James Rowan O’Beirne during the American Civil War

On the 150^th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War little in Ireland is known about one Roscommon man’s significant contribution.

Jody Moylan.

Falling from the presidential balcony of the Ford Theatre, having leaped over the railings after he had landed the gunshot that would eventually kill Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth already knew he was a wanted man.

What he didn’t know was that Major James Rowan O’Beirne was to lead that hunt, and what he didn’t care to know was that O’Beirne was from Kilrooskey.

After Booth had bolted on horseback from the Washington theatre on that Good Friday night, April 14,1865, Lincoln was rushed to a boarding house across the street, where he lay dying.

O’Beirne escorted vice-president Andrew Johnston to the president’s bedside, after the second in command had himself avoided a similar fate when his would-be-killer George Atzerodt lost his nerve at the crucial moment.

Secretary of State William Seward wasn’t so lucky after a simultaneous attack saw him receive multiple stab wounds at the hands of Lewis Powell.

Merely days after Republican forces had restored the Union to end the American Civil War its top-brass had now received a damaging blow by Confederate sympathisers who, however late in the day, were intent on extracting their own pound of flesh.

Secretary of War Edwin Stanton circled the wagons in the back room of the infamous boarding house and issued O’Beirne with orders that he was “relieved from all other duty at this time, and directed to employ yourself and your detective force in the detection and arrest of the murderers of the President, and the assassins who attempted to murder Mr. Seward”.

The Roscommon native had, at this stage, vast experience in the theatre of war. As captain of the 37^th New York ‘Irish Rifles’ Infantry he was badly wounded by sniper fire to the chest, head and right leg at the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville, on a day that was the second bloodiest in the entire American conflict.

Acting on Stanton’s instructions Major O’Beirne made his way through the capital’s streets in the small hours of April 15. He barged through the front doors of Kirkwood House, where Atzerodt had failed to go through with his orders. There O’Beirne discovered the room where the conspirator had been holed-up, and subsequently fled from. A loaded revolver was found under Atzerodt’s bed pillow and a Bowie knife was also seized. These discoveries led directly to Atzerodt’s arrest five days later at his cousin’s house in Germantown, Maryland.

O’Beirne’s main quarry, though, was Booth. An actor by trade and an idealist, he was far from any villainous stereotype. The fugitive was noted at the time for being “impossibly vain, preening, emotionally flamboyant, and possessed of raw talent and splendid élan”. With the help of a map of the upper Potomac that was picked up at Atzerodt’s quarters, a goose chase ensued along its banks that lasted for 12 days, where Booth sheltered from his Roscommon hunter in a thicket of pine.

When Booth crossed state boundaries into Virginia O’Beirne pinpointed him to the Garrett farm, a residence near the town of Bowling Green. The Major telegrammed war secretary Stanton, waiting for his cue to make a decisive move.

Here, by all accounts, office politics took over and Stanton pulled the Kilrooskey native from the case. Much of the lucrative reward on offer was to go to a personal favourite of Stanton’s – Lafayette C. Baker.

Along with his agents Baker finished the job Major O’Beirne had begun, smoking Booth out of a barn before he succumbed to gunfire. If O’Beirne’s monetary reward of $2,500 was paltry when compared with the hand he played at a crucial time in American history, his achievements thereafter are notable only in their magnitude.

James Rowan O’Beirne in later life

Born to Michael Haran O’Beirne and Eliza Rowan on September 25, 1839 (US Census, 1900), James spent his formative days at a family home in the townland of Cappagh near Kilrooskey, close to a place locally known as ‘Beirne’s Cross’. But Roscommon in those days was particularly ravaged by the Famine and the O’Beirnes took flight across the Atlantic where James’ father had numerous family connections.

James briefly trained as an attorney before signing up as a private in the 7^th New York Militia at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. His “gallant, distinguished and meritorious service” during the war led to a conferral of the high rank of Brigadier General in September, 1865.

