The “Louisiana Tigers”, who fought so valiantly at Gettysburg on the Southern side, included many Irish.  The Georgia brigade, that held the Confederate line atop of Marye’s Heights at Fredericksburg, up which the Irish brigade so heroically charged, had whole companies of Irish.  There were scores of Irish in many of the regiments that made Pickett’s memorable charge at Gettysburg.  All through the Confederate armies were valiant descendants of the earlier Irish immigration that settled the uplands of the Carolinas and Virginia and the blue grass region of Kentucky.  Most famous, most glorious of these was “Stonewall” Jackson—­Lieutenant-General Thomas Jonathan Jackson—­next to Robert E. Lee the greatest soldier on the southern side.  No more splendid soldier-figure rises out of the contest.  Educated at West Point, serving in Mexico, then a professor of philosophy—­and artillery—­next a volunteer with his State when Virginia took arms against the Union, his long and brilliant service included a large share in the victories at Bull Run, Gaines Mill, Malvern Hill, Cedar Mountain, Harper’s Ferry, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville, where he was accidentally wounded by his own men.  He was once defeated by General Shields, as has been noted.  The piety and purity of his life belie the supposed necessity for the coarser traits that are thought to go with the terrible trade.  General Patrick R. Cleburne was born in 1828, near Cork, Ireland.  He was in the English army three years, and, coming to the United States, became a lawyer at Helena, Ark.  He enlisted in the Confederate army as a private, rose rapidly to the command of a brigade, and made a great name at Shiloh.  As major-general he led divisions at Murfreesboro and Chickamauga, and was thanked by the Confederate Congress.  He fell at the battle of Franklin—­a soldier of commanding presence, skill, and daring, beloved by the whole Army of the West.  The gallant colonel Thomas Claiborne was a striking cavalryman.  It was Lieutenant Thomas A. Claiborne of the 1st South Carolina who, with Corporal B. Brannan, lashed the broken flagstaff on Fort Sumter in June, 1864, when, under a withering fire, the flag of the Confederacy had been shot away.  The fighting of Major-General Gary of South Carolina around Richmond was desperate.  He was the last to leave the city when it fell, as told by Captain Sullivan:  “He galloped at night through the burning city, and at the bridge over the James cried out, ’We are the rear guard.  It is all over; blow the bridge to h—­l!’ and went on into the night”

The story of the Civil War is a mine of honor to the Irish, and Irishmen should set it forth at length.  Here it can be merely glanced at.