CIVIL WAR ARTICLES

Reen-actors of the 69th Pennsylvania"Irish Volunteers" retraced the steps of their regiment on an August"Overland Campaign of 1864" tour.Twenty-one descendants of theoriginal regiment were among the72 participants. Traveling with the group was Frank Boyle, author of A Party of Madfello\vs.

The focus of the unit's annual tours is to trace every mile traveled by the regiment, including battles, campsites and roads. The two-day tour began at the Army of the Potomac winter quarters in Stevensburg, Va., and continued across Ely's Ford into the Wilderness campaign. History Committee chairman and tour leader Don Ernsberger walked the group into the woods near the intersection of the Orange Plank Road and Brock roads which the Philadelphia Brigade occupied during the Wilderness fight. Next they went to Spotsylvania, stopping at the Po River crossings and at Laurel Hill. The group recreated the 69th Pennsylvania night flank march and May 12 assault on the Muleshoe by marching in battle line across the fields and into the rebel earthworks. They visited the site where Capt Charles McAnally of Co. D captured the 61st Georgia flag. Then they followed the Second Corps route to Bowling Green, Milford Station and the Carmel Church campsites.

The next day they visited North Anna River battlefields, followed the campaign routes toward the Pamunky River and surveyed the area of the Totopotomy Creek at-tacks. At Cold Harbor they walkedthe fields where the Philadelphia Brigade attacked Elliot's Salient and spent four days dug in in front of Confederate lines. The annual trip includes a ceremony at gravesites of men from the 69th Pennsylvania buried along the trip route. This year the group visited graves of three men killed at Cold Harbor and buried in the federal cemetery there. The tour ended with the Union army march to the James River.Next year's tour focus will be the Petersburg Siege and the road to Appomattox Courthouse. Previous tours covered 1861 and the winter encampment at Poolesville, the Peninsula Campaign and Antietam, and Fredericksburg through Gettysburg.

The 69th Fundraising

The 69th Pennsylvania Irish Volunteers also take part in reen-actments, living history programs, parades and ceremonies. Their regimental band recently produced a CD of Irish Civil War songs, *The Rock of Erin." Band performances included last spring's two-hour concert for the Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg Spring Muster. Close to 600 people heard the performance at the Lutheran Theological Seminary Chapel. Over $2,500 was raised in CD sales at the Friends concert. The 69th donated $3000 to the Friends's Traveling Trunk program. It gave 25 CDs to the group to sell on its Web site and paid their own hotel costs to save the Friends money. The band will return next year on April 11.

The band, which was formed three years ago, donates all of its proceeds to battlefield preservation, Irish preservation and educational grants on behalf of the regiment. To date the 69th Regiment has donated close to $15,000. Recent large donations include those to the Civil War Preservation Trust, a corporate sponsor of "the Rock of Erin"; the Famine Monument (Irish Memorial Inc. of Philadelphia); the 911 Emerald Fund in New York City; tombstones for members of the original 69th Pennsylvania; maintenance of the 69th monument on Gettysburg's Cemetery Ridge; and the World War II Memorial Fund. CDs are available for $18.95 from the 69th Pennsylvania Volunteers, P.O. Box 14598, Philadelphia, PA 19115. For information visit www.pa69irish.com.