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Note: This is the first
installment of a three-part series.
Introduction
On my mother’s German side from
Western Pennsylvania, I had a great-grandfather and two of his
brothers who served in Pennsylvania volunteer regiments in the Civil
War. Even though the Irish on my father’s side had not yet arrived
in the United States and Ohio during the Civil War, I have been
interested more in the Irish-Americans who fought for the Union than
the German-Americans.
In this article, I will discuss the
role of the Irish in the Civil War focusing on some famous units,
primarily on the Northern side but also some in the South. I will
profile the three leading Irish-American military leaders of the war
– Thomas Francis Meagher of the Irish Brigade and “Little” Phil
Sheridan of the Union and Patrick Cleburne of the Confederacy. While
“Stonewall” Jackson was of Ulster Scots-Irish stock, I am not
including him. Seven Union and six Confederate generals were
Irish-born. And I will discuss the conflict between Irish
immigrants and Negroes which erupted in the New York City draft
riots of July, 1863.
The Pre-War Irish
By the beginning of the Civil War,
the United States had a considerable Irish population, mainly
centered in the cities. In 1860, a quarter of New York City’s
population (204,000) was Irish-born, with 22 percent (57,000)
Irish-born in Brooklyn, then an independent city. The two other
leading cities with large numbers of Irish-born immigrants were
Philadelphia (95,000-18%) and Boston (46,000-26%). The Midwestern
cities with the largest number of Irish-born immigrants were: St.
Louis (19%), Chicago (18%), Detroit (14%), and Cincinnati (12%). The
Southern Irish-born population was estimated to be between
85,000-175,000 in 1861. The Irish were about 25 percent of the
population of New Orleans (24,398) and Memphis (4,159).
The first Irish emigrant wave was
the Ulster Protestant (Presbyterian) Irish who left Northern Ireland
for the rural United States, motivated by economic and religious
reasons. Around 250,000 arrived in the eighteenth century. The next
wave was the Irish Catholics numbering almost a million who came to
North America – mostly the United States – between the end of the
Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the beginning of the great potato famine
in 1845. For them the reasons for emigrating were also to escape
economic hardship and religious persecution. This rising Irish
emigrant population triggered anti-Irish Nativist reactions,
including occasional violence in eastern cities and in the 1840’s
the birth of the Know Nothing party, dedicated to ridding the United
States of Papist-led Roman Catholics. It enjoyed its greatest
electoral successes in the mid-1850s in New England. Some of this
sentiment continued while approximately 1.5 million Irish, mostly
Catholic, came to the United States in a single decade (1845-1855)
to flee the famine. On the other hand, many Americans came to the
aid of the Irish suffering under British policies and from Irish
landowners clearing many of their desperate tenant farmers who were
unable to pay rent or sustain themselves due to the disease that
destroyed their potato crops.
Despite the discrimination and
poverty endured by these Irish immigrants, they began to gain
political power in those cities where their numbers were high. They
mostly joined the Democratic party. As the Abolitionist movement
grew in the North, the Irish were not attracted to it for a number
of reasons. Many distrusted its largely Protestant leadership and
with most Irish immigrants employed in low-paying, unskilled jobs,
they feared competition from freed slaves in the same economic
class.
In the election of 1860, in the
North, the Irish-born voters predictably supported the Democratic
Party. However, after the South fired on Fort Sumter, many of these
Irish Democrats volunteered to fight for the Union. It is estimated
that about 145,000 Irish-Americans served in the Union’s armed
forces. Of this number, more than 8,000 were from Ohio. In addition
to patriotism, many joined for the pay (and later bounties paid to
recruits). Others saw this as an opportunity to prepare for a future
opportunity to fight to liberate the Irish homeland from British
rule. What they were not fighting for was ending slavery.
