Henry Wiencek wrote:
> I quote this description of the Battle of Fredericksburg from the
> Time-Life book "Brother Against Brother":
> " ... General Thomas Meagher's Irish Brigade came on at the
> double-quick, the men carrying a green flag and wearing green sprigs in
> their caps to celebrate their heritage. By chance, they faced a sector
> of the line held by the Irishmen of Colonel Robert McMillan's 24th
> Georgia Regiment.  The Confederates recognized their countrymen by their
> green emblems, and someone exclaimed, 'What a pity. Here come Meagher's
> fellows.'  Then the Georgians took aim and mowed down their fellow
> Irishmen."

It's not often that I can tell you what happened to some of the folks that
are discussed on this list, but I do know something of Gen. Thomas Meagher.
He was appointed secretary of Montana Territory.  Upon the
removal/resignation of the first governor of the Territory, Sidney Edgerton,
Meagher became the Acting Governor.  He was a charismatic and superbly
self-confident activist leader who took a leading role in trying to
establish the Territory as a State.  He elected to take the prototype state
constitution to Congress and to press for the admission of the Territory in
1866.  En route he boarded a steamboat at Ft. Benton on the Missouri River.
It is not clear exactly what happened next, but it is believed that he
slipped and fell while boarding the vessel and disappeared into the river.
Neither Thomas Francis Meagher nor the constitution were ever seen again.  A
gilded bronze statue of Meagher on a horse stands before the capitol
building in Helena.  In Montana, and perhaps elsewhere, Meagher is
pronounced "Marr."

Mike Poston
Rockville, Maryland

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