York Civil War Roundtable

March 18, 2026 – Scott L. Mingus, Sr. – The Irish at Fredericksburg

This program will be in person and available on Zoom.

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At the start of the Civil War, President Lincoln and his supporters reached out to several leaders in the Irish-American community despite the fact that many of them were Democrats, to obtain their assistance in recruiting men for the Union army. Thousands of Irish volunteers responded, forming multiple regiments across the North. Several of these regiments were organized together under Brig. Gen. Thomas F. Meagher in what became famed as the Irish Brigade. Scott Mingus, co-author of “Erin Go-Bragh: Human Interest Stories of the Irish in the American Civil War,” will discuss the Irish Brigade’s ill-fated assault on the Confederate lines at the 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg. He will follow the advance of the boxwood-adorned Irish as they march through Fredericksburg’s streets to their destiny.

Multiple award-winning author Scott Mingus is a retired scientist and executive in the global paper industry. The Ohio native graduated from Miami University. He was part of the research team that developed the first commercially successful self-adhesive U.S. postage stamps, and he was a pioneer in the early development of bar code labels. He has written more than 35 Civil War and Underground Railroad books and numerous articles for the Gettysburg Magazine and other historical journals. He has appeared on C-SPAN, C-SPAN3, PBS, PCN, and other TV networks. Mingus writes the Cannonball blog on the Civil War history of York County, PA, where he and his wife Debi live. He has also written six scenarios books for miniature war gaming and was elected to the hobby’s Legion of Honor.

Mingus received lifetime achievement awards from the York County History Center, the Northeastern County Historical and Preservation Society and the Camp Curtin Historical Society for his many contributions to local Civil War  history. His biography of William “Extra Billy” Smith won two national awards for Confederate military history. The Gettysburg Civil War Roundtable presented Mingus and co-author Eric Wittenberg with the 2023 Bachelder-Coddington Award for the best new book on the Gettysburg Campaign, “If We Are Striking For Pennsylvania.”

Several direct ancestors were in the Union army in the Civil War, including 15-year-old Pvt. John D. Sisson of the 51st Ohio.