Damian Shiels's Blog

Black Garibaldians at Gettysburg: Four Afro-Latino Privates who Served in the 39th New York

In a 2014 article in The Root, ���Did Black Men Fight at Gettysburg?��� historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr., recalled William Faulkner���s famous quote from Intruder in the Dust, that “���For every Southern boy fourteen years old������ it is still that fateful day at Gettysburg, July 3rd, 1863, just before the famous ill-fated assault that came to be known as ���Pickett���s Charge.������ ������This time. Maybe this time,��� the fantasy goes.��� To this, Gates poignantly adds ���the less well-known but equally fervent dream of many black boys ���fourteen years old,��� I’m sure: that when those grey and tattered butternut coats, their bayonets glistening in the summer sun, reach the apex of wood and stone, they and their African-American comrades are there to repulse the attack with the righteous fury of centuries of their enslaved ancestors, a clear victory of freedom over slavery that will drown out, once and for all, the wild Rebel yell.��� (1)

[image error]���Battle of Gettysburg��� by Peter Frederick Rothermel, 1870, depicting the savage fighting along the stonewall during Pickett���s Charge

Gates investigates the possibility that, despite the absence of a segregated Black regiment, there could have been Black men who fought at Gettysburg. After examining several possible candidates, he concludes that proving it may be a ���fool���s errand,��� and he may very well be correct. But Gates��� poignant vision of African American soldiers driving back Pickett���s Charge has resounded in my head now for years, and although my research on this subject is still incomplete, I would like to offer the evidence I���ve found that four Black soldiers were indeed present at Gettysburg, and may very well have been positioned along that famous stone wall in the repulse of the Army of Northern Virginia at the Confederacy���s ���High Water Mark.��� These four soldiers, Maurice Caballos, Jose Duarte, Antonio Lopez, and Elias Perez, were immigrant Afro-Latino men who served under the rank of private in the 39th New York Volunteer Infantry, or ���Garibaldi Guard.��� (2)

The 39th New York Infantry was one of the more unusual regiments of the American Civil War. Raised from the diverse immigrant communities of New York City���s ���melting pot,��� it was originally commanded by Colonel Frederick George D’Utassy, a former officer in the Hungarian revolutionary forces of 1848. Dubbed the ���Garibaldi Guard��� after Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi, the unit originally boasted three companies of Germans, three of Hungarians, one of Swiss, one of Italians, one of Frenchmen, and one of Spaniards and Portuguese. Among those noted as ���Spaniards and Portuguese��� were many Spanish and Portuguese-speaking immigrants from Latin America. The Garibaldi Guard also included American natives and men from various other parts of Europe, including Ireland, Great Britain, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, and Russia. The original uniform of the regiment included red overshirts styled after the famous garments of Garibaldi���s redshirt revolutionaries, as well as red-trimmed dark blue frocks, trousers, and black cocked hats with plumes in the style of the Bersaglieri. In Lafayette Square, on May 23rd, 1861, the regiment was presented with three flags. One was the American flag. The second was a Hungarian tricolor with the inscription ���Vincere vel Mori��� (Latin for ���Victory or Death���). The third was an Italian tricolor with the motto ���Dio e Popolo,��� meaning ���God and People,��� mirroring the Roman Republic flag that Garibaldi placed upon the battlements of Rome in 1849. As historian Catherine Catalfamo explained, ���The presentation of three national flags to the Garibaldians at Lafayette Square tied the soldiers’ self-concept to not only the ideals, cause and culture of the Federal Union, but to European progressive movements as well���the causes of Hungarian and Italian independence.��� For many of these soldiers, patriotism toward their adopted homeland, ethnic pride in their places of origin, and progressive idealism all went hand-in-hand. (3)

[image error]���Review of the Garibaldi Guard by President Lincoln.��� Colorized version of a lithograph by Frank Vizetelly, printed in Cassell’s History of the United States, by Edmund Ollier, Volume III, Cassell Petter and Galpin, London, 1880.

