I am fascinated by the individual story. They are at once emotive and powerful, and can serve to illustrate wider truths regarding the impact of conflict. They also demonstrate that the American Civil War continued to affect people well beyond 1865. We often forget that the stories of those who survived the conflagration did not end at Appomattox or Bennett Place. We would like to think that the people who had endured four years of war had experienced the worst that life had to throw at them. The reality for some was that the decades after 1865 did not bring the reward and respite they may have deserved. Such was certainly the experience for Bernard Quinn.

Bernard Quinn was born in Co. Monaghan around the year 1835. It is not clear when he emigrated to the United States, but he may be the Bernard Quinn who sailed from Liverpool aboard the Lucy Thompson, anchoring in New York on 26th May 1857. Either before he left Ireland or after his arrival in America Bernard worked as a baker, but he soon decided on a career change. On 12th September 1857 the young man approached Lieutenant Updegraff of the U.S. Army and decided to enlist for a five-year term. Perhaps he wanted financial security or sought adventure- perhaps both; either way his decision began what would be a long association with the military. (1)

Bernard was described in 1857 as 5 feet 8 inches in height, with blue eyes, sandy coloured hair and a fair complexion. He became part of Company H of the 4th United States Infantry, a regiment with a strong Irish contingent. In the years before the outbreak of the Civil War the 4th saw service on San Juan Island and on the west coast. With the coming of hostilities in 1861 they returned to the east, becoming part of Sykes division of regulars in the Army of the Potomac. Their first actions of the war were on the Peninsula, and they played a notable role in the Battle of Gaines’ Mill. Bernard served with the regulars up until September of 1862, when his term of enlistment expired on 12th September. The five-year veteran left the ranks just prior to the Battle of Antietam. (2)

The Battle of Gaines’ Mill, 1862, where Bernard Quinn and other U.S. Regulars Excelled (Alfred Waud, Library of Congress)

The Monaghan man did not take long to get back into the fray. On 23rd September 1862, only days after his discharge, Bernard enlisted as a Corporal in the largely Irish 13th Pennsylvania Cavalry. He remained with them for the duration of the war, serving with the Army of the Potomac and in the Valley Campaign before joining up with Sherman for the conflict’s conclusion in North Carolina. He mustered out with his comrades in Philadelphia on 14th July 1865. (3)

For the next ten or so months Bernard tried civilian life in Philadelphia- it may be that he returned to his previous profession as a baker. However, it wasn’t long before he decided on another stint in the military. He was still only 30 years of age when on 18th May 1866 he enlisted again, this time for three years. Although his profession was once more recorded as ‘baker’, in reality by now Bernard Quinn was a soldier through and through. Having already tried the infantry and cavalry, this time he had joined the 1st United States Artillery. The unit spent the majority of the late 1860s on garrison duty, and Bernard eventually rose to the rank of Sergeant. His final term in the military ended on 18th May 1869, when Bernard was discharged and walked out the gates of Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island and into permanent civilian life. (4)

During his time in the military Bernard Quinn had been associated with three branches of the service- infantry, cavalry and artillery. He also chose variety in the cities he lived in; having initially arrived in New York, he had spent time in Philadelphia and eventually decided that his future lay in New Bedford, Massachusetts. It seems probable that he had problems readjusting to civilian life, and that things were never quite the same for Bernard after 1869. The decades passed with little word of Bernard Quinn. However he re-emerges in 1905, when a newspaper article charts the tragedy of the veteran’s final years:

PENSION CAME TOO LATE

Old Ragman Was Drowned When About to Receive It.

New Bedford, Mass., November 5. – One the eve of receiving a fortune that would make him independent for the remainder of his life, Bernard Quinn, 71 years old, was drowned in the Acushnet River. His body was found floating near a wharf by fishermen.

For 15 years the man had been a familiar sight about the streets, and his only visible wealth was two ragbags which were generally filled with assorted rags. The man was to come into possession of a back pension estimated to be at least $5,000 within a few days. 

