arms fire were added to the deadly mix. (2)

The regimental colors were a key target for the rebels; Color Corporal Elbridge C. Barr of Company C, carrying the state colors, and Color- Sergeant Joseph H. Collins of Company A who held aloft the national colors both fell mortally wounded. Thomas Plunkett was positioned at the rear of the regiment with orders to prevent straggling when Collins went down. Throwing away his gun he picked up the stars and stripes and moved to the front of the advancing men as they closed towards the stone wall. Now a valued target himself, the Irishman had a near miss when a bullet pierced his cap. He was fortunate on that occasion, but Thomas’s luck would soon run out. (3)

As the 21st Massachusetts pressed on towards the stone wall and fire continued to intensify, a shell exploded in front of the Sergeant, killing three of his comrades. A shrapnel fragment almost tore away his right arm near the shoulder, leaving it hanging by a strip of flesh. The deadly projectile continued towards his chest, where it impacted a book that Thomas had picked up in Fredericksburg earlier in the day. The book saved his life, but the deflected metal journeyed on to smash into his left wrist, creating another terrible wound. Still the Irishman did not go down, somehow managing to keep the banner aloft while shouting out ‘Don’t let it fall boys, don’t let it fall’. He remained there, with the flag quickly becoming soaked in his blood, until Bradley R. Olney of Company H relieved him of his charge. Assisted by Lieutenant-Colonel Clark, Plunkett managed to make his way back towards the rear, eventually being stretchered to a temporary hospital in Fredericksburg. (4)

Clara Barton as photographed by Mathew Brady in 1865

Unfortunately for Thomas his arms could not be saved, and later that day he endured a double amputation. He was not expected to survive, and was fortunate that a soon to be famous nurse was in Fredericksburg to offer him assistance. Clara Barton, the future founder of the American Red Cross, had a special affinity with the 21st Massachusetts and stayed with Thomas as the surgeons did their work. She was shown the flag that he had carried and remarked that his blood ‘literally obliterated the stripes.’ Sergeant Plunkett was moved from a field hospital towards the rear on 25th December, along with other wounded from the regiment. On their way to the train station their comrades in the 21st stood at ‘present arms’ in their honour, wishing them well on their road to recovery. (5)

Clara Barton continued to be of assistance to the Irishman during 1863. Thomas had recovered sufficiently in the Armory Square Hospital to leave, but his brother was unable to get permission from the military authorities to collect him. Clara took Thomas to see Senator Henry Wilson on the Capitol to sort the matter out. After introducing him, the Senator extended his hand saying ‘How do you do, Sergeant?’; Clara interceded, gently telling the Senator ‘You will pardon the Sergeant for not offering you a hand, he has none.’ Shocked, Wilson exclaimed ‘No hands!, No hands! My God, where are they?’. Clara explained the situation, and the Senator speedily resolved the difficulties, allowing Thomas to return home. (6)

Thomas Plunkett was discharged from service on 9th March, 1864. He met Clara Barton again that April, letting her know that he had been the recipient of $4000 from charitable donors; he was also granted a full pension. The Irishman was awarded the Medal of Honor on 30th March, 1866. His citation read: ‘Seized the colors of his regiment, the color bearer having been shot down, and bore them to the front where both his arms were carried off by a shell.’ Thomas went on to marry and have two children, and later in life he would spend 15 years as a messenger in the State House at Boston. Thomas Plunkett died on 10th March 1885 at the age of 44, in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he is buried in Hope Cemetery. The bloodstained flag that he carried that December day still survives, and is preserved in the Massachusetts State House. (7)

(1) Walcott 1882: 459; (2) Ibid: 241; (3) Walcott 1882: 241, New York Times obituary 1885; (4) Walcott 1882: 241, New York Times obituary 1885, Oates 1994: 113; (5) Oates 1994: 114, Walcott 1882: 258; (6) Oates 1994: 122; (7) Walcott 1882: 459, Oates 1994: 134, Broadwater 2007: 159, New York Times obituary 1885;

References & Further Reading

Broadwater, Robert P. 2007. Civil War Medal of Honor Recipients: A Complete Illustrated Record

Oates, Stephen B. 1994. A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War

O’Reilly, Francis Augustin 2003. The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock

Walcott, Charles F. 1882. History of the Twenty-First Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, in the War for Preservation of the Union, 1861- 1865

New York Times 11th March 1885 ‘A Heroic Color-Bearer Dead’

Civil War Preservation Trust Fredericksburg Page

Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park

The Saunder's Field, where the 9th Massachusetts were engaged at The Wilderness (Library of Congress)

Hanley might have been excused for pointing out to his commanding officer that the absence of his regimental Colonel Patrick Guiney and many of the rest of the Massachusetts Irishmen was proof enough that the 9th had already been engaged. Nevertheless, he formed the men up in line of battle to prepare to enter the fray once more. Fortunately, the division commander Brigadier-General Charles Griffin appeared to have a better grasp of the situation than Colonel Sweitzer. He saw the 9th preparing to go in again and swiftly sent a staff officer over to countermand the order; their fighting was finished for the day. (2)

