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33 Men, A Cigarette Case, and the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of...
Author of Chicago’s Irish Legion: The 90th Illinois Volunteers in the Civil War and friend of the site Jim Swan has brought a fascinating artefact relating to the Irish Brigade to my attention. Jim...
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Illustrations of the Irish Brigade at Fredericksburg
Private William McCarter of the 116th Pennsylvania Infantry, Irish Brigade, is best known for his memoirs My Life in the Irish Brigade. The Irishman’s account of the Battle of Fredericksburg, in which...
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Face to Face with the Fenians: Mugshots of American Civil War Veterans, Part 1
The Fenian movement in America was extremely active before, during and immediately after the American Civil War. It recruited Irishmen with the aim of ‘striking a blow’ for Ireland when the opportunity...
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Face to Face with the Fenians: Mugshots of American Civil War Veterans, Part 2
Part 1 of this series examined the mugshots of ten American Civil War veterans, arrested in Ireland in 1866 for their involvement with the Fenian movement. This post looks at a further ten of these men...
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St. Patrick’s Day in the Irish Brigade: Petersburg, 17th March 1865
The Irish Brigade celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day in 1863 are the most famous from the period of the American Civil War, recorded as they were by a number of writers and in a series of wonderful...
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‘Hell Personified was Close at Hand’: Captain John Donovan’s Account of...
Captain John H. Donovan of the 69th New York went into action at the Battle of Fredericksburg already bearing the scars of war. While serving with the Irish Brigade at Malvern Hill in July 1862 he had...
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Remembering The Fallen At Petersburg: Forts McMahon and Patrick Kelly
By September 1864 the Union forces at Petersburg had been facing their Confederate foe across a series of entrenchments and fortifications since mid-June. The Federals decided to commit to a strategy...
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The Dead of the Irish Brigade: The Music and Message, 16th January 1863
On 13th December 1862 the Irish Brigade had fought at Fredericksburg. Along with many other Union brigades they suffered horrendous casualties in the futile attempt to assault the Confederate positions...
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The Irish Brigade Cigarette Case in the Attic
A little over a year ago friend Jim Swan, author of the excellent Chicago’s Irish Legion sent me on an image of a cigarette case he had come across. It commemorated a 50th anniversary dinner held in...
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150 Years Ago Today: St. Patrick’s Day in the Army of the Potomac
I wrote a piece this week for thejournal.ie, Ireland’s main online news website. The theme was the St. Patrick’s Day festivities in the Army of the Potomac on 17th March 1863, which occurred 150 years...
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A Yankee and Rebel Side by Side in Cork Harbour
Cork Harbour is one of the largest natural harbours in the World. This coupled with its strategic location meant that it was of key significance for the British Empire over the centuries. The harbour’s...
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Reporting the Gettysburg Casualties of the 63rd New York, Irish Brigade
The Irish Brigade went into action at Gettysburg on 2nd July 1863. They did their fighting in the Wheatfield, one of the most infamous sections of the battlefield. The already depleted brigade suffered...
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An Image of Union Donors to the 1863 Irish Relief Fund, Forty Years On
Regular readers of the blog will be familiar with the donations made by hundreds of Union troops in 1863 towards the relief of the suffering poor in Ireland (see here, here, here and an overview here)....
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War’s Cruel Hand: The Dedicated Service of Edward Carroll, Irish Brigade
Occasionally one has to look no further than a soldier’s service record to see both the poignancy and cruelty of war. Such is the case with Edward B. Carroll of the 63rd New York Infantry, Irish...
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‘After I Am Dead, Write to My Wife’: An Irish Soldier’s Last Moments Revealed
I have read the Widow’s Pension Files of many Irish families who were devastated by the American Civil War. The information contained in each reveals much about both the family behind the soldier and...
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Dependent Father: How one Irish Brigade Soldier’s Service Helped an Elderly...
Each month for much of the 1880s the octogenarian Timothy Durick travelled from his home in Lackamore, Castletownarra, Co. Tipperary to the nearby town of Nenagh. He made the journey to visit the Post...
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Bowld Soldier Boys: The Return of Irish Brigade Veterans to New York, January...
150 years ago, as 1864 dawned, the veteran volunteers of the Irish Brigade came home to New York. These men had come through some of the toughest battles of the war but had taken the decision to carry...
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Mapping Death in the American Civil War
I have been experimenting recently with different ways of visualizing the impact of the American Civil War. I am interested in how we can combine data recorded in the 19th century with some of the new...
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Looking into the Face of a Dying Irish Soldier
Around late April or early May of 1865 a photographer in Harewood Hospital, Washington D.C. exposed a photograph of a wounded Union soldier. The man, who still wore the beard he favoured on campaign,...
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‘Friend Patt theres only 8 of us that left…’: An Irish Brigade Soldier’s...
For a number of weeks after Robert E. Lee’s surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia thousands of Union troops remained in the field in Virginia. During this period men often reflected on the past...
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