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6th Louisiana Infantry Regiment Organized into Confederate Service

A lesser-known Irish Brigade of the American Civil War, the 6th Louisiana Infantry Regiment, is mustered into Confederate service at Camp Moore on June 4, 1861. It is part of the Louisiana Tigers. At a time when an estimated 20,000 Irish live in New Orleans, it is not surprising that the 6th Louisiana comprises a high percentage of Irish soldiers. It begins its service with 916 men and ends with 52 after surrendering after the Battle of Appomattox Court House in April 1865.

The regiment’s 916 men are organized into 10 companies designated with the letters A–I and K. Most of the companies are organized in Orleans Parish, although Company D is from Tensas Parish, Company C from St. Landry Parish, and Company A from Union Parish and Sabine Parish. The unit’s first colonel is Isaac Seymour, its first lieutenant colonel is Louis Lay, and its first major is Samuel L. James. Over half of the unit’s men with known places of birth are born outside of the United States, primarily from Ireland. In its early days, the unit has a reputation for being disorderly and hard to control. Seymour has to publicly rebuke several officers in late 1861 for drunkenness.

Sent to the fighting in Virginia and stationed at Centreville, the regiment guards supplies and is not involved in the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861. In August, it is added to a brigade commanded by William H. T. Walker consisting of the 7th Louisiana Infantry Regiment, the 8th Louisiana Infantry Regiment, the 9th Louisiana Infantry Regiment, and the 1st Louisiana Special Battalion. The brigade spends the next winter in the vicinity of Centreville, and Orange Court House before being transferred to the Shenandoah Valley in early 1862, where it fights under Stonewall Jackson. James resigns on December 1, 1861, and is replaced by George W. Christy, who is dropped from the regiment’s rolls on May 9, 1862, and replaced with Arthur MacArthur. Lay resigns on February 13 and is replaced by Henry B. Strong.

On May 23, 1862, the regiment sees action in the Battle of Front Royal and captures two Union battle flags in a skirmish at Middletown the next day. May 25 sees the regiment engage in the First Battle of Winchester, where MacArthur is killed, and on June 9 it fights in the Battle of Port Republic, in which 66 of its men are killed or wounded. MacArthur’s role as major is then filled by Nathaniel G. Offutt. After Port Republic, Jackson’s men are transferred to the Virginia Peninsula to take part in the Seven Days Battles, and the 6th Louisiana skirmishes at Hundley’s Corner on June 26 before fighting in the Battle of Gaines’ Mill the next day. Seymour leads the brigade at Gaines’ Mill, since Richard Taylor is ill. The Louisianans, known as the Louisiana Tigers, become bogged down in Boatswain’s Swamp, are repulsed with loss, and withdraw from the battle. Seymour is killed during the charge and is replaced by Strong. Offutt takes over Strong’s position as lieutenant colonel, and William Monaghan becomes colonel.

Moving north with Jackson in August, the regiment fights in the Manassas Station Operations at Bristoe Station, Virginia on August 26 and Kettle Run, Virginia the following day. At Kettle Run, the regiment holds off a Union advance while the 8th Louisiana burns a bridge, and then the two regiments, joined by the 60th Georgia Infantry Regiment and the 5th Louisiana Infantry Regiment, fight against the Union Army‘s Excelsior Brigade and the brigade of Colonel Joseph Bradford Carr. It then fights in the Second Battle of Bull Run on August 29-30, 1862. At Second Bull Run, it is part of the brigade of Colonel Henry Forno. On the first day of the battle, Forno’s brigade helps repulse James Nagle‘s Union brigade. On the morning on 30 August 30, it is sent to the rear for supplies and does not rejoin the fighting that day.

After Second Bull Run, the 6th Louisiana fights in the Battle of Chantilly on September 1, 1862, where the Louisiana brigade is routed with the 5th, 6th, 8th, and 14th Louisiana regiments suffering the heaviest casualties in the Confederate army, and on September 17 sees action in the Battle of Antietam. At Antietam, the regiment is part of Harry T. Hays‘s brigade. During the fighting, Hays’s brigade charges toward the Miller’s Cornfield and is cut to pieces, with the brigade suffering 61 percent casualties. The 6th Louisiana loses 52 men killed or wounded, including Colonel Strong, who is killed and replaced with Offutt. All 12 officers of the 6th Louisiana that see action at Antietam are killed or wounded. Monaghan becomes lieutenant colonel and is replaced as major by Joseph Hanlon. Offutt in turn resigns on November 7 and is replaced by Monaghan. Hanlon becomes lieutenant colonel, and Manning is promoted to major. The regiment is held in reserve at the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, and is not directly engaged, although it does come under Union artillery fire.

