Drill is the basis of the perfection of the soldier as a military machine. Its object is to ensure that, through the habit acquired by constant exercise, a certain action of the soldier shall instantly and almost mechanically follow on...
As I am on a brief visit back to my former home of Midleton, Co. Cork at present, I thought for our next post we might take a look at some work I have undertaken on local men who served...
On October 15th, 1861, as the young Army of the Potomac was busy preparing for future campaigning, Brigadier General John H. Martindale rode out to Hall’s Hill, Virginia, to inspect a regiment that had recently been added to the brigade...
This is the second part in a series of articles by myself and several guest contributors, chronicling the lives of several related Hamilton emigrants from County Tyrone. While Part 1 explored the emigration and early career of William Hamilton, Part...
Although American Civil War Roundtables are widespread in the United States, they are much thinner on the ground across the Atlantic. Somewhat surprisingly, despite the scale of Irish involvement in the conflict, there is no dedicated group in Ireland that...
This is the first part in a series of articles by myself and several guest contributors, chronicling the lives of several related Hamilton emigrants from County Tyrone. While our first subject, William Hamilton, fought in the American Civil War, the...
We Have Them On Our Own Ground: Zouaves at Gettysburg by Shaun C. Grenan, Illustrated by Mark Maritato. Independently Published. 92pp. 2021. I’ve long held a peculiar fascination with Zouaves, which is possibly rooted in a story my Great Uncle...
Within the files of Irish Americans who died during the American Civil War, certain engagements crop up again and again. As a general rule, the very worst battlefields of the war for Irish Americans were those that took the greatest...
This March I delivered a short talk for the CelticMKE St. Patrick’s Day at Home Festival. I concentrated on how units such as the Irish Brigade and the 9th Massachusetts celebrated St. Patrick’s Day during the American Civil War, with...
The new post comes from regular contributor Brendan Hamilton, who needs no introduction on the site. It brings another insight into Brendan’s fantastic and pioneering research on the boys from the North’s Houses of Refuge who found themselves in Union...