One can only speculate on motivations of the Afro-Latino members of the Garibaldi Guard, but it is easy to see why the regiment���s ties to the ideals of 1848 might have inspired them. Giuseppe Garibaldi was himself a staunch abolitionist who fought in Latin American revolutions prior to his return to Italy. It is possible that they saw in this melting pot regiment the promise that a multi-ethnic Union might hold for them and their families, and they may have found solidarity with the other working class Latin American immigrants with whom they enlisted. Perhaps, even, the Garibaldi Guard was the only regiment that would permit them to serve. Military service came with a steady paycheck, which was likewise enticing to many working class immigrants. Maurice Caballos was born in Havana, Cuba, then a Spanish colony, ca 1839-1841. It is quite possible that Caballos was born into slavery; in fact, nearly 80% of Cubans of color were enslaved at the time of the 1841 Census. It is unclear when or why he immigrated to the US, but many Cubans, like other immigrant groups, came to New York in the 19th century seeking greater political freedoms and economic opportunities. A laborer, Caballos enlisted on May 28th, 1861, in what would become Company D, the Spanish company under the command of Captain Joseph (or Jose) Torrens. In May 1863, the original companies of the regiment were consolidated, and he was transferred with other members of his company to Company C. (4)

[image error]���Dia de Reyes,��� by Federico Mialhe. Havana, Cuba circa 1850.

Elias Perez was born in Santiago de Cuba in the early 1830s and was a shoemaker by trade. He also enlisted on May 28th, 1861, falling in under Captain Cesare Osnaghi���s Italian Company C. Antonio Lopez was also born in the 1830s, although the records vary. His discharge certificate lists his place of birth as ���Trinidad Porta Spera, England,��� which likely refers to Port of Spain in Trinidad, a former Spanish colony annexed by Great Britain in 1802. Like Cuba, Trinidad had a large population of people of African descent whose ancestors were brought there by European colonizers and forced into slave labor on plantations. Slavery was abolished in Trinidad beginning in 1833. Lopez enlisted in Osnaghi���s company on May 17th, 1861. He was, like Perez, a shoemaker. I have so far been unable to ascertain where Jose Duarte hailed from. A ship manifest record shows a Jose Duarte of the same name and age, a laborer born in the Portuguese Azores, arriving in New York in 1850, but I cannot confirm that he is the same man. Duarte enlisted in Company I, a Hungarian company under Captain A.H. Von Unwerth on May 28th, 1861. He transferred to Company C during the consolidation in May 1863. (5)

[image error]Discharge Certificate of Private Antonio Lopez, 39th New York Infantry (included in his widow���s pension file).

The service records for Caballos, Duarte, Lopez, and Perez, show them listed as privates in the regimental muster rolls throughout the regiment���s first two years of service, meaning they were likely present at First Battle of Bull Run, the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862, and the 39th���s capture at Harper���s Ferry and subsequent parole. Regimental returns show Perez assigned as a company cook beginning in October 1862. Lopez has the same duty starting in January 1863, and Caballos and Duarte are likewise shown as cooks from February 1863 on. It begs multiple questions���were they simply privates prior to their official assignments as cooks, and, if so, can we assume that they were engaged in combat alongside their comrades in the Garibaldi Guard despite the military regulations prohibiting Black men from serving? And even once they received their special duties as company cooks, were they exempted from other service? What would their roles have been at Gettysburg? (6)

[image error]Detail from a camp scene photographed by Mathew Brady ca 1861. The two privates at center are wearing the fatigue uniform of the Garibaldi Guard. National Archives.[image error]���������Our kitchen near Beverly Ford,��� depicting a Black cook, by Edwin Forbes, August 1863.

