Damian Shiels's Blog, page 33

Paddy Bawn Brosnan & the American Civil War: The Famed Gaelic Footballer’s Links to Kerry’s Greatest Conflict

On 14th September 1947, New York witnessed a unique sporting occasion. In front of more than 130,000 people at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan, the Gaelic footballers of Kerry and Cavan did battle in what remains the only All-Ireland Football Championship Final ever to be held outside of Ireland. Among the men who donned the green and gold of Kerry that day was Paddy Bawn Brosnan of Dingle. Even in the annals of Ireland’s most famed footballing county, Paddy Bawn Brosnan remains special. Paddy had captained Kerry in 1944 when they lost the All-Ireland to Roscommon, and had taken home winner’s medals in 1940, 1941 and 1946. The New York match of 1947 was aimed at bringing this major event to the huge Irish-American community in the United States, 100 years after the Famine which had led so many to emigrate. But Paddy Bawn Brosnan had a special connection to New York and America. Indeed, had it not been for events that had taken place in a Prisoner of War camp in Georgia more than 80 years previously, it is unlikely that he would have ever had an opportunity to pull on the Kingdom’s colours.

Footage of Cavan v Kerry from the Polo Grounds, Manhattan in 1947. You can access an RTE Radio 1 documentary on the background to the historic game by clicking here. 

Over recent years I have given many lectures around the country highlighting the extent of Irish involvement in the American Civil War. Many take the form of county-focused talks, using specific local individuals to illustrate just how major an event this was in Irish history. Interestingly, it is common for at least one attendee to have a known link to an ancestor who served in the Civil War– indicative both of the impact this conflict had on Irish people, and of the fact that not all 19th century emigration was permanent. Last July I gave just such a talk to Dingle Historical Society in Co. Kerry, and was fortunate to be contacted by local man Mossy Donegan. Mossy not only knew his own connections to the conflict, but through extensive research had obtained copies of many of the historical files associated with those links. It is a familial story he shares with Paddy Bawn Brosnan, and it is as a result of Mossy’s endeavours that it can be related here.

What then was Paddy Bawn Brosnan’s connection to the American Civil War? It is a narrative that directly involves his Grandmother, but can be traced back even further, to the marriage of Paddy Bawn’s Great-Grandparents (and Mossy’s Great-Great-Grandparents) Daniel Dowd and Mary Murphy. A few years shy of a century before Paddy Bawn took the field at the Polo Grounds, Father Eugene O’Sullivan married Daniel and Mary in Dingle Roman Catholic Church on 29th October 1853, A year later, on 8th October 1854, they celebrated the birth of their first child, Edward. At some point shortly after that, the Dowds decided their future lay across the Atlantic, and became just three of the more than 54,000 people who emigrated from Kerry between 1851 and 1860. (1)

Denny Lyne, Paddy Bawn Brosnan, J J Nerney and Eddie Boland in action during the 1946 All Ireland Final between Kerry and Roscommon (The Kerryman)

Denny Lyne, Paddy Bawn Brosnan, J J Nerney and Eddie Boland in action during the 1946 All Ireland Final between Kerry and Roscommon (The Kerryman)

The favoured destination for Irish emigrants was New York, and that is where the young Dowd family arrived in the mid-1850s. A second child– a daughter Bridget– was born there about 1856. Bridget, or Biddy as she became known, came into the world on Long Island, and was Paddy Bawn Brosnan’s grandmother. If the Dowd family story had followed that of the majority of Irish immigrants to the United States in this period, Biddy Dowd would never have seen Ireland again, and Paddy Bawn Brosnan would never have been born. But seismic events intervened. By the 1860s the family had settled in Buffalo, where Daniel made the decision that changed all their lives forever, when on 6th September 1862 he enlisted in the Union army. (2)

In 1862 Daniel Dowd became one of the c. 200,000 Irish-born men who would serve during the American Civil War. He was joined in the ranks by thousands of Kerrymen; there is little doubt that it was this conflict that saw more Kerrymen fight, and more Kerrymen die, than any other war in history. The Dingle native had decided not to join just any unit. Instead he enlisted in the 155th New York Infantry, one of the regiments that would form part of Corcoran’s Irish Legion. Its leader Brigadier-General Michael Corcoran from Carrowkeel, Co. Sligo was a noted Fenian, and many supporters of  the cause of Ireland specifically chose to join his brigade. Whether Daniel was one of them, or simply wanted to serve close to his fellow Irishmen, remains unknown. (3)

Soldiers of the 170th New York Infantry, one of the other regiments of Corcoran’s Irish Legion, during the Civil War (Library of Congress)

Daniel was mustered in as a private in Company I of the 155th New York at Newport News, Virginia on 19th November 1862. He was recorded as a 29 year old laborer who was 5 feet 5 inches in height, with a fair complexion, gray eyes and light hair. His surname was one that caused considerable confusion for recorders at the time. Sometimes recorded as Doud or Doody, Daniel was placed on the regimental roster as ‘Daniel Dout.’ It wasn’t long before he got his first taste of action in the Civil War, as in January his regiment was engaged the Battle of Deserted House, Virginia. Though only a mere skirmish in comparison to what the Legion would endure in 1864, it nonetheless must have had quite an impact on Daniel and the men of the 155th. (4)

Private Daniel Dowd spent the next year in Virginia with his unit. On 17th December 1863 he found himself guarding a railroad bridge, part of a detachment of some 50 men of the Legion that were protecting the Orange & Alexandria line at Sangster’s Station. At a little after 6pm that evening they were set upon by a body of Confederate cavalry, who threatened to overrun them as they sought to burn the bridge. The Rebels attacked on a number of occasions, eventually getting around the flanks and rear of the Irishmen, succeeding in setting fire to their tents and forcing them into  a retreat. Cut off, the detachment would normally have looked to their telegraph operator to call for reinforcements, but he was apparently so drunk he was unable to use his equipment. General Corcoran and the remainder of the Legion only learned of the attack around 8.30pm, when a local Unionist came to inform them of events. The relief force eventually re-established a connection with the detachment, but although the bridge was saved, a number of men had been captured. Among them was Dingle-native Daniel Dowd. (5)

We have scant details of Daniel’s life as a prisoner-of-war, but initially he was likely held near Richmond. At some point in the spring or early summer of 1864 he was moved to the recently opened– and soon to be notorious– Camp Sumter, Georgia. Better known as Andersonville, between February 1864 and the close of the war almost 13,000 prisoners lost their lives in the unsheltered compound. Disease, much of it caused by malnutrition, was rife. On 3rd July 1864 Daniel was admitted to the camp hospital suffering from Chronic Diarrhoea. He must have been in an extremely severe state at the time, as he did not live through the day. Following the conflict his grave was identified, and today forms part of Andersonville National Cemetery, where he rests in Grave 2809. (6)

Andersonville as it appeared on 17th August 1864, a little over a month after Daniel died (Library of Congress)

Shorn of her main support, the now widowed Mary decided to leave America behind and retrace her steps to Dingle, presumably to be close to family who could provide assistance. She returned to her home town with Edward and Biddy in tow; Edward must have had little or no-memory of Kerry, while Biddy was experiencing Ireland for the very first time. In 1869 Mary, now 45-years-old, went in search of a U.S. widow’s pension based on Daniel’s service to help support the children. Now living on the Strand, Dingle, she compiled information about her marriage and her children’s birth to send to Washington D.C. as part of her application. Unfortunately, the variant spellings of her husband’s name came back to haunt her. In the marriage record, Daniel’s surname had been written as ‘Doody’, sufficiently different from the ‘Dout’ recorded on the regimental roster to raise suspicions that this was not the same man. To compound matters there was also no available documentation relating to Biddy’s birth. Although the Commissioner of Emigration had written to every Catholic parish in Long Island in order to locate it, he met with no success. The combination of these two issues, together with the difficulty in dealing with the Washington authorities at such a remove, meant that Mary’s pension wasn’t granted. Her failure to provide the additional evidence requested meant that her claim was classified as ‘abandoned.’ Mary never fully gave up fully on the process; the last entry in her file is a letter she had written in the 1890s. Addressed from Waterside, Dingle on 4th July 1892, it was sent to the Secretary of the Claim Agent Office at the White House in Washington D.C.:

Sir,

I beg to state that I Mary Dowd now living here and aged about 65 am the widow of Daniel Dowd who served as a soldier in the late American war of 1863, and died a Prisoner of War in Richmond Prison Virginia [actually in Andersonville, Georgia]. Said Daniel Dowd served in the Army of the North. After his death, I deposited the necessary documents to prove my title to pension, in the hands of a Mr. Daniel McGillycuddy Solicitor Tralee, with the view to place them before the authorities in Washington , and he on 27th December 1873, forwarded the same to a Mr. Walsh a Claim Agent, for the purpose of lodging same. Since, I have not received a reply to my solicitor’s letters or received any pay nor pension or acknowledgement of claim.

I also learn that my husband at his death had in his possession £100, which he left to Father Mc Coiney who prepared him for death, in trust for me, and which sum never reached me.

I know no other course better, than apply to you, resting assured that you will cause my just claim to be sifted out, when justice will be measured to a poor Irish widow who is now working hard to maintain a long family. (7)

Daniel and Mary’s American born daughter Biddy in later life in Dingle (Mossy Donegan)

As was common at the time, Mary was illiterate– the letter was written for her by her solicitor McGillycuddy, and she made her mark with an ‘X’. It seems unlikely she ever received any monies as a result of it. Her American-born daughter Biddy grew to adulthood in Ireland. Her home had become Dingle, Co. Kerry rather than Buffalo, New York entirely as a result of her father’s death in a Prisoner of War camp more than 6,000 km from Ireland. Daniel’s fateful Civil War service also meant his daughter married and started a family in Ireland rather than America. Biddy’s husband was a fisherman, Patrick Johnson, and together the couple had seven children. One of them, Ellie, was Paddy Bawn Brosnan’s mother. Biddy died in 1945 and is buried in St. James’s Church in Dingle. Unlike her father’s resting place in Andersonville, it is not marked with a headstone. (8)

The American Civil War had a long-lasting, inter-generational impact on tens of thousands of Irish people, both in Ireland and the United States. Had it not been for the Confederate decision to launch an attack at Sangster’s Station in Virginia in 1863, or Daniel’s incarceration in Georgia in 1864, it is unlikely that Paddy Bawn Brosnan would ever have been born. The story of the footballing legend’s family is evidence of the often unrecognised impact of what was the largest conflict in Kerry people’s history. One wonders did Paddy Bawn reflect on his own grandmother’s New York story as he made his own journey across the Atlantic to take part in that historic sporting occasion only two years after her death in 1947.

Another image of Biddy, taken with some of the younger generations of her family. Without the events of the American Civil War, she would likely have never returned to Dingle, and Paddy Bawn Brosnan would never have been born (Mossy Donegan)

*This post would not have been possible without the extensive research of Mossy Donegan. Mossy not only ordered his Great-Great-Grandmother’s unsuccessful pension application from Washington D.C. but also obtained Daniel’s service record. All the family history relating to the Brosnans in Dingle and Paddy Bawn’s connection to Biddy was provided by Mossy, and I am grateful to him for sharing their story with us.

**Thanks to Donal Nolan and The Kerryman for permission to use the image of the 1946 Final, which originally appeared on the Terrace Talk website here. Also thanks to Kay Caball for Donal’s contact details. 

(1) Daniel Dowd Widow’s Pension Application, Miller 1988: 570; (2) Daniel Dowd Service Record; (3) Daniel Dowd Service Record, 155th New York Roster; (4) Ibid., New York Civil War Muster Roll; (5) Official Records: 982-984, Daniel Dowd Widow’s Pension Application, Daniel Dowd Service Record, U.S. Register of Deaths of Volunteers, Records of Federal POWs Confined at Andersonville; (7) Daniel Dowd Widow’s Pension Application; (8) Daniel Dowd Widow’s Pension Application; 

References & Further Reading

Daniel Dowd Widow’s Pension Application 180,808.

Daniel Dowd Service Record.

Roster of the 155th New York Infantry.

Daniel Dowd Find A Grave Entry.

New York State Archives, Cultural Education Center, Albany, New York; New York Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts, 1861-1900; Archive Collection #: 13775-83; Box #: 607; Roll #: 263 [Original scan, accessed via ancestry.com].

Selected Records of the War Department Commissary General of Prisoners Relating to Federal Prisoners of War Confined at Andersonville, GA, 1864-65; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1303, 6 rolls); Records of the Commissary General of Prisoners, Record Group 249; National Archives, Washington, D.C. [Original scan, accessed via ancestry.com].

Registers of Deaths of Volunteers, compiled 1861–1865. ARC ID: 656639. Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, 1780’s–1917. Record Group 94. National Archives at Washington, D.C. [Original scan, accessed via ancestry.com].

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion Series 1, Volume 29, Part 1. December 17, 183 – Skirmish at Sangster’s Station, Va. Reports. 

Miller, Kerby A. 1988. Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America.

Filed under: 155th New York, Corcoran's Irish Legion, Kerry Tagged: All Ireland Final New York, American Civil War Veterans, Andersonville POWs, Irish American Civil War, Irish in New York, Kerry in America, Paddy Bawn Brosnan, Polo Grounds

Photographs of Wounded Irishmen from the American Civil War

The sometimes captivating, sometimes horrifying images of wounded soldiers taken in Washington D.C.’s  Harewood Hospital in 1865 have featured in a number of posts on this site (see Looking into the Face of a Dying Irish Soldier, One of Our Brave Men Twice Wounded: An Image of Corporal William Kelleher, 125th New York Infantry and Recruited Straight off the Boat? On the Trail of Emigrant Soldiers from the Ship Great Western). These are far from the only Irishmen to feature in this remarkable collection. I decided to take a look at another four images of New York Irishmen, to see what could be uncovered about their stories and their injuries through looking at them via a range of sources.

Surgeons and Hospital Stewards at Harewood Hospital, Washington D.C. (Library of Congress)

Thomas Barry (Berry)

Thomas was born in Ireland in 1842. He was a 22-year-old laborer when he decided to enlist, becoming a substitute for Thomas Davies. He joined up in Poughkeepsie, New York on 8th August 1864 and was described as 5 feet 8 inches in height, with blue eyes, brown hair and a dark complexion. Serving as a private in Company E of the 61st New York Volunteer Infantry, he spent his service with the Army of the Potomac outside of Petersburg, Virginia. He was shot in the left hand during the Confederate attack on Fort Stedman on 25th March 1865, a wound which caused him to be admitted to Harewood General Hospital in Washington D.C. on 1st April, where the image below was exposed. The second metacarpal bone and one of his fingers had been amputated on the field (bilateral flap) prior to his arrival. On admission into the hospital he was described as being in a good constitutional state, and was reportedly doing well when he was transferred to the U.S.A. General Hospital in Philadelphia on 8th April 1865. Thomas filed for an invalid pension dated from 13th June 1865, which was granted. I have yet to locate a further record of him.

Thomas Barry (National Museum of Health & Medicine CP 0960)

Martin Burke

Martin was from Co. Sligo and was a career-soldier, having enlisted in the 1st United States Infantry on 11th September 1858. He served with them in the Western Theater until his term of service expired on 11th September 1863. He was 27-years-old when he joined the 15th New York Heavy artillery only six days later, on 17th September. Mustering in as a Corporal in Company K, Martin was described as 5 feet 5 1/2 inches tall, with blue eyes, brown hair and a ruddy complexion. He was promoted to Sergeant on 1st December 1863. On 25th June 1864 he was wounded in front of Petersburg, necessitating the amputation of his left arm at the upper third, a surgery which was performed at Lincoln Hospital in Washington. He had been in a good constitutional state when that operation had been performed, but an infection set into his arm which spread through his chest. His stump became gangrenous and there was a considerable amount of dead tissue shedding from it. A further operation saw the complete removal of the shaft at the shoulder joint on 29th March 1865. Still not out of the woods, the bone became necrotic nine months after the amputation and several abscesses formed on the stump. Martin was admitted to Harewood General Hospital on 13th September 1865 when this image was exposed. When the photograph was taken he was still in good health, but several fistulous openings which were discharging pus remained. He was being treated with disinfectant, astringtent lotions and the liberal use of internal iron. Martin sought and received an invalid pension on 4th January 1866. He was recorded as dying on 12th April 1900.

Martin Burke (National Museum of Health & Medicine CP1099)

Timothy Deasey

Timothy was born in Cork on 13th April 1847. The 1860 U.S. Federal Census records him living with his family in Manheim, Herkimer County, New York. His 35-year-old father John was a day-laborer, his mother Mary (née Tobin) was 38. Timothy was then recorded as 12-years-old; he had an older brother Owen (14), and younger siblings Thomas (9), John (5), Michael (3) and Ellen (2). As the youngest three children had all been born in New York, it suggests the family emigrated in the early 1850s. Timothy was recorded as a 17-year-old Carder when he enlisted in Little Falls, New York on 26th July 1862– he was clearly significantly younger than this. He was described as 5 feet 5 inches in height, with grey eyes, dark brown hair and a fair complexion. The Cork youth mustered in as a private in Company H of the 121st New York Infantry. He was confirmed as being present at battles such as Winchester, Fisher’s Hill and Cedar Creek. Timothy was injured in the action at Fort Stedman, Petersburg on 25th March 1865, receiving a gunshot wound to the hand which fractured his right carpus and meta-carpus. He was admitted to Harewood General Hospital in Washington on 2nd April 1865, having first been treated at City Point, Virginia. When this image was exposed he was suffering from severe inflammation of his wounds, causing great swelling of his arm and hand which gradually subsided. His treatment was supported by a simple dressing, and by the 26th May his wound was nearly healed, though he did have to live with a permanent deformity. Timothy filed an invalid pension claim which was granted dating from 14th August 1865 and seems to have returned to live in Herkimer County, where he is recorded on the 1890 Veterans Schedule. His widow would later claim a pension based on his service after his death, until her own passing in Little Falls on 1st February 1913.

Timothy Deasey (National Museum of Health & Medicine CP1001)

John Devlin

John was a 22-years-old laborer when he enlisted in Albany on 19th September 1864. He had blue eyes, brown hair, a dark complexion and was 5 feet 6 inches in height. He became a private in Company I of the 91st New York Infantry and was admitted to Harewood General Hospital in Washington on 12th September 1865. His left thigh had been amputated in the middle-third following a shell wound. The operation had been performed on the field using Teale’s method (quadrilateral flaps) by an unknown surgeon and anesthetist. Shell fragments had also severely wounded him on the left nipple and fractured his thumb, index and middle finger of the left hand, causing them to also be amputated on the field– the thumb at the first phalanx and the middle finger at the metacarpo phalangeal articulation (by bilatoral flaps). The index finger had been considerably deformed by contraction of the muscle. When admitted John was in a very good constitutional state and his wound had entirely healed. He remarked that he had been in perfect health at the time of his wounding. He responded well to treatment, which consisted of simple dressings and a nourishing supporting diet. Shortly after this image was exposed he was to be fitted with an artificial limb and he was discharged from the service on 30th September 1865. John applied for an invalid pension on 11th October 1865 which was granted. He entered the Eastern Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Veterans in Togus, Maine on 21st July 1869, and was discharged from there on 3rd January 1870. He applied for readmission on 9th December that year, but his refusal to comply with the conditions of the Board of Management meant he was discharged on 2nd April 1872. By 1890 he appears to have been living in Albany, and his widow subsequently received a pension based on his service.

John Devlin (National Museum of Health & Medicine CP1098)

References

Thomas Barry CP 0960 National Museum of Health and Medicine

Martin Burke CP 1099 National Museum of Health and Medicine

Timothy Deasey CP1001 National Museum of Health and Medicine

John Devlin CP1098 National Museum of Health and Medicine

U.S. National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938 [Ancestry, database on-line]. Original data: Historical Register of National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1749, 282 rolls); Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Town Clerks´ Registers of Men Who Served in the Civil War, ca 1861-1865 [Ancestry, database on-line]. New York State Archives; Albany, New York; ; Collection Number: (N-Ar)13774; Box Number: 18; Roll Number: 11.

Register of Enlistments in the U.S. Army, 1798-1914 [Ancestry, database on-line]. (National Archives Microfilm Publication M233, 81 rolls); Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, 1780’s-1917, Record Group 94; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

1860 United States Federal Census [Ancestry, database on-line]. Original data: 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration.

1890 Veterans Schedules [Ancestry, database on-line]. Original data: Special Schedules of the Eleventh Census (1890) Enumerating Union Veterans and Widows of Union Veterans of the Civil War; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M123, 118 rolls); Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

New York, Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts, 1861-1900 [Ancestry, database on-line]. Original data: Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts of New York State Volunteers, United States Sharpshooters, and United States Colored Troops [ca. 1861-1900]. (microfilm, 1185 rolls).Albany, New York: New York State Archives.

New York State Military Museum Rosters.



Filed under: Battle of Fort Stedman, Battle of Petersburg, Photography Tagged: Battle of Fort Stedman, Civil War Surgical Phoography, Harewood Hospital, Irish American Civil War, Irish in the Union Army, National Museum of Health & Medicine, Photographs of Irish Soldiers, Siege of Petersburg

Analysing 19th Century Emigration, A Case Study: Dissecting One Irishman’s Letter Home

As regular readers are aware, I have long been an advocate of the need to study the thousands of Irish-American letters contained within the Civil War Widows & Dependent Pension Files. This unique resource offers insights into 19th Century Irish emigration that do not exist anywhere else. Their value to Irish, as well as American, history reaches far beyond our understanding of the Irish experience of the conflict itself. They have much to tell us about multiple facets of Irish life, both in Ireland and America. In order to demonstrate this potential, I have broken down one Irish letter into its component parts, in an effort to highlight just how invaluable these primary sources can be for those interested in Irish emigrants. 

