Meagher travel diary Part 10 – Fredericksburg

Site of First Bull Run battlefield with the rebuilt Henry House, near Manassas, Virginia.

After an overnight stay near Harpers Ferry, I drove back to Virginia to see more battlefield sites associated with Thomas Francis Meagher. First I visited the site of First Bull Run, the 1861 battle that was the first major engagement of the war in the Eastern Theatre. War was so novel and so exciting that spectators came out from Washington to enjoy the spectacle. After an early Union success, the Rebels turned the tide at the Henry House (where Thomas Jackson earned his Stonewall nickname) and won the day, sending the Union army and its hapless spectators fleeing back to the capital. The outcome shocked the north and Meagher, then part of the 69th New York regiment, returned home to raise 3000 troops for what would become the Irish Brigade.

Fredericksburg before the civil war.

My next stop was Fredericksburg, Virginia halfway between Washington and Richmond. At this town of 5000 people on the Rappahannock River, the Union and Rebels fought a battle between December 11-15, 1862, mainly on Saturday, December 13. It was among the ten bloodiest battles of the entire war but was disastrous for the union which suffered enormous casualties in the one-sided battle. Like at Antietam three months earlier, the Irish Brigade was in the heart of the action and suffered grievous damage with profound consequences for the army career of its leader, Brigadier General Thomas Francis Meagher.

Army engineers move pontoon boats towards Fredericksburg.

Apart from its tactical value and its road and rail links, Fredericksburg was important symbolically as a colonial settlement where many grand Virginians traced their lineage – including Robert E. Lee and presidents George Washington and James Monroe. Lincoln sacked army leader George McClellan after Antietam and new leader Andrew Burnside’s plan was sound, but complex in timing. Its success would depend on perfect execution – something missing from union assaults so far in the war. The plan relied on bridging the river with pontoon boats which were delayed a month allowing Lee time to fortify his defences overlooking Fredericksburg, on the hill called Marye’s Heights.

Army formations ahead of the battle.

Bridge building began on December 11 interrupted constantly by shells from Rebel artillery. That night Union forces crossed the river to seek shelter in the town centre. The Irish Brigade crossed under bombardment on December 12 and slept an uneasy night near the town docks under heavy artillery fire. The Confederates waited above on the high ground. Just like at Antietam the Irish Brigade would have to contend with a sunken road. The sunken road at Marye’s Heights was concealed by a stone wall and behind it were Confederate infantry who told commanders “a chicken could not live in that field once we open up on it.”

Some of the reconstructed stone walls of Fredericksburg’s sunken lane.

Union forces were ordered to undertake a suicidal charge of the Heights. The first wave was cut down by repeated rifle volleys 100m from the stone wall. A second and third wave charged across the field strewn with the injured and dying. They met a similar fate, with 50 percent casualties. Meagher sent his men on next. The Brigade’s Derry-born private William McCarter said they were within 200 metres of the rebel rifle pits at the stone wall “where a blinding fire of musketry met them in the face”. The Irish rushed forward through a fence past the bodies of dead Union soldiers but were still 50 metres below the stone wall. As Thomas F. Galway of Ohio said the “poor glorious fellows” got no further. “They try to go beyond, but are slaughtered.”

Graves in the Fredericksburg battlefield cemetery.

McCarter said Meagher was severely injured by a cannon ball and “carried off the field”. Meagher’s own report said it was a flare-up of an earlier injury. Meagher complained of an ulcer of the knee joints “trudging up the ploughed fields as well as my lameness would permit me”. He retreated to get his horse, against General Hancock’s order for the assault to proceed on foot. Meagher could no longer be with his men as he promised when the “battle was the fiercest”.

Cannon looks down on the battlefield from the top of Marye’s Heights.

Up ahead Captain Robert Nugent took command as the 69th and 88th reached a house in front of the wall. They were mown down as they climbed into the field beyond it. “It was a living hell from which escape scarcely seemed possible,” Nugent wrote, before he too was wounded and carried off. Survivors of the 69th and 88th retreated as the 28th Massachusetts and 63rd New York came forward into the melee. They were beaten back by intense small arms fire described as a “withering sheet of flame”. Men lay piled in all directions. What was left of the Irish Brigade began to retreat.

