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. […]

The sheer scale of the American Civil War makes it often impossible to comprehend. The great armies, grand charges and huge casualty figures that typify the conflict make it difficult for us to bridge the gap of time and experience that separates us from those who were there in the 1860s. Narrowing our view to look at […]

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 […]

Although some 170,000 Irishmen served during the American Civil War, it is extremely difficult to gain a picture of what service was like for them across a broad spectrum. This is a symptom of the fact that for the majority of Irish troops their wartime experience occured outside ethnic Irish units. I have been considering […]

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 […]

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 […]

More Irish born men reached the rank of general in the American Civil War than any other foreign nationality. However, there were many more Irishmen who achieved the rank of Colonel without advancing to a more exalted rank. In the first in a new series on Irish in the American Civil War we will be exploring […]