The envelope which contained Peter Finegan’s letter to his parents, which is analysed below (Fold3.com/NARA)

On 13th December 1862, 21 year-old immigrant Private Peter Finegan of the 116th Pennsylvania Infantry, Irish Brigade, marched out of the town of Fredericksburg and towards Marye’s Heights. What happened to the regiment next is well documented. It was Peter’s first battle, and we are left to ponder what went through his mind as he advanced through the deadly blizzard of fire that engulfed him. It seems probable he made it past the long-range artillery fire that first gouged red trails of savagery through the Brigade’s ranks, but he was not so lucky when it came to the Rebel infantry. As the Northerners advanced, the Confederates behind the stone wall rose to pour a curtain of lead into their foe. Peter’s Captain remembering seeing the young Irishman being struck four times by bullets, inflicting wounds which ended his life. Just over 10 weeks before his death, Peter had written to his parents from his base in Fairfax Court House. In 1866, in an effort to secure a pension based on their son’s service, Peter’s mother and father included that letter in their application, where it has remained in their file ever since. (1)

Head quarters 116 Reg P. V.

Camp Bardwell, Sep 29th 1862

Dear Father & Mother

I Rec’d your kind and welcome letter about a week ago which gave me much pleasure to hear from you and I would have wrote before this only waiting for the Captain to come from the City of Philadelphia with the money so to day I send you’s $40 dollars by Adams Express Company as soon as you receive the money write to me without delay and let me know for I have the receipt for it and if you dont get it they will have it to pay when you get this letter go right away to Charles Hughes and you will get the money I’m sorry I could not send it sooner for I think by the times you were in need of it and you’s will never want while I can get any thing to help you’s along only dont be worrying yourselves about me I am all right thank God. (2)

This first element of Peter’s letter follows the general norms of what we expect from Irish letters of this period. By far the most common form sees the writer express a wish that those at home are in good health, before then stating that they themselves are well, e.g.: ‘I hope this letter finds you well as this leaves me at present thanks be to God.’ The letter immediately contains the detail which led to its inclusion in the pension application– a reference to $40 Peter was sending by Adams Express, thereby proving (as was required by the Pension Bureau) that he financially supported his parents. The Adams Express Company played a vital role for all troops at the front, and it is frequently referenced in their letters. Another common sentiment expressed in soldier’s letters is for family not to worry themselves about their welfare, and also of their determination to provide for their dependents. (3)

I was at the Holy Sacrifice of Mass this morning it was read in Camp and I think we will have mass every morning now from this out. He hears confessions every night so it gives us all a chance to go and he says he will be with us on the Battle Field so that is a great consolation to us… (4)

The letter continues with reference to Peter’s Catholic religion, which was clearly important to him and his family. Many Irish soldier’s correspondence carry references to the importance of their faith, with family often sending scapulars for the men to wear. Those Catholic Irish troops in designated Irish regiments, such as the 116th Pennsylvania, generally had significantly better access to Catholic chaplains than those that served in non-ethnic units. (5)

…so Father & Mother the only thing I as[k] of you both is not to worry about me I know I done wrong in leaving you both at the ending of your days but I hope you will forgive me and with the help of God I hope I will live to see yous in your little Home together once more and then I will take some of your advice but there is no use crying about spilt milk… (6)

Peter clearly felt guilty at leaving his parents alone in Pennsylvania. He felt this way due to a factor common among even large emigrant families– Peter was his mother and father’s main support in their old age. Particularly for those reliant on unskilled labouring, illness and infirmity posed the greatest threats to their ability to support themselves. Peter’s father, Peter Senior, had been a day-laborer, but in 1861 feebleness brought on by age (he was then in his late 60s) meant he couldn’t find work. This left Peter Senior and his wife Mary facing the very real prospect of destitution. With no property, and personal belongings valued only at $50, they needed another source of income. Today we would be surprised that this might have been the case, given that Peter Senior and Mary had six living adult children. Apart from Peter, the couple had two other sons and three daughters. Why did they not provide more assistance? The obligation fell on Peter not because his siblings were unprepared to help their parents, but because they were unable to afford it. All of them were married with families of their own; for many poorer emigrants, responsibilities to spouses and children often left nothing for ageing parents. In extreme cases older people could find themselves reliant on public charity, despite having a number of living children. Peter’s parents were spared this fate prior to 1862, as their unmarried son continued to live with them (seemingly along with their grandson), bringing in $6 a week between 1859 and 1862 by driving a wagon for a local business and using his earnings to buy food and fuel for them. (7)

…you’s can tell Miles wife that I want to know in the next letter if she lives in the same place yet for I will write to her and whoever writes letters for yous I dont want such talking about affairs as was in the other I know wright from wrong so its no use talking about it now Ive got enough to tend to although I can get anything I want from the men because I play the fiddle for them at night and we have plenty of fun Joe Benn’s son from Phila is out here in the same Regiment with me… (8)

Here Peter makes direct reference to another reality for the majority of 19th century Irish emigrants– the fact that many were illiterate. However, illiteracy did not prevent written communication. Hundreds of thousands of letters where both sender and recipient were illiterate travelled between Irish communities in the United States, and between Irish emigrants in America and those at home in Ireland. This was facilitated by the use of intermediaries who would both write letters that were dictated to them and read out letters that were received. These intermediaries were often other family members or neighbours, and in the case of soldiers literate men within the Company. One implication of this was that these 19th century letters represented a more communal experience than we associate with modern written correspondence. In the recent past (at least prior to the digital age) letter writing often carried it with it an implicit understanding of being a largely private communication between two individuals. But this only became possible when literacy reached levels which allowed the majority of people to correspond directly. For letters like that of Peter Finegan and the bulk of other 19th century Irish emigrants, we must instead imagine the letter as a more public experience, with the words being read out in front of a number of friends and family members. The degree of trust which had to be placed in the intermediary charged with writing/reading these letters was also important, particularly when they were non-family members dealing with potentially sensitive issues. In the above passage this was clearly a concern for Peter, as he asked his parents not to discuss personal affairs when he didn’t know who was writing their letters for them (it seems from the correspondence that Peter’s parents were also extremely concerned about his well-being having enlisted). (9)

A further element in this passage refers to the popularity Peter enjoyed within the ranks due to his ability to play the fiddle, highlighting the importance of music among members of the Irish community (and indeed American society in general). Interestingly Peter also implies that his ability to play the instrument conferred on him economic benefit from those around him: ‘I can get anything I want from the men,’ demonstrating that such a skill could provide valuable supplementary benefits for those able to master it. (10)

…when you’s write to me let me know how Terence is getting along and wife and family and all the other Finegan’s as their is so many of them I have not time to mention all as I have to go on Guard at 12 O’Clock tell O’Neills to send me Johny’s directions in this letter so I can write to him let me know how Joe Sanders is getting along if he wants ditching their is plenty of it down in old Virginia to be done we are stationed at Fair Fax Court House where their was a great many hard battles fought As for William Kerns family I suppose their alone poor folks Willie Kerns wrote a letter to Tom O’Brian and he did not think worth while to mention me in it so it is the same on this side let me know how James O’Neill and wife and also the old couple and Bridget Dunleavy and family Mrs Harley and Mrs McNamara [?] and Burns family and Miles not forgetting old uncle Barney Rose Ann Mary and all…(11)

Practically all the many hundreds of letters I have read from Irish emigrants in the 1850s and 1860s conclude with a similar roll-call of requests, seeking to discover how local friends and family were faring, and often requesting that best wishes be sent to an array of individuals. Despite appearances, this was more than simply perfunctory; many letters indicate that there was an obligation to ask after certain friends and relations. This can be seen in letters which express apologies for omitting individuals from the list, and also in examples such as this from Peter, where he has clearly taken offence at not having been mentioned in a letter written by Willie Kerns to Tom O’Brian. Clearly insulted, he says ‘so it is the same on this side’ as he explicitly does not want to know how Willie is getting on. In putting this in the letter, it is apparent that Peter intends for Willie Kerns to hear that he was angered at being omitted. Such a degree of chagrin at not being included in a letter’s acknowledgements is far from uncommon in Irish emigrant letters. (12)

The passage also sees Peter refer directly to other members of his family, of which there were ‘so many’ in the community where he lived. That community was Chester County, Pennsylvania, most specifically the town of West Chester, where there were indeed ‘many’ Finnegans. Aside from Peter and his parents, the 1860 Census records his relations Terence (39), a day-laborer with his wife Catharine and their six children (Real Estate: $0, Personal Estate: $50); Patrick (30), a day-laborer with his wife Bridget and their three children (Real Estate: $800, Personal Estate: $300); Michael (29), a day laborer with his wife Alice and their three children (Real Estate: $700, Personal Estate: $50); and James (28), a merchant with his wife Mary and daughter (Real Estate: $3700, Personal Estate: $3000). In addition Peter’s uncle Barney (35) lived in nearby West Bradford, where he made his living as a farmer with his wife Catherine and their three children (Real Estate: $3000, Personal Estate: $200). Another potential relative Peter (28) lived in Phoenixville with his wife Bridget and their two children (Real Estate: $0, Personal Estate: $50). It is unfortunately not possible to identify many of the female Finnegans with certainty in the 1860 Census due to the adoption of their husband’s surnames, but many undoubtedly also lived in the area. In every single instance cited above both parents had been born in Ireland, while all the children had been born in Pennsylvania. The Finnegans represent a classic case of chain migration, which saw members of one family (or local community) emigrate to the same area over time, usually following in the footsteps of relatives who had blazed the trail, in this instance to Chester County. As can be seen from the estates that some of the Finnegans possessed in 1860– namely James, the West Chester merchant and Barney, the West Bradford farmer– a number of them had already made a success of life in America. Escaping life as a day-laborer appeared to be the key to developing an increased quality of life, as the 1850 Census records both James and Barney prior to their success, working as laborers in West Chester. (13)

So it seems likely that Peter Finnerty and his family settled in West Chester because they already had family there. But what drove them to leave? The potential answer lies in the date of their arrival in the United States. The records suggest that they are the Finnerty family which arrived in Philadelphia aboard the packet ship Saranak from Liverpool on 18th May 1847. The family do not appear to have been the only Finnertys aboard. The manifest lists 45-year-old laborer Peter Finegan, his wife ‘Mrs. Finnegan’, 16-year-old Judith, 16-year-old Matthew, 12-year-old Rose, 8-year-old Mary, 6-year-old Peter (almost certainly the author of this letter, who died at Fredericksburg), 20-year-old Patrick, 18-year-old Mary, 15-year-old Peggy and 19-year-old Michael. It is probably no coincidence that they all arrived in America at the height of the Great Irish Famine, and it is also very likely they knew they were going to West Chester before they left Ireland. The 1850 Census records Peter living with his parents in the town at that date, and most of the other Finnegans were already in place at that date. (14)

Aside from the Finnegans mentioned in Peter’s letter, the other named individuals also serve to provide us with an insight into Irish life in America. The overwhelming majority of them were Irish-born, indicating that the Irish in West Chester formed a distinct close-knit community in this period. The Willie Kerns who Peter chastised in his letter was Pennsylvania-born, but his father William (a day-laborer) and mother Mary were of Irish birth; Tom O’Brian was a Pennsylvania-born clerk, but lived and worked with Peter’s merchant relation James Finnegan; all the James O’Neills recorded in West Chester in 1860 were Irish-born; the Dunleavys were Irish-born; Mrs. Harley was the wife of Peter’s one time employer, who were Irish-born emigrants with a carpet-weaving and bottling business. Ancestry.com lists 4,757 people as having been recorded on the 1860 Census in West Chester. Slightly over 10% of them, some 480 people, were recorded as being born in Ireland, far outnumbering any other emigrant group in the town. It is likely that the addition of the American-born children of Irish emigrants to this number would at least double this overall percentage, making the Irish community of West Chester a very significant minority. (15)

…no more at present but remains your son Peter Finegan

I am the same Pete as I always was and will be till I get shot at missed [?]–

Direct your letter to Fair Fax Court House Virginia Va Washington 116 Reg P.V. Col Dennis Heenan for Peter Finegan Co. K Capt J. O’Neill Commanding

Dont forget write as soon as you get this without delay (16)

The final section of Peter’s letter again hints at the concern his parents expressed at him joining the army. He felt it necessary to reassure them that he was the same person he had always been. Perhaps his parents were not strong supporters of the war, and there is at least a suggestion that they were worried the experience of conflict might change their son. They never did have the chance to find out, as after only three and a half months the four Rebel bullets that buried themselves in Peter’s body on Marye’s Heights ended his life. Today the letter that he left behind from the war that claimed his life, along with those of thousands of other doomed Irish-Americans, offer us a unique opportunity to examine the experiences of those who left Ireland in the greatest emigrant wave ever to depart these shores.

(1) Peter Finegan Dependent Mother’s Pension File; (2) Ibid.; (3) Ibid.; (4) Ibid.; (5) Ibid.; (6) Ibid.; (7) Ibid., 1860 Federal Census; (8) Peter Finegan Dependent Mother’s Pension File; (9) Ibid.; (10) Ibid.; (11) Ibid.; (12) Ibid.; (13) Ibid., 1860 Federal Census, 1850 Federal Census; (14) Peter Finegan Dependent Mother’s Pension File, Philadelphia Passenger Lists, 1850 Federal Census; (15) Peter Finegan Dependent Mother’s Pension File, 1860 Federal Census; (16)Peter Finegan Dependent Mother’s Pension File;

* None of my work on pensions would be possible without the exceptional effort currently taking place in the National Archives to digitize this material and make it available online via Fold3. A team from NARA supported by volunteers are consistently adding to this treasure trove of historical information. To learn more about their work you can watch a video by clicking here.

References & Further Reading

Peter Finegan Dependent Mother’s Pension File WC 138689.

1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. West Chester, Chester, Pennsylvania; Roll: M653_1094. (Original scans accessed via Ancestry.com).

1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration.West Bradford, Chester, Pennsylvania; Roll: M653_1091. (Original scans accessed via Ancestry.com).

1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. Phoenixville, Chester, Pennsylvania; Roll: M653_1092. (Original scans accessed via Ancestry.com).

Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.(Original scans accessed via Ancestry.com).

The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Records of the United States Customs Service, 1745-1997; Record Group Number: 36; Series: M425; Roll: 064. (Original scans accessed via Ancestry.com).

Civil War Trust Battle of Fredericksburg Page.

Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park.

Filed under: 116th Pennsylvania, Battle of Fredericksburg, Irish Brigade Tagged: Dependent Pension Files, Irish American Civil War, Irish Brigade Fredericksburg, Irish Emigrant Letters, Irish Emigration Primary Sources, Irish in America, Irish in Pennsylvania, Widow's Pension Files

‘Our Pickets Were Gobbled’: Assessing the Mass Capture of the 69th New York, Petersburg, 1864

On 30th October 1864 the famed 69th New York Infantry suffered one of it’s most embarrassing moments of the war, when a large number of its men were captured having barely fired a shot. In the latest post I have used a number of sources to explore this event, seeking to uncover details about those men captured– who they were, how long they had served, what became of them. In an effort to consider why this mass-capture occurred, the post also examines how veteran soldiers defined ‘old’ and ‘new’ men, and provides detail on a number of the 69th POWs who decided to take up arms for the Confederacy. 

The 69th New York were positioned in this sector of the line on 30th October 1864, in front of Fort Davis. Extract from a map drawn by Brevet Colonel Michler for Jarratt’s Hotel, Petersburg.

In the widow’s and dependent pension file research I conduct into Irish soldiers in the American Civil War, one year that crops up again and again– 1864. Grant’s strategy of applying relentless pressure in both the Eastern and Western Theaters was ultimately a war-winning one for the Union, but it carried with it a staggering human cost. From an Irish perspective, I find the period of 1864-5 by far the most intriguing of the conflict. It was a year that appears (though there is a need for significant analysis in this area) to see a large number of first-time Irish soldiers enlisting to take advantage of the major economic incentives available for service. It was also a year that saw the effective destruction of many of the old ‘green flag’ ethnic units, notably those serving in the Army of the Potomac’s Second Corps. Losses, combat fatigue and high troop turnover meant that few of the famed regiments and brigades from 1861 and 1862 that continued their service escaped without blots on their military record. In the East, engagements such as Ream’s Station (see here) and Second Deep Bottom were testament to the failing fighting strength of many such units. The Irish Brigade was no exception. By mid-June 1864, the Brigade, which had already received an infusion of new men before the Overland Campaign commenced, was so reduced in numbers that it was effectively broken-up, with the core New York regiments forming part of what became known as the ‘Consolidated Brigade’ of the First Division, Second Corps. It was as part of this Consolidated Brigade that the 69th New York suffered perhaps it’s greatest embarrassment of the war– the mass capture of large numbers of it’s troops while on picket duty outside Petersburg on 30th October 1864.

The events of the evening of 30th October 1864 have long held an interest for me, as they suggest the almost complete disintegration of the 69th New York as an effective front-line unit. But just what men made up the 69th New York at the time? How many were recent recruits? how many were substitutes? where were they from? In order to look into this I have analysed both the roster of the 69th New York and the New York Civil War Muster Roll extracts to build a picture of the men captured and their fate. But first it is appropriate to explore the events of the 30th October themselves, an evening when so many of the 69th fell into Rebel hands.

The 30th October found members of the Consolidated Brigade holding a portion of the line around Fort Davis and Fort Sedgwick. The previous evening, elements of the division had launched sorties against the Confederate line; a sally by the 148th Pennsylvania had been followed around 8.30pm that evening with a raid by the 88th New York, as Lieutenant Colonel Denis Burke led 130 men against the Rebel picket line in an area known as the Chimneys, opposite Fort Sedgwick. It may have been these probes that elicited the Confederate response the following evening. The next night both the 69th New York and 111th New York of the Consolidated Brigade were on picket duty. Lieutenant Colonel Lewis Husk of the 111th was in overall command of the picket detail, and reported that some of the men were talking across the lines to the Rebels, an activity which he ordered stopped immediately. Then, sometime between 7 and 8pm, the Rebels silently sent out a force of around 150-200 men to try and snare their opponents. As they crawled flat on the grass towards their target, few of them could have expected the dramatic success which their operation would achieve. (1)

Second Lieutenant Esek W. Hoff of the 111th New York was sitting by his fire at Post No. 1 of his regiment’s picket line when he heard a group of men approaching from the adjacent positions, held by the 69th New York. Presuming it to be his relief, he got his men ready to move out. Stepping aside to let the fresh troops past, Hoff noticed the men’s blue caps and light blue overcoats, but something seemed amiss; the trousers their relief were wearing were gray. Realising his mistake, Hoff dashed off to tell Lieutenant Colonel Husk that Confederates had penetrated the line and were capturing his men. Crucially, Hoff failed to alert Post No. 2 of the intruders’ identity, thereby sealing their fate, as the Rebels swept on down the line. Each picket post in succession mistook the enemy for their relief, until nearly all of the 111th New York’s picket had been ‘gobbled.’ The Confederate strategy had seen them penetrate the Yankee picket line in the 69th New York’s sector, before fanning out left and right to gather up as many prisoners as they could (for an intriguing analysis of this action, see Brett Schulte’s post at Beyond the Crater here). The unfortunate Lieutenant Hoff and the men of the 111th New York had fallen foul of one wing of this thrust– the 69th New York were faring little better against the other. (2)

As Esek Hoff was experiencing what was likely his worst day of the war nearby, Co. Wexford’s Lieutenant Murtha Murphy of the 69th New York was overseeing his portion of the picket line opposite Fort Davis. He recalled how the left of that line rested on an ‘almost impassable’ swamp, which broke his connection with the pickets beyond, while his right connected with the 63rd New York. Murphy’s pickets had orders to fire at intervals of five minutes, which they did for much of the evening, until his Sergeant caught sight of a group of men advancing towards their position from the left front. As with Lieutenant Hoff, the Sergeant assumed the men were their relief, but just to be sure he hailed them. Receiving no answer, Murphy’s men opened fire, which the Rebels answered. They could hear other pickets of the 69th running through the brush off to their left, not realising at the time that they had all been captured and were being herded to Confederate lines. As the firing continued, a sharpshooter from the 3rd Division eventually arrived, informing Murphy that all the men to his left had either been captured or had run away, leaving their muskets behind them in the trenches. When they counted the cost of the evening’s events, the scale of the disaster became clear. For negligible loss, the Confederates had captured 247 men– 82 soldiers of the 111th New York and 1 officer and 164 men of the 69th. (3)

The investigation was immediate. Hoff and other officers on the line were arrested, though ultimately no charges seem to have been brought. Colonel McDougall of the 111th New York pointed to the previous desertion of ten men of the 69th New York to the enemy while serving on this portion of the line as an indication that the Rebels had learned details of their dispositions. This was a view endorsed by Brigadier-General Miles, who thought that ‘deserters from the Sixty-ninth were rebels and informed the enemy of the position of our line.’ Intriguingly, Lieutenant Robert Milliken, commanding the 69th, included in his report a breakdown of the ‘new’ and ‘old’ soldiers of the regiment on the line that night. Of the total, he said they broke down into ‘New men (recruits recently arrived), 190; old soldiers, 40; total, 230. Old commissioned officers, 2; acting lieutenants, 3; total, 5. Of this number 1 old commissioned officer and the 3 acting lieutenants, with 141 new men and 23 old men, were captured.’ (4)

One of the questions I was keen to answer was what constituted a ‘new’ man and who were regarded as ‘old’ men. Was the distinction one of pre-1864 enlistments, or did it literally refer to those soldiers who had joined the regiment in previous days? But firstly I wanted to examine the question of deserters potentially providing information to the enemy. Analysing the unit roster for details of those who deserted the regiment during the month of October revealed 12 men, listed in Table 1 below, though give the often partial nature of these records this is almost certainly not a comprehensive list.