It was estimated that about 40,000
Irish-Americans fought for the Confederacy. On the Southern side,
Irish-Americans, including their Catholic bishops and priests,
sympathized with the defense of the South against Northern
aggression, although they also generally supported the institution
of slavery. They also identified with the Democratic Party but
experienced less discrimination than their Northern immigrant
counterparts. Interestingly, “The Bonnie Blue Flag” was written by
Irish-American minstrel Harry McCarthy, later a prisoner of war held
at Johnson’s Island, Ohio. “Dixie” was written by Irish-American
entertainer Daniel Decatur Emmett, born in Mount Vernon, Ohio.
Leading Irish nationalist John Mitchel, the Young Ireland leader and
escaped exile, moved to the South and became a noted defender of the
Confederacy (breaking with his follower, Meagher). Two of his sons
who served in the Confederate army were killed (one at the Bloody
Angle in Pickett’s Charge) and the third was badly wounded.
Irish-American Units and Battles
The most famous Irish-American unit
in the Union armies was the Irish Brigade of the Army of the
Potomac. More detail about its most famous commander – Thomas
Francis Meagher – follows below. Its genesis was the 69th New York
State Militia regiment, commanded by Irish exile Michael Corcoran, a
Fenian (the Irish Republican Brotherhood founded in Dublin in 1858).
Corcoran gained renown in October, 1860 when he refused to include
the regiment in a parade in New York City to honor the visiting
Prince of Wales. For this, he was court-martialed and jailed. He was
defended by Meagher, a fellow Irish exile and rebel and a captain in the
regiment. After the attack on Fort Sumter, the 69th voted to answer
Lincoln’s call for volunteers. The governor of New York then quashed
Corcoran’s court-martial. Soon after, the 1,000 strong 69th left New
York for Washington, D.C. amidst great fanfare, marching under their
green silk regimental banner and the slogan “Remember Fontenoy” (the
battle in which the exiled “Wild Geese” of the Irish Brigade of the
French Army turned the tide against the British in 1745). The 69th
was assigned to the brigade commanded by Ohioan William Tecumseh
Sherman.
Its first battle experience came at
First Bull Run. It twice assaulted Confederates holding Henry Hill,
fighting fellow Irish-Americans, many of them dock workers, serving
with the Louisiana Zouaves under Roberdeau Wheat from New Orleans. In
the midst of the Federal retreat, Michael Corcoran was captured, as
well as the regiment’s flags. It lost 192 men killed, wounded, and
missing. Afterwards, Sherman criticized the 69th for their near
mutinous behavior, partly resulting from their feeling that there
was anti-Irish bias against them. This included disagreement over
exactly when their 90-day enlistment ended. The 69th’s initial
enlistment ended amidst acrimony.
Meagher returned to New York to
recruit an Irish Brigade, of which he became commander, replacing
Corcoran in December, 1861. Tiffany and Company made a replacement
flag featuring an Irish harp. Returning to the Army of the Potomac,
the 69th was joined by two other largely Irish New York regiments –
the 63rd and 88th. Father William Corby, a Jesuit priest from Notre
Dame University, became the chaplain of the Irish Brigade. The
brigade was assigned to Israel Richardson’s division.
The Irish Brigade was next bloodied in George McClellan’s Peninsula
campaign. It fought in the battle of Fair Oaks on June 1-2, 1862 and
then in several of the battles against Robert E. Lee’s attacking
Army of Northern Virginia.
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Regimental
colors of the 69th New York Volunteers of the Irish Brigade
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On July 1, it went up against the
Confederate Irish-Americans of Roberdeau Wheat’s Louisiana Tigers.
Wheat had been killed a few days earlier at Gaine’s Mill and the
Tigers were disbanded soon after. The three regiments of the Irish
Brigade suffered almost 500 killed, wounded and missing out of about
4,000 during the Peninsula campaign. A few weeks later, it was
reinforced by the 29th Massachusetts, a New England Yankee regiment.
This did not sit well with the Irish or the Yankees. The all-Irish
28th Massachusetts replaced the 29th following the battle of
Antietam. Meagher returned to New York to recruit replacements,
which he found to be more difficult, even with the lure of bounties. In
August, 1862, Corcoran was exchanged but did not return to command
of the 69th. Instead, he recruited an Irish Legion unit.
