Much has been written about the Irish in the military service of the United States. Irish Medal of Honor recipients, too, are well documented. However, a lesser known aspect of the American Civil War is our service in the Confederate States of America (CSA).
In 1861, several cities in the American south and Midwest had large Irish populations, namely New Orleans, Savannah, Galveston, Mobile, Memphis, Charleston, Nashville, St. Louis and Louisville. Many Irishmen joined local militia units that were also social in nature. Members drilled, marched and learned to use firearms. In Border States, such as Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee, Irish served in both the Federal and Confederate armies and navies. Sometimes brother fought against brother. In some units, Irish-born soldiers, if not wholly composing the units, numbered at least two thirds of the unit.
During the evening just prior to the battle of Fredericksburg it was reported CSA musicians played “The Bonnie Blue Flag”. During the battle itself, Meagher's Irish Brigade was decimated as they attacked Marye’s Heights. A Confederate Irish Unit (possibly the 2nd Georgia) was opposing them. An officer in that unit was Willie Mitchell, who was the son of John Mitchell, General Meagher's friend, fellow prisoner in Australia and fellow Young Ireland member. Following the war, Mitchel was imprisoned with Jefferson Davis. Upon release he later edited a Pro-Southern newspaper in Richmond.
In his diary, later published as The Valiant Hours, Cleveland’s Thomas F. Galwey, Co. B, 8th OVI, reported that after the battle of Fredericksburg both USA and CSA troops ceased-fire so the dead could be collected and buried. ”Jim Gallagher told us that he had met a man from the 16th Mississippi Regiment (an Irish regiment, it seems). They all, Confederate and Federal parted on good terms and bade one another a sincere goodbye.”
The state of Alabama fielded several units. Montgomery was the terminus of the Louisville & Nashville railroad. Traditionally, Irish worked the railroads and it should not be surprising to find Irish communities in Montgomery and Mobile during these times. Irish units reportedly were the Alabama Light Dragoons and Mobile Dragoons. Co. B, 24th Alabama Inf. (Emmett Guards); 24th Alabama Cavalry Battalion
The 24th Alabama Cavalry Battalion was organized on 31 December 1863, with three companies. Like their Federal counterparts, young men staffed the units. Most served under General Joseph Wheeler in the Cavalry Corps, assigned to the Brigades of Philip Dale Roddey and Moses Wright Hannon. In January, 1865, they were transferred into James Hagan's Brigade. The battalion was involved in the Atlanta Campaign at Resaca and the siege of the city. As they withdrew southward they continued to confront Union forces throughout Georgia and the Carolinas. They eventually surrendered with the Army of Tennessee at Durham Station, Orange County, North Carolina, 26 April 1865.
Another unit, Co. I, 8th Alabama Infantry (Emerald Guards), was from Mobile. The 8th was the first Alabama unit to enlist “for the war.” Co. I had 104 Irish-born out of 109. Patrick C. Loughry, who was killed in action at the battle of Seven Pines, commanded them. C. P. B. Branegan, later killed at Gettysburg, succeeded him. John McGrath assumed command, only to be wounded at the battle of The Wilderness, Spotsylvania. He was forced to retire on 27 December, 1864.
Instead of butternut and gray, the men of the Emerald Guards wore dark green uniforms. Their banner was unique as well. On one side was a Confederate First National flag ("Stars and Bars") on one side with a full-length figure of George Washington in the center. On its opposite side was a green field, with a harp surrounded by a wreath of shamrocks, and the slogans, "ERIN GO BRAGH!" (Ireland Forever!) and "FAUGH A BALLAGH!" (Clear The Way!). An enlistment banner for the unit at that time proclaimed: “Men of the Auld Sod! Sons of Erin! The deep green uniforms of Company I, 8th Alabama Emerald Guard should be seen again on the Field of Honor! Good men of Irish origin or ancestry are needed to command and fill the ranks. March under the green banner once again. Contact Major Michael Kelley for information.”
At the Battle of Frazier’s Farm they engaged Meagher’s Irish Brigade. The 8th Alabama fought in some of the bloodiest and most savage battles of the Civil War - Sharpsburg (Antietam), 2nd Battle of Manassas (Bull Run), Gettysburg, Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor. When rumors of surrender reached them they became indignant and “tore their battle-flag into shreds to retain as mementos. Of 1,377 men on its roll, the 8th lost 300 killed or mortally wounded, over 170 died of disease, and 236 were discharged or transferred; 16 officers and 153 men surrendered.”
