Irish Brigade at Gettysburg Part 10: Licensed Battlefield Guide John Fitzpatrick
March 8, 2012
Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide John Fitzpatrick is the host for this series on the Irish Brigade. He is standing at the top of the Stony Hill near the monument to the 116th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment. Sickles Avenue is on the right. The walking stick he is holding is made from a Gettysburg witness tree. This view was taken facing northeast at approximately 4:45 PM on Friday, February 3, 2012.
Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide John J. Fitzpatrick, Jr., Esq. is host for a series on the Irish Brigade at Gettysburg. John’s interest in Gettysburg began in centennial year of 1963 when he arranged a trip to the Battlefield for the Villanova University Student History Club. That sparked a continuing interest in the American Civil War. Throughout his travels in the Service, work and some vacations he has been to Civil War sites coast to coast from Fort Point under the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California to the home, church and College of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain in Brunswick, Maine. He is now entering upon his ninth year of Guiding at Gettysburg.
His professional career began in 1966 as a United States Marine Corps Officer, Tank Platoon Commander then Pilot. He served a combat tour of duty in Vietnam completing 140 missions in the A6 Intruder for which he was awarded 9 Air Medals and Vietnam Service Awards. Captain Fitzpatrick was Honorably Discharged from Active Duty in 1971 whereupon he entered law school. Upon graduation in 1974 he began a 32 year career as Corporate Counsel for Gulf Oil and Chevron Corporation retiring in 2006. He is a Member in good standing before the highest Courts in Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and California.
Contemporaneously with his first legal job, he transferred to the Pennsylvania Air National Guard and later the U.S. Air Force Reserve. He served as an Active Reservist Pilot/Forward Air Controller/Squadron and Group Training Officer at the Willow Grove NAS, PA from 1974-1984. He was transferred to HQ USAF at the Pentagon in Legislative Liaison from 1985-1993 and finally as a JAG Officer reporting to the USAF TJAG and General Counsel from 1993-1997 based on his civilian expertise to assist the Air Force with its new Arbitration and Mediation Programs. Colonel Fitzpatrick received 3 Meritorious Service Medals, the Air Force Commendation Medal and other Awards before transferring to the Retired Reserve in 1997. He now divides his time amongst Guiding at Gettysburg, certain volunteer Veterans’ activities and serving as an Arbitrator in commercial, construction and securities cases.
John Fitzpatrick writes; “I appreciate the earlier related postings of my fellow Guides Rich Bellamy [Colonel Cross in the Wheatfield], the Editor of this Gettysburg Daily, Bobby Housch specifically for his postings of November 8 and 15, 2010 of the Weikert Lane [one of the most likely Avenues of Approach used by the Irish Brigade when it deployed to the Wheatfield in the late afternoon of July 2, 1863] and Dr. Rich Goedkoop’s posting of President Kennedy’s 1963 visit to Gettysburg. I also want to thank Licensed Battlefield Guides Rich Kohr for his posting on the Gettysburg Electric Railway and Ralph Siegel for sharing his expertise on the artillery fight at the Peach Orchard.”
In addition to tours at the Gettysburg National Military Park, John also presents President Lincoln and the immortal Gettysburg Address, specifically in the context not only of the battle, but the enormous personal, political and policy pressures affecting the President when he prepared and how he presented it. He has spoken to Civil War Roundtables, Historical Societies, Rotaries and other church/civic/private clubs in PA, MD, CA and is scheduled to present in IL during 2013.
In today’s Irish Brigade Post, Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide Emeritus John Fitzpatrick shows features on the monuments to the 116th Pennsylvania, 28th Massachusetts, and the New York Irish Brigade regiments. John will also describe various ways in which the Irish Brigade Soldiers who fought in the Wheatfield and Stony Hill on July 2, 1863 left us all a legacy.
To see the previous Irish Brigade posts, click here.
Captain Fitzpatrick on the US Marine flight line, DaNang, Vietnam, March 1970, a US Air Force F-4 Phantom Fighter having just landed in the background.
This map shows the location of the Irish Brigade videos. Video #1-#27 were shown in our previous posts. Videos #25-#29 were taken near the top of the Stony Hill along Sickles Avenue. Video #30 was taken by the monument to the New York Irish Brigade regiments.This map was created facing north at approximately 6:30 PM on Thursday, February 23, 2012.
Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide John Fitzpatrick is pointing out features on the monument to the 116th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment. Underneath the hand of the figure on the monument is the remains of his weapon. This view was taken facing northeast at approximately 4:45 PM on Friday, February 3, 2012.
In Video #28 (Videos #1-#27 were shown in our previous posts) Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide John Fitzpatrick describes some features of the monument to the 116th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment. This view was taken facing northeast at approximately 4:45 PM on Friday, February 3, 2012.