Quinn, who was known in this city as “Old Barney,” was born in Ireland, and enlisted in the Army after coming to this country. He served in Company H, Fourth Infantry, and also in Company K, Thirteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers.

After the Civil War he served a third enlistment in the regular Army, holding the rank of corporal and sergeant. While in this city the old man made his headquarters at the City Mission, and was always in destitute circumstances.

A short time ago Congressman William S. Greene was interested in the man, and through his influence the first payment on a back pension, amounting to thousands of dollars, was to have been paid. (5)

So ended the sad story of Bernard Quinn. His life was far more than simply a record of service between 1861 and 1865, though it seems his years in the military may well have been among his happiest. The image of a young, heroic member of Sykes Regulars at Gaines’ Mill in 1862 contrasts sharply with the destitute ragman floating in the Acushnet River four decades later. But this was the same man, the emigrant baker turned soldier, who ended his days as a ragman. When we look at those who lived through the Civil War we should try to examine their entire life experiences, not just the heady days of their youth on the battlefield. Such poignant stories make it all the more tragic that Ireland does not today do more to remember those born on this island who experienced the American Civil War. The story of Bernard Quinn from Co. Monaghan is just one of hundreds of thousands written by Irish emigrants in the United States. The creation of the Irish diaspora and Irish emigration is a major part of Ireland’s history. We should spend more time exploring them, discussing them, learning from them and remembering them.

(1) New York Passenger Lists, U.S. Army Enlistments; (2) U.S. Army Enlistments; (3) Bates 1870: 1300; (4) U.S. Army Enlistments; (5) Baltimore American;

References & Further Reading

Baltimore American 6th November 1905. Pension Came Too Late Old Ragman Was Drowned When About to Receive It

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

New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957

U.S. Army Register of Enlistments 1798-1914

Civil War Trust Battle of Gaines’ Mill Page

Colonel Michael Kerwin, 13th Pennsylvania Cavalry, in later life

In April 1861 Michael Kerwin enlisted as a private in the largely Irish 24th Pennsylvania Regiment, where he quickly rose to First Sergeant in Company H. The three-month regiment formed part of Tyrone native General Robert Patterson’s force which advanced into Virginia early in the war. The forward Union movement presented Kerwin with a first opportunity to demonstrate his mettle. He volunteered to precede the army across the Potomac River, and infiltrate the Rebel lines to ascertain the force that lay ahead. Disguising himself, the Irishman successfully passed through Confederate camps around Martinsburg, returning to his own lines with an estimate of enemy numbers and dispositions. Kerwin would not remain in the ranks for long. (2)

Following the expiration of his service with the 24th Pennsylvania, Kerwin began his long association with the cavalry arm. He became the Captain of Company B, 13th Pennsylvania Cavalry dating from 27th March 1862. Again promotion came quickly for him, and he became the unit’s Major on 20th October of the same year. Perhaps the regiments most notable action took place on 12th October 1863 at White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, when the 13th was part of a picket force that attempted to hold off a large enemy advance. Severely outnumbered, the horsemen kept fighting against the odds for some 6 hours, during which time they sustained significant losses. (3)

Michael Kerwin became the Colonel of the 13th Pennsylvania Cavalry dating from 22nd April 1864. The regiment formed part of General Sheridan’s command in the Army of the Potomac during the Overland Campaign. The Wexford native was sporadically called on to take acting command of the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division of the Cavalry Corps, holding the post for a number of days in August, October and November 1864 and February 1865. In the latter month his command was pulled from in front of Petersburg and dispatched to Wilmington, North Carolina, in order to meet up with General Sherman’s army which was then marching through Georgia. They rendezvoused with Sherman’s troops at Fayetteville, where Kerwin took command of the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division of Kilpatrick’s cavalry. He remained in charge at Fayetteville until the close of the conflict, when he returned to Philadelphia and was mustered out on 14th July 1865. (4)