NAME
RANK
AGE
CO.
ENLIST.
MUSTER
SUB.
OCCUP.
NATVITY
DESERTION
NOTES


Hughes, Charles
Pte.

D





01/10/64



Peterson, Peter
Pte.
24
C
Brooklyn
28/01/64

Sailor
Sweden
04/10/64



Reynolds, Michael
Pte.
20
None
Jamaica
08/10/64

Sailor
England
08/10/64
In NY


Kenny, Patrick
Pte.
20
C
Brooklyn
28/01/64
Yes
Farmer
Ireland
10/10/64



Simmons, George
Pte.
24
C
Brooklyn
19/01/64

Sailor
New York
10/10/64



Kelly, James
Pte.
22
C
Brooklyn
28/01/64

Laborer
Canada
10/10/64
From camp


Dorman, Thomas
Pte.
19
H
New York City
03/09/64



20/10/64



Riley, Peter
Pte.
18
C
Brooklyn
28/01/64

Printer
Ireland
24/10/64
From hospital


Heffernan, John
Pte.
29
I
Tarrytown
15/09/64

Boatfitter
Ireland
26/10/64
On picket


Malloy, William
Pte.
39
I
Jamaica
08/09/64



26/10/64
On picket


Howard, George
Pte.
30
C
New York City
15/07/64

Bookkeeper
Canada
?/10/64



Clarke, Francis
Pte.
24
F
Wheatfield
21/09/64



?/10/64
From camp

Table 1. Deserters from the 69th New York in October 1864, Ordered by Date of Desertion. Details drawn from 69th New York Roster & New York Muster Roll Extracts. Co. = Company, Enlist. = Enlistment, Sub. = Confirmed Substitute, Occup. = Occupation.

As can be seen from their desertion dates and locations, the majority of these deserters could not have informed the Rebels about the picket dispositions, but two of them could: John Heffernan and William Malloy. Both of these soldiers deserted while on picket duty with Company I on the 26th October, and both had been in the regiment only a matter of days. None of these October deserters were pre-1864 enlistees, and at least five of them had served less than two months. These men were taking a terrible risk by trying to escape service. Only a month previously, on 26th September, 36-year-old Canadian-born farmer John Nichols had deserted from Company A, only four days after mustering in. A substitute, he was shown no mercy– on the 10th March 1865 was executed by hanging. (5)

NAME
RANK
AGE
CO.
ENLISTMENT
MUSTER
SUB.
OCCUPATION
NATIVITY
FATE


Abbott, James H.
Pte
19
H
Plattsburgh
25/08/64
Yes
Farmer
New York



Acorn, Jr., John
Pte
18
H
Plattsburgh
03/09/64
Yes
Farmer
New York
Died POW Salisbury


Arnold, Martin
Pte
18
H
Plattsburgh
03/09/64
Yes
Colier
New York



Bauer, Andrew
Pte
22
H
Brooklyn
03/09/64






Blenin, John
Pte

H

03/09/64



Died POW Florence


Bowers, George
Pte

H
Schenectady
03/09/64






Brearton, John
Pte
29
F
Tompkinsville
20/09/64

Boatman
Ireland



Burns, Dennis
Pte
22
I
Schenectady
23/09/64

Laborer
Ireland
Enlisted with Confederates


Callahan, James
Pte
30
H
Brooklyn
03/09/64
Yes
Laborer
Ireland



Cleary, John
Pte
20
F
Jamaica
27/09/64

Laborer
Ireland



Cole, Franklin
Pte
18
H
Plattsburgh
03/09/64
Yes
Farmer
New York
Died POW Salisbury


Connelly, John
Pte
32
C
Jamaica
23/09/64
Yes
Laborer
Ireland



Costello, Thomas
Pte
27
I
New York City
07/09/64

Mason
Ireland



Cox, Henry
Pte
19
F
New York City
27/09/64

Cooper
Barbados



Cross, Francis
Pte
27
H
Troy
03/09/64

Moulder
Canada
Confederate Oath of Allegiance


Darling, William
Pte
18
H
Plattsburgh
03/09/64
Yes
Laborer
New York
Died POW Salisbury


Denick, John
Pte
24
H
New York City
03/09/64
Yes
Laborer
Germany



Diedly, Johan A.
Pte
20
H
Tarrytown
03/09/64
Yes
Cabinet Maker
Germany



Eck, Michael J.
Pte
25
H
Troy
03/09/64
Yes
Farmer
Germany



Fogg, Jacob
Pte
23
H
Troy
03/09/64
Yes

Germany



Freeman, John
Pte
18
H
Plattsburgh
03/09/64
Yes
Laborer
New York



Fusia, Frederick
Pte
27
H
Plattsburgh
03/09/64
Yes
Laborer
New York



Groppe, Francis
Pte
34
I
Tompkinsville
17/09/64

Farmer
Germany



Healy, William
Pte
19
I
Tompkinsville
06/09/64
Yes
Laborer
Canada



Holt, William
Pte
25
E
Tarrytown
03/09/64
Yes
Sailor
Germany



Howard, John H.
Pte
29
K
New York City
20/09/64
Yes
Laborer
England



Jordon, Charles M.
Cpl
34
H
Troy
03/09/64






Kearney, Patrick
Pte
32
I
New York City
14/09/64
Yes
Laborer
Ireland



Kearnes, John
Pte
20
C
New York City
20/09/64
Yes
Laborer
Ireland



Kennedy, Patrick
Pte
23
H
Plattsburgh
03/09/64
Yes
Furnace Man
Ireland



Kundegg, Heinrich
Pte
20
H
Harts Island
03/09/64






Lawrence, Charles
Pte
18
E
Troy
03/09/64
Yes
Butcher
New York



Lindner, John G.
Pte
43
I
Tompkinsville
16/09/64

Cap Maker
Germany
Died POW Salisbury


Long, Joseph
Pte
38
C
New York City
27/09/64
Yes
Teamster
Canada
Died POW Salisbury


Lynch, Thomas J.
Cpl
26
H
Plattsburgh
03/09/64
Yes
Laborer
Canada



Marsh, William
Pte
38
H
Schenectady
03/09/64
Yes
Laborer
Virginia



McCawley, Owen
Pte
39
K
New York City
19/09/64
Yes
Laborer
Ireland



McGilvery, William
Pte
35
I
Tompkinsville
13/09/64

Seaman
Canada



Moran, James
Cpl
21
H
Tarrytown
03/09/64
Yes
Laborer
Ireland



Murphy, Thomas
Pte
31
I
Jamaica
02/09/64

Laborer
Ireland
Died POW Salisbury


Muzzy, Daniel
Pte
18
H
Plattsburgh
03/09/64
Yes
Farmer
New York



O’Brien, Bernard
Pte
26
K
New York City
20/09/64
Yes
Watch-Maker
Ireland



O’Brien, Jeremiah
Pte
37
K
Jamaica
19/09/64

Carpenter
Ireland



Penslow, Robert
Pte
18
I
New York City
06/09/64

Bartender
New York



Perry, Robert
Pte
25
C
Tarrytown
23/09/64



Enlisted with Confederates


Read, George
Pte
24
I
Tompkinsville
17/09/64

Cigar Maker
Germany
Enlisted with Confederates


Renzie, Michael
Cpl
18
H
Schenectady
03/09/64






Robinson, John
Pte
21
I
Schenectady
02/09/64

Laborer
Ireland



Roche, James
Pte
38
C
Jamaica
22/09/64
Yes
Laborer
Ireland



Scott, John
Cpl
35
H
Troy
03/09/64
Yes
Gardener
Scotland



Shannon, John
Pte
26
K
New York City
20/09/64

Boilermaker
Ireland



Sickles, John H.
Pte
18
H
Kingston
03/09/64






Smith, Clinton G.
Pte
18
H
Plattsburgh
03/09/64
Yes
Laborer
New York
Died POW Salisbury


Smith, Levi
Pte
35
I
Jamaica
13/09/64

Farmer
New Hamps.
Enlisted with Confederates


Taylor, Adny
Pte
18
H
Plattsburgh
03/09/64
Yes
Farmer
New York



Taylor, Levi
Pte
18
H
Plattsburgh
03/09/64
Yes
Farmer
New York



Tembrockhaus, Gerhard
Pte
21
H
New York City
03/09/64



Died POW Salisbury


Van Guilder, Longer
Pte
18
H
Troy
03/09/64






Wesler, Andrew
Pte
28
I
New York City
14/09/64
Yes
Coalman
France
Enlisted with Confederates


White, Robert
Pte
22
C
Jamaica
20/09/64

Plumber
Ireland



Williams, Richard
Pte
20
I
Tompkinsville
12/09/64

Laborer
Ireland
Enlisted with Confederates


Bartst, Jacob
Pte
20
C
Jamaica
10/10/64

Cigar Maker
Germany



Braddock, Thomas
Pte
19
K
Brooklyn
10/10/64

Machinist
England



Denny, Patrick
Pte
21
K
New York City
13/10/64

No detail




Gannon, Thomas
Pte
38
C
New York City
13/10/64

Tailor
Ireland
Died POW Salisbury


Haire, Frank
Pte
23
K
Jamaica
13/10/64

Carriage Maker
Ireland
Died Disease After Release


Johnston, John R.
Pte
19
C
New York City
12/10/64

Sailor
New York



McCabe, Patrick
Pte
19
K
New York City
11/10/64

Clerk
Ireland



Morrison, Edward
Pte
28
C
Jamaica
13/10/64

Tailor
Ireland



Murray, Edward L.
Pte
22
G
Jamaica
03/10/64

Student
New York
Died POW Salisbury


Murray, Patrick
Pte
22
C
Jamaica
11/10/64

Laborer
Ireland



O’Callaghan, Edward
Pte
22
K
Tarrytown
14/10/64

Shoemaker
Ireland
Died POW Salisbury


O’Day, Patrick
Pte
24
C
Kingston
07/10/64
Yes
Laborer
Ireland



Redfield, Charles
Pte
38
C
Tarrytown
11/10/64

Soldier
Germany



Reilley, John J.
Cpl
30
C
New York City
07/10/64

Wheelwright
New York



Smith, Michael
Pte
20
K
New York City
11/10/64

Laborer
Canada



Stanton, William
Pte
29
C
Tarrytown
13/10/64

Butcher
Ireland
Died Disease After Release


Cranney, John
Pte
37
F
New York City
11/11/62

Shoemaker
Ireland



Vaugh, Jacob
Pte

H








Vendry, George
Pte

H








Brady, Charles
Pte
30
K
New York City
23/05/64

Tailor
Ireland
Died POW Salisbury


Clampett, Patrick
Pte
19
K
New York City
29/03/64

Druggist
Ireland
Enlisted Steward, U.S. Army


Greever, Anthony
Pte
25
K
Brooklyn
19/03/64






Hughes, Michael
Pte
23
G
New York City
19/03/64
Yes
Laborer
Ireland



Johnston, Robert
Pte
27
K
New York City
29/03/64






Kane, Eugene
Pte
19
C
New York City
07/03/64

Clerk
Ireland



Leahy, William
Pte
20
K
New York City
10/03/64


Ireland
KIA 25 March 1865, Petersburg


Richmond, Peter
Pte
19
C
New York City
12/03/64



Died POW Salisbury


Slattery, John
Pte
38
K
New York City
31/03/64

Laborer
Ireland
Died POW Salisbury


Traynor, Patrick
Sgt
27
K
New York City
19/03/64

Laborer
Ireland



Quinn, Michael
Cpl
19
C
Brooklyn
01/06/64



Died POW Salisbury


Decker, Andrew
Pte
25
C
New York City
20/07/64
Yes
Farmer
Germany



Irwin, Richard
Cpl
36
C
New York City
22/07/64
Yes
Druggist
Ireland
Enlisted with Confederates


Koteba, Joseph
Pte
19
C
New York City
15/07/64






McConnell, Joseph
Pte
28
B
New York City
20/07/64






Bamford, Samuel
Pte
21
C
Brooklyn
20/01/64






Barton, Lewis
Pte
18
G
New York City
21/01/64

Gunsmith
New York



Bower, Henry
Pte
18
G
New York City
22/01/64

Laborer
Germany



Bushay, Thomas
Pte
20
C
Brooklyn
28/01/64

Sailor
England



Farmer, Robert
Cpl
22
C
Brooklyn
28/01/64

Carpenter
Ireland
Died POW Salisbury


Harney, Matthew
Pte
33
G
New York City
27/01/64

Tailor
Ireland



McMahon, John
Pte
22
G
New York City
18/01/64



Died Disease After Release


Miller, Henry
Pte
19
G
Brooklyn
21/01/64

Laborer
New York



Murphy, Daniel
Pte
19
G
New York City
28/01/64


Scotland



Roe, Allan
Pte
23
C
Brooklyn
28/01/64

Sailor
England
Furnished a Substitute


Schuitzen, Joseph
Pte
25
G
New York City
19/01/64

Butcher
New York



Hutchinson, Elijah
Pte
19
G
New York City
01/02/64

Painter
New York
Died POW Salisbury


Tucker, William
Cpl
19
G
New York City
12/02/64

Iron Moulder
Ireland



McGrath, Thomas
Sgt
20
C
New York City
27/12/61

Baker
Ireland
Mustered 1st Lieutenant


Reilly, John
Pte
19
F
New York City
20/12/61






Archabald, William J.
Pte
19
F
Avon
31/08/64






Brennen, William
Pte
21
G
New York City
18/08/64

Painter
New York



Devin, Alexander
Pte
27
G
Poughkeepsie
17/08/64

Laborer
Ireland



Digan, Bernard
Pte
38
G
New York City
19/08/64
Yes
Laborer
Ireland



Garrett, Sidney
Pte
19
D
Malone
24/08/64






Morrow, Jacob
Pte

H
Schenectady
30/08/64






Quigley, James B.
Pte
22
I
New York City
27/08/64

Laborer
Ireland



Renuer, Antoine
Pte
27
E
Troy
27/08/64

Laborer
Austria



White, William E.
Pte
28
G
New York City
08/08/64
Yes
Carpenter
England



Patchern, George
2nd Lt
26
E
New York City
12/08/62

Clerk
New York

Table 2. Members of the 69th New York captured on picket at Petersburg, 30th October 1864.Details drawn from 69th New York Roster & New York Muster Roll Extracts. Co. = Company, Sub. = Confirmed Substitute.

What then of the men who were captured on 30th October? I was able to identify 120 of them, and their details are available in Table 2 above. What is immediately apparent is that Milliken’s term ‘new men’ referred to those who had just arrived. If a soldier had been in the ranks since the start of the Overland Campaign, he was deemed an ‘old soldier.’ As we can see in Chart 1, only four of the men I identified as captured were pre-1864 enlistees, with a further 22 having joined up prior to the commencement of the Overland Campaign. The vast bulk (including all bar one of the soldiers clearly identifiable as substitutes) had mustered in during the campaign. 86 of the soldiers had only been with the regiment since August– 60 of them having entered the regiment in September. They were undoubtedly on the whole brand new men, with limited training and experience. A total of 39 of the men were confirmed substitutes, and again the vast majority– 32– had arrived in September. Another substitute had arrived in October, but only one of the substitutes identified had come prior to July. (6)

Chart 1. 69th New York Soldiers Captured on 30th October 1864 by Muster Date (click to enlarge).

Among the other interesting details to emerge were the professions of the men. Unsurprisingly laborers dominated (33), followed by farmers (10). Those captured were largely young, with 34 being teenagers and a further 73 under the age of 25. Only 24 of the men were identified as over 30 years-of-age. Chart 2 below illustrates the nativity of the soldiers. Despite the influx of new recruits, it is interesting to observe that Irish nativity still accounted for the majority of 1864 enlistees; the number known to be born in Ireland (43) is almost double the number of men identified as being born in New York (22). For 25 of the men no nativity was recorded, and there were 12 Germans, 6 Canadians and 5 English among the number. (7)

Chart 2. Nativity of 69th New York Soldiers Captured at Petersburg on 30th October 1864 (click to enlarge)

What became of these men once they had been captured on that fateful night? 18 of them were reported has having died as Prisoners of War, the vast bulk in Salisbury, North Carolina. It is likely that some of the other men whose fate went unrecorded met a similar end. A further three men succumbed to disease shortly after their exchange. One returned to the 69th only to be killed in action on 25th March 1865. At least eight of the men sought to escape the horrors of prison life by making a bargain with the Confederates. One of the men was recorded as taking an Oath of Allegiance to the Confederacy (he was subsequently pardoned) while seven more enlisted in the Confederate army. Of these eight men, one was a July enlistee in the 69th but all the others had mustered in during September. I examined the Confederate Service Records for details of where these Galvanized Rebels served (see below). They all joined either the 1st or 2nd Battalions of the ‘Foreign Legion Infantry’, units specifically formed from among Federal prisoners and which supposedly targeted emigrant Yankees.

8th Battalion Confederate Infantry (2nd Foreign Legion Infantry)

Robert Perry, Company D, enlisted on 10th December 1864 at Florence

George Reed, Company B, enlisted on 10th December 1864 at Florence

Andrew Wesler, Company B, enlisted on 10th December 1864 at Florence, recaptured by General Stoneman and released in Nashville on 6th July 1865

Richard Irwin, Company F, enlisted on 13th December 1864 at Salisbury

Tucker’s Regiment Confederate Infantry (1st Foreign Legion Infantry)

Lewis (Levi) Smith, Company I, enlisted on 1st December 1864 at Salisbury

Richard Williams, Company E, enlisted on 7th November 1864 at Salisbury

I could find no record of Francis Cross’s service in the Confederate military (8)

The events of the 30th October 1864 were a major embarrassment to the 69th New York. Analysis of the records of the men captured demonstrates just how much the 69th had been impacted by 1864. As we have seen before on the site (for example here) many 1864 recruits who had joined the Irish Brigade before the Overland Campaign developed their own esprit de corps, and clearly by the autumn of 1864 they were considered old soldiers by many of the volunteers of 1861 and 1862 as well. The huge influx of recruits in September had transformed the regiment, and indeed in many respects it bore no resemblance to the formation that had taken the field in The Wilderness the previous May. But two days after the debacle of 30th October there was better news for the men of the old Brigade. On 1st November 1864, after much effort, Colonel Robert Nugent took command of a newly reconstituted Irish Brigade. He told the troops that ‘In assuming command of the old Irish Brigade, it gives me much satisfaction to know that, although fearfully decimated by the casualties of a campaign, in which its officers and soldiers endured, with a cheerfulness unsurpassed, unusual dangers, hardships, and privations, they still maintain their old reputation for bravery and patriotism. The record of the brigade has been a bright one; it has proved its fidelity to the Union by its courage and sacrifices on many a battle-field. Never has a regimental color of the organization graced the halls of its enemies. Let the spirit that animates the officers and men of the present be that which will shall strive to emulate the deeds of the old brigade.’ (9)

(1) Official Records: 254, Official Records: 258-9, Official Records: 255-6; (2) Official Records: 255-6, 257-8; (3) Official Records: 256, Official Records: 255, Official Records: 257; (4) Official Records: 255, Official Records: 257; (5) 69th New York Roster, New York Muster Roll Extracts; (6) Ibid.; (7) Ibid.; (8) Confederate Service Records; (9) Official Records: 476-7; 

References & Further Reading

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion Series 1, Volume 42, Part 1. Headquarters First Division, Second Army Corps, October 30, 1864.

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion Series 1, Volume 42, Part 1. Headquarters First Division, Second Army Corps, November 2, 1864.

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion Series 1, Volume 42, Part 1. Hdqrs. Third Brigade, First Division, Second Corps, November 1, 1864.

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion Series 1, Volume 42, Part 1. Hdqrs. Third Brigade, First Division, Second Corps, Before Petersburg, November 1, 1864.

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion Series 1, Volume 42, Part 1. Headquarters Sixty-Ninth New York Volunteers, October 31, 1864.

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion Series 1, Volume 42, Part 1. Camp of the Sixty-Ninth Regt. New York Vet. Vols., October 31, 1864.

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion Series 1, Volume 42, Part 1. Headquarters 111th New York Volunteers, October 31, 1864. 

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion Series 1, Volume 42, Part 3. General Orders, No. 1. Hdqrs. 2d Brig., 1st Div., 2d A.

Confederate Service Records.

Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts of New York State Volunteers, United States Sharpshooters, and United States Colored Troops [ca. 1861-1900]. (microfilm, 1185 rolls).Albany, New York: New York State Archives. Ancestry.com. New York, Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts, 1861-1900 [database on-line].

