Irish in the American Civil War

Throughout the course of the war the New York Irish-American received regular correspondence from Irishmen serving in the field. These men usually wrote pieces under a pseudonym or using only their initials. Regular reports arrived from Corcoran’s Irish Legion via a correspondent called ‘Fenian’ of the 164th New York ‘Phoenix’ Regiment. On 1st January 1863 he [...]

The ‘green-flag’ units were not the only Union regiments to contain large numbers of Irish within their ranks. Many others contained a substantial contingent of Irishmen, who were just as concerned with affairs amongst their community and at home in Ireland. One such outfit was the 42nd New York Infantry, known as ‘The Tammany Regiment.’ [...]

Gary W. Gallagher’s latest book The Union War focuses much of its attention on the central reason why so many men volunteered to fight in Lincoln’s armies. Slavery caused the war, but for the majority of those in the North it was the preservation of the Union that was the reason for their enlistment. Gallagher highlights how [...]

The first in our ‘Discussion and Debate’ series saw author Jim Swan put forward an article ‘On Stereotyping Irish Soldiers’. Among the works cited in the piece was The Harp and the Eagle: Irish-American Volunteers and the Union Army, 1861-1865, written by Professor Susannah Ural of the University of Southern Mississippi (for a lecture she [...]

In an update on the previous post regarding the upcoming Fág an Bealach docudrama, Tile Films have kindly passed on the schedule information. For viewers in the United States the two episodes will be airing back to back on Smithsonian Networks this coming Thursday 17th March. In Ireland the first episode will be on TG4 on [...]

Tile Films are in the final stages of work on their two part docudrama Fág an Bealach (Faugh a Ballagh/Clear The Way) which focuses on the Irish Brigade. Each programme is 52 minutes in length and has been prepared for TG4 and the Smithsonian Channel USA. Episode One looks at the Brigade at the Battle of [...]

Myles Dungan, a historian and broadcaster who has written a number of books about the Irish military experience, has once again teamed up with Matthew Gilsenan of the Celtic Tenors for ‘The Fighting Irish’, a show which tells the story of Irish migrants to America who sought employment with Uncle Sam in the American armed [...]

Hello and welcome to this new blog dedicated to exploring Irish involvement in the American Civil War. Although the Irish aspect to the conflict is widely recognised in the United States, it is surprisingly little studied in Ireland itself. This blog is intended to discuss different aspects of the American Civil War from an Irish [...]