Far from resting on his laurels, and despite his war wounds, the now General O’Beirne made an exit from the battle ground, going on to become a journalist and reporter for several newspapers, most notably the Washington Sunday Gazette as well as Washington correspondent for the New York Herald. On one particular assignment for the Herald he was said to have rode alongside the legendary General Custer during the Indian wars.

In February 1880, O’Beirne was amongst the welcoming party for the arrival of Charles Stewart Parnell on his stateside trip, a visit where the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party addressed Congress. As only the fourth foreign leader to address the House Parnell was the first Irishman to do so. James O’Beirne is credited by The New York Times as having been the key component in bringing that about.

The Cappagh man spent a period as second in command at immigration on Ellis Island, during the 1890s, watching over the many fellow Irish men and women who passed through America’s largest gateway.

One of the more interesting honours bestowed on O’Beirne was decoration by the Venezuelan government, after he had ensured the securing and safe passage of a United States gunboat for the country’s former president, General Jose Antonio Paez, who died in exile in New York.

Befitting a man whose life was all encompassing, in January 1891 Brigadier General James Rowan O’Beirne received the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government, the Congressional medal of honour, for actions of bravery “beyond the call of duty” during the Civil War.

In retirement he died on February 17, 1917 at his New York residence, 352 West 117^th Street. After his wife before him, Martha S. Brennan, had passed away he was survived only by his daughter, Gertrude Marie. Gertrude remained childless and as a result he has no direct descendants.

His grave at Calvary cemetery in Queens serves us now as a great reminder of possibility, as well as the achievements of ex-patriots. He remains, at once, one of the county’s great sons and a legend to live up to. But impossible, surely, to surpass.

Note – To commemorate the close to 200,000 Irish who fought in the American Civil War plans for a monument and trail connecting over 40 Irish sites of interest are in their formative stages. For information on this and more, go to irishamericancivilwar.com

Department of State, Richmond, September 4, 1863.

Sir: The Secretary of War having relieved you temporarily from service in the army and placed you at the disposal of this Department for the purpose mentioned in our conferences, I now proceed to give you the instructions by which you are to be guided. With this view I copy the following passages of the instructions heretofore given to Lieutenant Capston, who was sent out by this Department in July last on a similar mission to that now confided to you. 

The duty which is proposed to entrust to you is that of a private and confidential agent of this government, for the purpose of proceeding to Ireland, and there using all legitimate means to enlighten the population as to the true nature and character of the contest now waged in this continent, with the view of defeating the attempts made by the agents of the United States to obtain in Ireland recruits for their armies. It is understood that under the guise of assisting needy persons to emigrate, a regular organization has been formed of agents in Ireland who leave untried no method of deceiving the laboring population into emigrating for the ostensible purpose of seeking employment in the United States, but really for recruiting the Federal armies.

The means to be used by you can scarcely be suggested from this side, but they are to be confined to such as are strictly legitimate, honorable, and proper. We rely on truth and justice alone. Throw yourself as much as possible into close communication with the people where the agents of our enemies are at work. Inform them by every means you can devise, of the true purpose of those who seek to induce them to emigrate. Explain to them the nature of the warfare which is carried on here. Picture to them the fate of their unhappy countrymen who have already fallen victims to the arts of the Federals. Relate to them the story of Meagher’s Brigade, its formation and its fate. Explain to them that they will be called on to meet Irishmen in battle, and thus to imbrue their hands in the blood of their own friends, and perhaps kinsmen, in a quarrel which does not concern them, and in which all the feelings of a common humanity should induce them to refuse taking part against us. Contrast the policy of the Federal and Confederate States in former times in their treatment of foreigners, in order to satisfy Irishmen where true sympathy in their favor was found in periods of trial. In the North the Know-Nothing party, based on hatred to foreigners and especially to Catholics, was triumphant in its career. In the South it was crushed, Virginia taking the lead in trampling it under foot. In this war such has been the hatred of the New England Puritans to Irishmen and Catholics, that in several instances the chapels and places of worship of the Irish Catholics have been burnt or shamefully desecrated by the regiments of volunteers from New England. These facts have been published in Northern papers. Take the New York Freeman’s Journal, and you will see shocking details, not coming from Confederate sources, but from the officers of the United States themselves. Lay all these matters fully before the people who are now called on to join these ferocious persecutors in the destruction of this nation, where all religions and all nationalities meet equal justice and protection both from the people and from the laws.

