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. […]
Newspapers that appealed to emigrant populations like the New York Irish-American often ran ‘Information Wanted’ sections, where people could place classified ads. Many are attempts to locate long-lost family, friends or beneficiaries of wills. These advertisements ran for three issues at the cost of $1. Some provide a window into the affect the war had on many […]
A previous post examined the large sums of money that were collected from Union military personnel in 1862 and 1863 for the relief of the poor in Ireland. Despite the horrors of the ongoing war, the potential crisis in Ireland saw Irish Relief Funds emerge across the war-stricken North. Thousands of men in uniform took […]
The photograph below shows Battery M of the 1st Missouri Light Artillery during Sherman’s Meridian Campaign of February 1864. One of the men in this image is Sergeant Peter Cavanagh, from near Tullamore in Co. Offaly. Peter had a remarkable career; not only did he serve through some of the toughest campaigns of the Western […]
In 1863, Ireland was on the brink of famine. Poor harvests for three consecutive years had left many destitute, and disaster loomed. In response to the threat, relief committees that had previously been established to channel funds to assist the worst afflicted areas were reactivated. The large Irish population in the United States, many of […]
As many readers will be aware I have spent recent months working on a book project. This arose when I was approached by the History Press Ireland to work on a publication which looked at the Irish in the American Civil War, as part of their new ‘Ireland in the World’ series. I have just […]
A previous post looked at a number of Irish veterans who returned to the land of their birth following the American Civil War and received a pension for their services, delivered to their local post office. Part 2 of the series looks at a further eight veterans who are recorded on the 1883 ‘List of Pensioners on the […]
Reminders of the American Civil War abound in the United States. Even regions far from the battlefield can point to local memorials and veterans graves as a reminder of those tumultuous times. In contrast, there is little on the island of Ireland to remind its citizens of the nearly 200,000 Irish involved in the war. […]
The last post looked at the nativity of soldiers in the 23rd Illinois Infantry, based on analysis of records pertaining to 1,585 of its men. The place of birth for 1,270 had been noted; of these 682 were from Ireland. Where were these Irishmen from? How many Irish counties were represented? Were any concentrations discernible? In […]
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