Irish in the American Civil War

This past weekend marked the third anniversary of the Irish in the American Civil War blog. Sincerest thanks to all of you who have read articles on the site over that time, to those who have taken the time to comment, contribute and share your knowledge, and also to those who have contributed guest posts. […]

A previous post explored the case of the USS Kearsarge, which caused a major diplomatic incident when she illegally recruited in the port of Queenstown (now Cobh), Co. Cork during the war. It was not the only time when questionable recruitment tactics led to friction between Britain and the United States. In 1864 the actions of a […]

Noted Irish journalist Fintan O’Toole recently produced an excellent series of articles- later turned into a highly attractive book- titled A History of Ireland in 100 Objects. It has rightly received much attention, and was made available for free electronically in the month of March to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, The Gathering and Ireland’s Presidency […]

A previous post began to examine the fractious relationship between the Irish-American and African-American communities during the Civil War era. The majority of Irish were supporters of the Democratic Party, and many retained strong views in later years about why the war was fought. The pre-eminence of the preservation of the Union as a motivator for Northern […]

150 years ago this month the one of the defining moments in nineteenth century American history occurred, when the Emancipation Proclamation took effect. Abraham Lincoln shifted the war from one to preserve the Union to a struggle to both restore that Union and free the enslaved African-American people. Perhaps the most challenging task when looking […]

This weekend sees the start of the 150th anniversary commemorations of the Battle of Fredericksburg. There is perhaps no other battle of the American Civil War that is more associated with the Irish, given the participation of the Irish Brigade in the famous charge against the stone wall at Marye’s Heights. As Clint Schemmer of […]

The site has featured a number of posts based on research I carried out on the birthplaces of the men of the 23rd Illinois Infantry (Mulligan’s Irish Brigade) which led to the production of a number of maps to show what countries, states and Irish counties men in that regiment came from. In addition friend […]

In a recent post I looked at some views regarding the propriety of a memorial to the Irish who were affected by the American Civil War. A number of commentators on an interview I gave to the Journal.ie about the topic left interesting responses, which I outlined here. I noted in that post that I […]

I was recently interviewed by one of Ireland’s main online news websites, the Journal.ie, about the Irish in the American Civil War. You can read the published piece here. The main thrust of the article followed one of my recent posts, Ireland’s Forgotten Famine Generation, which discusses how those in Ireland do not realise the […]