The next test for Meagher’s Irish
Brigade was the slaughterhouse known as the battle of Antietam at
Sharpsburg, Maryland on September 17, 1862. The Irish Brigade under
Richardson launched an attack against the Confederates in the Sunken
Road. Previously, the Irish-American 69th Pennsylvania of Howard’s
Philadelphia Brigade was decimated in the fighting in the West
Woods. After absolution by Father Corby, the Irish Brigade charged
the Sunken Road (Bloody Lane) defended by D.H. Hill’s division. In
the savage fighting that followed, the Irish Brigade suffered over
500 casualties but could not break through the Confederate defense.
Many protested Lincoln’s decision
to again relieve McClellan of command of the Army of the Potomac for
his failure to pursue Lee following Antietam, and his replacing of
McClellan with Ambrose Burnside.
Lincoln’s issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation also did not sit
well with many of the Irish-American volunteers in the army, as well
as their civilian relatives. Lincoln’s action exacerbated previous
opposition to the draft passed by Congress in the summer of 1862.
Many felt that it favored the rich who could afford to buy their way
out of the draft, versus poor immigrants who could not.
Burnside then led his army to
Fredricksburg and another terrible battle which would reinforce the
fighting reputation of the Irish Brigade. In addition to the 28th
Massachusetts, the Irish Brigade now also included the 116th
Pennsylvania from Philadelphia. Although the latter was not
all-Irish, its commander and his second in command were both
Irish-born, as were many of its soldiers.
On December 13, 1862, the
Irish Brigade marched through the town to join the assault on Longstreet’s troops on Marye’s Heights entrenched in another sunken
road behind a stone wall. Before their assault, soldiers of the
Irish Brigade put sprigs of green boxwood in their caps to make
their Irish heritage known. Their valiant but futile charge gained
the admiration of Longstreet’s troops, which included the
Irish-Americans of the Georgia brigade. After the death of its
brigade commander Thomas Cobb, the Georgia defenders were led by
Robert McMillan, colonel of the 24th Georgia and born in Antrim,
Ireland. The Irish Brigade suffered 45 percent casualties, including
55 officers killed and wounded. Father Corby called it a
“slaughter-pen”. This disaster fueled Northern Irish-American
disenchantment with the war. On January 16, 1863, St. Patrick’s
Cathedral in New York City was the site of a requiem mass for the
dead heroes of the Irish Brigade with Meagher attending.
Upon his return to the army in
February, Meagher attempted to obtain home leaves for the New York
regiments in the Irish Brigade shortly after he met with President
Lincoln but his request was denied by War Secretary Edwin Stanton. A
few months later, the Irish Brigade found itself caught up in the
rout of General Joseph Hooker’s right wing by Stonewall Jackson on
May 2 at Chancellorsville. Frustrated by the brigade’s losses and
the denial of his requests for leaves, Meagher resigned from the
army on May 8.
As the Army of the Potomac, now
under the command of George Meade, marched to a momentous rendezvous
with Lee’s army at Gettysburg, the battle-hardened Irish Brigade now
numbered only 530 men, commanded by Colonel Patrick Kelly of the
88th New York. Small as it had become in numbers, the Irish Brigade
still made a memorable contribution to the Union victory. The
brigade was among others of Winfield Hancock’s Second Corps ordered
to support Dan Sickles’ beleaguered Third Corps in the Wheatfield on
the second day of the battle. Again first receiving absolution from
Father Corby, it plunged into the maelstrom. Before it retreated
back to Cemetery Ridge, the brigade lost 202 men.
Other Irish-Americans distinguished
themselves as well at Gettysburg. Irish-born and West Point graduate
Colonel Paddy O’Rourke led his 140th New York regiment in a
desperate race to Little Round Top to stop a Confederate charge up
its slopes. Leading his troops, O’Rourke fell dead but his men and
others of the Fifth Corps successfully defended Little Round Top,
along with the more celebrated 20th Maine under Joshua Chamberlain.
