Susannah Ural Bruce says her 2006 book The Harp and the Eagle: Irish Volunteers and the Union Army 1861-1865 is not an ethnic history of 19th century Irish American Catholics, nor is it a battle narrative. Instead it lies at the crossroads between the battlefield and the home front and examines why 150,000 Irish and Irish Americans volunteered to fight for the Union when so many were not born in America or were in the country for under a decade. It also looks at how their families understood their service and the way the views of Irish-American soldiers and civilians changed as casualties rose, and Union war aims evolved. When Irishmen filled the ranks in 1861, they spoke of a loyalty to their families and the historic Irish fighting tradition but by 1863 when thousands of soldiers were dead or wounded, their communities questioned the cost of war.
The Ulster Irish were the original backbone of Irish immigrants to British North America and the early United States.These were 250,000 Presbyterian Scots who settled in Northern Ireland, but who traveled to North America due to a depression in the Irish linen industry, and increasing rents. These migrants became known as the Scotch Irish to distinguish themselves from later arrivals. The next wave of Irish immigration occurred between 1815 and 1845. The primary catalyst was the economic recession following the Napoleonic Wars that led to the consolidation of estates and the eviction of thousands of Irish tenants, sparking social and economic upheaval. With the additional pressures from declining farm product prices, an increasing population, and continued religious persecution, Irish Catholics dominated migration to America between 1820 and 1850. This influx represented a threat to American Protestant traditions. Native-born American frustration grew with the growing Catholic population. In the 1830s inventor Samuel Morse urged America to end Irish immigration. “Awake! To your posts! Place your guards . . . shut your gates!” Morse urged. In 1834 nativists burned down a Boston convent and 10 years later several Philadelphia churches were burned in a three-day riot. The Catholic Irish clung to their faith buoyed by the fiery support of New York bishop John “Dagger” Hughes.
Then came the Famine when almost a quarter of Irish people died or emigrated. A whole generation of Irish people crossed the Atlantic Ocean. While there was sympathy for their plight, charity was overwhelmed by the suffering masses appearing daily in American harbours. In Boston the Irish were considered “idle, thriftless, poor, intemperate, and barbarian,” while in Philadelphia they were “the lower orders of mankind” with “revolting, vicious habits”. Nativists organised politically as the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner, also called the American party but most well known as Know Nothings for their habit of denying all knowledge of the secret organisation. They rose to prominence in the 1850s, peaking in elections from 1854-56, characterising themselves as native-born whites viewing Catholic immigrants as threatening to American Protestant cultural traditions. As slavery became the divisive and defining issue of the 1850s, northern Know Nothings linked Irish Catholics with the proslavery movement.
Since the 1820s the Irish themselves supported the new Democratic party. Andrew Jackson was popular because of his Scots-Irish ancestry and his defeat of the British at New Orleans in 1815. The Democrats courted Irish Catholics immigrants and turned a blind eye to the five year requirement before naturalisation. Irish Americans labored in the worst jobs because of their desperate need and lack of skills, and many joined the military where they encountered similar prejudice to civilian life. Their reputation suffered during the Mexican war when many Irish deserted to join a Mexican regiment called San Patricios, the St. Patrick’s Battalion. Most switched sides due offers of land and money from the Mexican government and the deserters’ mistreatment in the US Army rather than any scruples over fighting a Catholic nation.
With the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and the creation of the Confederacy, Americans north and south took a stand on the issues driving the country toward war. The Irish voted Democrat in the election in fear of the new Republican party’s nativist and abolitionist tendencies. James Gordon Bennett’s New York Herald warned workers, “if Lincoln is elected you will have to compete with the labor of four million emancipated Negroes.” In April 1861 Irish nationalist Richard O’Gorman warned fellow Irishman William Smith O’Brien, “I think we shall have war. Nothing less can ever purify this land of the corruption arising from the too sudden activity of commerce.” Irish tensions were high since the 1860 visit of the Prince of Wales which New Yorkers looked towards with great enthusiasm. The mainly Irish 69th New York State Militia regiment were less happy. Their commander Irish exile Colonel Michael Corcoran refused to participate in a parade for the prince. Military authorities arrested Corcoran on charges of disobedience and ordered him to face a court-martial. Fellow exiled Irish patriot Thomas Francis Meagher defended Corcoran’s actions but nativists thought it showed Irish disloyalty and disobedience to America.
