The Irish Brigade at Antietam

12 3/4 x 10 1/2, full color print, titled "Raise The Colors and Follow Me." This 1862 battle scene shows General Thomas F. Meagher on horseback, sword upraised, leading the Irish Brigade, their emerald green battle flag with harp and sunburst directly behind him, as they approach the Sunken Road at Antietam where the Confederate troops are entrenched. Executed from the original painting by Mort Kunstler. Printed on quality stock, with vivid colors, this calendar print would look great framed in your office or den or for use with a historical display.

General Thomas F. Meagher: (1823-67) Born in Ireland. As a disciple of Irish liberty, he took part in the various independence movements, and in 1849 he was banished to Tasmania by a benovolent British government. Three years later he escaped to California and from there made his way to New York. He found Manhattan to be the place that perfectly suited his talents for rabble rousing oratory and quickly became the darling of the Young Ireland group. In 1861, he organized a zouave company which became one of the units that made up the "Fighting 69th" New York Militia; this command whose colonel was Michael Corcoran, fought at 1st Bull Run with Meagher as its major, in W.T. Sherman's brigade. The following winter Meagher organized the "Irish Brigade" in New York City, and was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers by President Lincoln. The Irish Brigade took part in all the battles of the Army of the Potomac from Bull Run to Chancellorsville, none of its exploits, however, exceeding their valiant, but hopeless charge against the entrenched Confederate position on Mayre's Heights, at Fredericksburg, on Dec. 13, 1862, where they were cut to pieces. When he rufused to recruit his decimated ranks, and it was proposed to disband the brigade by distributing its men into other commands, Meagher who regarded the brigade as a symbol of Irish glory, submitted his resignation on May 14, 1863. The resignation, however, was not accepted and in 1864-65 he commanded at various points in the rear of Gen. W.T. Sherman's army. In 1865 he was appointed territorial governor of Montana. On July 1, 1867, he presumably fell from the deck of a steamboat, under mysterious circumstances, into the Missouri River and drowned. His body was never recovered.