Michael Kerwin’s martial career did not end with the close of the Civil War. He was a noted Fenian, and following his discharge he immediately travelled to Ireland, commissioned by John O’Mahony to James Stephens who was the Chief Organiser of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Intending to assist in an armed struggle to gain Irish independence, Kerwin was arrested and detained in prison by the British for a number of months before being returned to the United States, where he remained active in the Irish movement. After the war he married the widow of another Fenian and American Civil War veteran, Colonel Denis Burke of the 88th New York Infantry, Irish Brigade. (5)

The Wexford native worked in a number of varied posts following his return to the United States. Moving from Philadelphia to New York in 1870, he became Collector of Internal Revenue for the Second District of the city, and later served as the Police Commissioner. He subsequently acted as the Pension Agent for New York, a position he took over from Franz Siegel. He established the Irish nationalist paper the New York Tablet which he owned with David Power Conyngham, historian of the Irish Brigade. Michael Kerwin lived until the age of 74, passing away on 20th June 1912 at his home at 487 West 145th Street, New York. The New York Times listed his cause of death as ‘senile infirmities’. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia in Section 3, Lot 2169. (6)

(1) Bates 1875: 764, Hunt 2007, 95; (2) Bates 1875: 765; (3) Bates 1875: 765, Hunt 2007, 95; (4) Hunt 2007, 95; Bates 1875: 766; (5) Denieffe 1906: 283, Hunt 2007, 95; (6) New York Times Obituary, Hunt 2007: 95, Denieffe 1906: 283, Kohl 1994: xxiii-xxiv;

References & Further Reading

Bates, Samuel P. 1875. Martial Deeds of Pennsylvania

Conyngham, David Power (edited by Lawrence Kohl) 1994. The Irish Brigade and its Campaigns

Denieffe, Joseph 1906. A Personal Narrative of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood

Hand, Harold 2000. One Good Regiment: The Thirteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry (117th Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment) 1861-1865

Hunt, Roger D. 2007. Colonels in Blue: The Mid-Atlantic States

New York Times 21st June 1912: Gen. Michael Kerwin Dead

The Donegal man had been captured on 12th October 1863 in Jefferson, Virginia, during the action that would earn him the Medal of Honor. In December 1863 he found himself in the Pemberton prison in Richmond, Virginia. Located opposite the notorious Libby prison in the Confederate capital, the Pemberton building was a large former tobacco warehouse that was thirty feet wide and ninety feet deep, with three floors. During Dougherty’s time there it accommodated some 700 Federal prisoners.  The Irishman recorded the harsh conditions of life as a prisoner of war, although by his own admission ‘no one can form an idea of what suffering there is here, and no pen can describe the hardships we have to endure.’ (1)

Michael Dougherty kept a prison diary during his confinement to pass the time. On 1st December 1863 he recorded that his room contained 300 men, kept in a space of 30 by 90 feet, lying all over the floor. They were treated ‘more like hogs then men’ and they were packed so tightly that it was impossible to move around. To pass the time the half-naked soldiers spent much of the day catching lice, with mealtime offering the only distraction. The rations they received were often paltry- on the 9th December the men received only two biscuits and four ounces of pork each. As conditions worsened a large proportion of the prisoners began falling ill, and were removed to hospital. The 12th December was Dougherty’s two month anniversary as a prisoner, and he already estimated his weight loss at 25 pounds. Those who became sick could not lift themselves from the floor in the cramped conditions, and risked the additional injury of being trampled by other inmates. (2)

Michael Dougherty, 13th Pennsylvania Cavalry, in later life

On the 20th December the Confederate Quartermaster called the prisoners together, telling the men that boxes had arrived for some of them. A month previously, on 23rd November, the 19 year old Donegal man had written to his mother in Bristol, Pennsylvania, asking her to send him a Christmas present with some ‘shirts and notions’ in it. Now was the time Michael would find out if his mother had been successful. All the men remained silent and expectant as the names of those lucky few who were to receive boxes was read out. At last, Michael’s name was called; the Irishman recorded in his diary: ‘Oh! how glad I was when I heard that name!’ (3)

