96 THE IRISH PEOPLE. 



child's play as compared with the onslaught directed 

 by the Federals in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 Fredericksburg. The impression that the Con- 

 federate batteries would not fire heavily on the 

 Federals advancing in this quarter, for fear of 

 destroying the town of I redericksburg, is believed 

 to have prevailed amongst the Northern Generals. 

 How bitterly they deceived themselves subsequent 

 events served to show. To the Irish division, 

 commanded by General Meagher, was principally 

 committed the desperate task of bursting out of 

 Fredericksburg, and forming under the withering 

 fire of the Confederate batteries, to attack Maire's 

 Heights, towering immediately in their front. Never 

 at Fontenoy, at Albuera, or at Waterloo, was more 

 undaunted courage displayed by the sons of Erin 

 than during the six frantic dashes which they 

 directed against their foes. . . . After witness- 

 ing the gallantry and devotion exhibited by these 

 troops, and viewing the hill sides for acres, strewn 

 with their corpses as thick as autumnal leaves, the 

 spectator can remember nothing but their desperate 

 courage, and regret that it was not exhibited in a 

 better cause. That any mortal men could have 

 carried the position before which they were wantonly 

 sacrificed, defended as it was, seems to me idle for 

 a. moment to believe. But the bodies which lie in 



