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Tradition
From Page 8
immigrants, decided the camp needed a lift on St. Patrick’s Day, 1863. Gen. Meagher ordered a day of horse racing, athletic contests and dancing.
Ten thousand spectators, including then-commander in chief of the Army of the Potomac, Gen. Hooker, congregated along the steeplechase course to watch the six-horse main event for commissioned officers. The course included, in the best two of three 2 1/2-mile heats “four hurdles 4 1/2 feet high, five ditch fences, including two artificial rivers 15feet wide and six deep. Hurdles to be made of forest pine, and braced with hoops.”
In Capt. D.P. Conyngham’s book, “The Irish Brigade and Its Campaign,” Conyngham describes the first hurdle: “They came to it; three clear it beautifully; two saddles are emptied. The bay mare bolts, but is spiritedly and scientifically brought to it, and flies over magnificently.” Gen. Meagher’s gray horse Jack Hinton won in two straight heats.
Camp life returned to quiet monotony until mid-April, when the Irish Brigade moved off to engage the Confederates at Chancellorsville (a big mistake,
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