Delighted, the young man went to receive his parcel, which was being checked by the guards. One of the Confederates decided to keep a book for himself, ‘The Collegians of Ireland’ but Dougherty said nothing, as that would guarantee that all of the contents would be confiscated. Afterwards, the unfortunate men who had not received any packages crowded around to see what treats the Irishman had received. His mother had sent him a large sweet cake, tea, coffee and sugar, salt, pepper, ham, beef tongues, writing paper and envelopes, two pairs of drawers and shirts and some stockings. According to the cavalryman this Christmas present was ‘more appreciated than any I ever received.’ (4)

Some of the men’s packages were stolen that night, but luckily Michael’s remained safe. Prisoners from his company took turns in keeping watch on his prized possession. On the 21st December he shared some of his tea with the sick men around him, while wishing he had enough for everyone to enjoy. Luxury came at a price, however. In his emaciated state Michael ate too much, and by the 23rd December he had become sick as a result. That night, Webb and Gallagher, fellow prisoners from the 13th Pennsylvania, kept watch on Michael’s box. On Christmas Eve the Donegal man was sufficiently well recovered to stand sentry over it himself, accompanied by another comrade named Culberson. Starving prisoners attempting to steal any food they could get their hands on made such precautions necessary. (5)

Eventually Christmas Day arrived. Michael Dougherty recorded the day in his diary:

Christmas Day, 1863, and still in the Confederacy. Thinking of our friends at home, enjoying themselves, and condition we are in. The most barbarous country would hardly treat a prisoner thus. One of my regiment died last night. It was a relief to a great deal of suffering. There was a hole under his arm large enough to put your fist in. Rations two biscuits, half a loaf of corn dodger and two spoonfuls of molasses, for our Christmas present, but I will attend to my box to-day. The Richmond papers state that the stench from the prison is endangering the health and the lives of all in the City, and it would be well to remove those “Lincoln hirelings” to where scant fare and cold weather would reduce them in number; consequently we will be removed to Bell Isle. (6)

Michael Dougherty and his comrades were removed to Belle Isle prison, and would later be taken to the most notorious camp operated during the American Civil War- Andersonville. The Irishman was so ill in Christmas 1864 that he could not record his thoughts in his diary, as he was close to death and confined to the camp hospital. Miraculously he survived, and the hardy trooper would get the opportunity to spend Christmas 1865 with his family and loved ones in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, many of his comrades who crowded around his parcel in Richmond that December night in 1863 were not so fortunate; for many, that miserable winter in Pemberton was to be their last.

(1) Dougherty 1908: 9, 14; (2) Dougherty 1908: 14-17; (3) Dougherty 1908: 11, 18-19; (4) Dougherty 1908:18-19; (5) Dougherty 1908: 19; (6) Dougherty 1908: 20;

References

Dougherty, Michael (edited by James T. Navary) 2009. The Prison Diary of Michael Dougherty: Union Survivor of Two Years Confinement in Confederate Prisons (1st Edition 1908)

Michael Dougherty in later life

Michael Dougherty was born on 10th May 1844 in Falcarragh, Co. Donegal, emigrating to the United States in 1859. At the age of 18 he decided to enlist, and on the 8th August 1862 he mustered into the 13th Pennsylvania Cavalry for three years service. It is no surprise that Dougherty chose this unit to serve in, as it had a distinct Irish character; indeed it had initially been intended to serve as a squadron with the Irish Brigade. The unit was to be known as the ‘Irish Dragoons’ when it was formed by James A. Gallagher of Philadelphia in September 1861. Further authority was received to increase its size beyond that of a squadron, and it became the 117th Regiment (13th Cavalry) with Gallagher becoming its first Colonel. (2)

