At The Wall

The Story of the 69th Pennsylvania "Irish Volunteers" and their defence of the centre of the Union line at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. A minute-by-minute account of the fight that stopped Pickett's Charge. You will meet all 292 members of the 69th Pa regiment and learn their fate. One hundred fifty pages, 25 maps and photos.

They came from the Irish neighbourhoods of Philadelphia. At the bottom of the social strata, they were the day labourers, the dock workers, the canal diggers, always "last hired-first fired". In 1861, at the start of the Civil War, several Philadelphia Irish neighbourhood militia companies joined together to volunteer their services to the Union army and would eventually become the 69th Pennsylvania "Irish Volunteers". Their services were not always welcomed by many at the start of the war. From 1861 to 1865, these men would fight in every major battle with the Army of the Potomac. Of 1007 who left Philadelphia in September 1861, only 56 would remain at Appomattox Courthouse. All the rest were killed, wounded, taken prisoner, discharged, deserted or died of disease. In those four years, the regiment would be in the thick of the fighting at Savage Station, Glendale, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor and the Petersburg siege. But at Gettysburg, on July 3rd 1863, they would find their place in history. They would hold the centre of the union line as Pickett's Division attacked. They would hold the wall and drive back the Virginians.