Corcoran was in prison when Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter. Irish-American opinion in the North swung behind the union and Meagher linked the American and Irish causes. “It is not only our duty to America, but also to Ireland. We could not hope to succeed in our effort to make Ireland a Republic without the moral and material aid of the liberty-loving citizens of these United States,” he said. Corcoran pledged allegiance of the 69th, believing it would be “good practice” for eventual war in Ireland. He was released and the 69th was deployed to help besieged Washington. Meagher organised an Irish Zouave company to join them. Battles ahead were not the only motivation. As Charles G. Halpine, author of fictional Irish American soldier Miles O’Reilly, wrote, the Irish were “earning a title, which hereafter no foul tongue or niggard heart would dare dispute, to the full equality and fraternity of an American citizen.”
Irish American Democrat James A. Mulligan also organised an Irish unit in Chicago. Within a week Mulligan’s ranks swelled to 1200 men, but so many other regiments had already met the state quota that Mulligan had to secure a letter from Lincoln to accept the Irish regiment. The 23rd Illinois, popularly known as the “Irish Brigade” in a reflection of Mulligan’s sense of history, was mustered into service. The New York 69th were assigned to Colonel William Tecumseh Sherman’s 3rd Brigade of General Daniel Tyler’s 1st Division. By mid July some men were planning to leave camp, believing that their three-month enlistments were up. They had not yet been paid and wanted to return to New York to support their families. The War Department clarified that the 90-day period began when a man mustered in, not when he enrolled in the unit. Corcoran accepted this and enthusiastically anticipated the battle, but some Irishmen were not pleased with the decision. When a captain n was accidentally shot, Sherman insisted that he go on with the regimental ambulance in the rear. It was a decision that earned Sherman a terrible reputation with many men and Meagher called him a “rude and envenomed martinet”. In the battle of Bull Run Harper’s Weekly described how the Irishmen had “stripped themselves, and dashed furiously into the enemy.” The image contrasted sharply with the one of disloyal Irishmen painted during the Prince of Wales incident. This was reprinted in Northern papers and though prejudice remained in references to Irishmen as “natural” fighters, now the Irish used the stereotypes to their advantage. The battle was a defeat for the Union and Corcoran was taken prisoner of war, but the Irish reputation for valour was established. The New York Herald reported the 69th regiment “behaved most gallantly in their fight.” Inspired New York Irish Americans formed another regiment into the 3rd Irish Volunteers and requested Meagher to command them. Some hoped that Irish service would reflect well upon their countrymen, other sought military experience for Ireland, more again fought to save a united America, while some enlisted for the steady paycheck and bonuses. As long as these remained linked to the goals of the Union war effort, Irishmen served in large numbers and earned the praise of native Americans.
In New York the 69th’s officers agreed to reorganise the regiment for three years’ service. The War Department gave Meagher permission to organise four additional regiments to form a brigade. Meagher went to work immediately to make this an Irish brigade from the Irish communities in New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. The 3rd Irish Volunteers joined the brigade as the 63rd New York followed by the 88th New York under Colonel Henry Baker. At a festival to raise money for the 69th’s widows and orphans, Meagher spoke of the sacrifices the Irish had made, but called on them to continue the fight. “Will the Irishmen of New York stand by this cause—resolutely, heartily, with inexorable fidelity, despite of all the sacrifices it may cost?” Meagher asked no Irishman to do that which he was not prepared to do. Meagher noted their dual loyalties to Ireland and Irish America, and emphasised the link between the causes of Ireland and the war in America. “every blow dealt against the great conspiracy beats back the insolence and base plots of England,” he said.
The brigade’s command was expected to go to James Shields, a former senator and a veteran of the Mexican War. But Shields wanted a higher rank of major general. The next logical choice was Meagher, though his personal ambition and lack of command experience worried some. But his supporters successfully petitioned Lincoln for Meagher to get the command in early 1862. Meagher would become one of many “political generals,” whose commands were not based on military experience as much as their influence on constituents whose support was critical to the administration. They included Benjamin Butler, Nathaniel Banks, and immigrant commanders like German-born Franz Sigel and Carl Schurz.
