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one more urgent ; no cause more sacred, for it comprehends all that has been con- sidered most desirable, most valuable, most ennobling to political society and humanity at large ; no cause more just, for it involves no scheme of conquest or subjugation, contemplates no disfranchisement of the citizen, excluding the idea of provincialism and inferiority." He delivered addresses in different parts of the Union, urging his countrymen to rally under the Federal flag. Ou 1 8th November 1861 he left for Washington, with the first regiment of the Irish Brigade ; and in February 1 862 he was created Brigadier-General. In the ensuing operations his brigade specially distinguished itself at Fair Oaks(ist June 1862), and in the manoeuvres that followed the Seven Days' battles. At the battle of Antietam (i6th September) his com- mand played a prominent part. Greeley writes of "Caldwell's and Meagher's (Irish) brigade vieing with each other in steadiness and gallantry." An eye-witness thus describes its services at the battle of Fredericksburg, 13 th December 1862 : "To the Irish division, commanded by General Meagher, was principally com- mitted the desperate task of bursting out of the town of Fredericksburg, and form- ing, under the withering fire of the Confe- derate batteries, to attack Marye's Heights, towering immediately in their front. Never at Fontenoy, Albuera, nor at Waterloo, was more undoubted courage displayed by the sons of Erin than during those six frantic dashes which they directed against the almost impregnable position of their foe. . . The bodies which lie in dense masses within forty yards of the muzzles of Colonel Walton's guns are the best evi- dence what manner of men they were." Meagher was himself distinguished for his cool bravery. Of the 1,200 men he led into action, only 280 appeared on parade next morning. The annihilation of the brigade was completed at Chancellorsville, on the 3rd May 1863. There for two days and nights they held their ground in front of a line of defence, and on one occasion dragged into action a battery of guns, the horses and drivers of which had been killed. Five days afterwards Meagher tendered his resignation, on the ground that it was " perpetrating a public decep- tion " to keep up a brigade so reduced in numbers, and which he had been refused permission to withdraw from service for a time and recruit." He was immediately appointed to the command of the Etowah district (his head-quarters at Chattanooga), with a force of 12,000 infantry, 200 guns on the forts and in the field, and a regi-
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ment of cavalry. His district was over- run with guerillas, and he had to furnish supplies to divisions of the army through an unprotected country. On the conclusion of the war in 1 865, he was appointed by President Johnson, Secretary (or Acting- Governor) of the territory of Montana, and until his death satisfactorily discharged the duties of the office. He was acciden- tally drowned off a steamer in the Missis- sippi, 1st July 1867, aged 43. His body was never recovered. ' '^^
Meave, Queen of Conn aught, an Irish princess, said to have flourished in the ist century, and to have held her court at Cruachan, now Croghan, near Tulsk, in the County of Roscommon. The great extent of the raths and other remains there attest the ancient importance of the place. Out of a discussion between Meave and her hus- band, Ailill, respecting the comparative merits of their different possessions, and Meave's desire to possess a bull to equal in beauty her husband's " Finnbennach " (white-horn), arose the incidents related in the story that has been styled the Irish Iliad — the Tain Bo Chuailgne, or " Cattle Spoil of Cooley." The effort to secure a noble bull, Donn Cuailgne, involved the whole island in war, in which Fergus MacEoigh, Cuchulaind, Conall Cearnach, Ferdia, and other heroes of Fenian ro- mance were engaged. For ages the lay was lost, until recovered by the sage Mur- gen, by the grave of Fergus MacEoigh. The story is graphically told in Mrs. Fer- guson's Ireland before the Conquest ; while the " Tain-Quest " is among the most beautiful of the Lays of the Western Gael. Ailill was eventually slain by Conall Cear- nach ; and Meave passed her widowhood on Inis Clothran in Lough Eee. She sur- vived all her contemporaries, and reigned over Connaught about eighty years. She was killed by the cast of a stone from Forbaid, as she was enjoying her favourite reci-eation of swimming in Lough Eee. It has been suggested that Meave is the prototype of Mab, the fairy queen. '?' '7'
MUesins, or Miledh, a mythical personage, whose widow and descendants are fabled, according to the Four Masters, to have landed in Ireland long before the Christian era. "The fleet of the sons of Miledh [Milesius] came to Ireland to take it from the Tuatha-de-Dananns ; and they fought the battle of Sliabh Mis with them on the third day after landing. In this battle fell Scota, wife of Miledh ; and the grave of Scota is between Sliabh Mis and the sea [still pointed out in the valley of Gleann-Scoithin, County of Kerry]. . . After this the sons of Miledh fought a battle 339