Stone wall and Fredericksburg town as seen from the top of Marye’s Heights.

Meagher remounted and started back when he ran into remnants of the 63rd and 69th fleeing the field. They held their spot until ordered to fall back towards a field hospital in town. His remaining men were still badly exposed and Meagher decided to take them out of the city. Meagher admitted he exceeded his orders because of the “terrible accidents to which the wounded of my brigade, lying bleeding and helpless there in those menaced hospitals, were exposed.” His superior General Hancock was initially furious but was later satisfied with Meagher’s explanation. 

The Brompton House on top of the hill was the headquarters of the 3rd South Carolina Infantry during the battle and in 1864 became a union hospital.

There were 14 assaults against the wall that day and all 14 failed. None got closer to the wall than the Irish Brigade. Illustrated London News correspondent Frank Vizetelly was an awestruck observer of the battle on the Confederate side. “From where I stood, with General Lee and Longstreet, I could see the grape, shell and canister from the guns of the Washington artillery mow great avenues in the masses of the Federal troops rushing to the assault, while the infantry, posted behind the breastwork, just under the battery, decimated the nearest columns of the enemy,” Vizetelly wrote. The 28th Massachusetts carried the Irish Brigade’s distinctive green and gold flag which made its charge easy to follow from start to terrible finish. 

Remaining sections of the original wall looking east.

That day, the Union suffered 13,000 casualties, 6000 in front of the wall, while the rebels lost only 4000. Before Fredericksburg, the Irish Brigade had 1200 men. After the bloodbath, it had less than 300 active soldiers. All night the moaning and cries of the wounded rang across Fredericksburg. Captain David Conyngham said it was not a battle but “a wholesale slaughter of human beings – sacrificed to the blind ambition and incapacity of some parties.” The following morning a Rhode Island soldier observed shattered elements of the Irish Brigade wandering about the streets and saw Burnside himself clasping the hand of a weeping Meagher. A day later a new flag arrived for the Brigade giving Meagher the excuse to host what became known as the “death feast” amid continuing bombardment. Though his speech at the banquet was never published, his biographer Cavanagh said Meagher was bitter about the sacrifices his men made.

Site of the Chancellorsville battlefield, May 1863.

After I finished at Fredericksburg I stopped in at nearby Chancellorsville site of a May 1863 battle which was Meagher’s final battle as leader of the Brigade. After Fredericksburg Meagher tried in vain to get furlough for his battered Brigade as he rested in hospital with own injury. He came back to his troops who suffered again at this battle, which was another triumph for Lee (though he lost Stonewall Jackson, accidentally killed by his own side). The defeat and more heavy losses left the Brigade with barely a couple of hundred men and Meagher handed in his resignation. It was surprisingly accepted and Meagher almost instantly regretted it. His men also regretted it calling him their greatest leader, maintaining affection for him for the rest of the war. Though the Brigade stayed intact and saw action at Gettysburg and back at Chancellorsville for the bloody battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania in 1864, it never recovered its pre-Fredericksburg strength. Arguably the same is true for Meagher. Although he got a command in Tennessee in late 1864 he had mixed success and he never led his beloved Irish into battle again.

Detail of the Irish Brigade charge at the Battle of Fredericksburg.

See part 9 here.

Meagher travel diary part 9 – Antietam battlefield

Thomas Francis Meagher was a reluctant recruit to Lincoln’s war against the south. When in February 1861 his father-in-law Peter Townsend called the Southerners rebels at the dinner table, Meagher indignantly replied, “You cannot call eight millions of white freemen ‘rebels,’ sir; — you may call them ‘revolutionists’ if you will.” But when the “revolutionists” attacked Fort Sumter that April, Meagher signed up for the north and raised his own company of zouaves (named for the French North African force renowned for their bright uniforms and agile fighting style). At the battle of First Bull Run on July 21, 1861, they were attached to the 69th New York led by Michael Corcoran. The day seemed to be going well for the Union until Rebel general Thomas Jackson set an example by holding the fiercely contested Henry House like a “stonewall”. Though the 69th performed bravely, Corcoran was captured and the Rebels sent the Yankees fleeing from the field.

Statue of Thomas Stonewall Jackson at Bull Run Battlefield.