The Irish spent winter in camp near Washington where the Army of the Potomac’s new commander, General George McClellan, drilled them incessantly and instilled discipline and order, but who seemed reluctant to give battle. McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign opened that April, and for most of the Irish Brigade this was their first experience in combat. The battles cost the unit serious losses, but it also earned the brigade an impressive reputation. Newspapers reveled in the story that the call to arms for Fair Oaks interrupted a steeplechase Meagher organised to boost the spirits of his men. The fighting continued into July during engagements called the Seven Days’ Battles, which took a toll on the Irish Brigade. As David P. Conyngham recalled of Malvern Hill, “that hill-side is covered with the dying and the dead of the Irish Brigade.”
In July 1862 Meagher journeyed home to recruit replacements for his dwindling Brigade. At a rally Meagher linked the advancement of Irishmen with the war for union. Meagher said he needed 2000 recruits to keep the Irish Brigade together. “It should be the intense ambition of every Irishman, who has one chord within him that vibrates to the traditions of that old lyric and martial land of his, not to permit its flag, so vividly emblematic of the verdure of its soil and the immortality of its faith, to be compromised in any just struggle in which it is displayed.” While his words were cheered one heckler suggested, “Take the Black Republicans,” referring to the Republican abolitionists so many Irish Americans disliked. Meagher shot back, “Because others shrink from their duty is no reason why you should shrink from yours.” But the early enthusiasm for war had vanished and he got few recruits. Many Irish Americans were receiving mixed messages and letters from Irish American soldiers painted a different picture of life in the Irish Brigade. Irish born captain James Turner wrote, “As to any idea you may have of joining the Army give it up at once. (It is) a perfect hell.” Indiana Irish American Hugh Harlin worried about the mistreatment of Catholics. “What a terrible fate it would be,” he told his brother, “to die on the battlefield and be thrown into a hole like a dog, no priest perhaps, no friends.” Economic opportunities elsewhere also caused problems for recruiters. There was a sense among Irish Americans that their sacrifices would gain them nothing postwar. Meagher told New York businessmen the problems were caused by two factors. On one hand, Irish labourers knew that a draft was coming and they would earn more money if they waited than if they volunteered. The other problem was that Irish-Americans and the Democratic party opposed the Lincoln administration’s direction of the war and abuses of civil liberties.
In August 1862, Michael Corcoran was freed in a prisoner exchange and Lincoln commissioned him a brigadier general. Corcoran wanted to lead the 69th New York but that was now part of the Irish Brigade under Meagher. Corcoran requested permission to recruit a new brigade of Irishmen who would preserve America as “the asylum of all the oppressed of the earth”. With the media attention surrounding his release he had no problem gaining recruits to recruit for his new Irish Legion. The Legion would never be sent to the war’s hottest spots unlike Meagher’s Brigade.
At the battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, the Irish Brigade were with General Israel Richardson’s 1st Division of the II Corps. They advanced toward the Roulette Farm where Confederates stacked fence rails along a bending sunken road, creating an excellent defensive position. Meagher planned to advance as close to the rebel line as possible so the “buck and ball” of his men’s smoothbores could be used to devastating effect. Then he could order them to close with the bayonet. Lieutenant James J. Smith of the 69th saw a well entrenched enemy in three lines which all opened fire at once. The Brigade returned fire and Meagher ordered them to charge “relying on the impetuosity and recklessness of Irish soldiers in a charge.” Colonel James Kelly led the 69th forward until two balls slammed into his face. A succession of colour bearers in the 63rd and 88th New York fell, and each time another man rushed forward to raise the flag. One of the last to grasp the 88th’s banner was Waterford-born Captain Patrick Clooney. This veteran of the Papal war in Italy shouted for the men to continue forward before a ball slammed through his head. Meagher watched the desperate exchange until enemy fire hit his horse, and he fell to the ground. The saddle’s pummel pressed into Meagher’s chest and his men carried him to the rear. Richardson ordered General John Caldwell’s men to relieve the Irishmen. While the Irish Brigade did not drive the Confederates from the Sunken Road, the unit received much of the credit for that final victory. Their commanding officers heralded their efforts.