The next afternoon it was the turn of the 69th Pennsylvania still
under Colonel Dennis O’Kane from County Kerry but reduced since
Antietam to only 258 men. In the 2nd brigade of the 2nd division of
the Hancock’s Second Corps, they awaited the approach of the
Pickett-Pettigrew charge at the Angle. Despite O’Kane’s wounding
(and later death) and casualties of 50 percent, the 69th
Pennsylvania played a critical role in defeating the Confederate
attack at its high-water mark.
In December, 1863, Michael Corcoran
died in an accident in the company of Meagher and his loss was much
lamented. The Irish Brigade, back to a strength of about 3,000
despite the re-assignment of the 28th Massachusetts and the 116th
Pennsylvania, would participate in Grant’s 1864 Overland Campaign,
suffering losses of one-third of its men and officers, including two
commanders killed in succession at Cold Harbor and Petersburg and
then their successor captured at Ream’s Station. Nevertheless, the
brigade survived as a re-organized unit and was commanded until the
end of the war by Robert Nugent, an original member of the 69th New
York. They were there for the final defeat and surrender of the Army
of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House in April, 1865. In
his 1963 address to the Irish Parliament, President John F. Kennedy
presented to the Irish people a battle flag of the Irish Brigade.
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William
Lytle
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In the West from Ohio, the most
notable unit was the 10th Ohio, known as the “Bloody Tinth”. It was
comprised mainly of Irish immigrants from Cincinnati. It gained fame
because of its first commander, William Lytle. He came from a
distinguished family and was a prominent lawyer and Mexican war
veteran. He was also nationally known as a poet, especially for
“Antony and Cleopatra”. Lytle was wounded in 1862 at the battles of
Carnifex Ferry, West Virginia and Perryville. Promoted to command of
a brigade in Sheridan’s division of Rosecrans’ Army of the
Cumberland, Lytle’s brigade stood in the way of Longstreet’s
breakthrough on September 20, 1863 at Chickamauga. He led them in a
desperate charge to stem the tide and died from four wounds. His
body accompanied by an honor guard from the Bloody Tinth was
returned to Cincinnati for a public funeral.
These are, of course, only a few
examples of the heroism of the many Irish-Americans who fought and
died for the Union. Due largely to the fact that there were not
similar large concentrations of Irish-Americans in Southern cities
and the segregation of Southern units by state, there was no
Confederate equivalent to the Northern Irish Brigade. Instead, there
were a number of predominately Irish-American smaller Confederate
units, mostly at the battalion and company levels. Several of these
served under Stonewall Jackson and Richard Taylor in Jackson’s 1862
campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. Some were prominent in the defeat
of Irish-born general James Shields at Port Republic.
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Battle
flag of the 6th Louisiana “Tigers” from New Orleans
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At the regimental level, the 6th
Louisiana “Tigers” from New Orleans was perhaps the best known in
the Army of Northern Virginia. It served with Jackson and Taylor in
the 1862 Valley campaign and in Early’s 1864 Valley campaign. It was
devastated defending against Union attacks on the West Woods at
Antietam, losing its Irish-born commander Henry Strong and eleven
other officers. Its brigade of Louisianans under Harry Hays suffered
60 percent casualties. It fought in every major battle of Lee’s
army, a total of 25 major battles. At the surrender under John
Gordon at Appomattox, the 6th Louisiana numbered only 52 out of a
total of 1,146 during the war. Thirty had originally enlisted in
1861. Approximately 60 percent of this regiment were Irish born or
of Irish ancestry. The 6th Louisiana lost 219 killed in battle and a
total of 330 died (including one executed for desertion).