The capture that led to Dougherty’s 1864 diary entry was not his first taste of life in Confederate prison. On 26th February 1863 his regiment was based in the Shenandoah Valley at Winchester, Virginia, when they were ordered to engage what appeared to be some Confederate foragers. They secured a number of the enemy and drove the remainder into the camp of the 11th Virginia at Woodstock, some twenty miles away from their base. With their horses exhausted they turned for home, but as they approached Fisher’s Hill they were engaged by a body of Rebels, who were positioned on both of their flanks. After a fight which lasted for half an hour the 13th Pennsylvania had lost 108 men killed, wounded and captured. The Donegal man was among the latter, and he was taken to Libby Prison in Richmond. Dougherty was exchanged on 26th May 1863 and was able to rejoin his comrades at Winchester; his first experience as a guest of the Confederacy had been mercifully brief. (3)

As 1863 continued the Irishman was quickly becoming a veteran, and he was engaged in his first major battle at Second Winchester that June. During the fighting Dougherty was responsible for carrying dispatches, a role he executed so well that he was presented with a gold medal for bravery by Co. Wexford native Colonel Michael Kerwin. Kerwin had succeeded to command of the 13th Pennsylvania shortly after the battle, replacing Colonel Gallagher. Following Second Winchester the regiment became part of the Army of the Potomac, joining the 2nd Brigade of Brigadier-General David McMurtrie Gregg’s 2nd Division. On 12th October of that year the 13th Pennsylvania was on picket duty at Jefferson, Virginia, on the south side of the Rappahannock opposite Sulphur Springs. At about 6 o’clock that morning the Confederates attacked their positions, driving in the unit’s pickets. Heavy skirmishing continued throughout the day, and the 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry moved up to support their comrades from the Keystone State. During this fighting the young Donegal native once again showed his worth when he dashed across an open field at the head of some men from his company, forcing the Confederates to abandon one of their positions in an unoccupied house. Michael and his comrades then took possession of the building themselves, and fought off repeated attacks against it for a number of hours. The Rebels were not finished, however, and that afternoon they attacked the cavalrymen’s positions with increased force. By 5 o’clock the 13th and 4th had been driven back, but many men were cut off and could not escape across the river. The 13th Pennsylvania lost 163 men killed, wounded and captured, the vast majority being forced to surrender. Once again Private Michael Dougherty found himself a prisoner, and this time it would be for the remainder of the war. (4)

Andersonville on 17th August 1864. Dougherty’s diary for that day records: ‘No prisoners left here today or yesterday. Alfred Friend, Co. F, 12th N.Y.C., has just informed me that he is the only man alive out of 53 of his regiment.’

From 12th October 1863 to 12th April 1865 Dougherty was to spend his time in Confederate prisons. Throughout this time he kept a diary charting his experiences in prisons such as Libby, Pemberton and Belle Isle in and around Richmond, with a recurring theme being the constant hope and endless rumours regarding prisoner exchange. On 8th February 1864 he boarded a train away from Richmond with 600 others, but it was not for the purpose of his release. The train travelled south to Georgia and arrived at its destination, Camp Sumter, on the 15th February. This was a new prison, and it would soon be known by another name, one that still conjures images of death, suffering and cruelty- Andersonville. Of the 45,000 Union prisoners held there during the 14 months of its existence, 13,000 of them would never leave. (5)

Michael tried to occupy himself by visiting the different parts of the camp and recording any events in his diary. It is a stark record of the human misery he and others experienced during his time in the exposed 26 1/2 acre compound. Unsurprisingly, the main topics include new prisoners, the deaths of comrades, and rations:

18th April 1864: About five hundred more prisoners came in to-day from Cahaba, Alabama. Bernard Tolen, Co. D, died to-day.

15th May 1864: We can see wagons haul away bodies from the dead-house, like so much dirt; as many as twenty bodies piled on one wagon. Upwards of fifteen hundred men have died since we came here.

20th July 1864: One hundred and thirty prisoners died yesterday; it is so hot we are almost roasted. There were 127 of my regiment captured the day I was, and of that number eighty-one have since died, and the rest are more dead than alive; exposure and long confinement is doing its work among us.

