We are very pleased to publish our first guest post following our call for blog submissions on aspects of Irish American Civil War history. This fascinating analysis about the career, character, and cultural views of Welsh-born Irish 69th Pennsylvania commander Joshua T. Owen has been written by doctoral student Aled Jones, and is the first......
As some of you may be aware, I was away conducting some research at Andersonville National Historic Site as part of the Andersonville Irish Project. It was a really productive trip, and I’m looking forward to sharing some of the results with readers of the site over the coming months. While I was there I......
The U.S. Bureau of Pensions was in a bind. They were unable to verify–or even approximate–the age of one Richard Ewing, a 21-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps who previously served two years in the 25th New York Volunteer Infantry and one year in the Navy during the Civil War. Every one of the......
Back in 2019 I published a feature in History Ireland magazine exploring the importance of the American Civil War in the context of Irish history, and the reasons behind a need to improve on the relative neglect it has suffered in Irish historical circles. The article has now been made freely available to read on......
To the police of Albany, New York, the Small brothers were well-known troublemakers. The two boys, Henry and Stephen, were born in Albany to Irish immigrant parents in the 1840s. Their mother Hannah died when they were little, leaving them in the care of their father Hugh, who kept a grocery business, selling liquor and......
I recently had an opportunity to return to the Irish Stew Podcast for a really interesting discussion with show hosts Martin and John. This episode was a four-way conversation that looked not only at our work on the Andersonville Irish Project, but also that of Professor Jim Walsh on the 19th century Irish miners of......
As the Andersonville Irish Project progresses, we are producing infographics to provide some of the headline details in an easy to digest form. The first of these looked at the initial 350 men identified in the National Cemetery. Having passed the 450 identified milestone, the latest Infographic incorporates what we have learned so far. You......
Back in June I gave an online presentation for the Consulate General of Ireland in Atlanta on the topic of the Andersonville Irish Project. The Consulate have provided invaluable support and assistance to the project thus far as we continue to progress with our database and in sharing our discoveries. The talk has now been......
In the first in an exciting new series exploring fictional figures in Irish American Civil War Songs, Catherine explores the characters of Paddy O’Toole and Mister McFinnigan: Back in June, I was lucky enough to be on a panel about ‘Race, Ethnicity and Memory in the Popular Music of the Civil War’ as part of......
This stereo photograph of three unidentified Federal soldiers and a young African American is, in my opinion, one of the more poignant images of the Civil War. There is so much to ponder here, both in terms of historical detail and symbolic heft. Timothy O’Sullivan, the Irishman credited with having photographed this scene and so......