The Irish Brigade: Heroes of The Civil War

PiperMac52, We must be related. Hugh McClister was my Great-Graet Granfather. My great Grandfather was Frederick Hicks McClister I have a document, from the Pa.Hiatorial and Museum Commission, States that entered service on 5-6-63,taked prisoner 7-2-63,wounded 7-26-64, promoted to corp on4-10-65 Mustered out 7-17-65, I've been digging into my Family tree,I can send copies if you'd like. e-mail is joemcclister@yahoo.com Joe

A book entitled Thomas Francis Meagher, Union Army, Brigadier General by Michael Manning includes details of the Irish Brigade including the Fighting 69th, 9th Massachusetts, all Irish Generals including Cleburne, Sweeney et alius. The Irish fought regardless of bigotry and became committed American citizens after the American Civil War.

Many counties and towns in the South are named for Patrick Cleburne. When forces under Fighting Tom Sullivan faced the confederates led by Cleburne, at Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia, Sullivan suggested by courier that after the war they would join forces to fight the British in Ireland. Cleburne said that after the civil war he would not fight again. He was killed in the Battle of Franklin (Tennessee) when John Bell Hood had his confederate troops make a frontal assault on the entrenched Union lines.

GeorgeDillon: You are wrong, the south did take prisoners at Gettysburg.

colkelley: Good note. You might also mention the anti-Catholicism that was endemic among the Yankee "liberals" in places like New Hampshire, New York etc. Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Brown etc. --they were all anti-Catholic and anti-Irish bigots.

PiperMac52: How come your g-gf was "captured" at Gettysburg while fighting for the Union Army? The CSA army took no prisoners at Gettysburg.

Liamkeyes: What a dumb post. How many years have you lived in a state of the Old Confederacy? I bet the closest you got to the Carolinas was when you flew down to Florida. Stupid Bigot.

Brave Irishmen fought everywhere and for many reasons. In this country Catholic or Protestant meant less or nothing. The way it should be.

They are still fighting the Civil War down in Dixieland. Very sore losers.

My Great Gandfather Hugh McClister, an Irish native enlisted with the 29th Pa. Regiment out of Philadelphia. in 1863. He fought at Gettysburg and was wounded/ captured and taken prisoner to Va. where he was ultimately released. I have his recrod thanks to modern tecyhnolgy that makes this stuff avilable on line.

I had 3 great-uncles who were in the civil war, one in the 12th NJ volunteers, one in Missouri volunteers. Charles was discharged in Munson's Hill Virginia and Florence in St. Louis Missouri. The fate of Cornelius was unknown. I have a picture of the vounteer's reunion in 1920. They were reputed to be fierce fighters and all came from Co. Kerry to NJ.

No mention of General Patrick Cleburne CSA and the Battle of Franklin Tennessee which was a major battle. The City of Cleburne Texas was named after him.

No mention of the 6th Louisiana an all Irish unit of the CSA or of the Davis Guards of Texas another all Irish unit whose commanding officer was Dick Dowling the hero of Sabine Pass. The Irish who came south did so because of No Irish Need Apply. Get real, people, the Irish came to the south as well in the period before the Civil War. In San Patricio, Texas a family disinherited a son because he joined the Union Army. These small farmers supported the south because it gave them a home and livelihood and had absolutely nothing to do with slavery. Most of those who fought or died in confederate service did so for love of their state and for the most part were hardscrabble dirt farmers or sons of those.

Also no mention of Co. H of the 8th Alabama Infantry, the "Emerald Guard," who dressed all in green. Their flag was identical to the 69th NY flag on one side, but on the other had a standing figure of George Washington. At the Battle of Frazier's Farm in 1862 the Emerald Guard stood toe-to-toe agains the famed 69th NY and drove them from the field. MANY Irish fought for the South because they saw the industrialized and domineering North as a direct allegory of industrial England's oppression of the agrarian Irish in their own land. No mention of the famous Irish-born Confederate Major General Patrick R. Cleburne who said prophetically, "...the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy...our youth will be trained by Northern schoolteachers...learn from Northern schoolbooks their version of the war...to regard out valiant dead as traitors." Sheen's blustering and this article prove Cleburne was right,.

Good overview on the Irish Brigade. Doing research on Washington, Connecticut (CT) men who served in the Civil War I found at least three native born Irishmen who enlisted for Civil War service from Washington, CT. Reading Matt Warshauer's new Book 'Connecticut in the American Civil War' I found that the 9th Infantry Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers was the Irish regiment from CT. This regiment suffered a lack of supplies because of being discriminated against because they were most Irish. I love Mick Moloney's take on Irish USA Civil War songs in his CD "far from the shamrock shore" with "The Irish Volunteers" and "Pat Murphy of the Irish Brigade".