“The captors demanded of him, ‘Where do you belong? What’s your command?’ ‘By me faith,’ said Mike, ‘it’s an ugly question ye are asking and I’d be after asking ye by your leave the same thing.’ ‘Well,’ said the scouts, ‘we are Lincoln’s men.’ ‘All right,’ said Mike very warmly, ‘I took ye for gentlemen, an I’m the same.’ But the scouts thinking they had caught him, seized him and said, ‘You are our prisoner. We belong to Lee’s army.’ ‘Thin ye told me a lie, just now, boys, as I thought ye would, and I told ye one meself. Now tell me the truth, and I’ll tell ye the truth.’ ‘Well, then, we belong to the state of South Carolina.’ ‘So do I,’ quickly and with enthusiasm, ‘and I belong to all the other states of the country, too; and I bate the whole of you in that one thing. Do you think I would come all the way from Ireland to belong to one state when I have the right to belong to the whole of them?’ Mike’s Unionism was broader than that of nearly all the statesmen of that period. “In the beginning of the war the Irish boys who were scattered over the South fell in with the companies as they were formed.... One company went from my native county, Stewart, electing for its captain a young Irishman, Captain Mike Lynch, who made a reputation in the 21st Georgia regiment of Dole’s Brigade for skilful courage and kindness known throughout the command. Captain Lynch was full-blooded Irish, with all the mellow accent of the Emerald Isle. I do not think a braver, truer man fought in any army. “Captain James Mitchell, son of the Irish exile, served with me directly on my staff. He was a brilliant young gentleman, graceful in bearing, handsome and of unsurpassed courage. His battle record is as good as that of our bravest men. His brother (I think) served in Charleston as captain at Fort Sumter. His father was a very ardent supporter of secession. Capt. James Mitchell expressed to me, at the battle of Fredericksburg, his deep regret that Confederate Irishmen were confronted by Meagher’s brave command. “There were a considerable number of Irish troops in Louisiana regiments. Some of them were under me while I commanded a division composed of Georgia, Virginia and Louisiana brigades. There were no men ... easier to lead in battle than these Louisiana Irishmen. I saw many examples of that superb Irish dash about which I had read much in history and romance of European wars. “I participated in the late afternoon and evening assault at Gettysburg on Lee’s left, when the Irish fighters on the Confederate side went to their death with a heroism at which I wondered. You have, of course, looked into the history of Meagher’s Irish Brigade.