Visiting the Grave of Col. Patrick Kelly, Commander of the Irish Brigade at Gettysburg

Pat Young

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Many of you know that Thomas Francis Meagher commanded the Irish Brigade that he founded. In the Spring of 1863 he left the brigade when he was refused permission to recruit replacements for his men lost at Antietam and Fredericksburg. He was replaced by Col. Patrick Kelly who had commanded a company of the Fighting 69th NYVI. He was commanding the 88th NYVI of the Irish Brigade at the time that he took command of the brigade. He led his men at the Wheatfield at Gettysburg. The brigade lost 37% of its men there. After the battle he returned to command his regiment.

In December 2018 I visited his grave at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, NY, the site of the 69th's monument.
 
Was that on the original stone or was that a sentiment from 1998?
So, it appears that the new stone incorporated some of what was on the original stone and excerpted from this 1860s article from a Galway Ireland newspaper:

We copy into out columns to-day the obituary of Colonel Patrick Kelly, ofCastiehacket, near this town. Like so many thousands of our countrymen during the fratricidal war which devastates the once United States of America, our former neighbour, Colonel Kelly, has been mowed down by the pitiless scythe of death far from the green fields and loved home of his nativity; and like another Irish hero expiring on the distant battle-field, he not doubt, regretted that his gushing life blood was not shed for Ireland ...

This was on the original stone:

Faithful to us here, we loved him to the last.
 
So, it appears that the new stone incorporated some of what was on the original stone and excerpted from this 1860s article from a Galway Ireland newspaper:

We copy into out columns to-day the obituary of Colonel Patrick Kelly, ofCastiehacket, near this town. Like so many thousands of our countrymen during the fratricidal war which devastates the once United States of America, our former neighbour, Colonel Kelly, has been mowed down by the pitiless scythe of death far from the green fields and loved home of his nativity; and like another Irish hero expiring on the distant battle-field, he not doubt, regretted that his gushing life blood was not shed for Ireland ...

This was on the original stone:

Faithful to us here, we loved him to the last.
Thanks for that, Pat. I appreciate your effort to find that. Victorians had such a way with words.
 
Lt. William O'Grady of the 88th NY wrote of Kelly:

At Antietam, where the Irish Brigade, with 88th N.Y. in front, led the pursuing column from South Mountain, on Sept. 15, 1862, till passed by the 8th Illinois Cavalry and 5th N.H. to skirmish (they had rifles, we had buck and ball muskets), as soon as picket firing commenced and we were deployed, he gave the word 'Lie down, byes [boys], thim little fellows might hurt yez.' We had men of all sorts and conditions of life and the Colonel was apt to 'put on the brogue' just a little on such occasions with very happy effect, though he naturally had enough to give a delightful mellowness to his utterance of the English language. The men laughed, and, feeling tired, most of them fell asleep, waking up hours later to the tune of a cannonade and to find half the army up to the front. This care to guard his boys from the possible contusion of a half-spent minie ball did not interfere in the least with requiring them to charge home on the 17th [Antietam], or at Fredericksburg, or anywhere else.
 
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