But Antietam changed the Irish Americans view of the Union war effort. Immediately afterwards Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation that would free all slaves in Confederate territory as of January 1, 1863. The war suddenly changed from being a conflict to preserve the Union to a struggle to abolish slavery and reunite a nation. For many northerners, including Irish Americans, the Proclamation indicated that the Lincoln administration had sided with the most radical aspects of the Republican party. Irishmen believed they would face labour competition from free blacks in an already difficult market. Irish anger increased when Lincoln relieved McClellan believing such a conservative commander could not win the war. The decision added to complaints across the North especially in the Army of the Potomac, whose soldiers loved the leader who seemed so concerned with sparing their lives. Meagher called the decision a “crime” and ordered the Irishmen to throw down their green battle flags in an act of devotion to the departing McClellan.
McClellan’s replacement, Ambrose Burnside marched his Army of the Potomac down toward Richmond on a more easterly path and constructed bridges to take the army over the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg. Burnside attacked the well-defended city on December 13. The Irish Brigade faced the Confederate guns behind the city on Marye’s Heights, supported by infantry entrenched by a hidden sunken wall. The Irishmen came under heavy fire, as they waded across a freezing millrace. Meagher was forced to retreat due to prior injury but his men pushed forward into “a blinding storm of bullets.” Robert Nugent, colonel of the 69th New York, recalled that the “fight was terrific” but his was an impossible task. “By virtue of the commanding position of the enemy no attack could have been successful,” he said. Of all the 13 assaults that day, no Union regiment got closer to the stone wall than the 69th New York. The Brigade lost almost half its men, and dark depression fell over the survivors. Conyngham said it was not a battle but “was a wholesale slaughter of human beings—sacrificed to the blind ambition and incapacity of some parties.” On December 27, the New York Irish-American published a letter Captain William J. Nagle of the 88th New York sent to his father. “Irish blood and Irish bones cover that terrible field to-day,” Nagle wrote. “The whole-souled enthusiasm with which General McClellan inspired his army is wanting.”
The Emancipation Proclamation, McClellan’s departure, and Fredericksburg’s horrific losses would all lead to an Irish Americans reassessment of support from the war. Archbishop Hughes said “Catholics, and a vast majority of our brave troops in the field, have not the slightest idea of carrying on a war that costs so much blood and treasure just to gratify a clique of Abolitionists.” Resistance to the state drafts began among Irish and German-Catholic Democrats across the North. Despite their disgust with the Lincoln administration, Irish leaders still called on Irishmen to serve in the war. Richard O’Gorman called for a “vigorous prosecution of the war for Union,” while insisting that policies such as black emancipation must end. The Boston Pilot newspaper ran a series on “Records of Irish-American Patriotism,” highlighting heroic Irish service in the war while running daily recruiting advertisements for the Irish 28th and 9th Massachusetts Volunteers.
In January 1863 New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral hosted a requiem mass for the Irish Brigade’s dead. Father O’Reilly, former 69th chaplain, spoke of their American loyalty but emphasised Ireland and the Catholic Church. “National pride may blind us, political and party passion may disturb our judgments, but the men of the Irish Brigade would continue to do their duty.” Meagher tried to recruit replacements for his brigade but found disillusionment with the war. Irish newspapers spoke of the community in mourning reflecting resistance to sending more Irishmen into a cause that many questioned and that was conducted under leaders they did not trust. The Irish American complained of “favoritism” and “unjust discrimination” as the Irish Brigade had all requests to leave the front denied due to manpower needs, while native-born units enjoyed leave to recuperate, visit families, and recruit replacements. Meagher told War Secretary Edwin Stanton about the heroic sacrifices of his Brigade, and their devotion to the union. He asked for no more “than that which has been conceded to other commands, exhibiting equal labors, equal sacrifices, and equal decimation.” The War Department did not respond though that was more likely due to concern about the overall number of desertions rather than anti-Irish prejudice.
Meager rejoined his command in April to accompany them to the battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, where the depleted Irish Brigade supported the 5th Maine Battery. They suffered 102 casualties in another Union defeat which reduced the brigade’s total force to 418 men, less than half the average infantry regiment. Meagher wanted to bring attention to the plight of his command and wrote a letter tendering his resignation. Perhaps to his shock, the letter was accepted though Meagher contacted Lincoln several weeks later seeking permission to raise 3000 Irish troops. Lincoln approved the plan but Meagher had little success. In July 1863, he contacted Secretary Stanton to withdraw his resignation. They would find another assignment for him in Tennessee, but Meagher would never again lead his beloved Irish Brigade in the field. The men of the brigade felt anger and bitterness when they learned of Meagher’s resignation, but Nagle saw the larger context of the neglect suffered by Irish Americans. “We asked neither reward nor favour, only what was right—just to the government, and for the advancement and good of the cause in which we had staked life and reputation. It was denied us, and the Irish Brigade is blotted out of the army of the Union.” The Boston Pilot cried, “the Irish spirit for the war is dead!”
When Meagher resigned, the three New York regiments were consolidated under Colonel Patrick Kelly. It marched towards Pennsylvania “now a brigade in name only.’” Yet their famous fight in the wheat field contributed to the Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg, alongside Cavan-born Colonel Patrick H. “Paddy” O’Rorke who led his 140th New York to the crest of Little Round Top at a crucial moment in the fighting on the second day of the battle. On the third day at Cemetery Ridge the 69th Pennsylvania Volunteers fought desperately to repel the Confederates near “The Angle,” while just south, Captain James McKay Rorty’s Battery B, 1st New York Light Artillery, threw back the Confederate assault. Gettysburg would prove to be one of the North’s greatest victories of the Civil War and the image of the fighting Irish would become an essential part of its memory. Two decades later, poets would write about Father Corby standing on a rock and giving general absolution before the Irish Brigade went into battle. “And well hath Gettysburg relied / On soldier boys’ brave deed / While little Round Top points with pride / To Corby’s loyal creed”.
As casualties mounted while volunteering declined, Congress called for a new draft. The March 1863 Enrollment Act allowed draftees to serve in place or pay the government a $300 exemption fee to escape service. This was half a year’s wages for the working poor. The Irish at the bottom of the ladder were especially outraged. Archbishop Hughes believed the act was a trick to force Irish Catholic labourers to save the nation while native-born Americans were given Irish jobs when the factories reopened. New York’s Democratic governor Horatio Seymour said the draft would force men to die for a war they opposed. “The bloody and treasonable doctrine of public necessity can be proclaimed by a mob as well as by a government,” Seymour said. So it proved. In five days of terror, New Yorkers, many of them Irish-American Catholic labourers, rioted against the draft, emancipation, the Republican administration, and the war in general.
The violence began on July 12 when the names of the first draftees appeared in newspapers. This was the same day as the annual Orange Day celebrations which increased the passionate response. They marched toward draft offices and burned them with the help of Irish fire companies, assaulted police and African Americans. Rioters set fire to the Colored Orphans’ Asylum though the children escaped. The violence ended when soldiers were rushed back from Gettysburg. Irish soldier John England defended the rioters’ actions.“The government must be very unwise and short sighted not to see that such a clause benefiting the rich, and injuring the poor would create a tumult, and a general feeling of thorough disgust among the masses,” he said.
But the riots reinforced negative stereotypes. Most believed the vast majority of rioters were Irish, though many German and native-born participants were active in the violence. New Yorker George Templeton Strong characterised the mob as Irish. “No wonder St. Patrick drove all the venomous vermin out of Ireland! Its biped mammalia supply that island its full average share of creatures that crawl and eat dirt and poison every community they infest.” Know Nothing support surged. New York Republican Mayor George Opdyke vetoed help for poor Irish families and caused further outrage when his son purchased his exemption. Republicans encouraged upper-class families to hire African American rather than Irish domestic servants. The steady decline of Irish volunteers continued and the Fenian dreams of using the conflict as a training ground for the liberation of Ireland ended as high casualties thinned the ranks of potential revolutionaries. As war objectives became those of the Republican party, an absence of support among Irish-Americans for the Republicans was interpreted by many Americans as unpatriotic and disloyal. It contributed to an image that would endure for decades of the Irish as disloyal, violent, and threatening to all that was good in America.