The Wilderness was not a location where Ulysses S. Grant would have chosen to fight Robert E. Lee. The heavily wooded terrain and thick undergrowth made command and control almost impossible, and worse still it negated the advantage in numbers which the Union army enjoyed. Indeed Brigadier-General Griffin and the rest of the V Corps had not even expected to encounter the Confederates anywhere near the Orange Turnpike along which they were now positioned. The fact that they were in close proximity became clear when skirmish fire erupted along the line. Griffin was ordered forward with his division, and he advanced with a two brigade front, with Sweitzer’s brigade, including the 9th Massachusetts, in support. (3)

Griffin’s lead brigades encountered the main Confederate line in the vicinity of Saunder’s Field, where the ground opened up somewhat from the dense forest. The initial Federal attack was met by heavy Confederate fire and repulsed, and in the process two artillery pieces of Company D, 1st New York Light Artillery were captured. Sweitzer’s brigade and Guiney’s 9th were the next brigade up, advancing along the turnpike. As they emerged from the woods into the Saunder’s Field the Irishmen were confronted by the captured guns, which the rebels had decked out with southern flags since securing them. Unable to endure this taunt, Colonel Guiney resolved to recapture the pieces and ordered his men into the field to take them back. (4)

Confederate entrenchments at the edge of the Saunder's Field, illustrating the wooded Wilderness terrain (Library of Congress)

What Guiney did not realise was that the Saunder’s Field was a killing zone, swept with Confederate fire. Indeed the flags were probably placed on the guns by the rebels in the hope that a Union force would be drawn out to try and recapture them.  The Irishmen began to drop quickly as they advanced, and Colonel Guiney was soon amongst the casualties, going down with a minie ball through the left eye. He would survive but would never again return to the front. As the 9th pressed on they were met with tremendous volleys of fire from concealed enemy positions in the woods to their front and flank. Daniel George MacNamara noted that if the volley had been repeated not a man of the regiment would have got away. Lieutenant-Colonel Hanley, now in charge of the Irishmen, saw that they were unsupported and had no option but to withdraw back to the woods from whence they had come, leaving the guns to the Confederates. (5)

The whole action had lasted but a few minutes. Indeed it had been so fast that Colonel Sweitzer had been unaware it had taken place at all. Despite the brevity of the fighting, the 9th Massachusetts had sustained appalling casualties; no fewer than 12 officers and 138 men lay killed and wounded. The next day, upon realising the extent of the 9th’s losses, Colonel Sweitzer sought out Hanley to apologise for his orders, stating that he did not realise the regiment had been engaged and taken such casualties. The battle raged on again on 6th May, but the Irishmen would not be seriously engaged. There was more bloodshed to come for them in the weeks ahead, but the end was in sight, with the regiment completing its service and mustering out on 21st June 1864. However, the number of men who did make it home to Massachusetts that June was greatly reduced as a result of those devastating few minutes in the Saunders Field. (6)

Daniel George MacNamara compiled a list of the men of the 9th Massachusetts who were killed and mortally wounded at The Wilderness:

Officers: Captain James W. MacNamara, Captain William A. Phelan, 1st Lieutenant Nicholas C. Flaherty, 2d Lieutenant Charles B. McGinniskin

Company A: Sergeant Thomas Fitzgerald, Corporal Paul McCluskey (died of wounds 15th July 1864, Andersonville, Georgia), Private John Coffee, Private Timothy Rahilly

Company B: Private Martin Sheehan, Private John Ferris, Private John Reagan, Private James Ward

Company C: Private Michael Dolan, Private John Flanagan, Private Edward Pettie, Private Erasmus D. Marden (or Madden)

Company D: Corporal James I. Healey, Corporal James McCann, Private James Walsh

Company E: Corporal Richard Condon, Private James Mullooney, Private Thomas Murphy, Private Bernard Conway (died of wounds 9th July in Philadelphia)

Company F: Private Patrick Shea (died of wounds 31st May 1864)

Company G: Private John Connors, Private Jedediah Bumpus, Private Richard Furfey, Private Peter Hughes, Private Patrick Mulloy, Private George L. Green (died of wounds 12th May 1864)

Company H: Private Francis Finnerty, Private William Peachy, Private James O’Connell (died of wounds in prison 7th October 1864)

Company I: Corporal Bernard Hayes, Private Stephen Blake, Private William Gillis (died of wounds 5th May 1864), Private Michael Garrity (died of wounds 17th June 1864), Private Lawrence Mathews (died of wounds 5th May 1864), Private Thomas Hackett

Company K: Sergeant James Hayes (died of wounds 5th May 1864), Private Michael Connell, Private Joseph Flynn, Private Patrick Kelleher, Private William Schmidt

(1) MacNamara 1899: 372; (2) Ibid; (3) Samito (ed) 1998: 243-245; (4) MacNamara 1899: 372, Samito (ed) 1998: 244; Rhea 1994: 169-170; (5) MacNamara 1899: 372, Rhea 1994: 169-170; (6) MacNamara 1899: 373

References & Further Reading

Guiney, Patrick R. (edited by Christian G. Samito) 1998. Commanding Boston’s Irish Ninth: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Patrick R. Guiney Ninth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry

MacNamara, Daniel George (edited by Christian G. Samito) 2000. The History of the Ninth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Second Brigade, First Division, Fifth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, June 1861- June 1864 (1st Edition 1899)

Rhea, Gordon C. 1994. The Battle of the Wilderness May 5- 6 1864

National Park Service Battle of The Wilderness Page

Civil War Trust Battle of The Wilderness Page