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Infantry regiments from New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania composed the Union’s famed Irish Brigade; commanded by the General Thomas F. Meagher. On the Confederate side, Brigadier General T.R.R. Cobb led a brigade that included the overwhelmingly Irish 24th Georgia Regiment. From their vantage point, the 24th had a clear view of the emerald battle flag emblazoned with the gold harp ̶ ̶ ̶ Ireland’s symbol ̶ ̶ ̶ of the 28th Massachusetts regiment that led the entire Irish Brigade into combat. The Brigade marched together across the open field at the base of the Heights and began the climb up a slope to a stone wall that concealed the men of Cobb’s Brigade; including the 24th Georgia. When they got to within “50 paces of this wall, Cobb’s solid brigade of Rebel infantry, said to have been 2,400 strong, suddenly sprang up from behind it,” and fired in unison directly into the oncoming Irish Brigade.<ref> William McCarter, ''My Life in the Irish Brigade: The Civil War Memoirs of Private William McCarter, 116th Pennsylvania Infantry'', ed. Kevin E. O’Brien (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1996), 178.</ref> When Cobb’s men of the 24th Georgia arose to fire, so too did their battle flag, which was also adorned with the gold harp amid the stars and bars of the Confederacy.
Approximately 1,200 men of the Irish Brigade went into battle that December day; little more than half returned unscathed. The casualties of the Brigade, including killed, wounded, and missing, numbered 545. Fifty of that number represent the men who were killed on the field. <ref>''The U.S. War Department, War of the Rebellion: The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies'', 128 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1888), vol. 21, p. 129.</ref> McCarter recalled that, “every third man had fallen and, along some parts of the line, every second soldier had been killed or wounded.”<ref> McCarter, ''My Life'', 179.</ref> Union Captain D.P. Conyngham described the battle as a “wholesale slaughter of human beings.”<ref> Conyngham, ''The Irish Brigade'', 343.</ref>
[[File: Cobbtrr.jpg|thumbnail|175px|Brigadier General T.R.R. Cobb]]
From a nearby hillside, Confederate General Robert E. Lee watched the Brigade in action and claimed, “Never were men so brave.”<ref>Tucker, ''Irish Confederates'', 63.</ref> Private E.H. Sutton of the 24th Georgia remembered that after the Union sounded retreat, “Private James Williams was so overcome with emotion that he “leaped upon the top of the [stone] wall and gave three ringing cheers.”<ref>Tucker, 63.</ref> Confederate General George Pickett also witnessed the action at Fredericksburg and wrote in a letter to his wife the following day:
