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Tag Archives: Irish in the Civil War

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

12 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by Janet Maher in Connecticut Irish, Early Irish Catholics in Connecticut, Exhibition, History, New Haven Irish Catholic Immigrants

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Tags

Early Irish History, Irish in Connecticut, Irish in the Civil War

©2011 Janet Maher, Saint Patrick, Maynooth, Ireland

©2011 Janet Maher, Saint Patrick, Maynooth, Ireland

A most happy upcoming Saint Patrick’s Day to all! May your days be full of warmth, wisdom, and good cheer! I’m excited to be able to say that I’ve booked my trip to Ireland in May and am beginning to plan the adventure/pilgrimage. If possible, I may post along the way and share photos here. We’ll see if that develops. If not, I’ll be sure to share my thrills upon return.

Heads up to folks in Connecticut! Robert Larkin, member of the Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society and Cheshire Historical Society, and scholar of the Connecticut Irishmen’s involvement in the American Civil War, with particular emphasis on the Connecticut Ninth Regiment Volunteers, will be giving two excellent talks this Monday and Tuesday.

On Saint Patrick’s Day, Monday, March 17,  he’ll speak about  the Connecticut Ninth at the Mary Taylor United Methodist Church on the Milford Green, 168 North Broad Street, at 7p.m.  This talk will be sponsored jointly by the Milford Historical Society and the Orange Historical Society. Captain Lawrence O’Brien’s artifacts (uniform, sword, writing desk, etc.) will be on display along with other items.

On Tuesday night, March 18, at 7:30 he will be speaking for the Irish History Round Table at the Knights of Saint Patrick Hall, 1153 State Street, New Haven. He “will describe where the population who claim Irish heritage is the largest (USA, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, Argentina and Mexico). The talk will feature statistics as well as selected stories about interesting and famous personalities, including military men, politicians, and entertainers.” Both events are free and open to the public. 

He tells me that at the Knights of Columbus Museum, 1 State Street in New Haven, an exhibit about the Civil War is currently in the planning stage. Although it will not open for another year, initial discussions have focused on possible three dimensional items to include. “As Sgt. James Mullen of the Ninth CT was the first Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, and Lt. Col. John G. Healy of the Ninth CT was the first Grand Knight of Council No. 20,” he is hopeful that information and artifacts from this regiment will be included in the exhibition. He welcomes anyone’s suggestions for other “three dimensional” items to include.

Gach mian leis go maith a thabhairt duit! All good wishes to you!

©2014 Janet Maher / Sinéad Ni Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

 

From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley – Janet Maher Exhibition

03 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by Janet Maher in Book Signing, Early Irish Catholics in Connecticut, Exhibition, Pilgrimage

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Tags

American Mahers, Ancient Ireland, Baltimore, Connecticut, Creative Alliance, Early Irish History, Irish Catholic History, Irish in Connecticut, Irish in the Civil War, Meagher, New Haven County Connecticut

Thank you to all who came out for the book signing/opening Friday night! I was so happy about the turnout and for the experience of working with Ade Tugbiyele, who so generously did the hanging of the work. Please spread the word that the show will be up and the book available at the Creative Alliance, Baltimore, through March 23. Titles are listed below; pigment prints (2013) on Hahnamuhle Photo Rag Matte paper, R1800 Epson printer, sizes are of images. Canvas and wood pieces priced separately. Our governor and his Irish band will be playing there next weekend and we’ll be back for that. Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all!

Wall #1, Book and Selected Ireland Photographs

Wall #1, Book and Selected Ireland Photographs

  • Saint Brigid’s Tree, Kildare, 9 1/8″ x 12 1/8″
  • Ballinakill Cemetery, Laois, 7 7/8″ x 9 1/4″
  • Saint Patrick, Maynooth, 11 3/8″ x 8 5/8″
  • Rebel Monument, Shronell Cemetery, Tipperary, 13″ x 10 1/2″
  • Shronell Cemetery, Tipperary, 9 1/4″ x 13″
  • Tullaroan Cemetery, Kilkenny, 8 11/16″ x 11 1/8″
  • Glenadlough Cemetery, Wicklow, 8 5/8″ x 10 15/16″
  • Our Lady of 1798, Monasterevin, 13 3/8″ x 8 9/16″
  • Dunamase Castle Ruin, Laois, 8 15/16″ x 11 7/8″
  • Black Abbey, Kilkenny, 9 1/16″ x 11 5/8″
  • Donaghmore Workhouse, Laois, 9 7/8″ x 15 1/2″
  • Wall of Legends, Tipperary, 8 5/8″ x 8 11/16″
  • McCarthy’s Grave, Saint Patrick Cemetery, Thurles, Tipperary, 9 1/4″ x 11 11/16″
Wall #2 People Photos