The design of the monument for the 116th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment came about from the following incident by Major St. Clair Mulholland (Story of the 116th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, pages 126-127) after the Irish had driven the Confederates from the top of the Stony Hill: “The dead of the One Hundred and Tenth Pennsylvania Volunteers lay directly in front, on the ground which that command had vacated but a half hour before, and one young boy lay outstretched on a large rock with his musket still grasped in his hand…” This view was taken facing northwest at approximately 4:45 PM on Friday, February 3, 2012.
“… his pale, calm face upturned to the sunny sky, the warm blood still flowing from a hole in his forehead and running in a red stream over the gray stone.” This view was taken facing northwest at approximately 4:45 PM on Friday, February 3, 2012.
“The young hero had just given his life for his country. A sweet, childish face it was, lips parted in a smile– those still lips on which the mother’s kisses had so lately fallen, warm and tender. The writer never looked on a soldier slain without feeling that he gazed upon the relics of a saint; but the little boy lying there with his blood coloring the soil of his own State, and his young heart stilled forever, seemed more like an angel form than any of the others.” This view was taken facing northeast at approximately 4:45 PM on Friday, February 3, 2012.
The scene witnessed by Mulholland was the inspiration for the figure on the monument to the 116th Pennsylvania. This view was taken facing southwest at approximately 4:45 PM on Friday, February 3, 2012.
Licensed Battlefield Guide John Fitzpatrick is standing by the monument to the 28th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. He is holding an image of their flag. This view was taken facing south at approximately 4:45 PM on Friday, February 3, 2012.
In Video #29 Licensed Battlefield Guide John Fitzpatrick shows features on the monument to the 28th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment.This view was taken facing southwest to west to northwest to northeast to east to southwest at approximately 4:45 PM on Friday, February 3, 2012.
Licensed Battlefield Guide John Fitzpatrick is standing by southwest side of the monument to the 28th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. He is pointing to their regimental flag. In his left hand is an image of the regimental flag. This view was taken facing northeast at approximately 4:45 PM on Friday, February 3, 2012.
“The first green flag of the 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, added to the Irish Brigade after the battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg, was the only green flag carried by the entire Brigade at Fredericksburg, December 13, 1863 [see Part 8, Don Troiani’s Clear the Way]. It was the only first green flag carried in the Irish Brigade’s fight at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863 [See Part 5, Dale Gallon’s Pride of Erin]. There was only one small difference among the four– first green flags. On the left side of the upper red riband, each Regiment was numerically designated, i.e., 1st REGT IRISH BRIGADE is the 69th NY, the 2nd REGT IRISH BRIGADE is the 88th NY, the 3rd REGT IRISH BRIGADE is the 63rd NY and the 4th REGT IRISH BRIGADE is the 28th Mass. All the other features, the cloud, sun’s rays, Harp and Shamrocks to represent Ireland as well as the saying, in old Irish on the lower red riband, translated as ‘They never retreated before the clash of spears’, were the same on each of the four—first green flags. The 116th PA, made up of Americans of German and Irish heritage chose to carry the normal dark blue Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Regimental Flag.” This image is courtesy of Erik Chipchase, at [email protected].
The eagle with its wings folded on top of the monument to the 28th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment symbolizes peace. This view was taken facing southeast at approximately 4:45 PM on Friday, February 3, 2012.
John Fitzpatrick is standing by the Irish Brigade Monument, which represents the New York units in the Irish Brigade. This view was taken facing south at approximately 4:45 PM on Friday, February 3, 2012.
In Video #30 John Fitzpatrick points out features on the Irish Brigade monument. Of course, John meant to say initially, that “Saint Patrick took a pagan symbol of worship, the sun, and superimposed it on the Christian Cross. That symbolism, and the use of rope strands that have no beginning or no end, symbolizing a worship of God, a Supreme Being who has no beginning or end, make the Celtic Cross unique and recognizable.” This view was taken facing south to southwest to southeast to southwest at approximately 4:45 PM on Friday, February 3, 2012.
Here is one of the texts that John Fitzpatrick used for his Irish Brigade posts, and that he recommends: The Great Hunger, Ireland 1845-1849 by Cecil Woodham-Smith. This image was copied facing north at approximately 8:00 PM on Friday, November 18, 2011.
Here is one of the texts that John Fitzpatrick used for his Irish Brigade posts, and that he recommends: The Famine Ships, The Irish Exodus to America by Edward Laxton. This image was copied facing north at approximately 8:00 PM on Friday, November 18, 2011.
Here is one of the texts that John Fitzpatrick used for his Irish Brigade posts, and that he recommends: The Fighting 69th, From Ground Zero to Baghdad by Sean Michael Flynn. This image was copied facing north at approximately 8:00 PM on Friday, November 18, 2011.
To see other posts by Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guides,click here.
