Note 2 — Bay State Faugh-a-Ballaghs.[1] III. THE SECOND IRISH MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT—THE TWENTY-EIGHTH TO THE FRONT—ANOTHER CHAPTER ABOUT OUR RACE IN THE WAR OF THE UNION.
Reading edition
At this battle of Fredericksburg, the Nineteenth Massachusetts Volunteers, for the time being, became the Faugh-a-Ballaghs—"clear the road." It was they that went in boats across the river and with assistance cleared the Confederates from the rifle pits in the lower streets of the town, and thus admitted the laying of pontoon bridges over which passed the troops to charge the Heights. The Nineteenth had many Irishmen in it.