During the American Civil War, New York State’s irrepressible Irish Brigade was
alternately composed of a number of infantry regiments hailing both from within New
York City and from within and without the state, not all of them Irish, or even
predominantly so. The Brigade’s core structure, however, remained constant throughout
the war years and consisted of three all-Irish volunteer regiments with names
corresponding to fighting units made famous in the annuals of Ireland’s history: the 69th,
the 88th, and the 63rd.