An outstanding family example of
Lee’s Irish-Americans was the Dooley family of Richmond. John Dooley
emigrated from Limerick in 1832. From clerking to becoming a
prosperous clothing manufacturer, Dooley helped to organize the
Montgomery Guard militia. He served in the 1st Virginia regiment and
later commanded the Richmond Ambulance Corps. His oldest son was
wounded at Williamsburg in 1862 and then served in the Confederate
Ordinance Department. His younger son, a captain in the Montgomery
Guard in the 1st Virginia, was in the forefront of Pickett’s Charge
at Gettysburg, was shot through both thighs, but survived to serve
21 months as a prisoner at Johnson’s Island. Of the 90 in the
Montgomery Guard who began the war, only 11 were left at Appomattox.
In the Army of Tennessee, two regimental units are especially worth
mentioning. The 5th Confederate Infantry was a combination of two
largely Irish-American units from Memphis and served in Cleburne’s
division. After the destruction of Cleburne’s command at Franklin,
only 21 survived. At the surrender in North Carolina in April, 1865,
there were only 10 left. The 10th Tennessee, known as the “Sons of
Erin”, was led by the mayor of Nashville, killed at Raymond,
Mississippi in the defense of Vicksburg. It too fought with
Cleburne. Three of its officers were captured at Bentonville,
leaving a single survivor at Johnston’s surrender.
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Regimental
Colors of the 'Sons of Erin', the 10th Tennessee Infantry,
CSA
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Two incidents also deserve mention.
On June 26, 1863, after Grant’s army besieging Vicksburg, exploded a
mine tunneled under the city’s defenses, it was Irish-Americans in
the 5th and 6th Missouri who rushed to fill the gap against their
fellow Irish-Americans of the Federal 7th Missouri, mostly
Irish-Americans from St. Louis.
On September 8, 1863, a band of 43
Irish-American artillerymen defended the Sabine Pass on the
Texas-Louisiana coast against a Federal expedition comprised of four
gunboats and 5,000 troops on 22 transports. The vastly outnumbered
Confederates were led by Dick Dowling, who emigrated from County
Galway to Houston. Without the loss of a man, they disabled two of
the gunboats. A third ran aground before the Federals gave up their
attempt to invade East Texas.
Part two of this series focuses
on three leading Irish-American heroes of the Civil War.
References
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Callaghan, Daniel. 2006. Thomas Francis Meagher And the Irish Brigade in the Civil War . McFarland & Company.
Cotham, Edward, Jr. 2004. Sabine Pass: The Confederacy's Thermopylae (Clifton and Shirley Caldwell Texas Heritage Series) .
University of Texas Press.
Cozzens, Peter. 1990. No Better Place to Die: THE BATTLE OF STONES RIVER (Civil War Trilogy) .
University of Illinois Press.
Gannon, James. 1998. Irish Rebels, Confederate Tigers: A History Of The 6th Louisiana Volunteers . De Capo Press.
Morris, Roy, Jr. 1992. Sheridan: The Life and Wars of General Phil Sheridan .
Crown Publishers.
O’Brien, Sean Michael. 2007. Irish Americans in the Confederate Army . McFarland &
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O’Grady, Kelly. 2000. Clear The Confederate Way! The Iris Irish In The Army Of Northern Virginia . De Capo Press.
Spann, Edward. 2002. Gotham at War: New York City, 1860-1865 (The American Crisis Series, No. 9) . Scholarly Resources.
Symonds, Craig. 1997. Stonewall of the West: Patrick Cleburne and the Civil War (Modern War Studies) .
University Press of Kansas.
Tucker, Phillip Thomas. 2006. God Help the Irish!: The History of the Irish Brigade .
McWhiney Foundation Press.
Wittenberg, Eric. 2005. Little Phil: A Reassessment of the Civil War Leadership of Gen. Philip H. Sheridan . Potomac Books.
Wittke, Carl. 1956. The Irish in America . Louisiana State University Press.
Wylie, Paul. 2007. The Irish General: Thomas Francis Meagher . University of
Oklahoma Press. |
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