Blog
The 11th October 1862 was an auspicious day for those associated with the 69th New York State Militia. It was a little less than 15 months since they had returned– to great fanfare– from the Bull Run battlefield. Though the carnage since had dwarfed it in scale, the symbolism of that “first battle” remained powerful,......
In 1871 Irishman Luke Madden, who had ostensibly been a loyal Union man during the Civil War, made application to the Southern Claims Commission. His home during the conflict had been opposite the city of Vicksburg, on the Louisiana side of the Mississippi River. There he had suffered repeated loss to both sides during the......
As readers are aware, I have long lamented the lack of study and commemoration in Ireland of the hundreds of thousands of Irish emigrants whose lives were forever impacted by the American Civil War. We have made many efforts to see something done on this front, particularly during the 150th anniversary of the conflict, but......
Irish in the American Civil War is fortunate to have Brendan Hamilton as a long-standing contributor to the site. Brendan’s painstaking research and analysis always makes for fascinating reading (see for example here and here). His latest piece is just as intriguing. It follows the remarkable life of Irishman Felix Larkin, who during the Civil War......
As regular readers are aware, my research over the last number of years has focused on identifying and analysing the correspondence of Union Irish soldiers in the American Civil War. Over the course of my work I have read hundreds of letters written to Irish families to inform them of their loved ones’ fate, and......
James Butler was born in Kereen (Aglish), Co. Waterford in 1878. His family were poor– extremely poor. In 1891 his elderly father John, a labourer, died in nearby Dungarvan Workhouse. It was a place James and his family would come to know intimately in the years that followed. The young man’s efforts to provide his......
As regular readers are aware, I devote the bulk of my research time to the study of letters written by Union Irish soldiers during the American Civil War. As many of the stories on the site demonstrate, these documents are often extremely evocative and emotive, opening for us a small window into the lives of......
Large numbers of Irish documents are to be found among the vast collection of 19th century military pension files housed in Washington D.C.’s National Archives. Among the most fascinating are official extracts of 19th century Irish Censuses. Today, the earliest surviving complete Census of Ireland dates to 1901. The 1861 and 1871 Irish Censuses were......
