Why? That’s Why!
Despite serving fourteen terms in the Colonial Assembly and representing the colony in the First Continental Congress in 1774, Joseph Galloway was no fan of Pennsylvania’s independence from the crown. He favored England’s continued control of the Colony and, when the Continental Congress rejected the idea, the Assembly accepted his resignation on May 12, 1775.
Galloway wasn’t finished.
On December 4, 1777, General Sir William Howe appointed Galloway Superintendent General of Philadelphia, then occupied by the British. Galloway sailed for (perhaps “fled to”) England in 1779 and died there four years later.
But not before he had a few things to say about the American forces and their Irish soldiers.
Testifying to the British House of Commons in 1779, “loyalist” Joseph Galloway estimated that Irishmen composed almost half of the Continental Army. While that’s probably an overestimate, Irish immigrants were more than willing to shoulder muskets at Lexington and Concord and in every significant battle in the eight-years long War for Independence.
After the 1848 failure of the “Young Ireland” rebellion against British rule, Irish nationalists fleeing the Emerald Isle joined other refugees of Ireland’s 1845-1852 “Great Famine” that killed more than one-million and forced at least another million to find refuge in the big cities of North America. When the Young Irish leaders decided to create an Irish Brigade to fight for their homeland, they determined to do so in the New York State Militia movement, creating three regiments in Manhattan, which were eventually consolidated in 1858 as the 69th Regiment.
Despite the anti-Irish, anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant, anti-Lincoln vitriol of the Know Nothing (“Native American” before 1855; “American” from 1855-1860) Party, Irish immigrant leaders were instrumental in establishing independent militia companies in the U.S. The role of Irish-American soldiers was solidified in history and myth by the December 21, 1849 formation of the 69th Infantry Regiment of the United States Army and the recognition of Company A, 1st Battalion as a direct descendant of 8th Company of the New York Regiment of the Revolutionary War.
New York Herald war correspondent David Power Conyngham, who wrote extensively about the American Civil War, declared, “When anything absurd, forlorn, or desperate was to be attempted, the Irish Brigade was called upon.”
On July 1, 1862, the New York Irishmen distinguished themselves in the Battle of Malvern Hill (“the Battle of Poindexter’s Farm”) during the infamous Seven Days Battle (June 25 – July 1, 1862), when the 69th forced the retreat of the famed Louisiana Tigers, causing Confederate General Robert E. Lee to refer to the regiment as “That Fighting 69th.”
Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey a quarter of a century after America’s Civil War, Alfred Joyce Kilmer was unable to complete his Rutgers College (now Rutgers University) mathematics requirements and, ultimately, earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at Columbia University in 1908. At both schools, however, he distinguished himself as a campus journalist and went on to write for The Literary Digest, The Nation and The New York Times, before embarking on a three-year venture preparing an edition of The Standard Dictionary that would be published in 1912. His first book of verse, Summer of Love, was published in 1911.
With five books of poetry and literary criticism and history to his credit, Kilmer was recognized as one of the nation’s most popular poets when the United States entered World War I. Thirty-one-years old, with four children and his pregnant with their fifth, Kilmer was recommended and eligible for an officer’s commission. Nonetheless, he insisted that he would rather be a sergeant with the Fighting 69th than an officer in any other regiment. “I was Irish and Catholic; I would go to France sooner.” Kilmer’s biographer John Hillis wrote:
“He was worshiped by the men about him. I have heard them speak with awe of his coolness and his nerve in scouting patrols in no man’s land. This coolness and his habit of choosing, with typical enthusiasm, the most dangerous and difficult missions, led to his death.”
Fellow soldier, Sergeant Major Ester recalled:
“He would always be doing more than his orders called for, i.e., getting much nearer to the enemy’s positions than any officer would be inclined to send him. Night after night he would lie out in No Man’s Land, crawling through barbed wires, in an effort to locate enemy positions and enemy guns, and tearing his clothes to shreds.”
On March 7, 1918, a German heavy artillery bombardment hit the roof of a dugout shelter in the Rouge Bouquet Wood near the French village of Baccarat, burying twenty-one American soldiers; nineteen of the Fighting 69th were killed; only two were rescued alive. Kilmer, a corporal at the time, immediately set himself to the task of composing a poem honoring those who had died.
A few days later, the lyric poem “The Wood Called Rouge Bouquet” was read as a eulogy by Ontario, Canada-born American Chaplain Father Francis P. Duffy during “the funeral service held at the collapsed dugout, the tomb of the regiment’s first men slain in battle.”
Transferred to the military intelligence section of his unit in April, on July 30 the poet- soldier volunteered to accompany Major “Wild Bill” Donovan when Donovan’s battalion (1-165th Cavalry) led the attack in the Second Battle of Marne. [During World War II, Donovan founded the Office of Strategic Intelligence, forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency – CIA.]
In 1918, the Jesuit publication America recorded a soldier’s eyewitness account:
“The battalion advanced into the woods to clear the spot of the enemy. In the course of this advance, I suddenly caught sight of Kilmer, lying on his stomach on a bit of sloping ground, his eyes just peering over the top of what appeared to be a natural trench. We called to him, but received no answer. Then I ran up and turned him on his back, only to find that he was dead with a bullet through his brain.”