Wall #2 People Photos

  • Mystery Child, 8 14/16″ x 8 3/4″
  • Alice Whalen and Friends, 10 1/8″ x 11 3/16″
  • Frank’s Hack, 5 7/ 16″ x 16 1/2″
  • Dennis Whalen and Friends, 10″ x 16 1/16″
  • Woolen Mill, Naugatuck, ca. 1870, 10 1/8″ x 15 7/8″
  • Three Women, 8 1/2″ x 10 7/16″
  • Katherine and Eliza Maher, ca. 1860, 11″ x 8″
  • Mystery Relatives, 13″ x 9 1/4″
  • Joseph Martin and Grandfathers, 7 1/8″ x 12 3/8″
  • Comrades, 8 1/4″ x 11 5/8″
  • Cousins, 8 1/4″ x 11 9/16″
  • Eliza, 9 7/16″ x 12 3/8″
  • The Boys, Naugatuck, 9 1/4″ x 13 3/8″
  • Fuel Ledger, 9″ x 12 15/16″
  • Actor, 8 13/16″ x 15 7/16″
Mixed media collage paintings; pigment prints w/colored pencil and/or paint on wood or canvas, painted edges, sealed with gel medium

Mixed media collage paintings; pigment prints w/colored pencil and/or paint on wood or canvas, painted edges, sealed with gel medium

  • Weavers #2, 2011, 8″ diameter
  • Cousins, 2009, 8″ diameter
  • Irregulars #6, 2009, 8″ diameter
  • Gem Theatre, 2010, 10″ diameter
  • Debating Team, 2009, 8″ diameter
  • Irregulars #2, 2009, 12″ x 9″ oval
  • Celebration, 2009, 10″ diameter
  • Imagined Ancestors #5, 2011, 8″ diameter
  • Lynch’s Farm #2, 2010, 8″ diameter
  • Weavers, 2010, 8″ diameter
Second half of wall #3, Connecticut

Second half of wall #3, Connecticut

  • Fahy Grave, Saint Francis Cemetery, Naugatuck, 11 3/4″ x 8 11/16″
  • Saint Francis Cemetery, Naugatuck, Section H, 8 3/16″ x 12 3/8″
  • Veterans’ Monument, Saint Bernard Cemetery, New Haven, 10 1/4″ x 11 1/8″
  • Irish Priests’ Graves, Saint Mary’s Cemetery, Ansonia, 13″ x 8 15/16″
  • Visitation, 10 3/4″ x 10 1/4″
  • Harp, Tombstone Detail, Saint Bernard Cemetery, New Haven, 9 1/16″ x 10″
  • Grand Army of the Republic Medalion, Saint Francis Cemetery, Naugatuck, 10 1/8″ x 8 5/8″
  • Bronson Stones, Library Park Wall, Waterbury, 7 3/4″ x 11 3/4″
Ade and me at opening, Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD

Ade and me at opening, Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD

©2013 Janet Maher / Sinéad Ní Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

Studying Stones

09 Sunday Dec 2012

Posted by Janet Maher in Connecticut Irish, Early Irish Catholics in Connecticut, History, New Haven Irish Catholic Immigrants, Ordering From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley, Tombstone Transcriptions

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Tags

Connecticut, Early Irish History, Irish in Connecticut, Irish in the Civil War, Naugatuck Connecticut, New Haven County Connecticut, Saint Francis Cemetery

©1997 Janet Maher, Naugatuck, Connecticut

©1997 Janet Maher, Naugatuck, Connecticut

For those doing family history research it is particularly helpful (and gratifying) to find the grave of someone whose life you have been studying. Research may, thankfully, lead one to the correct cemetery where an official government soldier or sailor’s stone may be found. Someone killed in a war may have been buried in the state where he died. Those who survived a war were usually buried where they later settled and managed to continue on with their lives. Some with notable distinction in American wars were buried in the United States’ Arlington Cemetery. In Ireland, noted individuals are buried in Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery.

