Kelly's Confederate Irish Brigade formed in 1861

Celtic Confederate

Yes the original Irish Brigade was of the Confederacy. Check out the song lyrics written in 1861. It was so moving and threatening to the North that they stole the name for their own Irish drafted fighters. Special report from the Military Order of the Stars and Bars, Commander Trent. Also we’re including the recruitment song lyrics from St Andrew's Celtic Press https://celtic.press. Full text is below:

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The History of Kelly’s Irish Brigade, and Recruitment Song

The Confederate Irish Brigade. Kelly’s Irish Brigade and Recruitment Song. An effective unit of Irish Confederates which started at Missouri.

Report from the Military Order of the Stars and Bars

Colonel Joseph Kelly, an Irish immigrant organized the Washington Blues in 1857 in St. Louis. While many immigrants were later mustered into Federal militia units, Kelly’s Washington Blues supported Southern
sympathies. Commonly known as Kelly’s Irish  Brigade, they were engaged early in defense of Missouri. In November 1860, Kelly’s men went to western Missouri to defend citizens against increasing attacks from the Kansas Territory. They were early volunteers in Sterling Price’s Missouri State Guard. In 1861, as a regiment in the 6th Division of the Missouri State Guard, Kelly’s men participated in the battles at Carthage, Wilson’s Creek (where Kelly was wounded) and Lexington; in 1862 they were at the Battle of Pea Ridge. Later, most of the regiment joined the 5th Missouri, and fought in a number of western battles. Researchers tell us only 23 of the 125 men who enlisted returned to St. Louis at the end of the war.

RECRUITMENT SONG FOR KELLY’S IRISH BRIGADE

Written c. 1861. Refers to an ‘Irish Brigade’ established by the Confederate states during the American Civil War, commanded by Irish-born Joseph Kelly, a grocer originally from St. Louis, Missouri.

AIR—O Columbia, The Gem of the Ocean.

Come all you that hold true communion with southern Confederates bold,
I will tell you of some men who for the Union in the northern ranks were enrolled;
Who came to Missouri in their glory, and thought by their power we’d be dismayed;
But we soon made them tell a different story when they met with Kelly’s Irish Brigade.

Three cheers for the Irish Brigade,
Three cheers for the Irish Brigade.
And all true-hearted Hibernians,
And in the ranks of Kelly’s Irish Brigade!

You call us rebels and traitors, but yourselves have thrown off that name of late.
You were called it by the English invaders at home in seventeen and ninety-eight.
The name to us is not a new one, though ‘tis one that never will degrade
Any true-hearted Hibernian in the ranks of Kelly’s Irish Brigade.

Three cheers for the Irish Brigade,
Three cheers for the Irish Brigade.
And all true-hearted Hibernians,
And in the ranks of Kelly’s Irish Brigade!

You dare not call us invaders, ‘tis but state rights and liberties we ask;
And Missouri, we ever will defend her, no matter how hard be the task.
Then let true Irishmen assemble; let the voice of Missouri be obeyed;
And northern fanatics may tremble when they meet with Kelly’s Irish Brigade.

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