CDV OF SPOT WHERE IRISH BRIGADE COL. HAGERTY, 69TH N.Y., WAS KILLED AT BULL RUN

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CDV OF SPOT WHERE IRISH BRIGADE COL. HAGERTY, 69TH N.Y., WAS KILLED AT BULL RUN:
$152.50

Brady CDV showing spot where Col. William Hagerty was killed at the head of 1000 Irish of the 69th New York, at First Bull Run.Here is an account of his death: The 69th formed part of Colonel William Tecumseh Sherman’s brigade for the duration of the campaign. James Haggerty was to serve as acting Lieutenant-Colonel for the regiment during the days ahead, as Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Nugent had been injured following a fall from his horse. He did not have to wait long to prove his worth. On the 18th July an engagement at Blackburn’s Ford took place, a fight in which the Union troops were forced to retreat. As the 69th advanced to support the attacking units, they encountered another Union regiment moving in the opposite direction. Mistaking their comrades for Rebels, the Irish were about to fire on them when Haggerty ‘dashed along the line and struck the bayonets up with his sword,- his keen eye, which never ceased its watchful care, having detected the error of his men’. During a subsequent artillery barrage the men of the 69th were ordered to lie down, but Haggerty chose to set an example, standing erect on the right of the line.*(5)The 21st July 1861 arrived, and Haggerty and his men were about to face their first serious engagement. In the early phase of the Battle of Bull Run they preformed a holding role at Stone Bridge while a strong Union force moved to flank the Confederate left by crossing at upstream fords. The fight had already been raging for some time when the Irishmen eventually got the order to cross Bull Run creek. They were to form a junction with the already engaged main attacking force; to do so Sherman’s brigade had to negotiate Rebels who were in the process of retreating from their positions on Matthews Hill to a new line on Henry Hill. The march of the 69th was bringing them up on the right and right-rear of some of these withdrawing Confederates.Having crossed the creek the Irishmen moved into a meadow, and found the woods to their front filled with a number of retreating Rebels. William Tecumseh Sherman describes what happened next: ‘Lieutenant- Colonel Haggerty, of the Sixty-ninth, without orders, rode out and endeavored to intercept their retreat. One of the enemy, in full view, at short range, shot Haggerty, and he fell dead from his horse.’ Perhaps incensed at what had just happened, the 69th opened fire on the retreating Rebels, who replied in kind. Sherman ordered the firing ceased as he was determined to move his brigade up to join in with the main attack. Captain James Kelly of the 69th related that Haggerty was ‘killed by a Louisiana Zouave, whom he pursued as the latter was on his retreat with his regiment into the woods, and several of our men were severely wounded.’ If Kelly is right in his assessment then it is possible that Haggerty fell at the hands of a fellow Irishman, as many of the Louisiana zouaves were of Irish origin. Nice condition.