ennsylvania, which
dashed itself repeatedly against those impregnable heights, until
two-thirds of its numbers strewed the ground" (vol. ii., p. 345). In
the same book Greely quotes the following from the correspondent of
the London _Times_, watching the battle from the heights, and writing
from Lee's headquarters: "To the Irish Division commanded by General
Meagher was principally committed the desperate task of bursting out
of the town of Fredricksburg and forming under the withering fire of
the confederate batteries to attack Marye's Heights. Never at
Fontenoy, Albuera, or at Waterloo was more undoubted courage displayed
by the sons of Erin than during those six frantic attacks which they
directed against the almost impregnable position of the foe."

CHAPTER I

THE RETREAT FROM MONS

HOW THE MUNSTERS SAVED THE GUNS AND GOT RINGED ROUND WITH FIRE

Regular battalions of all the Irish regiments were included in the
British Expeditionary Force which left for France, at the outbreak of
war, in the early weeks of August, 1914. For its size it was the
finest Army that the world has ever seen, in equipment, discipline,
and martial ardour. It was commanded by Field-Marshal Sir John French,
the scion of an Irish family long settled in Roscommon, of which Lord
De Freyne is the head, and a soldier who made a brilliant reputation
as a cavalry leader in the South African War.

On the morning of Sunday, August 23rd, two of the three Army Corps
which composed the Force were extended along a front of twenty-five
miles east and west of Mons, a Belgian town of 25,000 inhabitants and
the centre of coal mining, iron, and glass works. In the First Corps,
under Sir Douglas Haig, were the 1st Irish Guards, the 2nd Munster
Fusiliers, and the 2nd Connaught Rangers. The Second Corps, under Sir
Horace Smith-Dorrien, included the 2nd Irish Rifles and the 2nd Royal
Irish Regiment. The 4th Royal Irish Dragoons were with the cavalry. An
Irish trooper of that regiment on outpost duty had the distinction of
opening the Great War between England and Germany by firing the first
shot, which brought down a Uhlan officer, in the early hours of
Saturday, August 22nd, fifteen miles beyond Mons, on the road to
Brussels.

The Battle of Mons, the first encounter in force between the British
and the Germans, commenced at twenty minutes to one o'clock on Sunday,
August 23rd. Not a German was then in sight. But an enemy aeroplane
hovered overhead,