New York Adjutant General 1901. Roster of the 69th New York Infantry.

Civil War Trust Battle of Petersburg Page.

Petersburg National Battlefield.

The Siege of Petersburg Online.

Filed under: 69th New York, Battle of Petersburg, Irish Brigade, Resources Tagged: 69th New York, Civil War Pickets, Galvanized Rebels, Irish American Civil War, Irish Brigade Petersburg, Irish Desertion, Irish Substitutes, Salisbury POW

‘Slavery, At Last, Is At An End’: Reporting on the Ratification of the 13th Amendment in Ireland

150 years ago today the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolishing slavery was ratified– it’s adoption was proclaimed on 18th December by Secretary of State William H. Seward. As we have explored on the site, the ideological motivations for the service of Union Irish soldiers (where it existed) seem to have been strongly tilted towards preserving the Union, rather than the abolition of slavery. Indeed, it is fair to say that the majority of Irish troops, overwhelmingly Democratic in political leaning, were either ambivalent towards emancipation or even openly hostile towards it (for some discussion on this area see posts here and here, and for the types of views expressed in Irish letters see here). Of course, when so many tens of thousands of Irishmen served in the war, it is impossible to speak in generalities with respect to their views. Many surely felt like Patrick Guiney, Colonel of the 9th Massachusetts Infantry, who in 1866 was of the opinion that the ‘seething despotism…of human slavery was menacing and shaking this Republic…’ before the war erupted. The fact remains that the service of many thousands of these troops helped to secure the victory which made the Thirteenth Amendment possible. It’s passage was also big news in Ireland. Given the significance of the event, I have reproduced below how The Freeman’s Journal in Dublin reported on it, sharing their views on the history of the peculiar institution in America. (1) 

Emancipation, by Thomas Nast, 1865 (Library of Congress)

SLAVERY, at last, is at an end. Mr. SEWARD’S Proclamation announces its abolition throughout the United States. The whole number of states in the Union is 36, and 27, or three-fourths of the whole, have ratified the constitutional amendment. A resolution of the Senate, last February, submitted to the Legislatures of the several states a proposition, that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, shall exist within the United States. Ratified by three-fourth of the legislatures, the proposition is incorporated in the American constitution. Mr. SEWARD officially announces the great fact that slavery has passed away, and no bondman now constitutionally exists in the broad territory of the Union. The struggle, which has closed so gloriously for the friends of freedom, and after one of the most tremendous wars recorded in history, dates almost from the Declaration of American Independence. The Abolition party did not rise until long after, though at the close of the last century a few illustrious men raised their voices against the evil whose growth they foresaw. It was not until about thirty-six years ago that the party to whom the great victory is due arose in Boston. They had to contend against a power which was bound up with the political interests of the country, and from which flowed the largest share of its wealth. They had faith in their principles, and, undaunted by the influence of the South in Congress, the Church, the Bar, and the Press, they persevered and finally triumphed. Up to Mr. LINCOLN’S election the slave states had for many years been masters of the Union. This is more remarkable, because their free inhabitants were a minority, trifling in comparison with those of the United States. In a country in which the universal suffrage of the whites was the sovereign power it might be supposed the slave states would always be outvoted. And so they would, but by an arrangement made in the original constitution, the votes of the whites in the slaves states weighed more than those in an equal number in the free states. The number of representatives being regulated by population, five slaves counted as three free men. Consequently, if in any state the free whites were 300,000 and the slaves 500,000, the votes of that State which would be exercised only by the whites would have the same weight as a state containing 600,000 whites – in other words, the power of each individual freeman would be double. The actual power of the South went much beyond this. The free states have always been divided between political parties, which in general had been pretty nearly balanced. This division into parties in the free States never prevailed in the South. The vote there was always decided by the slave interest. Voting together the Southern states have in times past been able to give a majority to whichever party in the North they determined to support. The result has been that the Government had almost always been in the hands either of Southern men, or of Northern men whose politics were subservient to the slave interest. Thus, though the free states immensely outweighed the South in population, in wealth, in commercial and industrial activity, and in domestic and foreign trade, in political power they were always inferior. So decided has been this inferiority that since 1791 there have eighteen Presidential elections and re-elections, of which twelve have returned slaveholders, and six only Northern men, and in almost every instance these Northern men owed their election to a Southern vote, and have been decided in their support of Southern interests. The whole foreign relations of the states had been habitually and systematically managed in the interest of slavery– witness the disgraceful conduct of the Federal Government towards Mexico and Spain. The systematic fraud and aggression by which Texas was annexed is one of the most flagitious pages of modern history. The single object of that great national crime was that the slave states might obtain possession of a district as large as France and England, one of the richest countries in the world, and admirably suited by soil and climate to negro labour. Slavery had been abolished throughout the whole Mexican territory. It had been re-introduced into Texas by the United States, and a prospective arrangement made by which it was to be divided into four slaves as soon as its population was sufficient. In proportion to the power which the slave interest enjoyed so long by means of the Union was the rage of the Southern politicians when they saw it passing out of their hands. For some years the Anti-slavery party had been gaining strength in the Northern states. Their influence was greatly promoted by the violence of the South. Northern men suspected of abolition sympathies were stripped, tarred and feathered, whipped, and even murdered in Southern cities, and no redress could be obtained. Fugitive slaves were forcibly seized and carried back to slavery. The law required all citizens to aid their capture, and cases occurred in which whole Northern cities had been thrown into mourning in seeing outrages committed in their own streets by authority of law. Above all, it was evident that so long as the Federal Government was subservient to the slaveholding interest, slavery, with all its crimes and pollutions, would be extended to new and hitherto uninhabited districts. The decision in the DRED SCOTT case opened up a new field of enterprise. It ruled that slaveowners had a right to take and keep slaves in any territory of the Union not yet formed into a state. And further, that this right could not be taken from them by any act of the Congress or President, nor by any compromise, even though agreed to by all the slave states. This decision changed the whole posture of affairs, and determined the fate of slavery. Mr. LINCOLN’S election sounded the knell, not of slavery, but of the political influence of the slaveholders over the general policy of the Union. We need not recapitulate events which are familiar to all. Slavery ended with the triumph of the Northern arms. Even if it produced no cruelty and no physical misery, it would still be an incalculable evil– a deadly poison, economical, social, moral– eating away the temporal and spiritual good both of the masters and slaves, and of the country with which it was cursed. It is now a thing of the past, and we heartily thank God for it. The South submits, it may sullenly, but in time the planters will be of a better temper and make a virtue of harsh necessity. Mr. SEWARD’s proclamation is regarded with some suspicion by the Radical Republicans. It involves, say they, an official recognition of the states lately in rebellion as states now in the Union. If the Southern States are out of the Union, as Mr. STEVENS and his party insist, and cannot return to it except by the action of Congress and President, they are in the positions of “territories,” and consequently their ratification of the constitutional amendment is of no value. The Radical are the more indignant with Mr. SEWARD because the voice of the states lately in rebellion were not necessary to the adoption of the amendment. The votes of the loyal states would have been sufficient, and, in time, would have been secured. The action of Mr. SEWARD is the action of the President. He has great influence with Congress and the country. If the South evince a disposition to accept the new order of things, the President will urge a lenient line of policy on Congress, and Congress will adopt it. It the report of CARL SCHURZ be true, the South pursues a wrong course. He represents the people as unwillingly loyal, and void of all national feeling and American sentiment, while the negro has been reduced to the condition of practical slavery. If the South continue in this mood, the Republicans will find a justification for the harshness they manifest in Congress, and the good wishes of the President will be frustrated. (2)

(1) Samito (ed.) 1998: xxvii; (2) Freeman’s Journal 4th January 1866;

References

Guiney, Patrick R. (edited by Christian G. Samito) 1998. Commanding Boston’s Irish Ninth: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Patrick R. Guiney Ninth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.

The Freeman’s Journal. Dublin: Thursday, January 4, 1866. 4th January 1866.

Filed under: Discussion and Debate Tagged: 13th Amendment, Abolition of Slavery, Irish American Civil War, Irish and Emancipation, Irish and Slavery, Irish Race Relations, Ratification of 13th Amendment, The Freeman's Journal

Four Years of the Irish at War in Poetry & Song

As we discovered in the excellent recent guest post by University of Edinburgh scholar Catherine Bateson (see here), poetry and song could be extremely important methods for Irish-Americans to communicate their views and experiences. Readers regularly sent in their efforts to be printed in newspapers like the New York Irish American Weekly, allowing us to chart how key events of the day were portrayed in lyrical form. Although undoubtedly of varying quality, they often provide intriguing insights into how Irish people viewed the conflict that engulfed America. I have decided to take a range of these poems and songs from the pages of the Irish-American and reproduce them here. The 17 I have selected date from 1861 to 1865, and chart major events that impacted on Irish-Americans through the course of the conflict. What is notable is that so many were composed within days or weeks of the events which they describe. Some were written by soldiers at the front, others by men and women on the Home Front. The majority conform to the views that were central to the Irish-American, being strongly pro-Fenian and pro-Democrat. Some describe the exploits of regiments and brigades, others the fate of individual named soldiers, while still more served as political propaganda pieces. All are well-worth exploring. 

A Union soldier and his instrument (Library of Congress)

The first song featured in the Irish American of 15th June 1861. The 69th New York State Militia had left New York the previous April– they would fight at Bull Run on 21st July. The song notes how those in Ireland would soon hear of their performance on the battlefield. References to the struggle with the English in Ireland abound, as does imagery such as the French victory over the British at Fontenoy in 1745, where the Irish Brigade of France played a key role in determining the outcome. This is the first of a number of the writings featured in the post that were penned by Richard ‘Dick’ Oulahan. A native of Dublin, he emigrated to the United States around 1849. Dick was a committed Fenian, and would later serve as an officer in the 164th New York, Corcoran’s Irish Legion. You can find out more about him here. 

CAMP SONG OF THE SIXTY-NINTH

Scene– “The Sacred Soil of Virginia.”

From Malahide,

To Shannon side,

From Malin Head to Bray,

Our kindred dear,

Will proudly hear,

The tidings of the fray.

They know we’re here, in danger’s van,

Determined, loyal to a man,

And flanked by brave compeers;

Then let us win a glorious name,

That Saxon Thugs may not defame

The Irish Volunteers.

 

Young, headlong braves,

The Green Flag waves,

Oe’er foreign soil once more,

As, dyed in blood,

It victor stood,

On Fontenoy, of yore,

The birth right of our gallant band,

The danger to adopted land

And gift of famine years,

Made every Celtic heart of steel

Leap madly to the bearna boaghail– [Gap of Danger]

The Irish Volunteers.

 

Our purpose high,

To win or die,

For “Eire of the streams,”

Is still the hope

That buoys us up

And haunt’s the soldier’s dreams.

But though we may not live to see

They shamrock hills, gra gal ma chree,

The great Republic rears

A countless host, of Gaelic blood,

Who’ll stand where once their fathers stood,–

The Irish Volunteers.

 

Unconquered Flag!

No foe shall drag

Our starry standard down,

If courage true

And hands to do,

Can reckless valor crown.

Memento of a tyrant crown.

Bright beacon of our life’s young spring!

The rebel hoarde appears–

Now, comrades, let your war-shout wild

Proclaim, it still floats undefiled!

O’er Irish Volunteers!

After the 69th New York State Militia’s term of service expired it was not long before a proposal was put forward to form an Irish Brigade. Thomas Francis Meagher was given permission to raise such a brigade in September 1861, and he would later become its first commander. On 30th November the Irish-American printed a song by Thomas J. MacEvily which he had written on the 18th of that month based on the new unit, which initially consisted of the 63rd, 69th and 88th New York Infantry. Intended to be sung to the tune of The Star Spangled Banner, further reference is made to the Irish Brigade in French service at Fontenoy, as well as the 1691 Treaty of Limerick in 1691, the terms of which were not honoured as the 18th century progressed.

WAR SONG OF THE IRISH BRIGADE

Air– “The Star Spangled Banner”

Once more we awaken to liberty’s call,

And rise up in might in defence of the nation;

Five thousand are we, and each man will fall,

Before in our Union there is separation;

We’ll conquer, or die, and foul traitors defy,

In the midst of the battle this will be our cry:–

Up! up! with our colors, the proudest e’er seen–

The red, white and blue, and the Emerald Green.

 

Our leader is youthful, and manly and brave,

The pride of our race: and a lover of glory,

Undaunted the flag of the free we will wave,

While he leads us to fight ‘gainst a rebel or tory;

Where’er he says “go,” we will follow the foe,

And victory or death will be ours as we go,

And we’ll be up with our colors, the proudest e’er seen,–

The red, white and blue, and the Emerald Green.

 

What glorious memories will haunt every breast,

As onward we go to the battle advancing,

With sword and with musket our prowess to test.

And our trusty good chargers neighing and prancing;

Fontenoy! Fontenoy! we” ring out with great joy,

And “remember Limerick,” will come from each boy

And we’ll up with our colors, the proudest e’er seen,–

The red, white and blue, and the Emerald Green.

 

Then, onward! oh, onward! at liberty’s call;

For America’s freedom we” brave every danger,

For oh! ’tis a land that is dear to us all,

‘Tis the friend of the weary, the home of the stranger;

Then Meagher lead the way. We’re eager for the fray,

With thy spirit to cheer us we’ll soon win the day,

And we’ll up with our colors, the proudest e’er seen–

The red, white and blue, and the Emerald Green.

The Irish Brigade were not the only Irish unit raised in New York at this time, and among the others was the 37th New York Infantry, the ‘Irish Rifles.’ A poem about that unit was written by one of its members while they were based in Camp Michigan, Virginia on 10th February 1862. Printed in the Irish-American of 22nd March 1862, unlike the previous examples this does not have an overtly political agenda. Instead it seeks to conjure images of the martial scene in which the men found themselves. Following a difficult early term of service under the incompetent command of Colonel John McCunn, the 37th had been set to rights following the appointment of Samuel B. Hayman to the Colonelcy in September 1861.

A SERENADE IN CAMP

The queenly moon a mellow light

In flinging o’er the tented slope,

And music, mingling with the night,

Attunes each heart to faith and hope.

 

The neighb’ring woods harmonious grow,

And flash in echoes to the ear

Those liquid notes which sweetly flow

From serenaders playing near.

 

To morrow’s sun may glint along

The polished bayonets of our column,

For right, when battling ‘gainst the wrong,

Is ever marching onward, solemn.

 

And so the gentle slope, whose tents,

Like bells of snow, adorn the hill,

Is black with men to learn from whence

The sounds that wake the valley still.

 

Admirers of a gallant man

Wed music thus to words of soul:

“The foremost in the battle’s van,

The foremost, too, to reach the goal.

 

“With Hayman there to lead his men,

success is certain in the field;

If foiled at first, he’ll charge again.

The Thirty-Seventh never yield!”

 

The tribute of melody is hushed.

And night resumes its silent sway;

But mem’ry stores the tones which gush’d,

In praise of gallantry for aye.

The first months of 1862 saw focus switch to the Western Theater as some early Union victories arrived that year. In February, the soon to be legendary Ulysses S. Grant successfully captured Fort Donelson on the Cumberland, having already taken Fort Henry on the Tennessee. A poem was written about the journey of one Irishman, ‘Pat Rooney’, from eviction in Ireland to a new life in America with his children, and ultimately a glorious death at Donelson as he seized the flag of his adopted home. The Irish-American, which ran the poem on 24th May 1862, had taken it from the pages of the Philadelphia Sunday Transcript. I have been unable to locate a ‘Pat Rooney’ who was killed in action at Fort Donelson, so it is unclear if this poem was centred around an actual individual or if he was invented for the purposes of this compelling piece.

PAT ROONEY AND HIS LITTLE ONES

By the side of the road,

Poor Pat Rooney stood,

Without shelter or food,

For himself and his little ones.

His heart seemed to fail,

And his cheek ‘gan to pale,

As he felt the cold hail

on himself and his little ones.

 

All evicted– no home,

A future of gloom,

Like a ship ‘mid the foam.

Stood himself and his little ones

Where breakers run high,

And a dark frowning sky.

Leave naught but to die,

Were himself and his little ones.

 

And fondly he gazed,

Where the rude cabin blazed,

From which, almost crazed,

Fled himself and his little ones.

As he thought of the past,

The love laden past.

As the cold winter blast

Chilled himself and his little ones.

 

The night dark and bleak

Hid the tear on his cheek,

As hungry and weak

for himself and his little ones

He breathed forth a prayer

On that cold chilling air,

Asking Heaven to spare,

Yet, himself and his little lone.

 

And succor came soon.

Like a cloud bursting moon,

As a heavenly boon

To himself and his little ones

But deep were their sighs,

As they said their good byes,

And tearful the eyes

Of himself and his little ones.

 

No more round the hearth,

In the spot of their birth,

Will gather on earth,

E’er himself and his little ones,

Now friendless, forlorn,

Sad, weary, and worn,

From Erin now torn,

Are himself and his little ones.

 

Yes, away far away,

With sad hearts away,

They’re gone, and for aye,

Both himself and his little ones.

From the land they had loved,

From the fields where they roved,

From home far removed

Are himself and his little ones.

 

Amid ocean’s deep roar,

A gallant ship bore,

From Erin’s clear shore,

Both himself and his little ones.

And the high dashing spray,

And the billow’s wild play,

Sang a hope stirring lay,

To himself and his little ones.

 

He reaches the West,

The free sunny West,

A land of the blest,

For himself and his little ones

And raiment and food

Seemed to come in a flood

Of sweet heavenly good,

On himself and his little ones.

 

‘Twas then he avowed,

With heart full and proud,

With deep voice and loud,

For himself and his little ones.

That, come evil or good,

On the land or the flood,

With their hearts’ dearest blood,

Would himself and his little ones.

 

Prove constant and true,

To “the Red, White and Blue,

Yes, die for it, too,

Would himself and his little ones,

For Columbia smiled

Upon him as her child,

And of grief soon beguiled,

Both himself and his little ones.

 

And soon comes his chance,

He heads the advance,

With bold tread and glance,

For himself and his little ones,

in Columbia’s fight,

Upon Donelson’s height,

In defence of the right,

For himself and his little ones.

 

In the height of the fray,

His flag’s shot away;

And now a display,

For himself and his little ones,

Amid carnage and flame,

He makes, that bright fame

Will e’er link with the name

Of himself and his little ones.

 

That flag on the ground,

He reached with a bound,

And his breast wrapt it round,

For himself and his little ones;

“Come on, boys,” he cried,

As with swift running stride,

And with patriot pride,

For himself and his little ones.

 

He rushed on the foe–

But he fell, and lies low;

No more will he know

For himself and his little ones,

Of want, or ill fare,

For his soul is up there

With God, who will care

For himself and his little ones.

The charismatic Fenian and leader of the 69th New York State Militia, Colonel Michael Corcoran, had been captured at Bull Run on 21st July 1861 and was held prisoner by the Confederates until the late summer of 1862. Returning to New York a hero and a newly minted Brigadier-General, he would soon began to raise his own brigade that would become known as Corcoran’s Irish Legion. The poem is another from the pen of Richard Oulahan, who would soon be joining his old commander– it was printed in the Irish-American on 6th September 1862.

CORCORAN! THE PRISONER OF WAR.

Welcome back! welcome back! To his friends and his home,

And the loved ones who prayed for this bright day to come–

With an outburst of joy that no croaking can mar,

Let us welcome the PATRIOT PRISONER OF WAR!

When the summons went forth

To the sons of the North,

And her legions of volunteers leaped to the strife;

With a chivalrous band,

Of his own martial land,

Gallant CORCORAN tendered his sword and his life.

 

From Annapolis, fearlessly working they way,–

Watching rebels by night, laying rail-tracks by day,–

Going to bed, with a prayer, in soft Maryland mud,

Breaking bread with their muskets and calling it “good,”–

On they went without a pause,

Winning thanks and applause,

To uphold the proud flag of Humanity’s Rights!

And Fort Corcoran stands,

Giant work of their hands,

An enduring memento on Arlington Heights!

 

How they fought at Manassas and recklessly bled,

Is recorded full well by the graves of the dead;

How they rushed on the foe through the bellowing hell,

Let the widow and orphan and history tell;–

Of the patriot host,

Who were captured or lost,

By that “onward to Richmond” fanatic furore,

None evoked deeper grief,

Than our comrade and chief,

Whom we hail with a cead mille failthe galeor!

 

Give the Van and the Right of this joyous Parade,

To his own SIXTY-NINTH and the PHOENIX BRIGADE!

In those dark days of bondage his fealty and worth,

Made the blood leap with pride through the Celts of the North.

By the high hopes that cheer

His eventful career:

By the light of his life– ocean’s Emerald Star!

Let our sympathy prove,

How we honor and love,

THE YOUNG IRISH-AMERICAN PRISONER OF WAR!

The Irish Brigade’s actions at the Battle of Fredericksburg on 13th December 1862 have passed into the mythology of the Irish experience of America. The Irish-American printed the following poem, which apparently originally appeared in the Irish newspaper the Nation, on 31st January 1863. It was written by ‘Alexis.’

