The Anchoress will catch this first-hand, but for the rest of us, have a look-see:

Writing for newsday.com,  John Valenti says, ” More than 1,100 soldiers from the New York National Guard’s Fighting 69th kicked off Manhattan‘s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade Tuesday morning along Fifth Avenue……With its largest parade contingent ever, the Fighting 69th was led by Ranger Seth Morgulas, 38, of Manhattan, an NYPD mounted contingent, a bagpiper and four formations of troops dressed in Army desert fatigues and black berets adorned with boxwoods — in remembrance of plants worn by unit soldiers for the North back in the Civil War.”

–Click here to see the NYC St. Patrick’s Day parade photos -newsday.com

The 69th, first formed in 1849 as the 9th Regiment of the New York State Militia, is an Irish-heritage unit — and has anchored the nation’s best-known St. Patrick’s Day celebration since 1851. Legend in battle dating to the Civil War, where its soldiers harkened a battle cry of “Fág An Bealach” — Gaelic for “Clear the Way” — the contingent from the Fighting 69th this year included 319 soldiers who returned in January from Afghanistan.

St. Patrick’s Day Parade.com: “The parade marches up 5th Avenue, clan by clan, from 44th to 86th streets starting at 11am on St. Patrick’s Day (Tuesday, March 17th)…..The first official parade in the City was held in 1766 by Irishmen in a military unit recruited to serve in the American colonies.”