The defeat showed the North it would be a long war and Lincoln called for more volunteers. With Corcoran out of action, Meagher led efforts to raise an Irish Brigade. Lincoln appointed Meagher Brigadier General to lead the Brigade of roughly 1200 men. Lincoln also roused new commander George McClellan to fight the May-July Peninsular Campaign. Though McClellan’s army got within four miles of Rebel capital Richmond, new Confederate leader Robert E. Lee repelled them and retaliated with his own invasion of the north in September. Lincoln sacked McClellan only for his replacement John Pope to do an even worse job at Second Bull Run, another disastrous defeat. McClellan was restored with orders to follow Lee’s army to Maryland. The two grand armies met near Antietam Creek near the small town of Sharpsburg (the south called battles by the town name, while the Union preferred to name them by creeks or other features, hence the battle on September 17, 1862 was known as either Antietam or Sharpsburg).

I went to Antietam battlefield site on Monday and it is a massive area. Antietam was really three separate battles on the same day. That was one of the Union faults with McClellan unable to coordinate the three attacks allowing Lee to marshal forces wherever he needed on the day. The first battle was at the northern end of the field near the Dunker Church. The Dunkers were a Pacifist German sect who got their name for the way they dunked their baptismal candidates in streams. They were so minimalist that even a spire was too fancy for their church, which now was a hotbed of battle.

The Dunker Church, Antietam.

General Hooker’s men were marching towards the church when they saw enemy soldiers hiding in a cornfield with their bayonets glinting in the sun. Rebel Brigadier General John Hood’s shock Texas troops were ordered to drive Hooker’s men from the cornfield. Here was the first serious number of casualties as federal gunners shelled the cornfield and gave advancing rebels canister at close range. McClellan called forward Major General Edwin Sumner’s troops to support the attack on the church and the West Woods. But the defence held on against piecemeal attacks. Serious fighting on this front ended in impasse around 1pm.

The cornfields north of Dunker Church.

The Irish Brigade was involved in the second phase of the day. They were part of Israel Richardson’s division in Sumner’s corps whose orders were to take a sunken farm lane behind Dunker Church defended by DH Hill’s division. The Brigade was having breakfast when the order came through to march forward. At 9am Meagher’s men were ordered to cross the Antietam Creek at Pry Ford, wading through water up to their waist lifting up cartridge boxes to keep the ammunition dry. Their orders were to go in “double quick” on a full run. They rushed over the creek and sheltered on the other side under an escarpment. Once they went forward again they were subject to musket fire. Richardson led the party under the cover of rising ground and ordered them to stop at a cornfield. Some 150 yards ahead lay a turnpike with a sunken lane which was a naturally strong defensive position. The place became known as “Bloody Lane”. French and Richardson’s Union divisions attacked the lane from around 9.30am but made no headway. The Union soldiers could not see the lane until right upon it. Brigadier-General Nathan Kimball noted the narrow road “washed by water, forming a natural rifle pit between my line and a large cornfield” where he found the enemy “in great force”.  

The Sunken Road known as Bloody Lane. The observation tower was added after the war.

Meagher’s orders were to capture a bend in the sunken road. His men faced a “galling fire” but they were first to reach a snake fence and tore it down. “Boys, raise the colours and follow me,” Meagher shouted. Fifty yards from the enemy they charged towards the lane into murderous fire. Though some reached the road and engaged in hand-to-hand combat, Meagher said his men could go no farther. Captain William O’Grady of the 88th said bullets whistled over them as they passed their general. “The Bloody Lane was witness of the efficacy of buck-and-ball at close quarters…our two right companies were simply slaughtered,” O’Grady recalled. Dead men overflowed from whole stretches of Bloody Lane. Meagher cried out for relief from Colonel Francis Barlow, “For God’s sake, come and help me!” As the Irish Brigade ran out of ammunition, Barlow finally moved in and what was left of the Brigade retreated to a ridge. Meagher’s horse was shot from under him and he was concussed and dragged from the field. Though the Rebels finally retreated from Bloody Lane, the second battle of the day ended in stalemate. 

Irish Brigade monument at Bloody Lane.

