Greeting the troops
William McCarter signed up in Philadelphia in August 1862 as a 21 year-old. By November his regiment were going through Virgina, where the men were off fighting for the Confederates. He gave this description of a less-than-welcoming reception the Irish Brigade got in the town of Warrington -
“As we filed up the main street of the town, my own regiment in the lead, we were greeted with hisses and groans from the women standing in doorways and crowding the windows of houses. They yelled as we passed along, ‘There goes the damned Abolitionists. Kill them.’
“Nor was this the worst. Upon reaching the center of town, we were assailed by a shower of missiles, including stones, brickbats, chunks of firewood, bottles, shoemaker hammers, and pieces of coal. They were all thrown at us by the hands of these fair Virginia damsels, aimed from windows.
“The men fairly boiled with rage. But we dared not return the insults under penalty of imprisonment by court martial. This we received due notice of before entering the town. We were further instructed that should any of the inhabitants go even so far as to fire upon the troops, the fire could not be returned without orders from the commanding general.
“Before reaching the end of the town, several members of my regiment had received severe cuts and bruises from these flying missiles. My colonel [Dennis Heenan], riding at the head of his regiment, narrowly escaped stopping a shoemaker's hammer thrown at him from a window. The hammer struck his horse, nearly knocking out one of its eyes.
“I was struck on the back of the head myself with a lump of coal. It severely cut me, leaving me with a sore head for ten days afterwards. We, however, pushed on and reached open ground. after pitching our tents, we rested, recovering from the painful experience of the ‘Secession ladies’ in Warrenton, Virginia.”
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Weather for Derry
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 7 C to 12 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South