While many Black men served cooks in white regiments, they were, during the early war period, generally hired as civilian contractors and therefore did not carry military ranks or appear on the muster rolls as these four Garibaldis did. Company cooks were typically enlisted soldiers who performed the additional role of preparing rations for their company while it was settled in camp, but they were otherwise not exempted from most other duties, including serving in combat. Caballos, Duarte, Lopez, and Perez enlisted in 1861 and were listed on the regimental roster as privates. There is nothing in their compiled military service records indicating they would not have served in the same manner as other privates who were assigned to company cook duties. During July 1863, Caballos, Duarte, and Lopez were simply listed as ���present��� for duty, while ���Colored Man��� was left in the remarks section for each man. For Perez, his abstract from the regimental returns notes that he was then attached to Company A. What exactly their roles would have been at Gettysburg remains unclear. (7)

[image error][image error]Compiled Military Service Records for all four Black Garibaldians show them marked as ���present��� as privates on Company C���s muster roll for July and August, 1863. The remarks section includes the note ���Colored man��� for each. Perez���s record indicates a line was drawn through his name in the ���present��� column; abstracts from the regimental returns indicate he may have been detailed to Company A during this period.

What we do know, however, is the significant role that their regiment, the Garibaldi Guard, played in that climactic battle. On July 2nd, 1863, after four hours of skirmishing in front of the Bliss Farm, they launched a bold counterattack upon the advancing Confederates near the famous Peach Orchard, recapturing the guns of Battery I of the 5th US Artillery. On the following day, they faced the brunt of the massive Confederate frontal assault that came to be known as Pickett���s Charge. As elements of Confederate General J. Johnston Pettigrew���s division breached the stone wall, the Garibaldians were ordered forward to plug a gap in the Union lines. In the desperate hand-to-hand fight that ensued, they once again drove the Rebels back, capturing three Confederate battle flags in the process. It was a moment in history that���s become mythologized as the ���High Water Mark��� of the Confederacy, the make or break moment that decided the future of the ���Slaveholders��� Rebellion.��� And this band of immigrants under their banners of national and ethnic pride were at the very center of it. Were these four Afro-Latino men there in the midst of the affray, driven by, as Gates put it, the ���righteous fury of centuries of their enslaved ancestors?��� (8)

[image error]Confederate battle flag of the 11th Mississippi Infantry, which bears an inscription at the top noting that the flag was captured by Sergeant Ferdinando Maggi on July 3rd, 1863. Maggi served alongside the Black Garibaldians in Company C of the 39th NY. Museum of the Confederacy.

In May 1863, the War Department issued General Order 143, which standardized the enlistment and training of African American soldiers under the control of official War Department policy. Black recruits were organized into separate, segregated Black regiments commanded by white officers. Starting in September 1863, the War Department also standardized the enlistment of Black ���under-cooks��� to serve in white regiments. Such men were ���mustered into service, as in the cases of other soldiers,��� and their names were listed on the muster rolls at the foot of the list of privates. It was during this period that Caballos, Duarte, Lopez, and Perez were honorably discharged from the 39th New York, by order of the Secretary of War, on the basis of having been ���illegally enlisted��� as ���negroes��� in a white regiment. Despite having served honorably as privates in the Garibaldi Guard for over two years, the four men were released and forced to go elsewhere. At least two of them, Caballos and Perez, subsequently served in Black units. Caballos enlisted in the 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry in January 1864 and served through the end of the war, mustering out with his regiment in October 1865. Perez served in the 29th Connecticut and 30th Connecticut (later 31st US Colored Troops). (9)

[image error]Descriptive Roll Abstracts for Maurice Cavallo, 5th MA Cavalry, and Elias Perez, 30th CT Infantry.