These views may be urged by any proper means you can devise; through the press, by mixing with the people themselves, and by disseminating the facts amongst persons who have influence with the people.

The laws of England must be strictly respected and obeyed by you. While prudence dictates that you should not reveal your agency, nor the purpose for which you go abroad, it is not desired nor expected that you use any dishonest disguise or false pretences. Your mission is, although secret, honorable, and the means employed must be such as this government may fearlessly avow and openly justify, if your conduct should ever be called into question. On this point there must be no room whatever for doubt or cavil.

If, in order fully to carry out the objects of the Government as above expressed, you should deem it advisable to go to Rome for the purpose of obtaining such sanction from the sovereign pontiff as will strengthen your hands and give efficiency to your action, you are at liberty to do so, as well as to invite to your assistance any Catholic prelate from the Northern States known to you to share your convictions of the justice of our cause and of the duty of laboring for its success.

You will, while engaged in the service of this Department , be provided with funds at the rate of £20 sterling per month for your personal expenses. Your passage to and from Europe will be provided at the expense of the Department, and you will receive herewith a letter of introduction to our private agent in London in which, as you perceive, he is instructed to provide at his discretion any small sums that you may need for the disbursement of expenses connected with your mission, such as costs of printing, extra traveling expenses and the like. He will also provide remuneration for your associate from the North, if you can obtain one entirely trustworthy and you find it advisable to secure his aid.

The Department will expect to hear from you on the subject of your duties and to receive a report from you at least once a month, and you can address your communications through the agent above referred to, and by whom they will be forwarded. 

The Department expects much from your zeal, activity, and discretion, and is fully confident that you will justify its anticipations of the good to be effected by your mission. 

You will receive herewith the sum of $1,212.50 in gold, to be applied to the expenses of your voyage and to your salary. You will please send an account to the Department with proper vouchers of the amount spent by you for the voyage to London, and the remaining sum will be retained in payment of your salary till exhausted.

I am very respectfully, etc.,

J.P. Benjamin,

Secretary of State (1)

(1) Official Records Series 2, Volume 3: 893 -895;

References & Further Reading

Official Records Series 2, Volume 3. Proclamations, Appointments, etc. of President Davis; State Department Correspondence with Diplomatic Agents, etc. 

Faherty, William Baranaby S.J. 2002. Exile in Erin: A Confederate Chaplain’s Story: The Life of Father John B. Bannon

Tucker, Phillip Thomas 1992. The Confederacy’s Fighting Chaplain: Father John B. Bannon

Wanted Poster for Surratt, Booth and Herold (Image via Wikipedia)

The night of 14th April 1865 was one that Major James Rowan O’Beirne, Provost Marshal of the District of Columbia, would never forget. President Abraham Lincoln lay dying in William Petersen’s Boarding House, having been shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre. Secretary of State William Seward had been stabbed in his own home, and Vice President Andrew Johnson had only escaped assault due to the loss of nerve of his would be assassin. O’Beirne was now given the responsibility of escorting the Vice President from his lodgings at the Kirkwood House to President Lincoln’s deathbed; this unenviable duty would prove to be only the first of many tasks he would undertake in the coming weeks.

Major James O’Beirne had seen his fair share of the war. As a Captain in the 37th New York Rifles, the Ballagh, Co. Roscommon native had been grievously wounded in the chest, head and right leg at the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville. He somehow survived the ordeal and had risen to become a Major and the Provost Marshal of the District of Columbia.  Although no longer in the front line it was to be at this moment, with the war all but over, that he would receive his most important orders. On the 16th April, with the President dead, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton instructed O’Beirne that he was ‘relieved from all other duty at this time and directed to employ yourself and your detective force in the detection and arrest of the murderers of the President and the assassins who attempted to murder Mr. Seward’.

