[CIVIL WAR]. Irish Brigade 2d Regt. to be raised in Philadelphia. Gen. Shields Commands the Brigade! Philadelphia, PA: Duross Brothers, late summer 1861 or early 1862. 

18 1/2 x 23 5/8 in. broadside printed in green and red (creasing, light soil, some offsetting); framed to 25 1/4 x 29 1/2 in. (not examined out of frame). Signed in type by First Lieutenant William J. Ashe (WIA Chancellorsville), Second Lieutenant Michael Schoales, and Captain George Cromley (KIA Chancellorsville).  

A rare illustrated recruitment broadside for Company C of the 115th Pennsylvania Infantry, targeted specifically at Irishmen advertising that the regiment would be a part of the famed Irish Brigade. Featuring a large vignette, printed in green, of a large American flag and mustered soldiers wearing shakos and bayonetted rifles. The 115th Pennsylvania began recruitment in November 1861 and was mustered in on 28 January 1862 with a 3-year enlistment. 

The broadside here is targeted at Irishmen, taking an anti-British argument: "Now is the time for Irishmen to get Arms in their hands. The day is at hand when they will have a chance to use them against their Inveterate Foe, the Government of England." The English government being well-known to be largely in favor of the Confederate cause. Despite this direct recruitment tactic and specifically advertising inclusion in the Irish Brigade, the 115th was instead attached to the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, III Corps, Army of the Potomac, with later attachments after May 1864. The regiment saw heavy action in the Eastern Theater including Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and much of the Overland Campaign. 

Authorized in September 1861, the Irish Brigade was initially formed of three infantry regiments from New York: the 63rd, 69th, and 88th. The fourth regiment was originally the 29th Massachusetts Infantry, but being largely composed of "Yankees" it often came to odds with the three Fenian regiments and was replaced with the predominantly Irish 28th Massachusetts Infantry. The 116th Pennsylvania regiment, recruited in the summer of 1862, was the 5th and final regiment to compose the Irish Brigade. 

RARE: no other copies located. A similar broadside, recruiting for Company B, also promising inclusion in the Irish Brigade, is held at the Library Company of Philadelphia. 


Property from the James Milgram, M.D., Collection of Broadsides, Ephemeral Americana, and Historical Documents