The third and final phase of Antietam was at Rohrbach Bridge (later renamed Burnside Bridge), a picturesque crossing over Antietam Creek built in 1836 to connect Sharpsburg with Rohrersville to the south. For three hours Confederate General Robert Toombs and 500 Georgia soldiers held back three Federal assaults made by General Ambrose Burnside’s much larger Ninth Corps yielding only when the force became overwhelming. However the Confederates were saved by the arrival of AP Hill’s Division fresh from victory at Harper’s Ferry. Hill’s report read they arrived “not a moment too soon” and they stabilised the defence. The third and final phase of the battle ended in another stalemate.

Burnside Bridge.

Antietam was a drawn outcome and Lee’s forces withdrew back over the Potomac to Virginia a day later. But it was enough of a boost for Lincoln to declare the Emancipation Declaration promising to free slaves from the Confederate states. For Meagher and the Irish Brigade, it was another stern examination of their reputation as fierce fighters and their losses were great. The tests would only get greater as the year ended with the disaster at Fredericksburg in Virginia.

See part 8 here.

The other side of the Irish Brigade monument at Antietam.

Meagher travel diary part 8 – Lincoln’s Washington

I didn’t stay long in New York though I’ll be back again next week. On Friday, I took an Amtrak train down to Washington DC, an easy four hour journey, and I’ll be in the capital for most of the week, with a two-day trip to Civil War eastern theatre battlefield sites. As I exited Union Station I could see the Capitol building directly south and I checked it out for a closer visit that afternoon. Though central sections date to 1800 and was partially rebuilt after the British burning of Washington in 1814, the massive dome was not complete at the time of Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration in 1860. It replaced an earlier dome removed in the 1850s and Lincoln wanted the work to continue as a sign normal life would go on despite the conflict. The statue of freedom crowned the new dome in 1863.

Capitol building.

Afterwards I walked down the National Mall past many splendid buildings towards the Washington Monument, a huge obelisk of marble, granite, and bluestone gneiss. Though construction began in 1848, it was unfinished in Lincoln’s time and took almost four decades to complete. At 170m it is the world’s tallest obelisk and was the tallest structure in the world for five years between 1884 and 1889 until overtaken by the Eiffel Tower. George Washington was acknowledged as the greatest leader of the revolution and served the first two terms of the office of president. However he was identified with the Federalist Party and after his death in 1799, they lost control of the national government to the Jeffersonian Republicans, who were reluctant to celebrate the hero of the opposition party. It took nearly a century before Washington became a national hero who could be celebrated by North and South.

Washington Monument.

The following day I visited another early leader’s monument, the Jefferson Memorial. Thomas Jefferson was third president after Washington and John Adams and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. A Virginian like Washington, Jefferson owned hundreds of slaves though he spoke out against the international slave trade and outlawed it while president. He allowed slavery in the newly-purchased Louisiana Territory hoping to prevent slave uprisings in Virginia and stop South Carolina from seceding. Jefferson was worried the extension of slavery in the west would destroy the union. The 1820 Missouri Compromise admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state to keep the balance in the Senate where each state elected two senators regardless of size. The compromise prohibited slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of 36° 30´ latitude. In an 1820 letter to one of Maine’s new senators, he wrote: “we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go.” The North-South split on the issue worsened as the century progressed leaded to southern secession after Lincoln’s election.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial.

In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise allowing people in those new territories to determine if they would allow slavery or not. Arguably the Civil War started in “Bleeding Kansas” which was flooded by pro-slavery “border ruffians” and anti-slavery “free-staters” who fought each other to influence the vote. Lincoln was a Whig, a party breaking up along north-south lines, who now looked to the new Republican Party for a solution. Though not an abolitionist, Lincoln inherited a belief from his Baptist father that slavery was immoral. He made a sharp distinction between his personal wish that “all men everywhere could be free” and his duties as a legislator and president in a legal system that recognised the South’s right to property in slaves. No such obligations were due to the territories and he was determined to maintain a distinction between “the existing institution and the extending of it”. Lincoln greeted the Kansas-Nebraska Act with horror and his oratory on the slavery question made him a national figure. Meagher too walked a fine line between his dislike of slavery and the need to keep the union intact.

White House, northern view.