O’Beirne did not need to be asked twice. Indeed, he had already begun the work shortly after the President’s death. He returned to the Kirkwood House where he discovered the room of George Atzerodt, the man who had failed to attack the Vice President. There he discovered a revolver and ammunition, a bowie knife, a handkerchief belonging to David Herold (who had guided one of the conspirators to William Seward’s house) and a bank book belonging to one John Wilkes Booth. One of the key finds in the room was a map of lower Maryland- the hunt was on. O’Beirne kept a diary of events throughout the investigation.

Booth and Herold had escaped Washington together, and were now in Maryland. So was O’Beirne. He and his team went to the Surratt Tavern in Surrattsville where a lodger, John M. Lloyd, was arrested. Under questioning he revealed that Booth and Herold had stopped there on the night of the assassination. O’Beirne’s next stop was at the house of Dr. Samuel T. Mudd, where Booth, who had broken his leg during his escape was treated. O’Beirne recorded in his diary that Mudd had ‘Served more than two years in the rebel army. Is a black hearted man and possibly was a conspirator. See after him.’ The Irishman knew the assassins would attempt to cross the Potomac and enter Virginia. His diary records ‘Cob Neck is the whole section of land between the Potomac and Wicomico River. Pope’s Creek has been a crossing. The conspirators are there if they have not crossed over to the Virginia side, which examine into and follow up.‘ As the information mounted, he added ‘A boat passed over the river Sunday evening. Young Claggett can tell all about it…Mr. Wills tells me that old man Claggett had a conversation with the two men who went over the river on Sunday and that they said they were refugees from Virginia and had been working for two weeks for Mr. Dent. That they went over once and came back before they went away.’ Further details emerged that a man called Samuel Cox had been cooking provisions and taking them to people hiding in the nearby swamp; this was Booth and Herold. Cox’s foster brother, Thomas Jones, took the assassins to the river so they could row across to Virginia. They effected the crossing on Saturday 22nd April. O’Beirne was close- he wrote ‘send the men over to Mattox Creek and to work their way up and arrest Jones’. A further report recorded in his diary seemed to confirm that the crossing had now taken place: ‘Boy at Mrs. Lewis’s states to the detectives that the two men landing at White Point started off in the direction of King George’s Court House on Sunday after landing’.

O’Beirne was convinced that Booth and Herold had gone into Virginia, and he followed their trail into that State, discovering the boat they crossed in and keeping up the chase as far as Port Royal.  Here, with his men ‘tired out and leg weary’ he returned to Maryland for further orders. In the meantime another report came in that suggested the fugitives had not yet crossed the Potomac. Chief of the National Detective Police La Fayette C. Baker arrived at O’Beirne’s headquarters in Port Tobacco, Maryland where orders were issued for him to follow the lead in Virginia while O’Beirne continued the search in Maryland. It would be Baker and his force who would eventually surround Booth and Herold in Garrett’s Barn on the 26th April, prompting a confrontation in which Herold was captured and Booth mortally wounded. They would be remembered as the men who found Abraham Lincoln’s killer. Having led the chase for so long, it must have been difficult for Major O’Beirne not to be present when Booth was finally run to ground. Recognition in another form was to follow for James O’Beirne; he was breveted Brigadier-General in September 1865, and was later awarded the Medal of Honor for maintaining the line of battle until ordered to fall back at Fair Oaks, Virginia in 1862. However, the Roscommon man should also receive due recognition for the integral role he played in hunting down the most infamous murderer in American history- John Wilkes Booth.

References

Eicher John & Eicher David 2001. Civil War High Commands

New York Times December 7th 1930. A New Version of the Greatest Man Hunt: Major O’Beirne’s Diary, Recently Brought to Light, Describes the Difficulties of the Chase After Lincoln’s Assassination

Oldroyd, Osborn Hamiline & Harris, Thomas Mealey 1901. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln; Flight, Pursuit, Capture, and Punishment of the Conspirators

Ford’s Theatre