More Ancestral Archaeology

Today, we drove from Durham, North Carolina to Silver Spring, Maryland where we are spending the night with old friends.  On the way, we stopped at Fredericksburg, Virginia to visit the site of the Battle of Marye's Heights -- one of the bloodiest Civil War skirmishes.  Two of my great-great grandfather's brothers were officers in the 88th Irish Battalion of the New York Infantry, and were killed side by side here.  This is a painting depicting the Irish Battalion storming Marye's Heights.  "Of the many attacks made by the Union army at Fredericksburg, none was more famous than that of the Irish Brigade.  Wearing sprigs of boxwood in their caps to remind them of their heritage, some men of the brigade approached to within 50 yards of the wall before withering under the Confederate fire."

This is a quote from a family history written by my uncle:  "And then there were Lieutenant Thomas and Sergeant Richard Murphy of the 88th New York Volunteer Infantry (Hancock’s Division), killed side by side at Marye’s Heights, Fredericksburg, 1862.  Both were shot down in one of the suicidal charges against the famous Sunken Road and after having lived through several previous slaughters including Antietam.  A brief mention of their end is on pages 348-49, The Irish Brigade and Its Campaigns by D.P. Conyngham, ADC, Wm. McSorley & Co., Publishers, NY, 1867.  In the fashion of the day my great grandfather, John, went to Fredericksburg after the battle to collect the bodies of his two brothers and bring them home for burial."