An inspection in January 1863 rates the 6th Louisiana as having “poor” discipline and moderately good at performance in drills. Along with the 5th Louisiana Infantry, the regiment contests a Union crossing of the Rappahannock River on April 29, 1863. Union troops are able to force a crossing, and the 6th Louisiana has 7 men killed, 12 wounded, and 78 captured. It then fights in the Second Battle of Fredericksburg on May 3, 1863, where 27 of the unit’s men are captured. While part of the regiment is captured, most of the unit is able to withdraw from the field in better condition than the other Confederate units positioned near it. It then fights at the Battle of Salem Church the next day. Altogether, the 6th Louisiana Infantry sustains losses of 14 killed, 68 wounded, and 99 captured at the Battle of Chancellorsville. It next sees combat on June 14, 1863, in the Second Battle of Winchester, where it joins its brigade of other Louisiana units in capturing a Union fort.,

At the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1-3, 1863, the 6th Louisiana is still in Hays’ brigade. On July 1, the brigade is part of a Confederate charge that sweeps the Union XI Corps from the field, although it is less heavily engaged than some of the other participating Confederate brigades. Entering the town of Gettysburg, the brigade captures large numbers of disorganized Union troops. On the evening of the following day, the brigade is part of a failed attack against the Union position on Cemetery Hill. It then spends July 3, the final day of the battle, skirmishing. The Confederates, who are defeated at Gettysburg, withdraw from the field on July 4. The regiment takes 232 men into the fighting at Gettysburg and suffers 61 casualties.

Back in Virginia, the 6th Louisiana fights in the Bristoe campaign in October 1863 and is overrun in the Second Battle of Rappahannock Station on November 7, losing 89 men captured. In the spring of 1864, it fights in Ulysses S. Grant‘s Overland Campaign. On May 5, 1864, in the Battle of the Wilderness, the regiment helps repulse a Union attack, after Hays’ brigade had been repulsed and badly bloodied earlier in the battle. It then fights in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House on May 9-19, 1864. On May 12, the regiment is part of its brigade’s fighting at the Mule Shoe. The brigade is badly wrecked at the Mule Shoe, and only 60 men are present at the 6th Louisiana’s roll call the next morning. From June through October, it is detached as part of Jubal Early‘s command to fight in the Valley campaigns of 1864. Monaghan is killed in battle in late August and is not replaced as colonel. At the Battle of Cedar Creek in October 1864, one company of the 6th Louisiana sees both men present shot. After the battle, the 5th, 6th, and 7th are consolidated into a single company when the brigade is reorganized due to severe losses. Taking part in the Siege of Petersburg, the 6th Louisiana’s survivors fight at the Battle of Hatcher’s Run on February 6, 1865, and at the Battle of Fort Stedman on March 25.

The 6th Louisiana’s remnants end their military service when Robert E. Lee‘s Confederate army surrenders on April 9, after the Battle of Appomattox Court House. At the time of the surrender, the 6th Louisiana has been reduced to 52 officers and men. Over the course of its existence, 1,146 men serve in the unit. Of that total, 219 are combat deaths, 104 die of disease, one man drowns, five die accidentally, one man is executed, and at least 232 desert. Desertions are particularly heavy in three companies that primary consist of men born outside of the United States.

(Pictured: National colors of the “Orleans Rifles” or Company H, Sixth Louisiana Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War)


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The Battle of Chantilly

The predominately Irish 6th Louisiana Infantry Regiment fights at the Battle of Chantilly (or Ox Hill, the Confederate name), which takes place on September 1, 1862, in Fairfax County, Virginia, as the concluding battle of the northern Virginia campaign of the American Civil War. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson‘s corps of the Army of Northern Virginia attempts to cut off the line of retreat of the Union Army of Virginia following the Second Battle of Bull Run but is attacked by two Union divisions. During the ensuing battle, Union division commanders Isaac Stevens and Philip Kearny are both killed, but the Union attack halts Jackson’s advance.

On the morning of September 1, 1862, Union Maj. Gen. John Pope orders Maj. Gen. Edwin Vose Sumner of the II Corps, Army of the Potomac, to send a brigade north to reconnoiter. The army’s cavalry is too exhausted for the mission. But at the same time, he continues his movement in the direction of Washington, D.C., sending Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell‘s III Corps to Germantown (on the western border of modern-day Fairfax, Virginia), where it can protect the important intersection of Warrenton Pike and Little River Turnpike that the army needs for the retreat. He also sends two brigades from Maj. Gen. Jesse L. Reno‘s IX Corps, under the command of Brig. Gen. Isaac Stevens, to block Jackson. Maj. Gen. Philip Kearny’s division from the III Corps follows later that afternoon.

Jackson resumes his march to the south, but his troops are tired and hungry and make poor progress as the rain continues. They march only three miles and occupy Ox Hill, southeast of Chantilly Plantation, and halt, while Jackson himself takes a nap. All during the morning, Confederate cavalry skirmish with Union infantry and cavalry. At about 3:00 PM, Stevens’s division arrives at Ox Hill. Despite being outnumbered, Stevens chooses to attack across a grassy field against Brig. Gen. Alexander Lawton‘s division in the Confederate center. The Union attack is initially successful, routing the brigade of Colonel Henry Strong and driving in the flank of Captain William Brown, with Brown killed during the fighting. The Union division is driven back following a counterattack by Brig. Gen. Jubal Early‘s brigade. Stevens is killed during this attack at about 5:00 PM by a shot through his temple.