In 1860 Lincoln was less well known than the other main Republican candidates William Seward and Salmon Chase but he outflanked them by seeking the nomination on a platform of stopping the spread of slavery into the territories. Lincoln was everyone’s second choice. Seward’s speech of a looming “irrepressible conflict” against slavery annoyed moderate Republicans as much as the south while Chase was too radical. On February 27, 1860 Lincoln spoke at the New York Cooper Institute where he accused the south of trying to destroy the government unless it prevailed on “all points in dispute between you and us”. His speech was covered in newspapers and elevated Lincoln to national prominence. At the May convention in Lincoln’s home state of Illinois he was nominated on the third ballot. The presidential election was a four way contest after Democrat president James Buchanan stepped aside. Like most Irishmen, Meagher supported Northern Democrat candidate Senator Stephen Douglas but Southern Democrats put forward their own candidate, Kentuckyian John Breckinridge, who pledged to support the right of slaveholders to bring slaves into all territories. The split allowed Lincoln to carry the election. Lincoln did not appear on the ballot of the Southern states while Breckinridge got no votes in the north. Lincoln won 54 percent of the northern vote and 40 percent of the vote overall. It translated into an easy electoral college victory with 180 votes compared to 113 for the other three candidates combined. 

The Lincoln Memorial.

Lincoln’s election immediately set off a round of secession and by April 1861 the new Confederacy had attacked federal Fort Sumter to start the war. Lincoln was widely expected to be a weak president, putty in the hands of experienced Seward and Chase whom he appointed into his cabinet. He immediately called for a large army and Thomas Francis Meagher was among the volunteers. Lincoln appointed him brigadier-general of the Irish Brigade in early 1862 for his Irish recruiting skills. After the battle of Antietam, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Declaration which changed the meaning of the war from saving the union to ending slavery. Though the war dragged on for nearly three more years, Lincoln solidified his position in cabinet as outright leader with the support of Seward who recognised his greatness (Chase schemed against him until 1864 when he was ousted and appointed Supreme Court Chief Justice). Lincoln’s oration at the commemoration of the battle of Gettysburg is one of two speeches listed in full in the Lincoln Memorial.

Lincoln statue.

It wasn’t certain Lincoln would be re-elected in 1864 until news arrived of Sherman’s victory at Atlanta. Although Meagher was a Democrat, he recognised Lincoln’s greatness and campaigned for him to the disgust of Meagher’s Irish Democrat base. Lincoln’s second inaugural speech after his victory that year is the other speech on the walls of the Memorial. If anything, it is an even-better crafted speech than the Gettysburg Address where Lincoln looks towards the future “with malice toward none with charity for all… to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” When he was assassinated 41 days later, Meagher was among the honour guard mourning the Great Emancipator.

Meagher travel diary part 7 Green-Wood cemetery New York

After a week in Montana it was time to head to the east coast. I had a long travel day ahead, flying Helena – Denver – New York, made longer by an uncooperative plane with a fuel leak that caused a delay of almost three hours in Denver. But eventually we flew into La Guardia Airport in Queens with great views of Manhattan Island as we descended. Thomas Francis Meagher lived in New York after his escape from Tasmania in 1852 until his departure to Montana in 1865 but it is what happened here later concerning him that is my first priority.

Manhattan from the air.

I took a subway via Brooklyn into Manhattan and walked a couple of blocks to my hotel in the Bowery area of downtown. It was close to Chinatown so a good spot for excellent food. After an early start that morning in Helena and little sleep the previous night, I slept like the proverbial log and got ready for my Meagher assignment the following morning. That was to Green-Wood cemetery back in Brooklyn. Looking at the map it was 90 minutes away on foot via the nearby Manhattan Bridge.

View from the Manhattan bridge.

There were great views of lower Manhattan from the bridge approach with the World Trade Center in the background. The last time I was in New York was in September 1991 when I went to the observation deck at WTC2 (South Tower). I grieved with the rest of the world when both towers were obliterated almost exactly 10 years later. I’ll take a closer look at the new building next week. Another famous structure viewable in the distance was the Statue of Liberty seen here behind the Brooklyn Bridge.

Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge.

