By request...

The Irish Sixty-ninth

To Erin’s sons of hill and plain,

Come listen to my feeble strain,

Perhaps you’ll think it all a dream,

Though every line is true.

I’ll sing to you of our long campaign,

Through summer sun and winter’s rain,

To Richmond’s gates and back again,

I will relate to you.

It was in August, sixty-one,

That Colonel Owen took command,

And brought us into Maryland,

Then let it rain or shine,

He drilled us---every day we rose,

To learn us how to thrash our foes,

And often they have felt the blows

Of the gallant Sixty-ninth!

In February, sixty-two,

When passing in a grand review,

We were told our foes we would pursue,

And Richmond overthrow,

To Washington we went straightaway,

And sailed in steamers down the bay,

Until we were stopped next day,

To land at Fort Monroe.

At Hampton then we camp’d around,

Until brave Little Mac came down

And ordered us up to Yorktown,

Our strength there to combine,

And there we worked both night and day,

And drove the rebel hordes away,

And walking through the town next day,

Was the Irish Sixty-ninth.

From Yorktown then we sailed away,

And landed at West Point next day,

And gaily marched along the way,

And camped among the pines.

And there we stopped three weeks or more,

Until we heard the cannons roar

And musketry came like a shower

Along the rebel lines.

Then double quick away we went,

Across the river we were sent

To drive the rebels back we meant,

No man fell out of line,

There Philadelphia’s adopted sons

Bravely supported Rickett’s guns,

And when away the rebels run,

Cheers the gallant Sixty-ninth!

At Fair Oaks then long weeks we lay,

And picket fighting night and day,

I’ve seen our brave boys borne away,

And some in death grow pale,

And in the seven days’ fight, going back

On bloody fields we left our track,

When other regiments falling back,

We stood as at Glendale.

Where horse and foot retreat that day,

All bleeding from that dreadful fray,

Right manfully we fought our way in one unbroken line,

And when our bullets all were spent, three cheers we for the Union sent,

And charging at the gray coats went, the Irish Sixty-ninth!

And on Antietam’s field again we boldly faced the Iron rain,

Some of our boys upon the plain, they found a bloody grave,

Where our brave General, Little Mac, made boasting Lee to clear the track,

And take his ragged rebels back across Potomac’s wave.

At Fredericksburg our old brigade, with Owen, who never was afraid,

As soon as the Pontoon was laid, we crossed in the first line,

And though the bullets flew around, we drove the gray coats from the town,

Such work is always done up brown, by the Irish Sixty-ninth!

Next day upon the battle field, old veterans they were forced to yield,

For the rebels had a stone wall shield, protected front and rear.

The cannons blazing shot and shell, ‘twas like the gaping jaws of Hell,

Though many a brave man round us fell, we boldly done our share.

O’Kane, our colonel, nobly stood, where grass was turning red with blood,

And growing to a crimson flood, we still kept in our lines,

Though many got a bloody shroud, as Philadelphia’s sons we’re proud,

And sing the deeds in praises loud of the Gallant Sixty-ninth!

----- unknown soldier, 69th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force. That's it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.

The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on an equal footing with a carload of drunken morons with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a (armed) mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat...it has no validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed.

People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, which is the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser.

People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level.

The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation...and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

The greatest civilization is one where all citizens are equally armed and can only be persuaded, never forced.