Michael Corcoran’s sudden death added to Irish disillusionment. No Irishman had more songs written about him than Corcoran and the Irish idolised him. During the draft riots rioters supposedly invaded Nugent’s home and destroyed images of him and Meagher but left Corcoran’s alone. Corcoran’s Legion was encamped in Virginia, and his old friend Meagher visited in December. On December 22, Corcoran escorted Meagher to the train station, but Corcoran fell from his horse, lost consciousness, and died. St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York was packed for his funeral service. Despite Meagher’s inspiring eulogy, the audience found little comfort in the service. Maria Lydig Daly said some Irishmen could not forget the rumours Meagher had discouraged others seeking Corcoran’s exchange when the Confederates held him as a prisoner. Corcoran was an important Fenian leader and while Fenians would continue to serve in the war, their attentions turned increasingly toward postwar actions for Ireland rather than the fight for America.
The Irish Brigade finally got leave in January 1864, but when they went home they saw few signs of the enthusiasm for war that swept their neighborhoods two years earlier. They had imagined “the happiness of that day when we would march back through New York; of the welcome we would receive.” However the streets were empty and only a brief mention appeared in the papers. Few native-born Americans celebrated an influx of Irishmen into the city after the draft riots. The Irish declared that they would “make up for the lukewarmness” by organising a grand banquet where they toasted “the blood and brotherhood that united the Chieftains of old to his clansmen.” Meagher told them that though they “do not have the municipal authorities to welcome you at the gates,” they had the love and gratitude of their wives, their mothers, and their officers. But the losses continued that spring. During the Virginia battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, and Cold Harbor, the Irish Brigade lost over one thousand soldiers, nearly one-third of its strength. Similarly high losses thinned the Irish Legion. Colonel Patrick Kelly was shot through the head and killed at Petersburg. The Brigade would later reorganise under Nugent. In the midwest Mulligan was showered by Irish requests to join his brigade. Gerald B. Walsh, of 24th Missouri Volunteers, wanted this because Irishmen had nothing in common with the native Missourians and “paramount to all, we have no chaplain, and this at a time when the exigencies of the service may altogether preclude the possibility of attendance at the Roman Catholic place of worship.” Captain Fitzgibbon also wanted to join his “own people” because the 14th Michigan regiment was “incompletely officered, and to go to battle under them is certain disgrace and death”.
While the Irish had a growing antiwar, anti-Lincoln, and anti-Republican sentiment, anti Irish prejudice grew across the north. Native papers and military records reported the poor quality of Irish-American soldiers with accusations of large-scale desertion. The Rochester Democrat claimed that “Copperhead presses, those which give tone and character to the party, and most fully and openly express its opinions and tendencies are controlled by Irishmen.” Private Peter Casey of Mulligan’s 23rd Illinois Volunteers said Irish Americans would never receive the credit due them for their brave sacrifices and the war was becoming a cause and conflict he could not support. “The Negro and not the welfare of the country is what most engrosses their minds and perhaps when all is over they will turn their attention to the burning of convents and churches as they have done before,” Casey wrote.
Meagher wrote strong letters to Dublin defending the war effort though fellow 1848 rebel William Smith O’Brien said the Irish should remain neutral in the conflict. But Meagher was not without support in the Union army. As one officer wrote to Colonel Mulligan, “You have doubtless, with me, read the letter of General Thomas Francis Meagher to the editor of the Irishman, Dublin, with great pleasure. But Smith O’Brien saw fit to come out in a strong denunciatory letter against General Meagher in which he takes the high ground that the South is right in this contest, and in which he cries ‘shame’! at all Irishmen who have taken up arms in the Union cause.” As Ulysses Grant took over the eastern army in 1864 and his campaign led to huge losses, perhaps the overwhelming feeling among the Irish was desire to merely survive the war. As one soldier wrote home, “Mother it is hard marching, some days & nights 25 and 30 miles through rivers and woods, lying on the bare ground with nothing to cover you but the sky, but enough of that, I deserve it all and more.”