THE IRISH BRIGADE AT FREDERICKSBURG

Oh, well ye fought, my brothers,

In the vanguard of the free,

When your flag, above all others,

Waved its green folds gloriously;

Oh, well ye fought who perished,

For that land which was your home,

Where the exiled Celt was cherished,

Across the salt-sea foam;

 

Nor deem the deed was bootless–

Though your sun was quenched in gloom

Though the gorey field seemed fruitless,

Though your valor was your doom

Yet the tear-dimmed eyes of Erin

Shall weep no tears for you,

Nor the plain be always barren

That hath drunk that crimson dew.

 

When another war is waging

For the land which was your home

When the storm of strife is raging

On this side the sea-foam;

When a blyther queen beameth

On a deadlier, holier fray,

And the same green banner gleameth

Far in the front that day.

 

Then each heroic spirit

From the blissful halls of God

Shall call– and we shall hear it,

And on that battle sod

Shall seek a death as glorious,

In the vanguard of the free,

When the war-wave rolls victorious

O’er the wreck of tyranny

Just as those in Ireland seem to have immediately begun to eulogise the Irish experience of Fredericksburg, so too did those on the home front in America. Kate M. Boylan of Jersey City wrote the poen that follows on St. Patrick’s Day, the 17th March 1863. It was printed on 2nd May 1863:

THE IRISH DEAD ON FREDERICKSBURG HEIGHTS

Softly let thy footprints fall,

Upon this holy ground,

In reverence deep,

For those who sleep,

Beneath each lowly mound.

 

Here lieth many a noble son,

Of trodden mother land,

Whose joy thro’ life,

Was hope of strife,

For their loved native land.

 

They came from Carlow’s fertile plains,

And Wexford’s woody vales,

From Innishowen,

and green Tyrone,

And Wicklow’s hills and dales.

 

They came to seek amid the free,

Homes to reward their toil,

in which to see

That Liberty

Unknown on Erin’s soil.

 

And well they loved the chosen land;

When menaced was her might,

Each grateful heart

A willing part

Took in her cause to fight.

 

And here they lie in unblessed earth,

No kindred eye to weep;

Far, far away,

From the abbey’s grey,

Where their sires and grandsires sleep.

 

Oh! many a matron, many a maid,

Mourns in their native Isle,

For the dear ones here,

Who no more shall cheer,

Their hearts by their gladsome smile.

 

In many an ancient chapel there,

Nestled on the green hill-side,

Will the good priest pray,

On the Sabbath day,

For his boys who in battle died.

 

Let us offer too, our orisons,

For each of the martyr band,

Who nobly gave

Their lives to save

The might of their adopted land.

 

Poems were not just being written to laud the deeds of individual regiment’s and brigades. The Irish-American of 26th December 1863 shared a poem that had been sent to them on the 10th of that month, in memory of an Irish soldier who had fallen at Fredericksburg a year previously. Peter Egan of the 9th New York State Militia, which served as the 83rd New York Infantry, had enlisted aged 22 on 8th June 1861. He was promoted Corporal in November 1862, though was apparently returned to the ranks. Following his death, these lines were supposedly written by one of his comrades, J.B.B. (perhaps John B. Brady, who also served in Company C of the regiment and was wounded at Fredericksburg):

DECIUS EST PRO PATRI MORI

Pause, traveller! while you view the grave,

Where honor’d lies the soldier brave;

Young Egan, generous and bold,

A tried and proven heart of gold:

By New York State Militia, he

Remember’d long and mourn’d shall be,

When curs’d Rebellion, foul and dread,

Dar’d to disclose its hydra head;

This patriotic son of Mars,

Devoted to the “Stripes and Stars;”

Resolved to arm in nation’s right,

As loyal citizen to fight.

He fought on many a bloody field,

Nothing but death could make him yield;

On woodland, hill, on fort and glade,

His valor has been oft displayed:

He prized the Union to his core,

Lov’d but his God and parents more;

The foe, at Fredericksburg, can tell,

How fearless he advanc’d and fell;

Oh! then, for Liberty he gave

His precious life; and here’s his grave.

 

Brigadier-General Michael Corcoran ‘s Irish Legion had been formed in late 1862 and was operating in Newport News, Virginia by November. They avoided the worst of 1863’s fighting, but nonetheless had some adventures during the course of the year. On 29th August 1863 the irrepressible Richard Oulahan, now a Lieutenant in the 164th New York, had what he described as ‘a history of the rambles of the Legion in rhyme’ published:

CORCORAN’S IRISH LEGION

Keep silence for a soldier’s song,

That never yet was printed;

Not over nice, not over long,

At CENTREVILLE invented,

Where sutlers thrive, and “Eagles” swear,

And milk’s a quart a quarter–

The curse of Cromwell sent us here,

To cut the matter shorter.

Where’er we go for weal or woe,

From this ungodly region,

No tears will fall from great or small,

In CORCORAN’S IRISH LEGION.

 

We thought “Camp Scott” was bad enough,

And so it was, I reckon;

Where rain and snow, and stronger stuff,

Obeyed, “right smart,” your beckon:

But here we’re crisped, like buttered toast,

From six A.M., to sundown;

And nightly– witness, Corcoran’s host–

The floods beneath us run down.

Where’er we go, &c., &c.

 

“Old Newport News, old Newport News,”

The boys were in their glory,

With eating duck and oyster stews;

With “Bull Run,” old and hoary,

As up the course he dashed, ahead

Of thorough-bred young racers–

The Gen’ral smiled and fondly said,

“New, where are all your pacers?”

Where’er we go, &c., &c.

 

And Suffolk, with its half-starved crew,

In sorrow, treason brought her,

Recalls the tramps, the fighting too,

We had along BLACKWATER

Our “parrots” shelled the rebels out,

Whene’er they failed to fight us;

But had the knaves come right about,

‘Twould better far delight us.

Where’er we go, &c., &c.

 

They sent us down to Julien Creek,

Where swamps the fever nourish;

But only left us there a week,

Because they saw us flourish.

From Portsmouth on through Washington,

And Fairfax, to this high hill,

Where Irish Zouave, nor Irish gun,

Should ever stop with my will.

Where’er we go, &c., &c.

 

Our Colonels chafe to see us pine,

Who know we’d all with them go;

But when we drink less tea than wine,

They order us to Limbo.

So here we’re doomed to swear and sweat,

On Bull Run’s bloody borders;

Awaiting, what we hope to get,

THE GEN’RAL’S MARCHING ORDERS.

Where’er we go, &c., &c.

 

The Irish fought on both sides in the American Civil War, and in occasional, exceptional circumstances, Irish nationalists of the North had cause to mourn some of their countrymen who fell wearing Confederate gray. One of them was Willie Mitchel, the son of John Mitchel, a leading Irish nationalist and former Young Irelander who was rabidly pro-Southern in his outlook. Willie had died at Gettysburg while taking part in the assault that became known as ‘Pickett’s Charge’ (you can read more about Willie’s story here). On 21st November 1863 the Irish-American published the following poem about Willie, written by ‘P.L’ in Boston on 7th November that year. Despite the story

IN MEMORIAM

He fell where bullets showered in awful, deadly hail,

Where ranks went down like forest leaves before the Autumn gale,

Where the conflict raged the fiercest, and thickest fell the dead,

With the fight still surging round him, ’twas there his spirit fled.

 

He met death like a soldier, a true type of the land

From which he sprung; no craven fear unnerved the heart or hand;

For urging on, with battle-cheer, his broken ranks full well,

Within the foeman’s breastworks won the youthful hero fell.

 

He fell, as fell the bravest of our poor old land that day,

Upon the fatal field of blood, where brothers brothers slay.

The noble hearts, the manly arms that hoped some day to aid

The cause that lit their souls with fire, in darksome graves are laid.

 

Mourn him not with vain wept-tears; they will not wake to life

The pulseless heart that rests to-day, unmoved by woe or strife.

The flag he fell for, on the breast of him, the young and proud,

None dares gainsay to-day, at least, it is a soldier’s shroud.

 

O’er the new made grave is bending the gray-hair’d sire low,

The pang of grief that rends his heart, none, none but fathers know;

The tearless eyes are gazing down, as though their light was there;

The wintry blast of death came; rude the mountain oak is bare.

 

Unbending patriot of our land, our Mitchel true and brave,

We mourn thy loss, we grieve with thee above thy darling’s grave;

We mourn with thee this dreary day; but darker grows the pall,

To think he fell where Celt fought Celt: sure Erin claims them all.

 

The dreamless sleep of death has come, his lamp is quenched in gloom;

And where the youth, mirth and goodness reigned is the stillness of the tomb.

No wassail [?] long with sin or woe, no care to wrack the breast,

Can come to mar his sleep divine, to break eternal rest.

 

Lieutenant Richard Oulahan was wounded during 1863, forcing him to leave the 164th New York Infantry of Corcoran’s Legion due to disability. Clearly devastated at having to leave his zouave-clad comrades, he penned a farewell to them on 30th October 1863, which was published on 21st November. The Casey he mentions was the Legion’s sutler, who was captured by Mosby’s guerrillas near Fairfax and spent a short period in Confederate captivity.

CORCORAN’s ZOUAVES

(164th N.Y. VOLS)

Farewell to the light-hearted fellows,

To officers, privates and all,

Of the Corcoran Zouaves!– ever ready

To answer their commandant’s call;

In the van, on each new expedition,–

Returning to camp, in the rear,–

Performing, like soldiers, their mission,–

“Breaking ranks”, with a bound and a cheer.

 

Running out twenty miles to Blackwater,

And, after a brief bivouac,

Or a six hours’ fight at the river,

Singing Irish airs all the way back;

With the beat at a hundred or over,

And the dust like a Liverpool fog,

You might think they were off for a wrestling,

As pleasantly homeward they jog.

 

Had the Chief of the Legion ten thousand,

Such fleet-footed fellows as you,

How they’d scatter the “Confeds” of Fairfax,

Ad the morning breeze scatter the dew!

O! the wild Irish shout sounds terrific

From a column of Young Irish braves!

And red is their track through the battle,

And thick is the red field with graves!

 

Boys, wherever you follow McMahon,–

Or Mosby or White to ensnare,–

I’ll bw with my old comrades in spirit,

The robbers of Casey to scare;

Or we play, after “taps,” with the Major,

For a dozen of “Dan’s” bottled ale;

Though we called it “first-rate” in Virginia,

We prefer Michael Connolly’s “pale.”

 

Well, we’ve had pleasant times around Suffolk,

Guarding Portsmouth and Edenton roads;

With a concert of drums in the morning,

And, all night, with the song of the toads–

But farewell! when your talking o’er bygones,

Think of one who has ever been true,

Whatever his faults or his failings,

To friendship, the Legion, and you!

Brigadier-General Michael Corcoran died following a riding accident on 22nd December 1863, plunging much of the Irish community in New York into mourning. You can read more about the circumstances surrounding his demise here. A poet who gave her name only as ‘Mary’, wasted no time in getting her feelings on paper. In Montreal in January 1864 she penned this poem, which was published in the Irish-American on the 30th of the month:

WRITTEN ON HEARING THE DEATH OF GENERAL CORCORAN

‘Tis ever thus with Irish hearts;

When joy is beaming round,

A mourning veil is ever near,

To mock each mirthful sound;

When honors fresh are round them,

Or victory’s smiles are bright,

Then comes some crushing sorrow,

To wither and to blight;

 

‘Tis best, perhaps; it teacheth

Our idols are but clay;

It brings us back from roaming,

Points a truer, higher way–

A road which, through long ages,

Our fathers nobly trod,–

One made for ever royal

By the footprints of  a God.

 

Oh! yes, the Cross shall ever

Our earthly portion be;

For, are we not the followers

Of the King of Calvary?

And, though we win our laurels

In each bright path to fame,

They’ll be to us all worthless,

If we lose our ancient name.

 

But one short day of triumph

Had our Saviour on this earth;

But once aloft the palm-branch waved,

Then came a felon’s death;

And we, His humble chosen ones,

Can ask no more than He.

Cling close, O sons of martyrs,

Unto the sacred Tree!

 

With sorrowing hearts we’ll plant it

Above our hero’s tomb;

Above where fond, bright hopes lie,

With manhood’s early bloom:

While Erin with her tear and smile,

Unrolls her scroll of fame,

And writes, in sunlight penciling,

Beloved Corcoran’s name.

 

1864 would see a wave of carnage engulf communities North and South, and Irish-America was no different. Mrs. Sinclair Lithgow was upset to hear of the death of Captain Edmond Butler of the 69th New York National Guard Artillery (182nd New York) of Corcoran’s Irish Legion. He was killed in action at the Battle of Cold Harbor on 3rd June that year. Butler had enrolled as a First Lieutenant on 3rd September 1862 at the age of 27, and had ultimately risen to Captaincy in July 1863. He died leading Company C of the regiment in the assault (you can see an image of him here). The poem was printed on 23rd July 1864:

THE LATE CAPTAIN E.K. BUTLER

Far away where Southern breezes

Gently kiss the dews of morn,

And the golden sunbeams shining,

All nature to adore,

Lay a young and gallant hero,

Whose placid face, wore smiles of lore

For around his couch were gathered

Hosts of angels from above.

 

Oh! ’twas sad to listen to him,

As on his dying bed he lay:

“Bear, bear me to my mother,

Comrades, hear me oh! I pray.”

Softly, sweetly, then he murmured:

“Oh! that she would to me come!

But ah! cold death is o’er me creeping,

Soldiers, I am going home.”

 

Fainter, weaker he was growing,

We know it was his last long sleep;

As we crept to smooth his pillow,

Oh! ’twas hard our tears to keep.

What a smile played o’er his features!

What a look of joy, of love!

Oh! God, we felt our noble Captain

Soon would dwell in Heaven above.

 

And as death was fast approaching,

He awoke from slumber sweet,

Calling loudly for his brothers,

Praying they may once more meet.

“Soldiers, have I done my duty?

Can I meet my God on high?

I have fought alone for freedom,

And I’m now content to die.

 

“When you write, oh, tell my father

That I wished him by my side–

Tell him, too, that his own Edmond

Bravely, like a soldier, died.

And my sisters, (Heaven bless them!)

Soon they’ll miss me from their side;

But there’s one endearing comfort

To know I, for my country, died.

 

“Comrades, dear, press closer to me,

‘Tis my wife I’d speak of now:

Tell her how I sadly missed her,

When death’s seal was on my brow.

And my children– can I leave them?

They were all my life and love.

Oh! never, never can I see them,

Till we meet in Heaven above.”

The terrible casualties of the summer of 1864 caused such devastation to the reinforced Irish Brigade that it was (temporarily) broken up. This news was met with dismay by ‘Bessie’ of Clifton, L.I., who had the following eulogy published on 30th July 1864:

THE IRISH BRIGADE

“Our Brigade exists no longer”– they have gone– the good the true;

Pulseless now, the gallant hearts that a craven feat ne’er knew.

They fell, midst the crash and carnage of the battle’s cruel storm.

Where the sod, beneath fierce trampling feet, was red with life blood warm,

Where shirked and moans commingled with th’ artillery’s thundering peal,

Where were ghastly heaps of mangled forms, and the clash of gleaming steel.

While thick and fast, upon their ranks, poured burning shot and shell.

With their green flag floating o’er them, they proudly fought and fell.

 

“Our Brigade exists no longer.” Ah [illegible]

That sentence said, a burthen of sorrow, deep [illegible],

In grief is Erin shrouded, and sad is her [illegible] wail,

While she mourns her fallen sons, far, far from Inisfail.

They have gone forever, that gallant band, whose glorious, proud array

Filled the treacherous Saxon’s heart with hatred and dismay.

They have fallen in the glory of their manliness and pride–

Ah, would that ’twas for “the dear old land beyond the sea” they died.

 

Down trodden and oppressed they fled, poor Erin, from they shore;

But did thy sons forget thee then? Ah no, machree, asthore!

When thy “sunburst” o’er them glittered, and the thrilling martial strain

Rang out, bold, defiant, o’er Southern hill and plain,

How throbbed the fiery Celtic hearts, and leaped to their lips the cry–

“Oh, if this were but for Ireland, how gladly would we die.”

But that band– those chiefs- who proudly hoped to strike for Erin yet–

Their fate– “an exile’s lonely grave”– ‘neath stranger skies have met.

 

They had hoped to free from the tyrant’s chain the dear old “sainted Isle.”

And again behold its emerald sod, unprofaned by Saxon guile;

And their hearts throbbed high at the welcome thought of meeting the hated foe

That had wrought on our beautiful Island home such bitter wrong and woe.

Their hopes, bright dreams, alas! themselves, with the mournful past, have fled;

But their memories hat, ’round Erin’s brow, a halo of glory shed,

And their names and deeds will be cherished bright in that “Isle beyond the waves.”

And many a tear and tender thought will be given the lonely graves,

Where sleep poor Erin’s exiles– “proud sons of the glorious Gael”–

Not e’en their dust a resting place many find in Innisfail.

Much of talk that Autumn was of the impending Presidential election between incumbent Abraham Lincoln and George McClellan, darling of the Irish Democrats (to see one Irish-American’s view, see here). The newspaper was filled with pro-McClellan sentiment, and they printed a range of supporting poems and songs, three of which are reproduced below. The first, The Cry is Mac, My Darling was first printed in the New York World and printed in the Irish-American on 17th September 1864 was to be sung to the tune of ‘Oh, My Nora Creina Dear.’ It was written by an Irish soldier in the 1st Division, 2nd Army Corps, in the field on 5th September 1864.

THE CRY IS MAC, MY DARLING

AIR– “Oh, My Nora Creina dear.”

 

Mac, my darling, proud I am

To heat that you’ve been nominated:

Last we met at Antietam,

Where you the rebel might abated.

In the seven days’ fight I stood

Beside you on the hills and meadows,

And while our brave boys poured their blood,

We knew your heart was throbbing with us!

Oh my Captain, dear and true,

The coward tongues that would ignore you,

Are base as false– thank Heaven they’re few!

Your soldiers trust you and adore you.

 

Abe may crack his jolly jokes,

O’er bloody fields of stricken battle,

While yet the ebbing lifestide smokes

From men that die like butchered cattle;

He, ere yet the guns grow cold,

To pimps and pets may crack his stories;

Your name is of the grander mould,

And linked with all your brightest glories!

Oh, my General, dear and true,

The lying tongues that would defame you,

Are base as false– thank Heaven they’re few!

For as our chosen chief we claim you.

 

They say– these dogs of currish heart,

Who never heard a bullet whistle–

You’d let the Union drift[?] apart

Like down flakes from a shaken thistle;

They say, of Captain– but the words

Stick in our throats– we can’t adjust ’em,–

But lift to Heaven our dinted swords

And answer only this: “We trust him!”

Yes, oh friend of rights and laws,

Depsite the sneers of fool or crave,

Where hearts beat highest for the cause,

You have your home, your shrine and haven!

 

With patient toil and pitying breast

You sought your soldier’s blood to treasure,

Nor ever tried the cruel test,

How much we could endure to measure;

They feared you, for they saw your love;

To winn success they would not let you,–

But while the white stars shine above,

The boys you led will ne’er forget you!

Yes, oh Captain! loved and true,

Desert you– we would perish rather;

Thank Heaven the hearts are not a few

That call you brother, friend and father!

The second example of this 1864 election propaganda music was printed on 8th October (having originally appeared in the New York World). It was composed in direct response to a quote in the Chicago Platform, which had claimed that if elected, McClellan would ‘take steps to bring about a cessation of hostilities.’

WAR DEMOCRATIC VIEW OF McCLELLAN’S NOMINATION

CORPORAL CASEY SOLUS. AIR: Ould Ireland, You’re my Darling.

May I niver taste bite nor sup-tonight

But I joy to hear the story,

For the rebels’ll catch in McClellan their match,

An’ we’ll soon have “payce”wid glory!

Such “steps” he will take as’ll make ’em awake

To a sinse of their secession[?],

An ‘wid thrayson denied on a bloody bed,

Of the war we’ll have “a cessation!”

 

CHORUS OF SOLDIERS. AIR: Yankee Doodle

That’s the kind of talk for us,

That’s the peace we covet,–

Treason dead on a bloody bed,

And out starry flag above it!

 

CORPORAL CASEY AS BEFORE:

Little Mac’s the man ‘wid a handsome plan

For an airy “payce” attainin’,–

Wid threbble might to purshue the fight,

Decisive thriumphs gainin’!

We do hate an’ abhor every form o’ war,

We but fight for con-cilliation,

An’ wid thrayson dead on a bloody bed,

Of the war we’ll have a “a cessation!”

CHORUS OF SOLDIERS AS BEFORE:

That’s the kind of talk for us,

That’s the peace we covet,–

Treason dead on a bloody bed,

And the Stars and Stripes above it!

 

CORPORAL CASEY AS BEFORE:

Och! the hour is nigh to see them fly

In wild confusion scatthered,

From their broken lines an’ their murdherin’ mines

An’ their earthworks torn an’ tatthered!

Wid a fiery brand in wan stout hand

An’ an olive branch in the other,–

They’ll all come back undher “Little Mac,”

An’ we’ll have an end o’ the bother!

 

CHORUS OF SOLDIERS AS BEFORE:

That comes home to the Southern heart,

That’s the way to strike it.–

“The brand in hand if you still withstand,

The olive branch if you like it.”

The final pro-McClellan song was composed by T.F.L. and was printed on 22nd October 1864. Granuaile was Grace O’Malley, the famed Irish ‘Pirate Queen’ of the 16th Century.