More on the unit can be found on two websites - http://www.tarleton.edu/~kjones/wilcox.html#8th-Inf
http://www.37thtexas.org/html/CoI8thAla.html
The state of Louisiana fielded several Irish volunteer units, among them:
13th Louisiana Infantry - Capt. O'Leary's "Southern Celts", Co. B, St. Mary's Volunteers;
1st Louisiana Infantry - "Emmett Guards", Co. D, E. The First Louisiana was one of two brigades of Louisiana infantry which served with the 2nd Corps Army of Northern Virginia. 7,534 officers and men served in the various regiments during the war. 1,743 1st Brigade, sons of Louisiana, gave their lives for their country, in the war. A larger number of the Brigade was captured when they were overrun at Rappahannock Station, Virginia, November 7, 1864.
7th Louisiana Infantry – Co. C - "Sarsfield's Rangers"; “Irish Volunteers”. Of the 974 men in the 7th, 331 were born in Ireland. Mustered into service for the duration of the war on June 5, 1861. Though composed mainly of farmers, laborers, and clerks, Gen. Richard Taylor referred to the 7th as a "crack regiment". The original colonel of the regiment was Harry T. Hays, who went on to become a distinguished General with the 7th coming under the command of his lieutenant colonel, Davidson B. Penn for the remainder of the war. The unit’s major engagements were:
Sharpsburg (Antietam). Brigade at this time did not number over 550 men. The command was reduced, losing more than one-half (323 killed and wounded);
Gettysburg. Total loss: 7 officers and 29 men killed, 22 officers and 178 men wounded, and 4 officers and 91 men missing;
Winchester. 2 officers and 10 men killed, 8 officers and 59 men wounded, making a total of 12 killed and 67 wounded. On June 13, 2 men killed 3 officers and 8 men wounded, and 3 men missing. Total of the two days' operations: 14 killed, 78 wounded, 3 missing.
Of the total wartime rolls of 1,077 men, 190 were killed and 68 died of disease. The regiment suffered only a ten percent desertion rate, a trivial number when compared with other regiments with such diverse ethnic backgrounds.
6th Louisiana Infantry - "The Emeralds", Co. B, F. Commanded by Colonel Isaac Seymour;
The 6th was composed of almost all Irish laborers from New Orleans. Organized at Camp Moore, Louisiana on June 2, 1861 the unit was almost immediately sent to Virginia, where it participated in the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run). After the battle the 6th was placed in an all-Louisiana brigade that included the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Louisiana and Wheat's Special Battalion. The brigade, initially commanded by Brig. Gen. Richard Taylor, became known throughout the Army of Northern Virginia as the "Louisiana Tigers." When it surrendered to the US government on April 9, 1865, less than 60 of the original 1,146 that fought throughout the war were present.
Colonel Charles de Choiseul, descendant of a commander of the original Wild Geese, was promoted to commander of the Wheat’s “Tigers.” Upon learning of this he said, “I am the victim of circumstances, not of my own will. Whether the Tigers will devour me, or whether I will succeed in taming them, remains to be seen. What is more likely, is that they will remain in their high state of undiscipline. For the officers, at least the majority of them, are worse than the men. " (Letter, Charles de Choiseul to Emma Louise Walton, September 5, 1861} An incident in November of that year appears to validate de Choiseul’s perception.
Two members of the “Tigers” shared a bottle of whiskey with members of the 21st Georgia Volunteers but the Georgian took off with their bottle. When a fight broke out several “Tigers” were ordered confined to the guardhouse for brawling. A small group of drunken comrades attacked the guard in an attempt to liberate the prisoners and Col. Harry Hayes of the 7th La. was struck. Privates Michael O'Brien and Dennis Corcoran admitted to being the ringleaders of the attack. In December, military justice had its day.
According to the papers of Randolph Abbot Shotwell, “The doomed men (O'Brien and Corcoran) maintained a remarkable coolness, never flinching when the priest bade them farewell and stepped aside, never flinching when at the curt word of command, twenty-four muskets came up to a direct level, never flinching when again the command rings out 'Aim!' Nor was there a sound - for I had covered my eyes - when amid the painful silence came the word 'Fire!' and was drowned in the crashing volley that ensued. Both men fell forward riddled with bullets. Death was instantaneous. "
On July 1 during the first day's fighting at Gettysburg, the 6th Louisiana, now a part of Brig. Gen. Harry T. Hays' Louisiana Brigade, was engaged north of town. At dusk on July 2 the brigade breached the Federal line on Cemetery Hill. Although Hays' attack was successful, it was not supported, and Federals drove them off Cemetery Hill from the Eleventh Corps. The 6th Louisianans forever resented this lost opportunity.