According to Father Duffy, “A bullet had pierced his brain. His body was carried in and buried by the side of Ames. God rest his dear and gallant soul.” Kilmer was posthumously awarded the French Croix de Guerre and was later buried at the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery, near the farm where he was killed.
It is probable that “Fighting Father” Duffy presided at the graveside ceremony. If he did, he, again, read “The Wood Called Rouge Bouquet,” which, by tradition, today is read at the memorial services of all members of The Fighting 69th. He would have read:
In a woods they call the Rouge Bouquet
There is a new-made grave today,
Built by never a spade nor pick,
Yet covered with earth ten meters thick.
There lie many fighting men,
Dead in their youthful prime,
Never to laugh nor love again
Or taste of the summer time;
For death came flying through the air
And stopped his flight at the dugout stair,
Touched his prey –
And left them there –
Clay to clay.
He hid their bodies stealthily
In the soil of the land they sought to free,
And fled away.
Now over the grave abrupt and clear
Three volleys ring;
And perhaps their brave young spirits hear
The bugle sing:
“Go to sleep!
Go to sleep!
Slumber well where the shell screamed and fell.
Let your rifles rest on the muddy floor,
You will not need them any more.
Danger’s past;
Now at last,
Go to sleep!”
There is on earth no worthier grave
To hold the bodies of the brave
Than this place of pain and pride
Where they nobly fought and nobly died…
And up to Heaven’s doorway floats,
From the wood called Rouge Bouquet
A delicate cloud of bugle notes
That softly say:
“Farewell!
Farewell!
Comrades true, born anew, peace to you!
Your souls shall be where the heroes are
And your memory shine like the morning-star.
Brave and dear,
Shield us here.
Farewell!”
[The “Fighting Father” Francis P. Duffy died on June 27, 1932. Describing him, the New York State Division of Veteran and Military Affairs noted:
“Father Duffy, an ordained Catholic priest, served during World War I as Chaplain of one of the most famous regiments in United States Army history, the 69th New York Infantry, proudly called the ‘Fighting 69th.’ He is the most highly decorated cleric in US Army history.
“Armed only with his faith, Father (Lt. Col.) Duffy was known to ‘trench hop’ during intense bombings and bloody battles in France - carrying wounded soldiers from the battlefield, hearing their confessions and giving last rites. When artillery was quiet, Father Duffy was a soothing influence in the barracks. He listened to a soldier's fears with compassionate understanding and often quelled those fears with his uniquely Irish sense of humor.”
“After the War, Father Duffy returned to New York City where he administered to area's factory workers, including print men from the New York Times, and employees of the theatre district, at Holy Cross Church in the heart of Times Square.”]
Why do we write about a military unit formed of Irish immigrants who fought for and helped save the Constitution and the Union?
Why do we write about an American poet and his immigrant companions in the same American regiment?
The memorial service held by soldiers of the Fighting 69th for the 19 men lost in the March 7, 1918, Rouge Bouquet bombardment, which served as inspiration for his poem, “Rouge Bouquet.”
Because, as we enter another season of “hate the immigrants” and “tell them to go back to where they came from,” it is important to remember:
The United States “Army fell about 15,000 soldiers - or 25% - short of its recruitment goal this year [2022],… despite a frantic effort to make up the widely expected gap in a year when all the military services struggled in a tight jobs market to find young people willing and fit to enlist… the Marine Corps, which usually goes into each fiscal year with as much as 50% of its recruiting goal already locked in, has only a bit more than 30%. And the Air Force and the Navy will only have about 10% of their goals as they start the new fiscal year.” (Army Times. October 2, 2022)
“Since 2002, we have naturalized more than 170,000 members of the U.S. military, both at home and abroad… In the last five years (fiscal years 2019 – 2023), we have naturalized more than 40,000 service members. In FY 2023, we naturalized more than 12,100 service members, an almost 14% increase from the previous year. (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. November 8, 2023)
“Defense leaders say young people are less familiar with the military, are drawn more to corporate jobs that provide similar education and other benefits, and want to avoid the risk of injury and death that service in defense of the United States could bring. In addition, they say that little more than 20% meet the physical, mental and character requirements to join.” (Associated Press – APNews.com – June 11, 2023)
“We estimate that approximately 700,000 foreign-born veterans, many of whom are now U.S. citizens, live in the U.S. today. We estimate there are about 45,000 immigrants actively serving. The most recent government estimates report that about 5,000 legal permanent residents enlist each year. More than 148,000 immigrants have served and earned citizenship through the military in the last 20 years. Over the last century, military service has provided a pathway to American citizenship for more than 760,000 immigrant servicemembers. (“5 Things to Know About Immigrants in the Military.” - fwd.us – September 14, 2022)
“March 25 is National Medal of Honor Day, a date set aside each year to pay tribute to the recipients of our nation’s highest award for valor. Since the first Medals of Honor were presented during the Civil War, more than 700 recipients of the award have been immigrants who distinguished themselves by their gallantry during military action.” (U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services – March 19, 2021)
That’s why!