THE IRISH FOR McCLELLAN

AIR– Graineumhial [Granuaile]

 

McClellan’s a soldier right sterling and true;

McClellan’s a statesman and patriot too;

McClellan will, therefore, receive, without fail,

The votes of the sons of OLD GRAINEUMHAIL.

 

McClellan’s accomplished– his head is well stor’d

With learning as deep as with strength is his sword;

Our freedom, now lost, he is sure to reveal–

So let him have your votes, sons of GRAINEUMHAIL.

 

His motto we know, ’tis “The Union Once More;”

That word, “Abolition,” he’ll ever ignore;

Additional taxes he will not entail,

He therefore commanded us from GRAINEUMHAIL.

 

McClellan’s a CELT in his every vein;

O’er this great Republic he’s worthy to reign;

Like Marshals MacMahon, O’Donnell, and Neil,

He’s a lineal descendant of GRAINEUMHAIL.

 

Then so for McClellan, let all, with one voice,

Proclaim him the chief of [illegible] choice–

His aid he’ll withhold now when we’re going to deal

The great stroke of Freedon for GRAINEUMHAIL.

 

At the conclusion of the war the remnants of the regiments and brigades marched home. On 19th August 1865 the Irish-American printed a song written by ‘N.J.W.’ on 9th August. He had reportedly witnessed the ‘painful and distressing’ disappointment of a young woman who sought her brother in the ranks of the returning Corcoran Legion, and was inspired to compose it to the air of The Exile of Erin.

“OH! WHERE IS MY BROTHER?”

“AIR– The Exile of Erin.”

 

Oh, where is my brother? ’twas here that we parted,

And here, he has said, he would meet me again;

Is he lost to me now; shall I stay broken-hearted,

Through this cold, bittler world to see him in vain?

As in safety he passed through each battle’s commotion.

Whilst the sight of the dead caused his heart sad emotion,

It was then that he said, with a brother’s devotion,

His sister might hope to embrace him again.

 

Oh, where is my brother: to foul wicked treason

Has he fallen a victim– where does he remain?

Has “The Legion” come home to deprive me of reason–

Have I hoped, have I prayed for my brother in vain?

In sorrow and plain, Oh! not thus would he leave me,

To weep in despair, with no kind friend to cheer me,

Kind Heaven look down, from this anguish relieve me,

Not here can I hope to embrace him again.

 

Oh, where is my brother? by that green banner torn,

Did he stand ‘mid the heat of the battle’s red glare,

When it passed through the fire, by my brother ’twas borne:

It appears to me now like a cloud of despair.

Is my brother lost to the cause that he cherished,

Is it thus, like “a soldier of fortune,” he perished;

Does his heart beat no more for he mother that nourished

His childhood with fond and affectionate care?

 

Oh, where is my brother?– in her chains still unbroken,

By her children deserted, his mother doth sleep;

By the Nations despised, amid sorrows unspoken,

In the grasp of the tyrant doth Erin still weep.

Will it ever be thus by the exiles forsaken,

Will their mother no more from her slumbers awaken,

Shall the power of the despot remain thus unshaken

To bind her for ever, in slavery’s keep?

 

Oh, where is my brother? in accents distressing,

She cried, as the soldiers were passing away;

Then her brother, ’til now his emotion suppressing,

Replied– I am here, thy fond love to repay!

The exiles you speak of are banded together,

Their hearts are unchanged, like the heart of your brother;

They live to redeem, in the cause of their mother,

The pledge they have taken in battle’s array.

References

New York Irish American Weekly

Filed under: Music, New York Tagged: Emigrant Music, Emigrant Poetry, Irish American Civil War, Irish American Poetry, Irish American Song, Irish Diaspora, McClellan Songs, New York Irish-American

The Keegans of Bray: Reconstructing the Story of A Famine-Era Emigrant Family

Regular readers will be aware that I have become captivated by using Widow and Dependent Pension Files to reconstruct the stories of mid-19th century Irish emigrant families. Naturally, given the material available, these stories can never be more than partial, incomplete windows into aspects of their lives, and need to be treated as such. Nonetheless, I believe the files offer the best opportunity to follow many of these Famine-era emigrants in the years (and sometimes the decades) after their departure from their native land. When combined with other sources, rich detail regarding some of their life history can often be obtained. The story of the Keegan family outlined below is a case in point. Using a pension file as a starting point, I tracked them through passenger lists, census returns, muster rolls, official records and death certificates to reveal flashes of this ordinary Wicklow family’s story across two decades. Their records also revealed one of the most interesting letters I have encountered in the files– sent from within the confines of the notorious Andersonville Prison.

Bray, Co. Wicklow, hometown of the Keegans as it appears today (Photo: Denzillacey)

The Keegan story begins in Bray, Co. Wicklow, on Ireland’s east coast. It was there on 11th September 1848 that Joseph Keegan and Mary Burns became man and wife. The couple were in their early twenties at the time, and were embarking on married life in the midst of the Great Famine that was devastating large parts of the island. Joseph had trained as a mason, but despite having a trade he and his wife still found life tough. Their first child, Margaret, arrived on 3rd January 1850, and her birth presaged a new chapter in the young family’s lives. Joseph and Mary had likely taken the decision to leave Wicklow sometime in 1849, a year in which their hometown of Bray suffered 68 deaths as a result of Cholera. That they didn’t go until 1850 was likely down to Mary’s pregnancy. Once baby Margaret was old enough, the trio would have headed north to Dublin where they took ship for Liverpool, the great gateway port for many Irish emigrants to the United States. (1)

The Keegans left Liverpool aboard the SS William Penn, taking their place in steerage; all their possessions for the start of their new life were packed into two trunks. On 9th July 1850 they arrived in Philadelphia, the city which would ultimately become their home. They were part of a huge influx of immigrants there during the Famine years– by 1850 there were 72,000 people who had been born in Ireland living in the City of Brotherly Love. Before long Joseph and Mary’s family began to grow. Matthew Robert was born on 16th December 1851 and baptised in the Church of the Assumption. The family may have had a short-lived effort to make a future in Ohio, as their next child Frances Josephine appears to have been baptised in the Church of St. Thomas, Cincinnati on 9th March 1856. However, by the time of the 1860 Census they were back in Philadelphia’s Ninth Ward; the family were enumerated there on 25th June 1850, at which time Joseph was recorded as working as a laborer. (2)

Buildings on Market Street, Philadelphia in the 1850s, not far from where the Keegans lived (Library of Congress)

During the 1860s the family had their home at 1515 Melloy Street, between 15th and 16th and Market and Chestnut. When the war broke out, Joseph elected not to enlist, likely hoping that more opportunities would come his way at home. However, something had changed by late 1863. Perhaps drawn by the large bounties then on offer for joining up, or due to the seasonality of his work (laborers often found it difficult to get work in the winter), the 37-year-old Wicklow man decided to become a soldier. At the time the Union League Association– a patriotic society formed in 1862 to support the Union– were recruiting their fourth regiment for the front. On 8th December 1863 Joseph presented himself at one of their recruiting stations and was signed on by Lieutenant Egbert for three-years service. In so doing he became eligible for a bounty of $300, $25 of which was paid up front. On 13th January 1864 Joseph mustered in as a private in the Fourth Union League Regiment’s Company A, otherwise known as the 183rd Pennsylvania Infantry. He experienced his first weeks of military life almost on his doorstep, as the regiment was initially based at Frankfield Depot on Broad Street, only a few minutes from the Keegan’s home. It is probable that Joseph had an opportunity to see his wife and family while the 183rd completed its organisation. Then, in March 1864, they marched out of Philadelphia, bound for the Army of the Potomac on the Rapidan River. (3)

Advertisement in the Illustrated New Age of 14th January 1864, carrying details of the bounty for men of the 183rd Pennsylvania (GenealogyBank)

On 4th May 1864 the Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan to begin the Overland Campaign. The 183rd Pennsylvania had joined the famous 2nd Corps under Winfield Scott Hancock, forming part of Nelson Miles’s 1st Brigade of Francis Barlow’s 1st Division (the 2nd Brigade of this division was the Irish Brigade). Joseph Keegan’s career as a soldier on campaign lasted a little under five days– considerably longer than many other recent recruits to the  Army of the Potomac in 1864. At around 10pm on the evening of 3rd May he had broken camp with his comrades at Stevensburg, Virginia, marching towards the enemy. He crossed the Rapdian at Ely’s Ford on the 4th, arriving on the Fredericksburg Road that afternoon and encamping on the old Chancellorsville battlefield. One wonders what he made of the sights that surrounded him from the harsh fighting of a year before. The next day, Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia barreled into Grant’s advancing men in The Wilderness, commencing the first major battle of the campaign. Although not seriously engaged, that was the day Joseph experienced being under fire for the first time, as his regiment continued their move through The Wilderness. The battle raged on the following day, with Joseph among those ordered to fortify the left of the Army of the Potomac’s line. He spent 7th May on picket duty, before resuming the advance the next day. Near Todd’s Tavern that afternoon rations were being issued when the Confederates attacked; Joseph’s regiment formed in a field beside the Irish Brigade to fight off the advance, losing four men killed in the process. This was his last full day at the front. The next day, the 183rd Pennsylvania marched on to the Po, crossing that river at about sundown. Although his regiment was not engaged, 9th May 1864 was the day Joseph was captured by the Rebels. Perhaps he was taken while on picket duty, or had become disoriented or lost on the march. Whatever the circumstances, his time at the front was over. (4)

Ely’s Ford on the Rapidan as it appeared on 4th May 1864, the day Joseph Keegan from Bray crossed it. Drawn by Alfred Waud (Library of Congress)

Joseph Keegan was taken south as a prisoner of war. Eventually he and around 1400 other Union prisoners began a two week journey to Camp Sumter, Georgia, a site that became better known as Andersonville. Originally opened in February 1864, by June more than 26,000 prisoners had been placed in an enclosed stockade designed to accommodate just 10,000. Andersonsville was in existence for some fourteen months– during that time almost 13,000 of the 45,000 Union prisoners incarcerated there died. But Joseph Keegan wasn’t one of them. In an intriguing survival, his pension file contains a letter that the Bray man wrote home to his wife, from within the confines of the prison:

Camp Sumpter, Andersonville, Georgia

Dear Wife, I write you these few lines hoping you and children are well as I am at present thank God. Dear Wife I was taken prisoner on the 9th at Spotsylvania I was in 2 battles and 2 skirmishes and came out safe without a scratch thank God I am well in health and strength I have not being sick for one hour since I left Philadelphia thank God. I am comfortably situated and have quite enough to eat having nothing to do here but keep myself clean and there is opportunity enough to do so as there is a good stream running through the camp. There was fourteen hundred prisoners of us brought here the one time it took 2 weeks to get here, we are anxious to be exchanged. It is very warm down here. I send my love to you all write soon and tell me how you are getting along. Direct your letter to Joseph Keegan, Camp Sumpter, Andersonville, Georgea, prisoner of war. (5)

If you were standing at this spot in 1860s Philadelphia you would have been able to see the Keegan’s home a little way down on the right. Then this street was called Melloy Street– the Keegans lived at 1515 where it intersected with Benton Street. Now redeveloped, Benton Street is gone and Melloy Street renamed Ranstead Street. This is the view onto Ranstead from South 15th Street. This is also the street that the letter for Mary Keegan from her husband would have been carried in 1865. For those familiar with Philadelphia, this is almost opposite Philadelphia City Hall.

Although the letter is undated, it was likely written in late May or early June, given the time it would have taken Joseph to get to Andersonville. His letter is the first time I have come across correspondence sent directly from Andersonville during my time researching the pension files. How usual was it for such letters to be sent out, and why does Joseph’s correspondence appear to suggest that Andersonville wasn’t so bad? Was it that things had not deteriorated greatly by the time he arrived? I am extremely grateful to National Park Service Ranger Chris Barr, formerly of Andersonville National Historic Site and currently based at Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park, for providing invaluable expertise and advice in relation to letters from Andersonville. As Chris points out, by the time of Joseph’s arrival things were just starting to turn bad in Andersonville. Perhaps he had little idea of what was to come, and felt confident that his stay would be short. Maybe he wanted to put on a brave face for his family. But there is one other factor that likely played into the general tone that Joseph took in his letter– he knew the Confederates would read it before they decided whether to send it on or not. No doubt anxious to let his family know that he was still alive, did Joseph downplay the situation in order to get the letter past the Camp Guards? To get a sense of how the mail system worked in Andersonville, Chris pointed me in the direction of the following testimony, given by former Union POW Dorence Atwater:

A large box with lock and key was stationed near one of the gates, inside the stockade. Every few days the prisoners were told by the rebels that a mail was going to be sent north, and all those who wished to write to their friends must have their letters in the mail box by a stated time. Men traded their clothing and rations for bits of paper, envelopes, and postage stamps. The rebels claimed it was necessary to have two envelopes, the first containing the letter addressed to the party for whom it was designed, with a three-cent United States postage stamp. These letters were taken from the mail box to Wirz’s headquarters and examined. A few letters were forwarded to Richmond to give a color of appearance that the letters were duly sent, but most of them were destroyed, under the pretext that they contained information detrimental to the southern confederacy. Our three-cent postage stamps were worth a dollar apiece in rebel money, so that the rebels realized a dollar and ten cents for each letter written by our prisoners. (6)

The back of the envelope that contained Joseph Keegan’s letter. On examining the scans for me, Chris Barr of the NPS noted that it reads ‘Exm’d H.W.’ denoting that it had been examined by the Confederatesat Andersonville. As Chris noted, the H.W. likely represents none other than Camp Commandant Henry Wirz, suggesting he personally read and approved Joseph’s letter. Wirz was later executed for his role at Andersonville (Fold3)

Clearly Joseph was fortunate to have his letter delivered, but it doesn’t appear to have arrived in Philadelphia until January 1865. Although Mary probably wasn’t aware of it then, Joseph was already dead. Another soldier of his company, George Neill, later told her what had happened. George had been taken prisoner at Spotsylvania on 11th May, and on being taken to the rear met other men from the 183rd, including Joseph. Afterwards they were ‘constantly together.’ George traveled to Andersonville with him, and was able to tell Mary that in September 1864 they were among a group moved to Florence, South Carolina, where a new prisoner stockade had just been constructed. Leaving Andersonville did not mean there were better times ahead. Another former Union POW who experienced both Andersonville and Florence, John McElroy, said of the latter place:

…the physical condition of the prisoners confined there had been greatly depressed by their long confinement [at Andersonville]…I think also that all who experienced confinement in the two places are united in pronouncing Florence to be, on the whole, much the worse place, and more fatal to life.

Very shortly after they arrived at Florence Joseph became sick, and was sent to the camp hospital in October. George, still in the main camp, tried to keep track of his progress. When two soldiers of the 2nd Delaware Infantry who had been in the hospital came back to camp about two weeks later, they told George that Joseph hadn’t made it. George himself survived to be exchanged, ultimately returning to the 183rd around July 1865, when he was promoted Corporal just days before mustering out. (7)

Mary Keegan began the process of applying for her pension in 1865. Inn so doing she provided further evidence of the close ties that Irish people maintained with those from their home localities after emigration, something which is a near constant feature of the files. The now 42-year-old widow called on Michael Boyland (Boland?) and Ann Kelly to give statements in Philadelphia. Both of them were able to say that they had known Mary ‘all her life’, since they had been children in Bray. Both had also been present at Joseph and Mary’s wedding in Bray in 1848, and they recorded how their close relationship had been maintained after they had all moved to the United States. Although Mary ultimately received her pension, the fate of the family in the years ahead remains unclear. The widow may be the Mary Keegan recorded as dying on Cuthbert Avenue in the Ninth Ward on 31st March 1880, but I have as yet failed to identify the bulk of the Keegans in the decades that followed. If any readers come across information on them in the post-war decades I would be eager to hear from them. Despite this dearth of later information, the Keegan story is a fine example of just how much detail can be breathed into the lives of ordinary Famine-era emigrants when using the widow’s pension files as a starting point. It also offers a rare opportunity to explore how soldiers tried to communicate with loved ones from the most notorious prison camp of the American Civil War. (8)

Andersonville as it appeared on 1st August 1864. Drawn from the memory of another Irish prisoner, Thomas O’Dea of the 16th Maine Infantry (Library of Congress)

* I have added minor formatting to this letter for the benefit of readers, but none of the content has been altered in any way. None of my work on pensions would be possible without the exceptional effort currently taking place in the National Archives to digitize this material and make it available online via Fold3. A team from NARA supported by volunteers are consistently adding to this treasure trove of historical information. To learn more about their work you can watch a video by clicking here.

* *I am extremely grateful to Ranger Chris Barr for his invaluable assistance with this post, without which much of the rich detail would have been absent.

(1) Joseph Keegan Widow’s Pension File, Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia Pennsylvania, Hannigan 2009; (2) Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia Pennsylvania, Gallman 2000: 32, Joseph Keegan Widow’s Pension File, 1860 United States Federal Census; (3) Joseph Keegan Widow’s Pension File, Pennsylvania Civil War Muster Rolls, Bates 1871: 128 (4) Bates 1871: 128, Official Records: 370, Official Records: 385; (5) Camp Sumter/ Andersonville Prison, History of the Andersonville Prison, Joseph Keegan Widow’s Pension File; (6) U.S. Government 1869: 1026; (7)McElroy 1879: 547, Bates 1871: 132; (8) Joseph Keegan Widow’s Pension File, Philadelphia Death Certificates Index; (8) Joseph Keegan Widow’s Pension File;

References & Further Reading

Joseph Keegan Widow’s Pension File WC94648.

Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The National Archives at Washington, D.C. Record Group Title: Records of the United States Customs Service, 1745-1997; Record Group Number: 36; Series: M425; Roll: 070.

Pennsylvania, Civil War Muster Rolls, 1860-1869. Civil War Muster Rolls and Related Records, 1861–1866. Records of the Department of Military and Veterans’ Affairs, Record Group 19, Series 19.11 (153 cartons). Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Death Certificates Index, 1803-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.Ancestry.com.

1860 United States Federal Census. Year: 1860; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 9, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: M653_1159; Page: 121; Image: 125; Family History Library Film: 805159

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion Series 1, Volume 36, Part 1. Report of Brig. Gen. Nelson A. Miles, U.S. Army, commanding First Brigade.

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion Series 1, Volume 36, Part 1. Report of Lieut. Col. George T. Egbert, One hundred and eighty-third Pennsylvania Infantry.

Andersonville National Historic Site. Camp Sumter/ Andersonville Prison.

Andersonville National Historic Site. History of the Andersonville Prison.

United States Government 1869. Report on the Treatment of Prisoners of War by the Rebel Authorities, during the War of the Rebellion.

Bates, Samuel P. 1871. History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, Volume 5.

Gallman, J. Matthew 2000. Receiving Erin’s Children: Philadelphia, Liverpool and the Irish Famine Migration, 1845-1855.

Hannigan, Ken 2009. ‘Wicklow and the Famine’ in Roundwood and District Historical and Folklore Journal 20.

McElroy, John 1879. Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons.

Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park

Andersonville National Historic Site

Filed under: Battle of The Wilderness, Wicklow Tagged: 183rd Pennsylvania Infantry, America and Wicklow, Battle of the Wilderness, Civil War Prisoners, Irish American Civil War, Letter from Andersonville, Pennsylvania Irish, Wicklow Veterans

Last Letters Home: Revealing the Pension File Correspondence of Union Irish Soldiers & Their Families

Over recent years I have been compiling a database of those widows’ and dependents pension files which contain primary correspondence from Irish and Irish-American soldiers and their families. As regular readers are aware, these letters feature frequently on the site, but I have only been in a position to share a handful of the 100s I have come across. Having recently been invited to deliver a lecture to the American Civil War Round Table UK in London, I decided to take that opportunity to use multiple letter extracts to explore a number of themes. In order to do this I drew on my database to discuss topics such as literacy, economy, communication, religion, motivation, politics, race, combat, last words and communicating bereavement. Given the time available in the lecture, only a very high-level examination of the material was possible, but nonetheless it does demonstrate a number of potential future avenues of study and discussion. I thought readers of the blog might enjoy reading an extended extract from the lecture (with accompanying slides), which includes all the examples I used in the talk. I should warn readers that I have not censored the soldier’s original words– one extract in particular contains racist language and sentiment that some readers may find offensive.

Though few people on the island of Ireland realise it today, the American Civil War was one of the costliest struggles Irish people have ever been involved in. More than 1.6 million people of Irish birth lived in America in 1861. In the region of 200,000 Irish-born men fought in the Civil War– tens of thousands of them died. These figures do not include first and second generation Irish-Americans, many of whom strongly identified themselves as part of Irish communities.

Beyond those more famed ethnic Irish regiments, or the few men who committed their thoughts to paper after the conflict, it is often difficult for us to gain a picture of what the Irish and Irish-American experience of the Civil War was like. In order to try and build up a profile of that experience, over recent years I have been examining what is perhaps the greatest treasure trove of social documentation produced as a result of the American Civil War–pension files. It is within these files that the greatest repository of information relating to the Irish-American experience of the Civil War is contained.Pension files relating to American Civil War service come in a number of forms. Confederate veterans and their dependents did not become eligible for Federal pensions until 1958, although many former Confederate states did provide pensions for veterans directly. By far the greatest number of pension files are those that relate to Union service.