Irish Americans read of continuing anti Irish and anti-Catholic actions by northern officials, and of army mistreatment of Catholic clergy and the destruction of church property in conquered southern cities. In Natchez, Mississippi General Mason Brayman suspended a bishop and closed churches, the Pilot calling it a sign of the Lincoln administration’s support of “an outrageous, unauthorised, audacious, inexcusable and uncalled for aggression upon the Catholic Church.” As the 1864 election approached, the Irish threw their support behind the Democrat candidate, former war leader, George McClellan. “Old Abe is now politically dead and his funeral will take place in November next,” wrote one Irishman. Though McClellan’s campaign was hampered by infighting between War Democrats and Copperheads, the military stalemate in the east left Lincoln’s fate in doubt until September when Sherman took Atlanta. The rare Pro-Lincoln Irishman Meagher claimed his countrymen were allowing themselves to “be bamboozled into being obstinate herds in the political field” but for most Irish Americans, Democrat party loyalty served their interests. But this was the party associated with secession and slavery, which most northern Republicans saw as treason. McClellan won New York city but not the state and won only three states in the electoral college. McClellan’s defeat was a defeat for the Irish, who would pay the price as Republicans dominated national leadership for the next two decades. That sense of betrayal culminated in Lincoln’s assassination. Anyone who had criticised or challenged the martyred Lincoln seemed partly responsible for his death. Though many Irish served in the Union forces, much of the native-born population in the years to come would focus instead on Irish participation in draft riots, criticism of a victorious administration, and support of the opposition pro-slavery party. The story of Irish bravery, loyalty, and devotion to Union was buried for decades.
After the war, the Irish retained their strong sense of unity and developed a sense of autonomy. Their self-reliance provided influence as new waves of European immigrants poured into America. Irish American Catholics secure political power by their increasing population in America but the Irish would continue to face poor economic conditions and social injustices. The largest popular northern war veterans’ group was the Grand Army of the Republic, but Irish-Americans formed their own organisations such as the Irish Brigade Association, open to all veterans of the brigade. They celebrated the heroic feats of the 69th New York, the Irish 9th Massachusetts, and Mulligan’s Irish Brigade. Irish-American veterans educated Americans about the service of Irish Catholics in the Civil War, such as Conyngham’s history of The Irish Brigade and Its Campaigns, published in 1867, Father William Corby’s 1893 military service memoir and St. Clair Mulholland 1903 The Story of the 116th Regiment.
Others were attracted to Fenian groups which launched two separate invasions of Canada in 1866 and again in 1870 and 1871. All received some lukewarm nativist support but were crushed by an American government unwilling to risk war against Britain. The Fenians later morphed into Clan na Gael which maintained a determined focus on freeing Ireland, and received significant support once John Devoy shaped it into an increasingly powerful voice of Irish-American nationalism. But by the end of the Gilded Age, Irish-Americans continued their conservative shift away from radical nationalist movements, with an increasing focus on America. They would never abandon their Irish heritage, but they focused on creating an American-Irish Catholic identity. Irish-born Patrick Collins was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives and later George Washington Plunkitt was elected to the New York state legislature. Plunkitt said every good man looked after his friends. “If I have a good thing to hand out in private life, I give it to a friend. Why shouldn’t I do the same in public life?” Plunkitt said. Plunkitt and his Tammany successors would ensure Irish-American dominance of New York City politics for 50 years.
The Irish remained at the lower levels of the American economy and were persecuted as Catholics in an overwhelmingly Protestant nation. But they realised the power they held as a largely unified voting bloc. Their dual loyalties continued, but they became increasingly involved in American politics and carved a niche for themselves within American society and its larger cultural traditions. Irish Catholics considered themselves Americans, determined to enjoy the rights of that identity. Their ethnic and community unity as Irish and Americans gave them power they wielded with increasing skill. Ural said their dual loyalties to Ireland and the United States, symbolised by the harp and the eagle, carried them through four bloody years of war and political crises, as well as the painful postwar period. “By remaining true to those blended traditions, Irish Catholics secured for themselves a unique and powerful role in America’s past, present, and future,” Ural concluded.
Woolly Days 