Dougherty makes reference to an interesting incident from an Irish perspective on the 13th November 1864: All the Irish who could walk were called to the gate this afternoon by a Col. McNeill of the 10th Tennessee (rebel) regiment, to see if any of them would take the oath to join the rebel service. Not an Irishman enlisted, but two Yankees did, one from Connecticut and the other from a New York regiment; so you see the Irish are the most loyal. The following day Dougherty added: Webb called on me to-day; we had a talk over the excitement caused by the appeal to the Irish; he says McNeill is no true Irishman or he would not try to degrade Ireland and her people by making such a proposition. The 10th Tennessee had been formed of Irishmen from Nashville in 1861, and ‘Col. McNeill’ was in fact Colonel John G. O’Neill. The remnants of the unit surrendered with the Army of Tennessee in 1865 following its defeat at the Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina. (6)

The ‘Sultana’ ablaze in the Mississippi following the explosion of one of her boilers

Michael Dougherty’s visit to the Andersonville hospital in late 1864 should have been fatal, but he somehow managed to survive. Incredibly, having experienced the American Civil War and the worst prison conditions in the nation’s history his tribulations were still not at an end. On 23rd April 1865 at Vicksburg, Mississippi, he boarded a ship called the ‘Sultana’ along with between 2,200 and 2,400 others, many also former Andersonville prisoners. They were steaming up the Mississippi for St. Louis, Missouri, and had arrived in Memphis, Tennessee on 26th April. Early in the morning of 27th April one of the boilers on the vessel exploded, enveloping the boat in flames. Some 1,800 of the passengers lost their lives, in what remains the worst maritime disaster in United States history. (7)

The Irishman had again beaten the odds and survived. He returned to Bristol, Pennsylvania and his mother and sisters on 27th June 1865. He would go on to marry Rose Magee with whom he had 12 children. In the post war years he worked at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia and served as a Bristol Council Member between 1880 and 1882, as well as being an active member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Michael Dougherty was awarded the Medal of Honor on 23rd January 1897 for his actions on the day of his capture on 12th October 1863. His citation read: ‘At the head of a detachment of his company dashed across an open field, exposed to a deadly fire from the enemy, and succeeded in dislodging them from an unoccupied house, which he and his comrades defended for several hours against repeated attacks, thus preventing the enemy from flanking the position of the Union forces.’ The Falcarragh native published his prison diary in 1908, providing an invaluable insight into the terrible conditions experienced by Union troops in Andersonville. Having survived such trials in early life, Michael Dougherty went on to live well into his 80s. He died on 19th February 1930, and is buried in Saint Marks Roman Catholic Churchyard in Bristol, Pennsylvania. (8)

(1) Dougherty 1908: 66; (2) AOH Bristol, Bates 1870: 1267 & 1306, Taylor 1913: 172; (3)  Dougherty 1908: (i)- (ii), 1; (4) Taylor 1913: 172, Bates 1870: 1269, Dougherty 1908: 72; (5) Dougherty 1908: 1-28, Andersonville National Park Service Website; (6) Dougherty 1908: 40, 43, 54, 65;  (7) Dougherty 1908: 68-71; (8) Dougherty 1908: 71, AOH Bristol, Medal of Honor Society, Broadwater 2007: 64-65;

References & Further Reading

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

Broadwater, Robert P. 2007. Civil War Medal of Honor Recipients: A Complete Illustrated Record

Dougherty, Michael (edited by James T. Navary) 2009. The Prison Diary of Michael Dougherty: Union Survivor of Two Years Confinement in Confederate Prisons (1st Edition 1908)

Hand, Harold 2000. One Good Regiment: The Thirteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry (117th Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment) 1861-1865

Taylor, Frank Hamilton 1913. Philadelphia in the Civil War 1861- 1865

Ancient Order of Hibernians Division No. 1 Bristol, Pennsylvania: Michael Dougherty Page

Andersonville National Park Service Website