The main focus of today’s talk relates to a specific form of evidence often included in the widow’s and dependents files– letters from soldiers to their families at home, written during the war. These were provided to the Pension Bureau by widows, parents or other dependents. To date I have identified hundreds of such letters which relate to Irish and Irish-American soldiers. The vast majority have not been fully read or transcribed since they were deposited in the files in the 19th century. They can range from a single letter included in a file to demonstrate a soldier had sent money home, to sets of dozens of letters from a soldier to his wife, included to demonstrate their relationship. Once these letters were submitted as evidence for a pension application, the applicant never saw them again, and they remain in their respective files to this day. They allow us to explore a range of themes relating to Irish service, such as relations with those on the home front, motivations, political belief and combat experience. I am going to briefly examine each theme, using the men’s own words. It is worth remembering before we begin that in every instance, these letters exist only because the soldier or sailor who composed them or who is their subject died as a result of the American Civil War.

Literacy

It is worth noting that in many cases the soldiers who caused these letters to be composed were either illiterate or semi-illiterate. The same was often true of those at home to whom they were writing. In many cases, letters were dictated to soldiers in the company who could write, as we can see here in two examples relating to Miles Flynn of the 13th Pennsylvania Cavalry, who would later die at Andersonville. Miles seems to have used different writers at different times. The files are filled with references to neighbours and friends performing the same task for wives and parents at home, with letters from the front often being read aloud to their intended recipients. Some soldiers went so far as to learn how to write at the front. Martin Tiernan of the 61st New York Infantry even wrote to his mother asking her what she thought of his writing, and his letters show his efforts to practice writing the letter ‘B’, the company to which he belonged.

Economics

A major theme of many of the letters is money. Soldiers frequently sought to make sure that their families at home had enough, and that they had received the pay they had forwarded, usually via Adams Express. They also related what they spent the remainder on. In May 1862 John Gavin of the 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry, whose father had died during the Famine years in Ireland, told his mother precisely where his earnings had gone:

I have bought a writing portfolio I gave one dollar for it, and I bought a camp knife and fork and spoon for one dollar, and a pair of suspenders for 25 cts and a package of paper for 25 cts and a dollar and a half I got some pies and tobacco. I have got four dollars yet, I want to get my long boots half soled and heeled. I had a notion to by a red shirt, but you would be mad if I did so I will get a likeness taken and send it to you this week.

Gavin would later die at Spotsylvania Court House. Private Patrick Kinnane, the son of Irish parents, was serving in the 155th New York Infantry, Corcoran’s Irish Legion, when he wrote to his sister in April 1863 to explain his expenditure:

I paid the sutler $5 for tobacco and other things which I got since I came here. I do not mean beer, for they are not allowed to keep any. $2 to the boys which I owed in New Port News. $2.50 for the pictures $10 I have to pay for the fiddle. $1 for sending the money home. $1 ½ I am keeping for tobacco. This is the truth.

The importance of tobacco is a recurring theme in the men’s letters. To return to James Gavin of the 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry, he wrote from his picket post in Virginia in 1863 of how he:

never want[s] to suffer for tobacco like I have done I would sooner be without eating.

It was no different for Irish soldiers in the Western Theater. Private Barney Carr from Co. Derry wrote home to his mother from the ranks of the 79th Illinois Infantry while based in Chattanooga in November 1863:

Mother I want you to send me by mail one round of fine cut chewing tobacco just as soon as you can send it to me, for that is the only way I can keep from spending my money, and if you don’t send me plenty of tobacco, why then you will have to send me my money to buy it for I can’t do without the article in no shape nor form…as for tobacco you can buy me a number one quality there and not cost near so much as it would here, I have to pay $1.00 for one plug of tobacco and it won’t weigh half a pound and it is musty after I get it so that I can’t chew it.

Often soldiers sending money home would ask their parents to get something special for family members. Michael Farry of the 29th Pennsylvania Infantry, later killed in action at Lookout Mountain, asked his mother to:

buy the children a frock and Willie a hat for the summer and send me his picture and Lizzie together, I would like to see them. Buy my old Granny something for I know she prays for me day and night.

The taking and sending of pictures is a common theme of many letters. Some soldier’s requests also illustrate their young age– as is the case with Thomas Diver of the 69th Pennsylvania Infantry, who wrote home on 2 February 1862:

I would like you to send a couple of grey flannel overshirts and if you can afford a pair of strong legged boots, not expensive ones, also two bottle of the Balm of a Thousand Flowers for to take off the pimples on my face. It is only 15 cents a bottle at Petersons Book Store. Dear Mother I wish you would get your daugerrotype taken for me, the one I got is broke in my knapsack and I have only got the glass that it was taken on without the case, a 25 cent one will do.

Communication

Another recurring theme evident in the letters is a feeling that those at home were not writing often enough. Typical are the sentiments of Garret Barry, a trooper in the 3rd Massachusetts Cavalry, who wrote home from Louisiana on 29 March 1863:

Dear father I have not heard from you for some time, I feel bad about it I have wrote you three since I had any, I think you must have forgotten me.

Garret Barry was killed in action near Mansfield, Louisiana in April 1864. Corporal John Doherty of the 63rd New York, Irish Brigade, was equally unimpressed with his mother when he wrote to her from Harrison’s Landing in July 1862:

Dear Mother, I got your long looked for but welcome letter it being a month since I got a letter from you, I thought you had forgotten me. I hope you will not be as long without writing any more.

John would die at Antietam that September.

Neither were siblings immune from admonishment. Tommy Welch, who, unlike Buster Kilrain of ‘Gettysburg’ fame, was a real-life Irishman in the 20th Maine during the war, wrote to his brother after Fredericksburg:

Dear Brother I received your letter dated Oct 20 a few days ago and am glad to hear from you, but think you are a little unjust in not writing to me before, I have received but one letter from you.

In a similar vein Coal Heaver Patrick Finan, serving off the South Carolina coast aboard USS Wabash as part of the Union blockading fleet, wrote home to his father in Sligo town to tell him what he thought of his friends who had come to America:

Dear Father I have not heard one word from Pat Keen since he came out here or from Bartly Burns or the wife, but I expected Pat Keen would write and let me know how he was getting on, but out of sight out of mind with them all, for they knew very well where to write to me, but I hope I will live to return them the compliment they have shown me since I left New York, but a stranger will think more of you here than your one friend.

Insights & Religion

Occasionally the letters reveal new or fresh perspectives about officers or well known figures. A case in point is one letter, written by the brother-in-law of Lieutenant John Conway of the 69th New York Infantry, Irish Brigade in October 1862. Lieutenant Conway had died attacking the Bloody Lane at Antietam, and had been characterized by the New York Irish American Weekly newspaper as:

Courteous, affable, loving and truly brave- he was as much beloved in social life by all who knew him, as in camp by his fellow-officers, who esteemed him as a “noble fellow,” and mourn him to-day as an irreparable loss. Aged but thirty-six years, his young life is another sacrifice of Ireland for America, in the annals of which, as a staunch and trusty soldier, the name of John Conway should be cherished.

This was not a view shared by Lieutenant Conway’s brother-in-law. Writing to his now widowed sister, he cast the officer in a very different light:

We were very sorry to hear of John’s death I don’t blame you to feel bad, but still he was so cruel to you, but I suppose nature compels you to feel so. Dear Sister I don’t think he ever used you like a husband when you lived up on the lake on the farm, you know when you had to go out and milk all the cows and he would be away playing cards, and since yous went east by all accounts he was but worse, and after he went away Mother wrote to me and told me that he never left you a dollar after selling all his things. When he was up here he had plenty of money spending around the taverns and was out at Auburn at two Irish dances, but I will forgive him and I hope God will for all his bad actions. Dear Sister there had been many a good husband left their wives and children which falls on the field of battle and their family’s must feel reconciled now.

Similarly one of John Doherty’s letters from the 63rd New York, Irish Brigade, adds an interesting perspective to the much discussed drinking levels of Brigadier-General Thomas Francis Meagher. Writing from Harrison’s Landing on 19 July 1862, he was discussing the regimental chaplain:

Father Dillon was put under arrest, he was released in 2 days after. He said he did not know why he was arrested, I think it was a drunken freak of General Meagher.

This suggests that General Meagher may not have been a stranger to ‘drunken freaks.’ John Doherty was clearly a devout Catholic, and religious belief is another major component of Irishmen’s correspondence. In the same letter Doherty relates that:

Father Dillon is a very good man, he is highly esteemed not only by the Brigade but by all the Irish Regts in this Army. Every place we go he has some kind of a church made of green boughs with the cross on top of it, many of them is scattered all over Virginia yet in the places we passed through.

Like many Irish soldiers, Dwyer wore a religious scapular, which he is referring to here:

Those small articles that you mention in one of your letters I have them yet and wear them all the time, indeed they gave me a feeling of safety in the time of danger when the shells was bursting over us and the bullets flying thick around I felt perfectly safe.

Another soldier of the Irish Brigade’s 63rd New York who wore them was William Dwyer from Tipperary. He wrote home asking them to:

send me a scapular and fix it so as it don’t be any weight in the letter. You will get them to buy in any Catholic Book Store and you can get it blessed by the priest. The one I got from Father Dillon it is all wore and I lost the part that goes down my back, he gave every one of us one when he was leaving us, if you can get one from the sisters get it.

Although he survived the Irish Brigade’s major engagements, it was chronic diarrhoea which ultimately cost William Dwyer his life in the summer of 1864.

Motivations

The skewing of the pension file letters towards those that reference money gives the impression that economic need was the main driver for many Irishmen to join up, but that was not always the case. The 20th Maine’s Tommy Welch had the following to say:

I am not without trouble and trials, but still I bear them willingly and more because the flag has given protection to our persecuted country men.

Patrick Kelly of Ballinasloe in Co. Galway and the 28th Massachusetts Infantry was full of patriotism in January 1862:

I tell you what, it is a fine thing to be a Faugh for they are bound to clear the way. Jeff Davis clear the way as the crazy sargent sung the other night. The fire that blazed from Emmets Patriotic eye shall lead us to our victory. So said the bard when Cass left for the seat off war.

Kelly’s regiment joined the Irish Brigade later that year, and while opposite Fredericksburg he wrote:

We joined the Irish Brigade about one week ago, the Brigade gets as much beef as the whole corps. Faugh a Ballagh is the war cry and no turn back. Of course we will cross the river first but no matter, trust to Ireland’s bold Brigade to clear the road.

Patrick survived Fredericksburg and the major battles of 1863 only to be shot and killed on picket duty at Kelly’s Ford on 3 December 1863. Motivation though could also be sapped out of men. Back to William Dwyer of the Irish Brigade, writing home in January 1863 after the crushing defeat at Fredericksburg:

Dear Mother we thought surely that our brigade was going home to New York that time, but we were kept back and would not be let go in account of we being Irish. In the three old Regts we have only 250 for duty when we ought to have 3000 men for duty so we thought when we were so small that we would be sent home to fill up, but who ever lives after the next battle can go home because it is little will be left of us.

His sentiments demonstrate that the feeling Irish troops were being sacrificed as cannon fodder was not a view held only by those at home. Some Irishmen took matters into their own hands and tried to desert. Indeed a number of the letters demonstrate that the pressure to desert often came from home. Limerick’s Daniel Dillon was a trooper operating in the Trans-Mississippi with the 10th Illinois Cavalry. Replying to a request from his mother to come home, he said that:

I am not going home until the war is over, I have deserted once and that ought to be enough and not to do it again, so you must not expect me home until I get to home decent or dead.

It would be dead, as Daniel was killed in action at the Battle of Bayou Meto in Arkansas on 27 August 1863.

James Welsh of the 82nd Pennsylvania Infantry was another who was clearly being put under pressure from home. Writing from the Rappahannock in 1863 he had this to say:

You said you would like me to get a furlough but it is impossible for me to get a furlough, and as for deserting it is hard to do where we are now and besides it is running a great risk of being brought back and punished by the military law.

James did not go home– in fact he re-enlisted. He would be killed in action at Cold Harbor the following summer.

John McKeown of the 71st Pennsylvania Infantry was another who longed for home. Induced to enlist as a substitute when he was drunk, he wrote to his wife on 3 May 1864:

I do think very long for to get home for I have enough of this place, the most of the men would like to get home, they are sorry for re enlisted again they wish they were home. If they were they say they would not be lying in a hard bed. A good many of the men has deserted, some of them has been catched and has got there hair shaved as white as snow and drumed around the camps…

Some late war recruits had a more optimistic outlook. Private Thomas Bowler wrote home to his wife in Youghal, Co. Cork as he prepared for his first campaign. He wrote from the camp of the 69th New York Infantry on 17 April 1864:

I like soldiering very well, I do not know the moment we will go to the field of battle. There will be great fighting this summer but of course I have as good a chance to escape as any other man. I am enlisted for three years or during the war. If it was over in the morning I would be discharged, but there is only a very poor chance of that, but God is good and merciful.

Thomas would see less than two days combat. He was reported missing in the Wilderness on 7 May 1864.

Politics & Race

It is well known that the overwhelming number of Irish Catholics in the United States were strong supporters of the Democratic Party, generally disliked the Republican Party, and were not, in the main, supporters of abolition. The preservation of the Union was the main driving force behind their service. These Democratic, and occasionally anti-black sentiments, come across in some of the writings. Charles Traynor, a 69th New York veteran who would die in the war’s final days at Skinner’s Farm in March 1865, wrote home in November 1864 to say that he had:

no particular news only about the election which will be a hard contest. I hope Little Mac will be the man.

The 82nd Pennsylvania Infantry’s James Welsh nailed his colours to the mast when chastising his sister in a letter to his mother in January 1863. He raged:

I hope she will not be so foolish as to marry a Abe Lincoln abolitionist, for I think it is the ruin of the country.

William McIntyre of the 95th Pennsylvania Infantry was clearly an ardent democrat and no fan of abolition. In January 1863 he shared his political views with his parents:

I think the radicals of the northeast want this government broken up and they think by so doing they will get the middle states with them, but they are mistaken. Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey will never take up with such a set of hypocrites and defamers of a country’s rights as the Abolition Party are. I have had time and means to look into the question at issue and in a clear and candid view I have come to the above conclusion. If a state has laws they ought to be respected and there is no Institution in any State that ought to be interfered with unless it is the wish of the majority of the inhabitants of that state.

Limerick’s Daniel Dillon in the 10th Illinois Cavalry would have agreed with him. In February 1863 he was railing against both a lack of pay and the prospect that emancipated African-Americans would fight alongside them:

…the cry is among the troops down here that if they don’t pay us more regular than that they are, they will lay their arms down and let the damned abolitionists and niggers fight themselves and see what they can do, there is great dissatisfaction among the troops here for the half of them won’t fight to free negroes nor fight with them. If ever they put a negro in the field with our army every black son of a bitch of them will get killed as soon as they come here, so they stand a poor choice if ever they get among the Illinois boys of their lives.

Given the views that some of these men held, the fact that they stayed the course, some of them even re-enlisting as veterans, is fascinating in and of itself.

Combat

Of course the American Civil War was decided on the battlefield, and the letters have many descriptions of the fighting and the toll it took on these men. Some of the letters even include their own graphics. In describing his role in the May 1863 Second Battle of Fredericksburg, Michael McCormick of the 65th New York Infantry went so far as to draw a map. Writing home later that month he commented that:

We are ready for another fight but not under Genl Hooker- I am not stretching when I tell you that the Rebels fear the 6th Corps, they tell us so across the river. John asks what I was doing when I was left guard, I will draw a map to show him as the newspapers do. Now I don’t think the Herald could beat that map.

Many of the men remembered their first encounters with bodies on the battlefield. Patrick Carney of the 69th Pennsylvania Infantry wrote home after the Battle of Fair Oaks/Seven Pines:

Dear mother we were in that battle of Saturday and Sunday last, we were in the reserve and we were not in action we are under arms every minute in the day and night. I never saw in my life time the sight I saw. Our Company was sent out yesterday afternoon to bury the dead and we were out 2 hours and we buried 46 Rebels. We are encamped on the battle ground.

Thomas Monaghan of the 95th Pennsylvania Infantry was another Irishmen who encountered a major battlefield for the first time at Fair Oaks. He wrote:

mother we are at last before Richmond on the ground that the battle was fought on, it is awful to see so many graves.

Patrick Carney would see many more bodies before he was mortally wounded at Gettysburg the following summer. Thomas Monaghan lasted a year longer, succumbing to a wound received at Spotsylvania in 1864.

Occasionally the files reveal accounts from famed soldiers that have lain undiscovered in 150 years. One example is Captain Patrick Clooney’s description of the action at Fair Oaks. Clooney, a former Papal Brigade officer, was one of the best-known officers of the Irish Brigade and was later killed at Antietam. He wrote the account in a letter to the widow of Patrick Dunnigan of the 88th New York Infantry, who was killed in that engagement:

On the night of Saturday we reached the battlefield and bivouacked thereon that night- the fields around us were strewn here and there with killed and wounded soldiers, some of them friends others enemies. At early dawn on the morning of yesterday (Sunday June 1st) we were aroused from our chill slumbers and in a few moments afterwards our skirmishers were thrown forward through the woods in front and flank where some brisk firing took place. We were in column by Division in rear of our line of battle and were protecting the artillery upon its right. Soon heavy firing was heard and dense clouds of smoke rose from the woods upon our left. We deployed into line and fronted the enemy. Brisk firing and skirmishing continuing all the time- the 69th Regt Irish Brigade was formed in line upon our right and the whole line of battle swept into the woods to meet the enemy- the advance was interrupted owing to the nature of the ground and the 88th Regt flanked by the left through the densely wooded grove- upon nearing the plain outside the wood I was ordered to carry the Colors to the front of the Column and head its advance- raising the green flag and the Stars and Stripes over us we passed forward and marched by filing to the right out upon the clear fields when the enemy opened a heavy fire upon us and nearly caused the head of the Column to waver- when dashing forward into the plain we were enabled to form line. It was while following the Colors of the Regt in the thickest of the fire and flood of lead that your gallant husband fell fighting by my side- a rifle bullet having pierced his right leg passing through and through.

 Tommy Welch of the 20th Maine was more succinct when describing his regiment’s attack on Marye’s Heights at Fredericksburg, a scene depicted in the film Gods and Generals:

We crossed the Rapherhanock the 13 December in the afternoon and marched double quick into the city and then we went upon the field, and it was a bloody field. I was struck with a shell. We marched half a mile in front of the Rebels rifle fire. The shell struck me before we got on the field, the Captain told me to go back and said I was badly hurt, but I put my trust in God and went forward.

Another example is the letter written by Lieutenant Charles McAnally of the 69th Pennsylvania Infantry to the widow of his friend, Louth native James Hand. McAnally was one of the skirmishers who faced the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble assault at Gettysburg, and would later receive the Medal of Honor for actions in 1864. He wrote to Hand’s widow of their experiences facing the Rebel assault at Gettysburg:

I was in command of the skirmishers about one mile to the front & every inch of the ground was well contested until I reached our Regt. The Rebels made the attack in 3 lines of Battle, as soon as I reached our line I met James, he ran & met me with a canteen of water. I was near played. He said I was foolish I didn’t let them come at once that the ‘ol 69th was waiting for them. I threw off my coat & in 2 minutes we were at it hand to hand. They charged on us twice & we repulsed them, they then tryed the Regt on our right & drove them, which caused us to swing back our right, then we charged them on their left flank & in the charge James fell. May the Lord have mercy on his soul. He never flinched from his post & was loved by all who knew him.

Charles McAnally’s Gettysburg letter also gives an indication of something else that we occasionally come across in the correspondence, namely signs of combat stress. Written from the field where they had so recently repulsed the Confederates at Gettysburg’s stone wall, McAnally confided that:

There was never a battle fought with more determination, in the first days fight the Rebels had our battery on the first charge & we retook it again. Mrs Hand please excuse this letter as I am confused & I hope you will take your trouble with patience, you know that God is merciful & good to his own.

Another soldier who showed signs of combat fatigue was Barney Carr of the 79th Illinois. His letter-writing was actually interrupted mid-flow near Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia on 20 June 1864:

Dear Mother I have had to stop writing, we are a lying on the line of battle and there are 12 pieces of cannons in front of us and they are a shelling the Rebs, and that draws the Rebels fire and it is a horrible place to be in. Cannonballs are a flying thick around us and the shells are a screaming in the air and through the woods, cutting the timber and earth in all directions, but thank God Mother I am still safe and unhurt, but how long I may still remain so I can’t tell anything about that yet. God only knows how long it may last, I am sure I can’t tell anything about it now, that by the grace of God I still live yet and am well and hearty in the bargain…these are hard times nothing but fighting every day and killing of men I am a getting tired of it but then I want to see them keep those Rebels a moving to Atlanta and I guess that it is the only way of putting down this Rebellion, and the sooner it is down the better it is for them that lives to see it. But Mother pray for me that I may live to see it over and live to see you all, so Mother I want to see you before I die and I want to see all of the Carr family.

Barney never saw his family again. Seven days after writing this letter he was killed in the Union assault against the Kennesaw Mountain line.