Rev. James B. Sheeran, a native of Ireland, was the Chaplain of the 14th Louisiana Regiment. He published his diary as Confederate Chaplain. A prisoner of war, Fr. Sheeran spent time at Fort McHenry before being released from Fort McHenry. He became an itinerant clergyman after the war and founded Holy Rood Church, Morristown, New Jersey, where he is interned
In his doctoral dissertation, Catholic Military and Naval Chaplains, 1776 - 1917, Dom Aidan Henry Germain, S.T.L., J.A., J.C.B., called out both federal and confederate chaplains. Among the Irish surnamed Catholic Chaplains in the CSA were the following priests:
Bannon, John, St. Louis;
Croghan, C.J., Hospital, Montgomery, White Sulphur Springs, VA.
Cunningham, James T., 3rd Mississippi Regiment Infantry
Jordan, William H., 18th North Carolina
O’Connell, Laurence P., Hospital, Montgomery, White Sulphur Springs, VA
O’Keefe, M. Virginia. Assigned to General Blanchard.
O’Riely, Thomas, Kinston, LaGrange, Marietta, Newman and Griffin, GA.
Ryan, Patrick, Post Chaplain, Charleston;
Sheeran, James, C.SS.R, 14th LA Infantry;
Whelan, Peter, Savannah, “Montgomery Guards”, 1st Georgia Volunteers.
Just why did we fight? The popular notion that we have all been taught is that it was to end slavery. Author James B. McPherson, however, attempts to answer the question in a much more scholarly light in What They Fought For, 1861 – 1865. Confederates fought for as many different reasons than did Federals. On the southern list was, and remains, the right of a state to secede from the Union. Intertwined in their cause was the moral issue of slavery. Surprising to some is the fact that many on either side did not fight to save the ‘peculiar institution.” What is known, however, is that all thought the fight would be of a short duration – how wrong they were. Many, like Cleveland’s “Hibernian Guards” and Savannah’s “Montgomery Guards” were initially local social and militia units, the latter being popular throughout the nation at the time.
Be that as it may, nowhere in the Constitution is there any mention of the union of the states being permanent. A textbook written by Judge William Rawle, was used at West Point before the war. A View of the Constitution states, “The secession of a State depends on the will of the people of such a State.” Interestingly, no Confederate leader was ever brought to trial for treason. To do so would have a meant a trial and resulting verdict on the issue of the constitutional legality of secession. The verdict had already been set by popular thought of the time and the decisions of victories in battle.
Why have we Irish historically been so eager to fight? David Walsh, published in the International Workers Bulletin, December, 1994, declared the Civil War era to have been a time “When Great Ideals Gripped The American People.” "In 1863, a 33-year-old Ohio private wrote that he had not expected the war to go on so long, but no matter how long it took it must be prosecuted, "for the great principles of liberty and self government at stake, for should we fail, the onward march of Liberty in the Old World will be retarded at least a century, and Monarchs, Kings and Aristocrats will be more powerful against their subjects than ever."
Perhaps the answer to my question lies in the words of the Ohio private. Irish liberty, indeed, was retarded for centuries when “Monarchs, Kings and Aristocrats” were more powerful than any of us. Reflecting further another question comes to mind. What are the forces of evil that bring brother to fight brother, or in the case of a Federal infantryman named Driscoll, father to kill son? If we could isolate and identify when evil is disguised as good, could we then prevent holocausts from occurring? Perhaps it is up to the voice of the Irish to take the lead. After all, haven’t we earned the right to do so?
Bibliography: The Valiant Hours, Galwey, Thomas F., Stackpole Co., Harrisburg, PA, p.67.
Fortin, Maurice S., ed. "Colonel Hilary A. Herbert's History of the Eighth Alabama Volunteer Regiment, C.S.A in Alabama Historical Quarterly, XXXIX (1977), 5-321.
Hoole, William Stanley, ed. History of the Eighth Regiment Alabama Volunteers (Infantry). (University, AL: Confederate Publishing Co., 1985 reprint of an article first published in Perry & Smith's Directory of the City of Montgomery, Alabama (1866).
Trueheart, Charles William. Rebel brothers: the Civil War letters of the Truehearts. (College Station, TX:
Texas A&M University Press, 1995).
A Civil action, 11/11/99, By William Gordon http://www.nj.com/features/ledger/d8e823.html,
Staff Writer.
http://archives1.archives.nd.edu/calendar/cal1865a.htm, Notre Dame Archives Calendar, 1865,
Dissertation, Catholic Military and Naval Chaplains, 1776 – 1917, submitted to the Faculty of the Philosophy of the Catholic University of America in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Washington, D.C., 1929.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/may1999/mcp1-m19.shtml. James B. McPherson’s What They Fought For: When Great ideals gripped the American people. David Walsh, 5 December e1994.
http://www.geocities.com/pelicanregt/ - Homepage of the 7th Louisiana.
http://www.users.fast.net/%7eezifra/6thla/
http://home.earthlink.net/%7esdriskell/1stlabrg/1stbhis.htm
