On a recent trip to Edinburgh I took the opportunity to visit an unusual monument in one of the Scottish capital’s picturesque burial grounds. Within Old Calton Cemetery is a memorial to those Scots who served the Union cause- the...
Much attention is rightly given to those boy soldiers who lied about their age to participate in conflicts such as the American Civil War. However, they were not the only individuals who provided false information to take up arms between...
Michael William Burns was born in Ireland in 1834. He emigrated to the United States at the age of 14, and prior to the outbreak of the Civil War worked as a city inspector and a fireman. It was his...
The first in our ‘Discussion and Debate’ series saw author Jim Swan put forward an article ‘On Stereotyping Irish Soldiers’. Among the works cited in the piece was The Harp and the Eagle: Irish-American Volunteers and the Union Army, 1861-1865,...
Color Sergeant Peter Welsh of the 28th Massachusetts Regiment has become one of the best known members of the Irish Brigade. The publication of his Civil War letters in 1986, under the title Irish Green and Union Blue, revealed the picture of...
Brian K. Burton’s book Extraordinary Circumstances: The Seven Days Battles makes reference to an account of a fascinating incident that occurred at White Oak Swamp Bridge on 30th June 1862, part of the Peninsula Campaign. The Irish Brigade were positioned here as part...
Captain Patrick Clooney of the 88th New York, Irish Brigade, was a native of Waterford. He had served with distinction in the Battalion of St. Patrick during the Papal War in 1860, and travelled to the United States in July 1861....
By 1864 there was very little popular support remaining in Ireland for the American Civil War. Added to this there was a perception (whether real or imagined) that Federal agents were extremely active in the country, either directly recruiting Irishmen...
This third post in the Internet Resources series takes a look at the website of the New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center. The Museum’s mission is to ‘preserve, interpret and disseminate the story, history and records of...
The main purpose of this site is to operate as a resource tool for those interested in the Irish experience of the American Civil War. To that end a new page has been created where the battle reports of wholly...