They'll pay tribute to the famed 69th Infantry, Irish Brigade with cemetery ceremony

One week before it leads New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the National Guard’s 69^th Infantry Regiment on Sunday morning (March 10) will honor those who fought for the famed Irish Brigade during the Civil War.

Current and past soldiers of the 1^st Battalion will mark the graves of veterans who served in mostly Irish regiments with U.S. and Irish flags. The ceremony at Albany Rural Cemetery’s Soldiers’ Lot in Menands will include a wreath-laying ceremony at a Grand Army of the Republic monument.

A press release say the ceremony is meant to honor “the Irish immigrants that served in the Civil War's 69th Regiment, the Irish Brigade, and the Irish Legion to support their adopted country.”

The Soldiers’ Lot was chosen because it bears the remains of several veterans, including Pvt. Bernard Trainor, who fled Ireland during the Great Famine.

He enlisted in the 69^th one month before it fought at Antietam. According to the release half of the 69^th New York Volunteer Infantry was killed or wounded in the battle. Trainor had a slight leg wound. He made it through Fredericksburg without injury amid high casualties.

“His luck finally ran out at Gettysburg in June 1863. By that time, the 69th was a shadow of its former self, deploying with less than one hundred soldiers. Trainor was severely wounded fighting in the notorious Wheatfield. He was discharged as a result of these wounds. He was likely sent to Albany to convalesce, where he died in 1868.”