A severe thunderstorm erupts about this time, resulting in limited visibility and an increased dependence on the bayonet, as the rain soaks the ammunition of the infantry and makes it useless. Kearny arrives about this time with his division to find Stevens’s units disorganized. Perceiving a gap in the line he deploys Brig. Gen. David B. Birney‘s brigade on Stevens’s left, ordering it to attack across the field. Birney manages to maneuver close to the Confederate line but his attack stalls in hand-to-hand combat with Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill‘s division. Kearny mistakenly rides into the Confederate lines during the battle and is killed. As Kearny’s other two brigades arrive on the field, Birney uses the reinforcements as a rear guard as he withdraws the remainder of the Union force to the southern side of the farm fields, ending the battle.

That night, Maj. Gen. James Longstreet arrives to relieve Jackson’s troops and to renew the battle the following morning. The lines are so close that some soldiers accidentally stumble into the camps of the opposing army. The Union army withdraws to Germantown and Fairfax Court House that night, followed over the next few days by retreating to the defenses of Washington D.C. The Confederate cavalry attempts a pursuit but fails to cause significant damage to the Union army.

The fighting is tactically inconclusive. Although Jackson’s turning movement is foiled and he is unable to block the Union retreat or destroy Pope’s army, National Park Service historians count Chantilly as a strategic Confederate victory because it neutralizes any threat from Pope’s army and clears the way for Lee to begin his Maryland campaign. The Confederates claim a tactical victory as well because they hold the field after the battle. Two Union generals are killed, while one Confederate brigade commander is killed. Pope, recognizing the attack as an indication of continued danger to his army, continues his retreat to the fortifications around Washington, D.C. Lee begins the Maryland Campaign, which culminates in the Battle of Antietam, after Pope retreats from Virginia. The Army of the Potomac, under Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, absorbs the forces of Pope’s Army of Virginia, which is disbanded as a separate army.

The site of the battle, once rural farmland, is now surrounded by suburban development in Fairfax County. A 4.8-acre (19,000 m²) memorial park, the Ox Hill Battlefield Park, is located off of State Route 608 (West Ox Road) and lies adjacent to the Fairfax Towne Center shopping area and includes most of the Gen. Isaac Stevens portion of the battle, about 1.5% of the total ground. The park is under the jurisdiction of the Fairfax County Park Authority. In January 2005, the Authority approves a General Management Plan and Conceptual Development Plan that sets forth a detailed history and future management framework for the site.

A small yard located within the nearby Fairfax Towne Center has been preserved to mark the area crossed by Confederate troops to get to the Ox Hill battlefield.

(Pictured: Color lithograph “General Kearney’s gallant charge,” published by John Smith, 804 Market St., Philadelphia. From the Library of Congress.)


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Death of Colonel Dennis O’Kane

dennis-o-kane

Colonel Dennis O’Kane, officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War, dies on July 4, 1863, of wounds sustained the previous day when fighting with the 69th Pennsylvania Irish Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Born in Coleraine, County Londonderry, O’Kane is a tavern owner in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and a member of the 2nd Pennsylvania Militia regiment prior to the Civil War. When the conflict starts, he helps recruit the 24th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, a unit that has the 2nd Pennsylvania Militia as its nucleus. Commissioned Major, Field and Staff, on May 1, 1861, he is with his regiment as it serves first in Maryland and then Virginia before their enlistment expires in July 1861.

In August 1861 O’Kane joins with many of the men from the 24th Pennsylvania in re-enlisting to continue the war effort, and they form the basis of what becomes the 69th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment. Commissioned Lieutenant Colonel, Field and Staff on August 19, 1861, his new regiment is composed largely of Irish immigrants like himself, and they emblazon the Irish harp on their flag. The unit eventually is joined with the 71st, 72nd and 106th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiments to form the famous Philadelphia Brigade.

O’ Kane serves as second-in-command through 1862, participating in the Peninsular Campaign of May and June, the Second Battle of Bull Run in August, and the September 1862 Battle of Antietam, where his brigade is caught in the West Woods area and takes heavy losses. In November 1862, the 69th Pennsylvania’s commander, Colonel Joshua T. Owen, is promoted to Brigadier General, US Volunteers. O’Kane is advanced to Colonel on December 1, 1862, to fill the vacancy.

At the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 14, 1862, O’Kane leads his men in the third of four waves of futile Union charges on strong Confederate positions at Marye’s Heights south of the town, and sees his regiment sustain fifty-one casualties. In May 1863 during the Battle of Chancellorsville, his brigade is held in reserve and sees limited action.

During the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, O’Kane finds the 69th Pennsylvania positioned along a rock fencing in the middle of the Union lines that becomes famous as “The Angle.” That position becomes the epicenter of Pickett’s Charge on July 3, the third day of the battle, as the remnants of the Confederate forces, having been much devastated from Union artillery fire, crash over the rock walls and engage the Philadelphia Brigade in brutal hand-to-hand fighting.

O’Kane is shot in the head at the wall and dies the following day. His regiment again takes high casualties but succeeds in helping to repulse the rebels and defeat the charge. The monument for the 69th Pennsylvania Infantry in Gettysburg National Military Park stands on the spot where O’Kane was mortally wounded.