These veterans��� fates have been difficult to trace after the war, due in part to the many variations in the spelling of their names over various records. Antonio Lopez moved to the North End neighborhood of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, where he was known as John Levorio Lopez (or Loppie) and worked as a shoemaker. He lived with his wife, Sarah Jane, whom he had married just prior to the war in 1860, and with whom he had several children. After Lopez���s death in 1881, his family struggled to make ends meet. Sarah applied for a pension in 1900, but it appears to have been held up over discrepancies over her husband���s date of death, which varied between records. In 1901, a woman named Elizabeth A. Peters renewed the effort on Sarah���s behalf. In a letter to the US Pension Office, she described the tragic state that Sarah then found herself in. ���She is very ill, destitute, and 66 years old,��� Peters explained. ���Her only daughter, who nursed her, died a few months ago, seemingly from overwork and want.��� Elizabeth���s brother, John, wrote a letter several months later attesting to the same and stressing the urgency of the matter. ���Mrs. Lopez,��� he wrote, ���…is absolutely dependent on charity for the means of sustaining life���I fear that if Mrs. Lopez does not soon receive relief, it will come too late and she will not live to enjoy it.��� Sarah Jane Lopez died in 1905. I did not find any evidence that she received any of the pension to which she was entitled. (10)

[image error]Halifax, Nova Scotia, ca 1879. Notman Studio, Nova Scotia Archives.

Maurice Caballos lived in Washington, D.C., after the war, going by the name Morris Cavallo (or Cavalha). He married Jane (nee Douglass) in 1887. Beginning in 1890, Caballos collected an invalid���s pension based on his service with the 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry. He died in Harmony, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1896, and was buried in Washington, D.C. Did his trip to Nova Scotia involve a visit to the family of his former comrade, Antonio Lopez? Or was their proximity merely a coincidence? The records I have found so far are scarce, and the fates of Duarte and Perez after the war are still unknown. (11)

My research into this subject is ongoing, and I welcome feedback from anyone who might have more information or leads regarding the lives of these men and the nature of their wartime service. As Black privates serving in a white Union regiment, Caballos, Duarte, Lopez, and Perez were unusual to say the least, and their names and stories should not be forgotten.

References

(1) Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., ���Did Black Men Fight at Gettysburg?��� The Root, 7 July 2014 [https://www.theroot.com/did-black-men-fight-at-gettysburg-1790876264].

(2) Ibid., Roster of the 39th New York Volunteer Infantry.

(3) Catalfamo, Catherine. The Thorny Rose: The Americanization of an Urban, Immigrant, Working Class Regiment in the Civil War. A Social History of the 39th New York Volunteer Infantry. The University of Texas at Austin, 1989. Ph.D. Thesis; Pellicano, John M. Conquer or Die: The 39th New York Volunteer Infantry, Pellicano Publications, 1996.

(4) Compiled Military Service Records, U.S. National Archives; O���Neill, Aaron, ���Population of Cuba by gender, ethnicity and slave status 1775-1841��� via statista.com.

(5) Compiled Military Service Records; Civil War Pension Files, U.S. National Archives; NY Passenger Lists.

(6) Compiled Military Service Records.

(7) Compiled Military Service Records; Kautz, August, Customs of Service for Non-Commissioned Officers and Soldiers as Derived from Law and Regulations and Practised in the Army of the United States, 1864.

(8) Catalfamo; Pellicano; Gates.

(9) Snyder, Laurie, ���Black History Month: The Authorization, Duties and Pay of ���Under-Cooks,������ 47thpennsylvaniavolunteers.com; General Orders No. 323 (enlistment and pay of under-cooks of African descent), U.S. War Department and Office of the Adjutant General, September 28, 1863; Muster Roll Abstracts; Compiled Military Service Records.

(10) Civil War Pension Files.

(11) Civil War Pension Index; ���Marriage Licenses.��� Washington, DC: Evening Star, 8 Mar 1887; District of Columbia, U.S., Marriage Records; District of Columbia, Death Records.