The idea for the statue emerged in 1865 at the end of the civil war as a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States but took another 20 years to happen. French sculptor Frédéric Bartholdi designed it and Gustave Eiffel built its metal framework. The statue was built in France, shipped in crates, and assembled on the completed pedestal on Bedloe’s Island (later renamed Liberty Island). New York’s first ticker-tape parade marked its completion with president Grover Cleveland dedicating the monument. The statue features Libertas, the robed Roman goddess of freedom, who holds a torch above her head with her right hand, and in her left hand carries tablet inscribed July 4, 1776 in Roman numerals, the date of the Declaration of Independence. A broken shackle and chain lie at her feet, commemorating the national abolition of slavery.

Green-Wood cemetery entrance.

My journey took me a long way down Smith St through central Brooklyn into a more gritty industrial area. Finally I arrived at the magnificent entrance of Green-Wood cemetery. Green-Wood was founded in 1838 as a rural cemetery during rapid urbanisation when New York churchyards became overcrowded. Its public park grounds were so popular it inspired a competition to design Central Park in Manhattan, as well as Prospect Park nearby. Among many famous residents buried here are Samuel Morse, William “Boss” Tweed, Lola Montez and American civil war general Henry Halleck.

Meagher monument Green-Wood.

But it was another Union general I was here to see. Meagher has no burial ground as his body was never found. His second wife Elizabeth Townsend Meagher was buried here in the Townsend family plot when she died in 1906, aged 75. Libby Meagher was a member of a wealthy family that owned the Townsend Iron Foundry near West Point. They forged the iron chain that was stretched across the Hudson River during the Revolutionary War, preventing British war ships from passing upstream. In 2008 Green-Wood applied to the Department of Veterans Affairs for a cenotaph for Thomas Francis Meagher as part of their Civil War research and a granite marker was unveiled that same year, close to his widow’s grave.

Close up of Meagher bust.

Afterwards they made efforts to raise funds for a grand bronze sculpture of Meagher. In 2016, Peter McKay from the County Waterford Association of New York contacted Green-Wood and selected sculptor Michael Keropian to sculpt Thomas Francis Meagher’s portrait. The County Waterford Association raised the money for the bronze while Green-Wood paid for the memorial’s granite base. Finally a monument was put up for Meagher near his wife’s grave. The unveiling was on July 1, 2017 the 150th anniversary of his disappearance at Fort Benton, Montana in the Missouri River. Around 200 people attended including Meagher relative Maureen Roaldsen. The names of the donors are printed on the back of the monument and appropriately include the Granville Hotel, Waterford, where Meagher was born. See part 6 here.

Meagher travel diary part 6 – Virginia City

Helena is the modern capital of Montana, but it wasn’t always that way. After Montana first broke off from Idaho in 1864, first governor Sydney Edgerton set up shop in Bannack City in the south. Within 12 months the capital moved further north to Virginia City – site of the Alder Gulch goldrush. Some 10,000 miners lived in nine primary mining camps near Alder Gulch. Virginia City was the largest city in the area with 5000 residents, including a large population of Irish-Americans.

After driving 200 miles north from Helena to Fort Benton on Friday, on Saturday it was time for me to do a similar distance south to Virginia City, taking me close to Yellowstone National Park.

Road from Helena to Virginia City.

Virginia City was a boisterous place in the middle of the goldrush with nearly every third cabin a saloon. As Thomas Baker wrote, gamblers fleeced miners and what the pick and shovel men had left the dancing girls took. Bartenders served vile whiskey for fifty cents in gold dust and a night didn’t pass without its share of fights, quarrels, wounds or murders while random shots shattered store windows.

Residents of Virginia City paid high prices for staples like eggs, coffee, butter and flour and prices went up further when the long winter hit and freight wagons could not get over the snow clogged mountain passes to supply the merchants of the camp. When Governor Edgerton met new Territory secretary Thomas Francis Meagher in Bannack City in 1865 he handed over the government papers and immediately set off east leaving Meagher as acting governor. Meagher was finally seated at the governor’s desk by October 1865 as Montana’s fierce winter began to kick in. He wrote to his newspaper reporter friend WF Lyons, to announce in the Herald he was now “acting governor of the richest territory of the union.”

Restored Virginia City building.

