A previous StoryMap post on the site explored the devastating toll the 1866-67 Cholera epidemic took on immigrant and African American families connected with the Regular army (you can read that here). In this post, we take a look at a letter that emerged as a result of that wave of death which struck the army’s ranks. It was written to Irish woman Mary Duggan from Fort Hays, Kansas in 1867 to inform her of the circumstances by which her son Daniel, a Corporal in the 5th United States Infantry, had lost his battle with the disease. The Duggan family had emigrated to New York from Co. Limerick ..read more

I have recently returned from Georgia and Tennessee where I was on the trail of Irish in the American Civil War. A lot of my posts over the next period will relate to that trip. One of the opportunities I had while there was to join Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park Historian James Ogden for a tour of sites relating to “Chicago’s Irish Legion”-the 90th Illinois Infantry- during the Battle of Missionary Ridge. Jim’s expertise is breathtaking, and it was a great privilege to be able to spend a few hours in his company on the battlefield. I have completed a StoryMap Tour of the ..read more

Drill is the basis of the perfection of the soldier as a military machine. Its object is to ensure that, through the habit acquired by constant exercise, a certain action of the soldier shall instantly and almost mechanically follow on a certain word of command spoken by the officer. Union soldiers engaged in skirmish drill (Metropolitan Museum of Art) In February 1862, newly appointed Colonel Charles Adams Johnson may have read these words as he prepared to lead his command, the 25th New York Infantry, in its transition from an undisciplined mob of street toughs into an effective military u ..read more

As I am on a brief visit back to my former home of Midleton, Co. Cork at present, I thought for our next post we might take a look at some work I have undertaken on local men who served in the American forces. This was research I originally put out on one of the other sites I run, the locally focused Midleton Archaeology & Heritage blog. I hope readers here find it of some interest! The best known American military link to Midleton comes in the form of John Joseph Coppinger, who eventually rose to the rank of General. You can read some of the previous research I carried out on him at this ..read more

On October 15th, 1861, as the young Army of the Potomac was busy preparing for future campaigning, Brigadier General John H. Martindale rode out to Hall’s Hill, Virginia, to inspect a regiment that had recently been added to the brigade under his command. As he passed other units in their fresh uniforms and neatly organized camps, the officer was likely ill-prepared for the chaotic spectacle that awaited him at the encampment of the 25th New York Infantry, also known as Kerrigan’s Rangers.  There seemed to be no means of preserving order. Officers and men were quarreling in a boisterous ..read more

Although American Civil War Roundtables are widespread in the United States, they are much thinner on the ground across the Atlantic. Somewhat surprisingly, despite the scale of Irish involvement in the conflict, there is no dedicated group in Ireland that explores the Civil War. But this is not the case in the UK. The American Civil War Roundtable UK has been in operation there since 1953, with a vibrant membership and calendar of events. As well as exploring the war in general terms, the UK Roundtable also does a great job examining British and Irish connections to the conflict. Indeed, if y ..read more

This is the first part in a series of articles by myself and several guest contributors, chronicling the lives of several related Hamilton emigrants from County Tyrone. While our first subject, William Hamilton, fought in the American Civil War, the real purpose of these posts is to explore the broader experience of emigration and diaspora. As I’ve learned more and more about these family members who ended up in different corners of the world, some common themes emerged regarding poverty, conflict, citizenship, and how 19th century Irish immigrants and their communities sought to carve out new ..read more

Within the files of Irish Americans who died during the American Civil War, certain engagements crop up again and again. As a general rule, the very worst battlefields of the war for Irish Americans were those that took the greatest toll on New York regiments. More than twice as many Irish Americans served in New York units than those of any other state- when New York had a bad day, so did the Irish. The Battle of Williamsburg, Virginia on 5th May 1862 was a particularly black day for New York, and most particularly for the families of men in the Excelsior Brigade. Though it is rarely regarded ..read more

This March I delivered a short talk for the CelticMKE St. Patrick’s Day at Home Festival. I concentrated on how units such as the Irish Brigade and the 9th Massachusetts celebrated St. Patrick’s Day during the American Civil War, with a focus on the famed events of 1863. Needless to say, some good fun was had by both the officers and men! The talk is now available on YouTube, and you catch it below: Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day during the American Civil War | CelticMKE Damian Shiels talks about how the Irish celebrated St. Patrick’s Day during the American Civil War. This talk was part of ou ..read more

The new post comes from regular contributor Brendan Hamilton, who needs no introduction on the site. It brings another insight into Brendan’s fantastic and pioneering research on the boys from the North’s Houses of Refuge who found themselves in Union uniform during the Civil War. On this occasion he takes us through the lives of three young teenagers–two of them Irish American–who were sent to war from St. Louis, Missouri. Brendan takes up the story. An unidentified youthful Union infantry private (Library of Congress) The St. Louis House of Refuge in St. Louis was a county-run penal institut ..read more