IRISH REBELS, CONFEDERATE TIGERS - A HISTORY OF THE 6TH LOUISIANA VOLUNTEERS, 1861-1865 by Gannon, James P

Savas Pub, Campbell, Ca., 1998. first US edition, hard bound in dust jacket, 6 1/2 x 9 1/2, FINE/FINE CONDITION, vii, 453 pages, many illustrations and maps, roster, notes, bibliog., index............................................................... Irish Rebels, Confederate Tigers, is the first study ever undertaken of the 6th Louisiana Volunteer Infantry, one of the fighting Louisiana Tiger regiments! This predominantly Irish unit was raised in New Orleans shortly after secession and saw action in virtually every major battle in the Eastern Theater.The Louisianians opened their service with Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862, where they experienced bitter fighting at Port Republic and suffered heavy losses. After fighting in the Seven Days' Battles at Gaines' Mill and Malvern Hill, they tramped north to defend the unfinished railroad cut at Second Manassas, crossed into Maryland, and died by the score in the corner of the bloody Cornfield at Sharpsburg. After more Louisianians fell in the Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville Campaigns, the Irishmen marched north to Gettysburg, where they assaulted East Cemetery Hill on July 2, 1863. Under strength and exhausted, they persevered through the disaster at Rappahannock Station, and the freezing cold winter weather of the Mine Run Campaign.......................................................................The spring of 1864 opened with the battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, where in the latter combat the Louisianians fought in the swirling hell of the "Mule Shoe." Called back into the Valley with Jubal Early, the 6th Louisiana marched to the very gates of Washington before suffering a string of devastating defeats at Third Winchester, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek. By the time the proud regiment reached the trenches of Petersburg, its original compliment of almost 1,000 soldiers had been whittled down to less than 75 men. Few were left when General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House in April 1865.James Gannon's fast paced and heartrending study, based largely on diaries, letters, newspapers, and muster rolls, also examines the regiment's ethnicity, and concludes with a meticulously detailed and complete biographical roster of every soldier of the 6th Louisiana Volunteers.Irish Rebels, Confederate Tigers is a model regimental history and a first-class piece of writing