3 July 1863: The 69th Pennsylvania Regiment of the Union Army helped to defend Cemetery Ridge at the Battle of Gettysburg on this day. Most of the men were drawn from the Irish population of the City and environs of Philadelphia and were volunteers who had fought hard already the previous day and were  now called again to stop the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia from overwhelming the Union defenses and breaking the fighting spirit of the Army of the Potomac. During the early morning hours Confederate General Robert E. Lee ordered General Longstreet to prepare General Pickett’s troops for the assault .The attack, commonly known as Pickett’s Charge or Longstreet’s Assault, was an attempt to penetrate the centre of Union forces on Cemetery Ridge.

The morning had been relatively quite for the 69th but around 1pm Confederate artillery began to pound the Union positions along Cemetery Ridge and it soon became obvious that a major attack was being prepared. The troops were told to lay flat to escape the tremendous fire being directed upon them. The air filled with the ‘whirring, shrieking, hissing sounds of  the solid shot and the bursting shell… striking the ground in front and ricocheting over us, to be imbedded in some object to the rear; others strike the wall, scattering the stones around.’ After about an hour it lifted and then the men of the 69th witnessed a spectacle of awe and fear and some 15,000 Confederates emerged from cover and began their fateful advance across open ground. They took severe casualties as the Union artillery pounded them but they kept on coming.  

Colonel Dennis O’Kane was in command of the 69th that day, and he ordered his men to hold their fire until they could see the whites of their enemies eyes. He reminded them that they were fighting on Pennsylvania soil, telling the men ‘let your work this day be for victory or to the death’. As the rebel soldiers reached their lines a bloody melee developed as men fought hand to hand but the 69th grimly held on to their position. Eventually their attackers fell back and ‘Pickett’s Charge’ turned out to be a bloody fiasco for the Confederates. The cost was high however for the 69th and  Colonel O’Kane fell mortally wounded while Lieutenant-Colonel Martin Tschudy went down while rallying the right of their line. 4 officers were killed, 6 wounded and 2 captured while 39 of the other ranks were killed, with 80 wounded and 16 made prisoners of War. 

https://irishamericancivilwar.com/2011/07/03/we-thought-we-were-all-gone-the-69th-pennsylvania-at-gettysburg/

Postscript: In 1887 veterans from both sides met again at the site of this bloody encounter but this time as companions who shook hands and shared their tales of that terrible day 24 years before.