In some instances veterans who could have been included in either of these cemeteries might, instead, have been buried with family. One of The Forgotten Ten, Irishman Patrick Maher, of Limerick, who was convicted of helping to rescue  Sean Hogan in 1921, was one of these. He was among the ten executed IRA Volunteers who had been buried in the grounds of Mountjoy Prison since Ireland’s final war for independence from Great Britain. In 2001 these men were exhumed and honored with a public motorcade-led funeral and the reburial of nine of them in Glasnevin Cemetery. Maher was brought home to his family’s plot in Limerick. The nine men buried at Glasnevin were Kevin Barry, Thomas Whelan, Patrick Moran, Frank Flood, Patrick Doyle, Bernard Ryan, Thomas Bryan, Thomas Traynor and Edmond Foley.

Since data is readily available about veterans, it becomes an important means of learning about some individuals. Those who may not wish to study war or issues about religion may nonetheless need to delve into these aspects of someone’s life.  Nineteenth century or earlier “brick walls” in Irish family history research might well have had something to do with religious conflict that led to death or emigration, and emigration often went hand in hand with serving in the military in some regard.

There is a great deal of interest in the phenomenon of the overly large number Irish who served in the American Civil War. Irishman Damian Shiels has been researching this topic for many years and maintaining an excellent blog (see posting below). He has announced that he will soon be publishing a book on the subject, titled after his blog, Irish In the American Civil War. In Connecticut, Bob Larkin has a special Facebook site about the notable Ninth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers in the Civil War, also worth the visit for those interested.

When I studied the graves of Saint Francis Cemetery in Naugatuck, Connecticut, I wondered if the soldiers or the native Irish buried there might have been individuals sought currently by families out of town. Might a relative not be aware of their person’s final resting place in this small borough? Complete transcriptions and many photographs from this cemetery are included in my book, From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley: Early Irish Catholics of New Haven County, Connecticut. For this posting I have excerpted the names of those veterans and native Irish whose graves are in this cemetery:

Naugatuck Veterans in Saint Francis Cemetery

       Flags are replaced each year on known veteran graves in Saint Francis Cemetery, although no list exists for the original set of names. Those whose tombstones cited their war involvement included:

  • James Adamson, Civil War, Co. B, 20th Regt., Connecticut Volunteers
  • George T. Anderson, WW I, EM3C, U.S. Navy
  • Edmund P. Belletti, WW II, Cpl., U.S. Army Air Corps
  • Frank B. Buckmiller, WW II, M Sgt., U.S. Army
  • James J. Claffey, WW I, Co. B, 113th Inf.
  • John P. Coen, Civil War, Co. F, 9th Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers
  • Michael Coen, Civil War, Co. K, 20th Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers
  • Lionell H. Cote, WW II, S2, U.S. Navy
  • Daniel Cullinane, Grand Army of the Republic insignia
  • James R. Dalton, WWII, Sgt., Field Artillery Rep. Dep.
  • John R. Deegan, WW II,  PFC, U.S. Army
  • William M. Dolan, WW I,1st Cook, U. S. Army
  • James Duffin, Civil War, Co. D, 158 Inf., New York Volunteers
  • Thomas Ford, Civil War, Co. H, 15th Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers
  • Michael Fruin, Civil War, Co. H,15th Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers
  • Thomas P. Harper, WW I, 152D Dep. Brig.
  • Horace E. Jones, Civil War, Co. H, Second Connecticut Volunteers, Heavy Artillery
  • Arthur Keefe, Civil War, Co. E 2 Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers
  • Bernard J. Leahy, WW II, RDSN, U.S. Navy
  • Thomas Maher, Civil War, Co. E, U.S. Artillery
  • John A. Martin, WW I, U.S. Navy
  • John William McCarthy, WW I, MM1, U.S. Navy
  • Terrence McLaughlin, WW I., Co K, 53rd Inf.
  • William J. Neary, Jr., WW I
  • John O’Donnell, Civil War, Co. E [7th], Connecticut Volunteers
  • James Thomas Patterson,  WW II, Maj., U.S. Marine Corps.
  • Peter A. Reilly, WW I, 301st M.T. Co.
  • Patrick Ruth, Civil War, Capt., Co. B8, Connecticut Volunteers I