Edgerton had also left a problem with Montana’s fledgling legislature. The first election held in August 1864 saw the Democrats win a majority in the 13-member house while the Republicans held the seven-member council. The new assembly passed laws based on recently passed Idaho statutes but crucially failed to pass a law for territorial reapportionment. The assembly passed a bill increasing the council size to 13 and the house size to 26. However the Republican Edgerton vetoed the bill knowing the Democrats would have controlled both chambers. The bill went back to the house which could not reach a two-third majority to overturn the veto. Edgerton adjourned the legislature with no further decision taken.

The two sides now went to new acting governor Meagher to advance their position. Republicans led by Wilbur Sanders (who claimed to be with Meagher on his last day in Fort Benton) told Meagher the legislature could not be called as its function had expired and needed an enabling act of Congress to restore it. Meagher initially agreed to support their cause.

But this was before Meagher heard from the Democrats who wanted to call a convention to adopt a state constitution. Miners needed new laws to guarantee their rights. “The miners and others in this vicinity are universally in favor of a meeting of the Legislature,” they wrote. Meagher now advised Washington he would call the legislature together. Editor of the Montana Democrat John Bruce told Meagher the Organic Act permitted only one session of the legislative assembly annually “unless on the extraordinary occasion, the governor shall think proper to call the legislative assembly together.” By February, 1866, with the Territory deep in debt Meagher believed he had the extraordinary occasion though in his official statement calling for it, he relied instead on “the clear intent” of that first session to continue its legislative function.

The new legislature met in Virginia City on March 5, 1866. Meagher addressed the assembly a day later declaring it was valid and urged it to sort out apportionment as its first order of business. But the Democrats also used the assembly as a chance to punish Republican enemies, turning down pay rises for Republican-appointed judges. Meagher allowed that but vetoed private laws granting monopolies for building projects. He also turned down a salary for himself saying the federal government should pay not the territory, something he would regret as his debts mounted and there was no sign of compensation from Washington.

Wallace Street, Virginia City.

The New York Times of March 7 worried Meagher was “carrying things with a high hand”. Montana Republicans spoke of the Democrats as the “Governor’s Party”. When the convention met in April, the Post said sarcastically it was “sired by the Acting One”. Meagher’s enemies went on a letter writing frenzy to Washington, some accusing him of being involved in a Fenian plot against Canada. After a year of separation, his wife Libby came up the Missouri and joined Meagher in mid 1866. Meagher took Libby by wagon back to Virginia City and they settled into a primitive log cabin, a former butcher’s residence turned into the “governor’s lodge”. The Ancient Order of Hibernians now look after “Governor Meagher’s Lodge” and each year they hold a parade which ends with a mass in front of the lodge. You can rent out the house at other times of the year.

Governor Meagher’s cabin Virginia City – now available as a vacation rental.

While Meagher was away on government business in 1867, there were rumours Lakota leader Red Cloud was going to lead 4000 warriors to drive the whites out of Virginia City. City citizens held a meeting authorising Meagher to seek authority to raise a volunteer regiment “to serve against hostile Indians” until relieved by the army. Meagher contacted army leader Ulysses Grant saying the “danger is imminent and will be overpowering unless measures for defence are instantly taken.” Meagher sought permission to raise a force of 1000 “to be paid by the general government”. Grant sent the request onto War Secretary Stanton agreeing with the request with the rider, “the Governor should know what self defence requires these Citizens to do.” As for payment they should look to Congress for compensation, “if the services rendered by them warrant it.” At a war meeting in Virginia City, volunteers signed up for a militia though merchants were reluctant to furnish supplies until they were sure federal authorities would pay them back.

Virginia City meeting hall.

Meagher died in mid 1867 and Libby sold up their property in Virginia City before heading back to New York. On April 19, 1875, Helena became Montana’s new capital. Virginia City became a ghost town when the gold dried up and it wasn’t until the 1950s it was restored for tourism. Charles and Sue Bovey bought most of the buildings and operated it as an open-air museum. Now buildings in their original condition with Old West period displays and information plaques stand next to restaurants, gift shops, and other businesses. The state of Montana bought most of the historic buildings after the legislature authorised the purchase of the Bovey properties. Today, the Historic District of Virginia City and Nevada City is operated by the Montana Heritage Commission and operates gold panning, the Nevada City Music Hall and Museum, and the Alder Gulch Railroad.