Video: Green & Blue Lecture & Launch at Glucksman Ireland House

I have just returned to Finland from a great couple of weeks in the U.S. Along the way I had the American launch of Green & Blue: Irish Americans in the Union Military, 1861-1865 at NYU’s Glucksman Ireland House, where I discussed some of the major themes and findings of the book for their annual Ernie O’Malley Lecture. Thanks to everyone at Glucksman for what was a fantastic evening! That talk has now been uploaded to their YouTube channel, so if you want to catch it and get an idea of the book, you can do so by visiting their page here or watching the video below. I hope you enjoy it!

Open Call for Submissions! Seeking Period Photographs Related to Irish Service in the American Civil War

Attention, Civil War image collectors! Damian and I (Brendan) are seeking image��contributions for a planned future photographic history of Irish participation in the American Civil War. We are especially interested in period images (or postwar copies of period images) showing Irish immigrants and first generation Irish Americans who contributed to the American Civil War. This includes images of soldiers who served in “ethnic” units like the Irish Brigade and those who served in “non-ethnic” units, as well as members of the US Navy and Marines. We are open to CDVs, wet plate��images, stereoviews, albumen prints, you-name-it. While our work is largely focused on military contributions, we also welcome period images of civilians who were involved, including politicians, nurses, clergy, spouses and families of servicemen, etc. If your image is selected for publication, you will receive attribution in the forthcoming book.

Here are some basic guidelines for submissions:

Tell us whatever you can about your photo. Is the subject identified? How did you come to possess the image, and is it accompanied by any other artifacts (letters, documents, etc.)?

Please indicate image type (tintype, daguerreotype, CDV, stereoview, etc.) and whether there is a backmark or any other identifying information on the image or frame.

We ask that you send high-resolution images only, preferably between 600-1,200 DPI, in .tiff, jpg, or png format. Please scan in full color, so that any tinting can be captured. Please use a scanner for the best results. Phone and tablet photos of images will not be acceptable for publication.

If you are interested in contributing or have any queries please email us at ��civilwaririshamerican@gmail.com.

For more information about the��American Civil War-related work Damian and I are doing, please feel free to visit��Irish in the American Civil War.

Video: Recovering the Voices of West Cork in the American Civil War

Later this week I (Damian) will be in Clonakilty, Co. Cork to talk to D��chas Clonakilty Heritage about some local men, their families and their correspondence that have emerged through my letters project, Andersonville Irish Project and the Widows in the Atlantic World Project. In advance of that, D��chas kindly shared with me the video from a talk I delivered online for them back in 2021, discussing what the pension files reveal about local emigration and chatting about some Cork individuals impacted by the Civil War. I won’t be covering any of these specific individuals this week, so I thought I would share that 2021 talk on the site’s YouTube channel for anyone interested. To have a look, you can do so by visiting the channel here or clicking on the video below. If any readers happen to be around West Cork, I hope to see you at D��chas Clonakilty for the talk on Thursday!

Video: The Latest Results from the Andersonville Irish Project

Last night I (Damian) gave an update on the latest findings of our Andersonville Irish Project to the Ancient Order of Hibernians as part of their Irish American Heritage Month Programme. In it we discussed new information on the men, their origins, their service, how they experienced Andersonville and how those who survived dealt with its consequences. The video is now available online, so if you are interested you can view it on the AOH Channel here, or by taking a look below!

Andersonville Irish StoryMap: From Gettysburg Battlefield to Andersonville Grave

Work on our Andersonville Irish Project is continuing apace, and we have now gathered important data points on many of the more than 1,000 Irish Americans we have thus far identified. One of those elements is their place of capture. In this new StoryMap, we take a tour of the Gettysburg Battlefield, exploring the locations where some Irish Americans who ultimately perished in Georgia were captured. They were among the longest confined of all Union prisoners in the American Civil War. You can explore the StoryMap by clicking here or on the image below. To check out some other StoryMaps related to Irish America, see here.