Irish Citations in Saint Francis Cemetery

       While there are many more native Irish buried in Saint Francis Cemetery than those whose tombstones cite their original home, these are the stones that do:

  • From County Cork: James Walsh
  • From County Kerry: James Carroll, Cornelius Shea
  • From County Kilkenny: Nicholas Brennan, John Cuddy, Roland Dalton, John Doolan, Martin Gibbons [likely], Julia Lannen, Patrick McCarthy, William Purcell, Charles Talbot
  • From County Laois: Michael Coen (elder), Eliza Grant, Matthew Maher
  • From County Leitrim: Elizabeth Mulvey, Cornelius Splann
  • From County Limerick: Margaret Burke, Mary Hanley, Julia Quirk, Robert Reardon
  • From County Meath: Ann Murray
  • From County Monaghan: Michael Martin
  • From County Tipperary: William Fruin, Mary Kiely, James Kirwin, William Powers, Maurice Quinlan
  • From County Waterford: Johannah Foley

christmas-swirlsSM

Looking for a Christmas present for someone interested in Irish history, Connecticut Irish, New Haven County, Waterbury and/or Naugatuck? My book may be obtained locally at: Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT; Naugatuck Historical Society, Naugatuck, CT; and Quinnipiac University Bookstore, Mount Carmel Branch, Hamden, CT. Online it may be purchased from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and from me via Paypal or by check (P.O. Box 40211, Baltimore, MD, 21212).

I wish everyone much happiness throughout the holiday season and offer prayers for peace throughout the world in the new year!

©2012 Janet Maher/Sinéad Ní Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

Mahers in the Early Wars

24 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by Janet Maher in Connecticut Irish, Early Irish Catholics in Connecticut, History

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Civil War, Connecticut, Irish in the Civil War, Naugatuck Connecticut, New Haven Connecticut, Soldiers Monuments, Thomas Francis Meagher

  This is an updated version of a page that had been on my 2006/2007 Irish website. Since the time that I created the following digital print from two tintypes in our family’s collection, I have come to believe that they may contain the images of Naugatuck’s Peter Leary and my Martin relatives, James and John, who served in the Spanish-American War, and who died World War I, respectively.

Imagined Ancestors: Irregulars ©2007 Janet Maher, original digital collage, archival inkjet print, Epson pigmented ink, 13″ x 17 1/2″

MAHERS IN THE CIVIL WAR

  Thomas Hamilton Murray’s 1903 History of the Ninth Regiment C. V. The Irish Regiment is online at Quinnipiac University in New Haven, CT, and is also available in print. I have gleaned much of the following information by studying the roster that is included. The Ninth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers was an Irish Regiment of the Civil War that originated in New Haven, Connecticut, in September 1861. Two John Mahers, one from Derby, one from East Windsor, CT, were members of Company E; a Patrick Maher served in Co G; and a James Maher served in Co F.

John Maher, from East Windsor, CT, mustered in with a group from Derby and New Haven, CT, on Sept. 27, 1861. They were joined by others from Derby, New Haven, and a musician from New Orleans in October and November. John Maher from East Windsor died on Oct. 21, 1862. John Maher from Derby, CT, mustered in on Nov. 25, 1861. He died August 14,1862. I find it interesting that several soldiers mustered into the various Connecticut units from Louisiana, where battles were fought between 1862 and 1864. It would appear that some Irish immigrants who had initially settled in the south joined up with their comrades in the North during the war, perhaps to be among their own extended families.

While each company within the Ninth Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Infantry included people from within several Connecticut cities and some in Massachusetts, the cities that predominated in the companies were:

Company A – New Haven, CT (mixed cities); Company B – Meriden, Cheshire, CT (mixed); Company C – New Haven, CT; Company D – Bridgeport, CT; Company E – New Haven, CT (several Derby); Company I – Mixed (several MA); Company F – Waterbury, CT; Company G – Hartford, CT; Company H – Norwich, CT; (No Company J); Company K – Mixed.

On October 12, 1864 many of the soldiers transferred to Company B, Ninth Battalion, including some who had previously transferred to Company K in March.