Last Words & Last News

Irishman Hubert McNamara of the 155th New York Infantry, Corcoran’s Irish Legion, was one of many soldiers who tried to pen a few lines to loved ones on the evening of 2 June 1864, as they knew they would likely be assaulting the Rebel line at Cold Harbor the following morning. He wrote:

Dear wife and children I take the favourable opportunity to write. I can’t tell what moment I would get killed or wounded but I trust in God for his mercies to me. There is awful fighting going on here, we are fighting night and fighting day. My Dear wife and children there is nothing more I can let you know now I have no time. It is very hard to get paper or ink or anything else here. John Dempsey is well and also Michael Lawler is, I wish that you would tell his wife. There is nothing more my dear wife and children and then I think, so goodbye for a while.

It was goodbye for good, as Hubert was killed in the next morning’s assault. Michael Lawler was also killed, and John Dempsey wounded. The letter was cut from Hubert’s body five days later and sent to his wife.

Hubert McNamara knew there was a chance he would die at Cold Harbor, but some letters were penned or dictated by men who knew their end was near. William Brophy was born in England to Irish parents, and served in the 29th Pennsylvania Infantry during the war. On 23 February 1864 he wrote to his wife from Bridgeport, Alabama, having fallen ill:

With a sad heart that I write you this morning as it may be the last you ever will hear from me, as I fear that I am not long for this world. But it greaves me much that I am not at home where I could see all your loving faces once more before I leave this troublesome world, but as it is gods will to take me away from you I hope that I may be better off in the better land. I hope that god may spare me a little longer but I thought that I would write so as to have them ready at any moment if any thing should happen.

William died two days later. Another example is that of Felix Mooney of the 61st New York Infantry. Wounded at Malvern Hill he was captured and exchanged, but had not recovered from illness. On 8 September 1862 he wrote:

Dear Wife,

I now have a few lines written to you to let you know that I have got those things you sent me, it was 6 days getting to me and all was spoiled except the brandy. The chickens, milk, tobacco, all was scented with the chickens so I had to throw them away, it was too bad but it can’t be helped. Now I am still pretty low with the diarrhoea, I wish they would send me to New York Hospital so that you could come and see me before I die. I guess they will send me before long, I am very weak indeed dear Wife but I still have hopes of getting well so to join my family once more I want to see you all very bad once more. Give my love to Ann and Patrick. Write after to me. I thank you kindly for sending those things to me, although they were spoiled it was not your fault. I don’t think of much to write to day so I will close for to day. Write after,

Yours Truly, I Remain Until Death, Your Loving Husband, Felix Mooney. 

Three days later Felix’s wife Mary received another letter from Newport News:

Mrs. Mooney

By request of your husband I write these lines to you, he requested that if you ever want to see him alive to come immediately to this place, he is very low indeed. He says there is over 4 months pay due him so that you can have that to pay all expenses hereafter. I don’t think he can live long at the longest but I will try and do the best I can to keep him alive until you shall see him if it is possible, but you will have to come soon as you get this, don’t fail to come if possible. No more at present, From M. O. Sutton the Nurse of Felix. Go to Baltimore and procure a pass from Gen. Wool.

Mary got to Newport News within five days, only to learn Felix had died the day before her arrival.

Corporal Patrick Scanlan of the 63rd New York Infantry, Irish Brigade, was severely wounded at Fredericksburg, necessitating the amputation of his leg. Infection set in and he began to fade away. On 14 January 1863 at Lincoln Hospital in Washington D.C. a nurse sat down to write to his wife of his passing:

He felt sensible, I think, that his end was approaching, for he requested me to make a note of his feelings at that time- this was yesterday forenoon, I think. He did not talk a great deal as it hurt him to do so much. “After I am dead, write to my wife and tell her that I died a natural death in bed, having received the full benefits of my church.” “Say that I felt resigned to the will of God and that I am sorry I could not see her and the children once more. That I would have felt better in such a case before I died. It is the will of God that it should not be so, and I must be content to do without.” This was about the substance of what he said. I read it to him and he said it was all that would be necessary to write.

Once a soldier had died, all that was left was to inform the family. The pension files highlight a number of particularly poignant examples of this. Anna Heron had heard her son Jeremiah had been wounded at the North Anna, with the 170th New York Infantry, Corcoran’s Irish Legion, in May 1864. On 27 June, having heard no more, she wrote looking for him:

My dear Son, I rite you these few lines hoping to find you in good health as this leaves me in trouble about you. Dear son I rote to you twice and I received no answer yet, and if you are alive I hope you will rite to me. Dear son ain’t you got any one to rite for you. Dear son I expected you in New York, the rest of your regiment came to New York that was wounded. For god sake dear son write to me,

No more at present from your affectionate mother.

The letter was returned to her with the following written on the back:

Washington Hall Branch

2 Div Gen Hospital

Alexandria Va June 29th 64

John E Herron died at this Hospital June 8 1864 with gunshot wound in left knee and was buried in this City in good order.

Another Irishwoman seeking news of her son in 1864 was Bridget Burns. Illiterate, her neighbour visited her on 22 June that year, and Bridget dictated the following letter for her son Henry Burns of the 59th New York Infantry:

I sit down to answer your kind and welcome letter which I received on the 11th and I am sorry to hear that your cough is so bad, but I hope it is better before this and I hope that this will find you in good health as this leaves me and all friends in at present thanks be to God for his mercy to us. Dear Henry I wish to let you know that I sent you that candy in a small box and a small bottle of hot drops for your bowels, I hope you have it before this for I made no delay in sending it. I sent it the day I got yours and they charged me one dollar and 10 cents for postage but no matter what costs it is. When you write again I hope that you will let me know if it does you any good and if it does I will send you plenty more.

My Dear son I am sorry to hear that you have such bad times as you have I wish I was near enough to you to give you your hot rum and oysters, but I hope with the help of God that this war will be soon over and that will be spared to me to see you once more, and then I would die contented.

As fate had it, the very same day Bridget dictated this letter Henry was going into action at Petersburg. On 15 July she received her letter back, with the following note inscribed on it from the 59th New York’s Lieutenant-Colonel:

Henry Burns of Co D was mortally wounded on June 22, 1864 and died of his wound at Campbell U.S.A. Hosptl Washgtn D.C. on July 6, 1864.

John McKenna of the 70th New York Infantry, Excelsior Brigade, had been killed in action at Gettysburg. His wife had written him a letter which he never had an opportunity to read. Instead she received the following response:

July 10th 1863

Mrs. Mc Kenna this letter just reached here and it pains me to write you these few lines, but brace yourself for the worst, your Husband was killed on the battle field of Gettysburg on the second day of July, he died a brave man and was nobly fighting for his country and its rights. You must bear up with his loss as well as you can, for there is many left in the same way. May God guard and protect you and your little ones through this world of battles. As I am in command of this company I had to open seven letters so as to see where to direct this letter to you, you have my best wishes.

Your likeness was buried with him, your husband had nothing with him of any value no money or any such thing and soon as we get into camp I will see that his effects are made out and the papers sent on to you. Your husband was buried on the battle field.

A final example is that of Lieutenant Robert Boyle of Co. Armagh. Wounded at Cold Harbor with the 164th New York Infantry, Corcoran’s Irish Legion, he was taken prisoner. He asked his friend and fellow prisoner Captain David J. Beattie to write to his wife:

Your husband was wounded and taken prisoner with me at Cold Harbor on the morning of the 3rd of June 1864. We were afterwards taken to Libby Prison Hospital in Richmond Va. where he died on the 1st of July 1864. I seen him every day until he died. When the doctor told me that there was no hope of his recovery I asked him how he intended to dispose of his property. He told me that he had a house and lot in Lockport and that it was yours, also what money was due to him. He gave me his watch and told me to give it to you and to tell you that Capt. Burke owed him $5.00, Lieut. Lynch $5.00, and Lieut. Callanan $10.00. All of them belongs to the 164. Regt. N.Y.S.V. He told me how much he owed the sutler of the Regt. I told him not to mind that as the sutler would collect his bill from the War Department.

He said several times God help her (meaning you), I am sorry I have not more to leave her.

The letters I have shared with you today are just a tiny proportion of what is a vast first-person resource available in the pension files. Indeed it is likely the largest repository of first-person American Civil War letters anywhere in existence. They are an invaluable and under-utilised resource, offering insights into the experiences of a wide-range of different troops. Examining them allows us to break away from focusing solely on ethnic Irish regiments when seeking to explore the Irish experience, as the files cover Irish and Irish-American soldiers and sailors from large numbers of disparate units. Perhaps most poignantly, they offer an insight into the individual experiences of soldiers and their families. Reading each letter, we do so in the knowledge that the man who wrote it did not live to see the end of the American Civil War. Surely there is no more emotive way of interacting with our 19th century past.

Filed under: Research Tagged: Civil War Pension Files, Damian Shiels Lecture, Irish American Civil War, Irish Civil War Soldiers, Last Letters of Irish Soldiers, Letters of Irish Emigrants, Speaking Engagement, UK Civil War Round Table

Mud Marches, Radical Abolitionists & River Assaults: Letters from the Last Campaign of An Irish-American Soldier

The widows and dependent pension files occasionally include groups of letters written by individual soldiers over a period of months or years. These can sometimes provide significant insight into the motivations, fluctuating morale and political allegiances of these Irish-American men. One such example are the writings of William McIntyre, a young Irish-American from Philadelphia. Through 1862 and 1863 he told his parents of his experiences on the march, what he thought of his Generals, and gave his opinions on both the political situation in the North and the question of emancipation. His final letter home related his participation in the opening phases of one of the great campaigns of the war– a campaign that would ultimately cost him his life. (1)

A Zouave of the 95th Pennsylvania Infantry as drawn by Xanthus Smith in 1861 (Xanthus Smith)

Irish emigrants Hugh and Elizabeth McIntyre made their home in Philadelphia, north of Market Street in the city’s 9th Ward. By the 1860s both had been in the United States for many years, and each of their five children had been born in the Keystone State. Hugh worked as a tailor, a job that gave his children opportunities not open to all. Principal among them was a chance to gain a degree of education. The couple’s eldest son William, born around 1841, was sufficiently competent to take a job as a proof-reader at the age of just 13. By the time of his 19th birthday William was earning a decent wage, taking home $14 a week as an apprentice printer. With the coming of war, the young Irish-American enlisted, mustering in as a Corporal in Company H of the 95th Pennsylvania Infantry (Gosline’s Zouaves) on 24th September. (2)

Wiliam’s earliest surviving letters come from the time of the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, where his regiment saw it’s first actions. By the start of 1863 the now 21-year-old could count himself a veteran, having witnessed some of the toughest battles of the war. January saw him in low spirits. Defeat at Fredericksburg the previous December had been followed by the debacle known as the ‘Mud March’, a fruitless attempt by Federal commander General Ambrose Burnside to renew the offensive against the Confederates, which came undone amidst horrendous weather conditions. William described his regiment’s part in this memorable episode of the Army of the Potomac’s history:

‘On Tuesday the 20th [January 1863] we started and at night the rain came down in torrents. The next morning we were on the march before daylight and were soaked through to the skin which made us feel anything but in the best of spirits. We marched three miles and as it was impossible to move, the artillery were stuck fast in the mud. We laid for two days in the mud like a parcel of hogs and on the fifth day Burnside made up his mind to turn our Brigade into jack-asses or some other kind of an animal for we were marched two miles stacked arms and started to pull the “Ponto[o]n Boats” out of the mud. It was amusing to hear the boys as they pulled on the ropes for it made us feel like having hold of an engine going to a fire. We had a race with the New York Regts but every one of us pulled and beat them. You ought to have seen us after we were done. We were covered from head to foot with yellow mud and many were the “jokes cracked” with each other about their personal appearance. If any one had told me a man could stand the hardships he has to stand now I would not have believed him. But the old saying is “Live and Learn.” (3)

The Mud March as described by William McIntyre, drawn by Alfred Waud in 1863 (Library of Congress)

Irish and Irish-American letters in the pension files usually make no reference to politics, but where they do a clear preference for the Democratic Party is usually to the fore. There are two particular periods during the war which appear to witness an increase in political references in the letters– the autumn of 1864, where a hope that George McClellan will defeat Abraham Lincoln in the Presidential election is often expressed, and in the first months of 1863, following the issue of the Emancipation Proclamation. On 30th January 1863 William set down his own position on the latter matter to his parents:

‘I see by the papers that there has been an exciting time in the United States Senate. What can be expected of the people when our representatives set such an example. If one is to judge by appearances of the different State Legislatures the present administration sits on a very shaky basis. I think the Radicals of the Northeast want this Gov’t broken up and they think by so doing they will get the Middle States with them, but they are mistaken. Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey will never take up with such a set of hypocrites and defamer’s of a country’s rights as the Abolition [Republican] Party are. I have had time and means to look into the question at issue [slavery and the emancipation proclamation] and in a clear and candid view I have come to the above conclusion. If a State has laws they ought to be respected and there is no Institution in any State that ought to be interfered with unless it is the wish of the majority of the inhabitants of that State but I have let myself too loose now, but if I was home I could tell you better what I think and feel since I came out here.’ (4)

On the face of things, William’s views would not appear out of place had he been serving with the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, but his was a perspective shared by many others in Union blue. Although it may seem he had sympathy for the South, his enlistment was almost certainly at least partly motivated by a strong desire to destroy the rebellion. Like so many other Irish-Americans in Northern service, his primary ideological motivator for service would have been the preservation of the Union– not the emancipation of the slaves. William’s general despondency with the state of affairs in early 1863 was at least tempered by the fact that the Army of the Potomac would not be led by Ambrose Burnside any longer. Following the ‘Mud March’, William wrote: ‘I believe it is the last move he [Burnside] will make of the Army of the Potomac and I am glad of it.’ But he was not happy about the General selected to suceed:

‘I suppose you have heard of Gen. Hooker taking charge of the Army of the Potomac. He is not the “right man.” It ought to be either Gen’s Franklin and Sumner as I think they are better engineers than Hooker. The latter is more like Stonewall Jackson. Lay out the plans for him and he can carry them out if fighting is what is needed. But Franklin and Sumner have been removed and it is left for Gen. Hooker to annihilate the little Army of the Potomac. “So Mote it Be.” [a Freemasonry term] But I think the Almighty will interfere if more importance is not attached to his creatures by our Govt leaders.’

William clearly did not hold out much hope for an upturn in the fortunes of the Union. Unfortunately for him on a personal level, his prediction of annihilation would prove prophetic. (5)

President Lincoln writing the Emancipation Proclamation as imagined by David Gilmour Blythe in 1863 (Library of Congress)

Within a few weeks Joe Hooker commenced what would become known as the Chancellorsville Campaign. William’s 95th Pennsylvania played a key role in one of the opening manouevres, helping to seize a bridgehead over the Rappahannock at Franklin’s Crossing, below Fredericksburg. This was part of a move on the army’s left flank, aimed at threatening the Confederate right. At first light on 29th April assault parties from the 95th and other regiments crossed the river through a thick fog, charging up a steep bluff and dispersing the Rebel defenders with little difficulty. As Joseph Hooker personally led the main strike force across the river into the Wilderness a few miles upstream, William McIntyre took the opportunity to write to his parents on 1st May. His letter is a rare instance of a pension file letter penned by a soldier while in the midst of the campaign that would ultimately cost him his life:

May 1/63

Dear Father & Mother–

I write to inform you that I am safe and sound since I have come across on the Fredericksburg side of the river. We took up the line of march on Tuesday after noon and at 4 o’clock on Wednesday morning our Brigade was put in Pontoon boats and rowed across the river. It was a complete surprise to the “Rebs.” They did not see us until we had got to the shore when they gave us a volley but it did not hurt very many. I did not expect to get across so easy. We soon sent some leaden pills at them that made them “skedaddle”. They keep up a very strong front. We have not had any firing since Wednesday but our boys have had it on the right and left. We had a note read to us that our troops had turned their left flank. I don’t know whether to believe it or not as we have been bamboozled so much by orders from Headquarters that we don’t give them much credit.

Our Division still occupies the front. I don’t know how long we will stay here, but I think we will get relieved by another Division tomorrow. There was nobody hurt in our Company. The weather has been pretty rough since we started out but to day it is warm as any summer day.

Billy Boyds Regt was not engaged so he is all safe. Jack Eberle is well and sends his best respects to you all. Give my love to Kate, Eliza, Nalty and Tommy and all inquiring friends. I sent the Adam’s Express Co’s receipt the day we moved. No more at present. Write soon. I remain,

Your affectionate son,

Wm McIntyre

Enclosed you will find $5 as I have no use for it and if I want any before I get paid again I will send for it.

Your son,

Wm McI. (6)

The following day, on 2nd May, Stonewall Jackson launched his famed flank attack against Hooker’s troops at Chancellorsville. Fighting continued to rage on 3rd May, and William and his comrades were once again called upon. The force of which they formed a part, under General John Sedgwick, was ordered to advance on Chancellorsville to assist Hooker. Moving to the attack, Sedgwick took the famed Marye’s Heights outside Fredericksburg before advancing his men westwards towards his commanding General. That afternoon they encountered significant Confederate resistance, ultimately culminating in a major confrontation on a ridge around Salem Church on the Plank Road. The action becoming general around 5.30 pm as the Yankees advanced on the ememy along both sides of the thoroughfare. William and the 95th Pennsylvania were among those who surged forward on the north (or right) side of the road. William’s divisional commander, Brigadier-General William Brooks, later described the action:

‘Immediately upon entering the dense growth of shrubs and trees which concealed the enemy, our troops were met by a heavy an incessant fire of musketry; yet our lines advanced until they had reached the crest of the hill in the outer skirts of the wood, when, meeting with and being attacked by fresh and superior numbers of the enemy, our forces were finally compelled to withdraw…in this brief but sanguinary conflict this division lost nearly 1,500 officers and men.’ (7)

William McIntyre died during this attack, shot through the head. His father Hugh succumbed to a long battle with heart disease a year later, causing William’s mother Elizabeth to apply for a dependent mother’s pension. In so doing she submitted a number of her son’s letters as evidence of her partial dependence on him, thus preserving them for future generations. (8)

Veterans at Salem Church in 1900 (National Park Service via Wikimedia Commons)

* I have added minor formatting to these letters for the benefit of readers, but none of the content has been altered in any way. None of my work on pensions would be possible without the exceptional effort currently taking place in the National Archives to digitize this material and make it available online via Fold3. A team from NARA supported by volunteers are consistently adding to this treasure trove of historical information. To learn more about their work you can watch a video by clicking here.

(1) William McIntyre Dependent Mother’s Pension File; (2) 1860 Federal Census, William McIntyre Dependent Mother’s Pension File, Bates 1870: 371; (3) William McIntyre Dependent Mother’s Pension File; (4) William McIntyre Dependent Mother’s Pension File; (5) William McIntyre Dependent Mother’s Pension File; (6) Sears 1996: 154, William McIntyre Dependent Mother’s Pension File; (7) Official Records: 568; (8) William McIntyre Dependent Mother’s Pension File;

References & Further Reading

William McIntyre Dependent Mother’s pension File WC45770.

1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 9, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: M653_1159; Page: 298; Image: 302; Family History Library Film: 805159.

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series 1, Volume 25, Part 1. Report of Brig. Gen. William T. H. Brooks, commanding First Division.

Bates, Samuel P. 1870. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5. Volume 3.

Sears, Stephen W. 1996. Chancellorsville.

Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park

Civil War Trust Battle of Chancellorsville Page

Filed under: Battle of Chancellorsville, Battle of Salem Church, Pennsylvania Tagged: 1863 Mud March, 95th Pennsylvania Infantry, Battle of Chancellorsville, Battle of Salem Church, Emancipation Proclamation, Irish American Civil War, Irish in Pennsylvania, Irish in Philadelphia

Irish in the American Civil War Named Best Arts & Culture Blog at Blog Awards Ireland

Last night I attended the Blog Awards Ireland awards at the Tivoli Theatre in Dublin. Having spent much of the week working on an archaeological excavation on Bere Island off the West Cork coast, my day started with a ferry journey back to the mainland,  before covering the near 400 km to the capital. However, the long hours traveling proved well worth it, as I am delighted to say that Irish in the American Civil War was awarded best blog in the Arts & Culture Category (Personal). The event itself was a wonderful occasion– an inspired blend of awards ceremony mixed with burlesque performance, with some superb food and music thrown in. Great credit is due to the Blog Awards Ireland team for putting on such an excellent show.

Picking up the award for Irish in the American Civil War at the Blog Awards Ireland (Blog Awards Ireland)

I was genuinely surprised and delighted for the site to receive this honour, as it was up against some strong competition (including my good friend Louise’s Pilgrimage in Medieval Ireland). The fact that a site focused on the stories of these emigrant Irish could win such an award speaks volumes to how much progress is being made on raising awareness within Ireland of these people’s lives. This increased historical visibility is the product of the efforts of a large number of dedicated scholars and enthusiasts throughout Ireland, America and beyond. It would be remiss of me not to not only thank them but also all of you, who not only read this blog but continually support it at every possible opportunity. Many of you voted to help the blog make it through to the final judging round, and I have been genuinely overwhelmed by the good wishes I have received from so many of you. Here’s hoping for many more years of the interaction on the site which has thus far provided me with not only a great deal of inspiration, but also many new friendships. It is what has made the last five years of blogging such enjoyable ones!

Best Art & Culture Blog Award (now safely on the mantelpiece!)

Filed under: Update Tagged: Archaeology Blogs, Arts & Culture Blogs, Ashville Media, Blog Awards Ireland, Bloggies 2015, History Blogs, Irish American Civil War, Tivoli Theatre