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Book Update. Green and Blue: Irish Americans in the Union Military, 1861-1865

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As some readers may be aware from our Facebook site, I (Damian) have a new book being released this April with Louisiana State University Press, titled Green and Blue: Irish Americans in the Union Military, 1861-1865. I spent the Christmas period wrapping up the volume index and checking over the final page proofs, so it is now all systems go for release in a few weeks. This is a book I have wanted to write since very shortly after I began this website in 2010, and it has been a long time in the making. To give you an idea of the book’s focus, here is the description from the LSU Press website:

Damian Shiels���s��Green and Blue��explores Irish American service in the United States military by analyzing the written correspondence of ordinary rank-and-file soldiers drawn from across the Union���s armed forces. Using a vast and largely untapped collection of letters penned by Irish American combatants to their families during the war, Shiels explains how these enlisted men navigated their duties from multiple perspectives, including how they adapted to and experienced military life, how they engaged with their faith, and how they interacted with the home front.��Green and Blue��offers the most detailed and intimate picture yet of Irish Americans��� service in the United States military during the Civil War.

I was extremely fortunate that Professor Gary Gallagher, Professor Lesley Gordon and Professor Kevin Kenny were willing to read the book in advance and to offer some comments on it in advance of release, which you can read below. For anyone interested, you can pre-order the book (which significantly helps with getting the book as wide an audience as possible!) either via the LSU site here or on any of the major online book selling platforms. For anyone interested in chatting further about the book or discussing its contents, you can contact me directly at shielsheritage[at]gmail.com.

���Damian Shiels makes a substantial contribution to the literature on Irish participation in the Civil War. His examination of a large body of fresh evidence illuminates the attitudes and actions of common soldiers who served the Union cause in a range of theaters and units. Green and Blue is the obvious first place to explore the topic.��� ~Gary W. Gallagher, author of The Enduring Civil War: Reflections on the Great American Crisis

���Green and Blue provides an exceptionally rich portrait of Irish American soldiers and sailors beyond the ���ethnic��� units that have garnered most of the attention of historians. By surveying these men���s prewar lives, motivations to enlist, and what they and their families endured, this study adds to our broader appreciation of the Civil War soldier experience.��� ~Lesley J. Gordon, author of A Broken Regiment: The 16th Connecticut���s Civil War

���Through an extraordinary feat of archival research, Shiels has transformed our understanding of the Irish contribution to the Union war effort. Moving past the familiar narrative of ethnic regiments, he tells the story of the enlisted rank-and-file men, why they fought, and what they thought about race and politics. An original addition to Civil War studies and the history of the Irish diaspora.��� ~Kevin Kenny, author of The American Irish: A History

Join Damian for An Online Course on Researching the Irish in the American Civil War

For any of our readers who may be interesting I (Damian) an offering a short online course- three talks over three weeks in December- on researching the Irish in the American Civil War. We’ll be discussing everything from where the Irish fought to identifying and navigating pension files and other military records. The course is to support the work of the American Irish Historical Society and has a modest registration fee of $30. The sessions begin at 6pm Eastern Time. You can see more details on each of the topics being covered in the sessions below- and if you are interested in registering you can do so at the AIHS site by clicking here. Please share with whoever you think may be interested, and hopefully see some of you there!

1. An Introduction to the Irish Experience of the American Civil War, December 3rd 2024

An overview of Irish participation in the American Civil War, exploring where the Irish fought, in what numbers, the units they served with and some of the most well-known Irish individuals. The talk will also provide information on how to find out more details about some of the units in which the Irish were particularly prevalent. 

2. Researching the Irish of the American Civil War: A Guide to Pension Files, December 11th 2024

The American Civil War pension files are the largest and most under-utilised resource on ordinary 19th century Irish people that exist anywhere in the world, often providing extraordinary information on Irish emigrants, particularly Irish women. This talk will explore the different types of pension files available, how to access them, and provide a guide on how to interpret and understand their contents. 