Major Patrick Maher, New Haven, also mentioned in Joseph Casimir O’Meagher’s publication, Some Historical Notices of the O’Meaghers of Ikerrin, was explained by Neil Hogan to have been intended as major for the Connecticut Ninth, although he ended up in the Twenty-Fourth Regiment instead. (This Patrick Maher was from Cahir, County Tipperary, and information about him is included in a vignette in my book, From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley: Early Irish Catholics in New Haven County.) From statistics Hogan obtained from Murray’s Connecticut Record of Service, Ninth Regiment, he determined that the Ninth Regiment lost the most men of all Connecticut regiments and battalions, almost 250—predominantly from disease—with an additional seventeen captured and two missing in action.

Neil Hogan is the author of the publication, Strong In Their Patriotic Devotion, Connecticut’s Irish in the Civil War. He is also the editor of Shanachie, the newsletter of the Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society, in which information about Irish of New Haven who served in the Civil War was featured for an edition recognizing the 150th Anniversary of the war.

A Soldiers Monument for Naugatuck veterans stands prominently in the center of the Town Green in honor of the Naugatuck, Connecticut residents who served in the Civil War. (Behind the green is Salem School, where our Josephine A. Maher taught and was principal for so many years.) A Ninth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers Monument was erected in 1903 at Bayview Park, New Haven, for which Naugatuck’s Michael P. Coen posed for the sculpture of the standing soldier.

Michael P. Coen, of Queen’s County, Ireland, resident of Naugatuck, Connecticut, from the 1903 souvenir of the unveiling of the New Haven Civil War monument, for which he posed for the image of the soldier, courtesy of Bob Larkin.

ADDITIONAL NINTH REGIMENT & CIVIL WAR LINKS:

• Lieutenant-Colonel John G. Healy provided an in-depth history of this regiment that is housed online. (He was the president of the Monument Committee for the Ninth Regiment C.V. Monument, per the 1903 souvenir. Richard Fitzgibbon was the Chairman, Michael P. Coen was the Secretary-Treasurer; William Gleeson and John E. Healy were also on the committee.)

• See Jim Larkin’s Connecticut website for the Ninth Regiment.

• To find individuals and information about them, see the National Park Service’s Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database. According to this database there were twenty-six Mahers who served in the Union army from Connecticut, five Mahars and five Meaghers. Thomas Maher of Naugatuck, however, served in the Third Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, Company E. He was the O.G. of the Isbell Post division of the Grand Army of the Republic veterans’ group between 1898 and 1900. (Information about him is also included in my book.)

• Damien Shiels, of Ireland, is the owner of a perhaps the best website of all, Irish in the American Civil War.

Capt. John G. Healy, New Haven, CT, Ninth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers, image from 1903 souvenir of monument dedication, courtesy of Bob Larkin.

CIVIL WAR IRISH BRIGADES – THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER

  In July, 1865, before his departure to Montana, where he would become, initially, Secretary of the Territory and, later, Acting Governor, Bridgadier-General Thomas Francis Meagher (Sixty-Ninth New York Infantry) was given a tribute from the officers of the Civil War New York Brigades. Written by Col. James E. McGee, the address stated in part:

“We regard you, General, as the originator of the Irish Brigade, in the service of the United States; we know that to your influence and energy the success which it earned during its organization is mainly due; we have seen you, since it first took the field—some eighteen months since—sharing its perils and hardships on the battlefield and in the bivouac; always at your post, always inspiring your command with that courage and devotedness which has made the Brigade historical, and by your word and example cheering us on when fatigue and dangers beset our path; and we would be ungrateful indeed did we forget that whatever glory we have obtained in many a hard-fought field, and whatever honor we may have been privileged to shed on the sacred land of our nativity, that to you, General, is due to a great extent, our success and our triumphs…  It was signed by his ‘countrymen and companions in arms’:”

