As some readers may be aware from our Facebook site, I (Damian) have a new book being released this April with Louisiana State University Press, titled Green and Blue: Irish Americans in the Union Military, 1861-1865. I spent the Christmas period wrapping up the volume index and checking over the final page proofs, so it is now all systems go for release in a few weeks. This is a book I have wanted to write since very shortly after I began this website in 2010, and it has been a long time in the making. To give you an idea of the book’s focus, here is the description from the LSU Press website:

Damian Shiels’s Green and Blue explores Irish American service in the United States military by analyzing the written correspondence of ordinary rank-and-file soldiers drawn from across the Union’s armed forces. Using a vast and largely untapped collection of letters penned by Irish American combatants to their families during the war, Shiels explains how these enlisted men navigated their duties from multiple perspectives, including how they adapted to and experienced military life, how they engaged with their faith, and how they interacted with the home front. Green and Blue offers the most detailed and intimate picture yet of Irish Americans’ service in the United States military during the Civil War.

I was extremely fortunate that Professor Gary Gallagher, Professor Lesley Gordon and Professor Kevin Kenny were willing to read the book in advance and to offer some comments on it in advance of release, which you can read below. For anyone interested, you can pre-order the book (which significantly helps with getting the book as wide an audience as possible!) either via the LSU site here or on any of the major online book selling platforms. For anyone interested in chatting further about the book or discussing its contents, you can contact me directly at shielsheritage[at]gmail.com.

“Damian Shiels makes a substantial contribution to the literature on Irish participation in the Civil War. His examination of a large body of fresh evidence illuminates the attitudes and actions of common soldiers who served the Union cause in a range of theaters and units. Green and Blue is the obvious first place to explore the topic.” ~Gary W. Gallagher, author of The Enduring Civil War: Reflections on the Great American Crisis

“Green and Blue provides an exceptionally rich portrait of Irish American soldiers and sailors beyond the ‘ethnic’ units that have garnered most of the attention of historians. By surveying these men’s prewar lives, motivations to enlist, and what they and their families endured, this study adds to our broader appreciation of the Civil War soldier experience.” ~Lesley J. Gordon, author of A Broken Regiment: The 16th Connecticut’s Civil War

“Through an extraordinary feat of archival research, Shiels has transformed our understanding of the Irish contribution to the Union war effort. Moving past the familiar narrative of ethnic regiments, he tells the story of the enlisted rank-and-file men, why they fought, and what they thought about race and politics. An original addition to Civil War studies and the history of the Irish diaspora.” ~Kevin Kenny, author of The American Irish: A History