The legendary "Fighting 69th" took part in five major engagements during World War I. This highly decorated unit was inspired by its chaplain, the famous Father Francis Duffy and commanded by "Wild Bill" Donovan. This book recounts in detail the full story of this famous outfit in World War I. The author illustrates the fascinating histories of early twentieth-century New York City and the Irish experience in America. -- From the book jacket.

List of maps : The Battle of the Ourcq River ; The Western Front ; The St. Mihiel operation ; Ground gained on Romange heights.

Prologue: "The War Was the Making of Me" --"Give Me A Man's Job" -- "Shall We Fight for England?" -- "Rainbow-There's the Name for the Division" -- "Did You Ever Go Into an Irishman's Shanty?" -- "Good-bye Broadway, Hello France!" -- "It's a Huge Regiment Now" -- "The People I Like Best Are the Wild Irish" -- "A Willing, Bright, Strong, Clean Lot" -- "Not a Gloomy Man in Town" -- "Most Pitiful and Unsightly Bunch of Men I Have Ever Seen" -- "We Are All Volunteers in This War" -- "In the Wood They Call the Rouge Bouquet" -- "Quiet Sectors Are Not Necessarily Quiet" -- "From a Canny Scot to a Bold Irishman" -- "It Will Be a Happy Day" -- "The Last Joy Ride Any of Us'll Ever Get" -- "All You Want Now Is Guts and Bayonets!" -- "I Guess I Have Been Born to Be Hanged" -- "We Sure Hated to See Him Get Killed" -- "I Have Been Very Happy in Command of the Regiment" -- "Not a Fight, But a Promenade" -- "Over the River a Thousand Yawning Dead" -- "You Expected to Have the Pleasure of Burying Me" -- "We Looked Down from the Last Crest Above Sedan" -- Epilogue: "We Want Him. We Need Him. He Has Earned It”