P. Kelly, Col. 88th NY Irish Brigade; James Saunders, Capt. 69th NY; R. C. Bently, Lieut-Col. Com’d’g 63rd NY; John Smith, Major, 88th NY; James E. McGee, Capt. Commanding 69th NY; Miles McDonald, 1st Lieut. and Adjt. 63rd NY; Wm. J. Nagle, Capt. Commanding, 88th NY; P.J. Condon, Capt. 63rd N.Y., Co. G; Richard Moroney, Capt. 69th NY; John H. Donovan, Capt. 69th NY; John H. Gleeson, Capt. 63rd N.Y. Co. B; John J. Hurley, 1st Lieut. 63rd N.Y. Co. I; Maurice W. Wall, Capt. & A.A.A. G. Irish Bridgade; Edw. B. Carroll, 2nd Lieut. 63rd N.Y., Co. B; Thomas Twohy, Capt. 63rd N.Y., Company L; James Gallagher, 2nd Lieut., 63rd N.Y., Co. F; John I. Blake, Co. B, 88th NY; John Ryan, 1st Lieut., 63rd N.Y. Co. G; Robert H. Milliken, Capt. 69th NY; Matthew Hart, 2d Lieut. 63rd N.Y., Co. K; Garrett Nagle, Capt. 69th NY; Bernard S. O’Neil, 1st Lieut. 69th NY; John Dwyer, Capt. 63d NY; Matthew Murphy, 1st Lieut. 69th NY; Michael Gallagher, Capt. 88th, NY; Luke Brennan, 2d Lieut., 69th NY; Lawrence Reynolds, Surgeon, 63rd NY; Robert Lafin, 2d Lieut. 69th NY; F. Reynolds, Surgeon, 88th NY; W.L.D. O’Grady, 2d Lieut. 88th NY; Richard Powell, Asst. Surgeon 88th NY; P.J. O’Connor, 1st Lieut. 63rd NY; James J. Purcell, Asst. Surgeon, 63rd NY; Edward Lee, 1st Lieut. 63d NY; Chas. Smart, Asst. Surgeon, 63d NY; Patrick Maher, 1st Lieut., 63rd NY; Richard P. Moore, Capt. 63d N.Y., Co. A; David Burk, Lieut. 69th NY; John C. Foley, Adjt. 88th NY; Martin Scully, 1st Lieut. 69th NY; John W. Byron, 1st Lieut. 88th N.Y., Co. E; Richard A. Kelly, 1st Lieut. 69th NY; D. F. Sullivan, 1st Lieut. & B.Q.M. 69th NY; Joseph M. Burns, Lieut. 88th NY; James I. McCormick, Lieut. Quartr. 63rd NY; James E. Byrne, Lieut. 88th NY; John O’Neil, Lieut. 88th NY; Dominick Connolly, 2nd Lieut. 63rd NY; Wm. McClelland, 2d Lieut. 88th N.Y., Co. G; John J. Sellors, 2d Lieut. 63rd NY; John Madigan, Lieut. 88th NY; William Quirk, Capt. 63rd NY; James I. Smith, 1st Lieut. & Adjt. 69th NY; Patrick Chamber, 1st Lieut. 63rd NY; Edmund B. Nagle, Lieut. 88th N.Y., Co. D; Patrick Callaghan, 1st Lieut. 69th N.Y. Co. G; Patrick Ryder, Capt. 88th NY; P.M. Haverty, Quarter-Master 88th N.Y.

This information is from Brigadier-General Thomas Francis Meagher by Captain W.F.Lyons, published in 1886. The book is Lyon’s glowing testament to the life and character of his close friend, with several of Meagher’s speeches included. Lyons explained that the Sixty-Ninth New York Brigade was one of the first regiments to enter the Civil War and was originally commanded by Colonel Michael Corcoran. Under his leadership the regiment became infamous early on for declining to parade during a New York visit by the Prince of Wales. Lyons explained, “The Sixty-Ninth was composed exclusively of Irishmen, all of whom had experienced the malignity of British rule in Ireland, and some of them being political exiles from their native country. Under these circumstances their refusal to participate in a fulsome ovation to the representative of the British Crown, was heartily sustained by the great majority of the people.”

Thomas Francis Meagher recruited Irishmen for the side of the Union, acknowledging that, as in previous battles in Ireland, it was inevitable that brothers and friends would be paired against one another in this war. Even as there were Irishmen (and Mahers) fighting for the Confederacy, there were many more on the side of the Union. In this book Lyons included many eloquent speeches of Meagher’s, including that in which he, although initially of heavy heart about committing to the war, defended the cause of the Union in retaliation against the South.