3. Researching the Irish of the American Civil War: A Guide to Military & Other Records, December 18th 2024

The final talk will explore the copious other types of information available in both digital and archival form available on Irish American participants, exploring where to find this information and how to interpret it, as well as providing research tips on how to uncover details about individuals during this period.

New StoryMap: The Irish at Antietam- A Photo & Video Tour

We have a new StoryMap exploring some of the stories of the Irish at Antietam in photos and videos. So often dominated just by the Irish Brigade experience at the Sunken Road (“Bloody Lane”), Irish Americans were impacted by the fighting all over the field at Antietam. This StoryMap shares just a small number of the thousands of Irish American stories from the bloodiest single day in American history. If you have any Antietam related stories you would like to share I would love to hear from you at shielsheritage[at]gmail.com. You can explore the StoryMap here or by clicking on the image below.

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The Irish Regulars Buried Side by Side at Antietam National Cemetery

While on my recent research trip to the National Archives to continue the work of the Andersonville Irish Project, I took the opportunity for a return visit to Antietam with a view to a potential future research project focusing on that battle. One of my visits was to Antietam National Cemetery. It is particularly noticeable there just how frequently Irish American men were interred side-by-side, particularly in those sections relating to men from New York and Pennsylvania. In at least some instances, this seems to have been a result of the men having originally been buried close to each other on the battlefield. But it is also noticeable in some other sections, such as that dedicated to the United States Regulars. In this instance, it is indicative of the heavy Irish American presence in that branch of service. Wherever Regulars fought during the Civil War, there was always a significant Irish representation on the field. Below I share three images of side-by-side Irish Regular burials I encountered at Antietam, and the details of the men themselves. There are many more Irish in the Regular graves that surround them.

[image error] Grave 3521 John Rourke and Grave 3522 Charles McCaffery. John Rourke was a 23-year-old waiter when he first enlisted on 22nd September 1855 in New York. A native of Co. Roscommon, he initially served in Company E of the 9th United States Infantry. He re-enlisted while stationed in Walla Walla, Washington Territory. By the time of Antietam he was in Company G of the 4th United States Infantry. Wounded near Antietam’s Middle Bridge on 17th September, he died of injuries at Keedysville on the 21st. Beside him is Charles McCaffrey from Co. Tyrone, who had enlisted aged 22 in Boston on 27th July 1858. Charles served in both companies K and I of the 6th United States Infantry. Although Charles met his death on 17th September 1862 at Antietam, it was not as a result of enemy action. He was recorded as dying that day “at camp near Sharpsburg, MD” of Cholera. [image error] Grave 3581 Timothy Griffin and Grave 3519 William Finley. Timothy Griffin was from Co. Kerry and was a 21-year-old laborer when he first enlisted in Cincinnati, Ohio on 12th September 1855. Initially assigned to Company G of the 2nd United States Cavalry, he was still with a regular cavalryman in 1863 when he died on 7th July at Middletown, Maryland in the aftermath of the Gettysburg Campaign. Beside him is William Finley, from Co. Tyrone, who was also a professional soldier, on his second enlistment by 1862. William had first joined up as a 20-year-old laborer on 3rd September 1855 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, serving in Company C of the 10th U.S. Infantry. Although officially attached to Battery M of the 2nd U.S. Artillery at Antietam, he died on 17th September serving with his old company of the 10th in the fighting near Middle Bridge. [image error] Grave 3504 Peter Hickey and Grave 3505 William McConnell. Peter Hickey was from Co. Waterford and was 21 when he first joined the Regulars, signing up on 26th December 1854-the day after Christmas Day-in New York City. He was in Company D of the 2nd United States Infantry at Antietam, where he died along with William Finley, having crossed the Middle Bridge. Beside him is William McConnell, who had not been a pre-war soldier. The Co. Donegal farmer had enlisted aged 21 at Norristown, Pennsylvania on 21st August 1861. At Antietam he fought as a member of Battery F of the 5th United States Artillery- he is recorded as dying at a nearby military hospital on 16th November 1862.