- “I was told, too, that a woman, who followed the Irish Brigade as laundress or nurse, went up
with it, and standing with it in the fight, swung her bonnet around and cheered on the men.”
Thomas Livermore, Days And Events 5th New Hampshire
“As our first brigade was forming to relieve them, (Meagher’s Irish Brigade attacking the Sunken Road) we saw “Irish Molly,” of the 88th New York, a big, muscular woman who had followed her husband in all the campaigns, and he a private soldier in the ranks. She was a little to the left of their line, apparently indifferent to the flying bullets, and was jumping up and down, swinging her sunbonnet around her head, as she cheered the Paddys on. Our regiment was maneuvering for position at the time, and the bullets that passed the Irishmen were pretty thick, so there was no time for anything else, as we were moving lively, but the glimpse that I got of that heroic woman in the drifting powder smoke, stiffened my back-bone immensely.” Charles C. Hale Company C 5th New Hampshire Volunteers “The Story of My Personal Experience at the Battle of Antietam.”