According to Lyons, Meagher’s intention had been to assist General Shields on the battleground, not to lead the troops, but he was urged by the officers to be the commander when Shields was on route to Mexico at the same time that the Sixty-Ninth New York troops were eager to go back into battle, even without Shields. President Lincoln conferred Meagher’s rank on Feb. 3, confirmed by the Senate. In this way Meagher joined the military and commanded a three month campaign, fighting alongside his men, “the first into battle and the last out.”

Lyons described the many battles in great detail, noting the accolades that followed them for the bravery and conduct of the troops. Among the battles:  Fair Oaks, Battle of Mechanicsville, Gaines’ Mill, Battle of Peach Orchard, Battle of White Oak Swamp, Battle of Glendale, Malvern Hill, Antietam (fourteen hours long), and the final battle of Chancellorsville and Scott’s Mills. About the last battle Lyons wrote, “Reduced in numbers from its once flourishing condition, it presented now not men enough to comprise a regiment. From the first moment that it became a component part of the Army of the Potomac it shared every danger, and participated in almost every conflict.”

(There is also a section about Thomas Francis Meagher in my book, From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley: Early Irish Catholics in New Haven County.)

OTHER WAR/CONFLICT-RELATED MAHER LINKS:

Daniel J. Meagher, Civil War, 5th NY, Co H

John William Meagher, Medal of Honor, WWII

Tipperary War Dead

Jack Wilson’s List of Mahers and Meaghers Sent to Australia

Irish Rebels to Australia 1797-1806

Irish Convicts to  New South Wales 1791-1834

Tithe Defaulters

Release of Mrs. Meagher, Ballingarry

 

©2012 Janet Maher/Sinéad Ní Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley: Early Irish Catholics In New Haven County, Connecticut

11 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by Janet Maher in Connecticut Irish, History, Kilkenny Mahers, New Haven Irish Catholic Immigrants, Origins, Pilgrimage, Thoughts, Tombstone Transcriptions

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

American Mahers, Ancient Ireland, Brennan, Early Irish History, Irish Catholic History, Irish in Connecticut, Irish in the Civil War, Irish Meaghers, Irish pilgrimage, Milesian Genealogy, Naugatuck Connecticut, New Haven County Mahers, Patrick Maher, Saint Bernard Cemetery, Tombstone Transcriptions

©2012 Janet Maher, From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley, books at home; image: Katherine Maher Martin and Eliza Maher, ca 1850s

©2012 Janet Maher, From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley, books at home; image: Katherine Maher Martin and Eliza Maher, ca 1850s

First thing I did when I got the proof was to take pictures of it, then bring it into my department and show it to my colleagues, who then immediately got to hold it. Not exactly like having a baby, but pretty exciting, nonetheless.

The first mention in the press is out, on the Naugatuck Patch! The book is in the process of being offered on the Amazon website, and will also be available through Amazon.uk.

Hope to see some of you on June 21. Huge news is that Jane Lyons is flying all the way over from Ireland to be there! We’ll be going to the Irish Festival in New Haven that weekend too!

Wishing you all well,

Janet

©2012 Janet Maher/Sinéad Ní Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

Miscellaneous Thoughts, Links.1

22 Monday Aug 2011

Posted by Janet Maher in Connecticut Irish, History, New Haven Irish Catholic Immigrants, Thoughts

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Irish Catholic Immigrants, Irish in the Civil War, Irish Online Links, Links, Saint Bernard Cemetery, Saint Joseph Cemetery

Civil War Graves, Saint Bernard Cemetery, New Haven, CT

Civil War Monument and Cluster of Tombstones, Saint Bernard Cemetery, West Haven, CT

I’m learning daily about blogging and about Word Press, which I find very user-friendly. I’m really happy to be with them! My “Dashboard” shows addresses of web sites that have referred mine, and it’s terrific to see that people are finding me and making comments. With school about to begin I will not be able to post as regularly as I have, but will try for once a week. “Miscellaneous Thoughts,” can be a way to fill in between more indepth pieces.

• Mashpedia has listed MaherMatters on their page about Ikerrin. They also linked a blog by Malcolm Redfellow, who included some text and images from Joseph Casimir O’Meagher’s book. Redfellow discovered an anonymous article in Antiquary (Vol. XIV, July-December, 1886) that is included in O’Meagher’s Some Historical Notices of the O’Meaghers of Ikerrin. He determined that it was attributed to Andrew Carnegie, leading one to wonder – in a chicken and egg manner – who wrote it? Did Carnegie see O’Meagher’s work before it was published and anonymously publish it first in Antiquary magazine, or did O’Meagher include Carnegie’s piece in his work that Dr. William O’Meagher entered into the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. in 1890? My bet is on O’Meagher as the author, but we may never know. The Antiquary article can be found online, pages 101-108.

