Irish pluck @ Ball's Bluff

[gary]

The following concerns an Irishman of Co. D, 15th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry at the Battle of Ball's Bluff:

When the retreat was ordered, he threw off his coat and pants and plunged into the icy current of the Potomac. He swam boldy across the river, and had just gained the Maryland shore, when he remembered that he had left $13.25 in the pocket of his coat. "Be jabers, Billy," said, he, "thim thirteen dollars is in me coat, and the bloody ribils will get 'em, and besides, I can't consint to part with the amount, so I'll jist go for them," and in he plunged in again. He got safely over, found his coat, secured his money, and recrossed the river. I saw him in camp this afternoon, and congratulated him on his pluck, endurance and success, to which he replied, "Oh, yis sir, 'twas all I'd saved from my three months' service, and I'm very fond of me pipe."