69th Infantry Regiment (New York) - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

Films

• 1940 – The World War I exploits of the regiment are the subject of the Warner Brothers film The Fighting 69th. An advisor to the film was former member Captain John T. Prout who later had also been a major general in the Irish Army. The film was shown at drills to all persons joining the regiment through the 1970s.
• 1993 – The regiment is shown receiving general absolution from Rev. William Corby before going into battle at Gettysburg in the film Gettysburg.
• 2003 – The regiment's attack on Marye's Heights during the Battle of Fredericksburg is depicted in the film Gods and Generals. They can be seen wearing the regiments traditional green boxwood sprigs in their kepis during the attack.
• 2006 - Fictional veterans of the Fighting 69th are portrayed in season three of HBO's Deadwood series, as agents of George Hearst.
• 2007 – The military units in the film remake I Am Legend are members of the Fighting 69th.
• 2008 – The 2008 film Cloverfield depicts the 69th Infantry Regiment and other elements of the regular and reserve military doing battle with a giant monster in the streets of New York City.

Other

• The official regimental cocktail, "The Fighting 69th", is made of three parts champagne and one part Irish whiskey, and is served at unit dinners and after the St. Patrick's Day Parade. According to one legend, the Civil War regimental commander, Thomas Francis Meagher, liked to drink his whiskey with Vichy water. But one day when his aide was unable to find Vichy water, he returned with champagne. Meagher liked the new mixture, and the drink stuck. Others feel that it is more likely the mixture simply developed as necessity during the unit's service in the Champagne region of France during World War I, as cocktails without bitters are mostly a 20th century invention.
• One of the first books on mixing drinks, JerryThomas's 1862 "The Bon Vivant's Companion", describes a "69th Regiment Punch" as consisting of 1 oz of Irish whiskey, 1 oz of Scotch whisky, a teaspoon of sugar, and 4 oz of hot water.
• The Fighting 69th is a popular subject with painters of Civil War subjects. Paintings and prints depicting it have been made by Don Troiani, Dale Gallon, Mort Kunstler, Donna Neary and many other artists.
• The Wolfe Tones recorded a song called the Fighting 69th, which is a tribute to the regiment. A video of it is on YouTube. It was later recorded by the Boston-based Celtic Punk band, Dropkick Murphys on their album "The Gang's all Here".
• David Kincaid's song "The Irish Volunteer" is a tribute to the regiment
• "Pat Murphy of the Irish Brigade" by Bobby Horton is another song tribute
• The Fighting 69th is featured in the book by Joseph Bruchac, "March toward the Thunder".
• "Clear the Way" is a song written and performed by Irish musician John Doyle (musician) on his 2011 album "Shadow and Light". The phrase is the English translation of the Gaelic "Faugh A Ballagh", the battle cry taken by Francis Meagher. The song tells the story of the Battle of Fredericksburg from the point of view of one of the Irish soldiers.