• The links I include in my postings are ones I have found on my own and recommend. Most sites that I had included in my three pages of links (and more within other pages) on my first Maher and Ireland-related website are still active and I recommend looking at them. I think “Ireland’s History In Maps” is a particularly invaluable one. I have already mentioned Jane Lyons’ From Ireland web site, which is chock full of helpful information, but I also want to point out another for which I included a link in a previous post – Pat Connor’s, Connor’s Genealogy. He also extracts information from microfilms and continues to add resources. Mahers can be found in his Tithe Applotments Lists for Tipperary, Kilkenny and Laois and in Famine Emigration, Castlecomer Area, Kilkenny. There is much more there that I should also look at! (When such index extractions seem relevant to one’s own research, the next step would be to rent the microfilm and translate the handwriting yourself to ensure that you see the same thing the indexer did.)

• I have discovered two excellent blogs through my involvement with Word Press. One is called A Silver Voice From Ireland, loaded with interesting and eclectic Irish topics. The author recently announced news about another find of an ancient body in a Tipperary bog.

• An amazingly rich resource for those interested in the participation of the many Irish in the American Civil War is Damien Shiels’ blog. Jim Larkin, in Connecticut, has a website about the Ninth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers in the Civil War. His father, Bob Larkin, was instrumental in the erection of a monument honoring soldiers who died at Vicksburg. Larkin is also responsible for gathering together the volunteer group who are currently transcribing Irish tombstones in Saint Bernard Cemetery, West Haven, Connecticut. They have already found more than 500!

• As was the case with Silas Bronson Library, in Waterbury, Connecticut, built on what had been the earliest Waterbury cemetery,* it has been discovered that Yale New Haven Hospital was built on top of the site of the first Catholic Church in New Haven. By covering up the footprint of Christ’s Church, the first cemetery was also buried. Howard Eckels and others are working to document burials in this location before Saint Bernard Cemetery** began to be used. That all this good work is being done in New Haven is a monumental step in preserving and noting the important legacy of Irish Catholic emigration to New Haven County in the years before, during and after the Great Famine.

• Neil Hogan, editor of Shanachie, the newsletter of the Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society (of which I am a member) has told me that Sacred Heart University, in Bridgeport/Fairfield, which offers a degree in Irish Studies, has put the archive of Shanachie online. They have also included his excellent book, ‘Strong In Their Patriotic Devotion,’ Connecticut Irish in the Civil War, which I see that Damien Shiels has listed in his own resource of books. (When I get the correct link for the SHU resources, I’ll add them.)

• The topic of the Civil War came up in a comment someone recently posted here. I mentioned Major Patrick Maher, about whom Neil Hogan wrote, and about whom I will add a post, having gone to Cahir, Tipperary, on our recent trip specifically to look for his family’s graves. Some of what I’ve already written in relation to Mahers in the Civil War and about Thomas Francis Meagher can be found here. Major Maher, a stone mason/builder, is also mentioned in a New Haven website, Irish In New Haven.

• For some lovely reveries about Irish ancestors and ancestry and for those particularly interested in County Clare, see That Moment in Time, by Crissouli from Australia.

* When I put up my first Irish-oriented web site I did not include my Maher transcriptions. I did, however, quietly include some images. In the composite image header at the top of this page (Saint Bernard Cemetery), center, the tall brown monument is the tombstone of Catherine Strang Maher, wife of Stephen Maher, about whose lineage I am currently writing. The tombstone by the tree in the far right image is that of Catherine Maher, of Templetouhy, Tipperary, her husband Thomas Maher, Tipperary, and Michael, whom we believe to have been relatives of Bob Larkin.

** In the composite image header at the top of this page (Old Saint Joseph Cemetery), far left is the tombstone of a Maher couple from Templemore, Tipperary. At the far right is the stone of William Maher and siblings, from Queen’s County (Laois).

©2011 Sinéad Ní Mheachair (Janet Maher)

All Rights Reserved

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From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley

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