We next see Irish soldiers fighting abroad. The blood they had shed
so freely for the Stuarts at the Boyne, at Athlone, at Aughrim, at
Limerick was in vain. The king of France, if he sent armies to
Ireland, demanded Irish troops in return. The transports that brought
the French regiments over in May, 1690, took back over five thousand
officers and men from Ireland, who formed the first Irish Brigade in
the service of France. This, remember, was before the battle of the
Boyne. The men were formed on their arrival in France into three
regiments, those of Mountcashel, O'Brien, and Dillon, named after
their commanders, and were sent to Savoy. The French aid to James in
Ireland helped best in giving confidence to the raw Irish levies, but
it was more than offset by the German troops brought over by William.
The weakness, indecision, or worse, of James before Derry, his
chicken-hearted failure to overwhelm Schomberg when he lay at his
mercy before the arrival of William, ruined his chances. Remember
that the Irish army, if defeated at the Boyne, was not broken, and
was strong enough, when pursued by William, to repulse him with 500
killed and 1,000 wounded and to compel him to raise the siege of
Limerick. The dash and skill of Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan,
backed by Irish desperation, won the day. The French troops sailed
home after William's retreat. In the next year's campaign occurred
the crowning disasters of the war, but in any other country or with
any other people than the English the terms of capitulation at
Limerick, which were formulated by Ginkel and showed a soldier's
respect for a brave and still powerful foe, would have ushered in an
era of peace.
The Irish soldiers' distrust of the conquerors was shown in the fact
that, since the stipulations allowed the free departure of the
garrison with honors of war, 19,059 officers and men took service
with France, and sailed in October, 1691, on the French fleet, which
by the irony of fate had arrived in the Shannon too late, on the very
day after the signing of the treaty of Limerick. Never in the whole
course of the history of nations has more hideous treachery been
shown than in the immediate breaking of that treaty; and dearly has
England paid for it ever since, although, for the hundred years that
followed, Ireland sank to the very depths under the penal laws, with
her trade ruined, her lands stolen, her religion persecuted, and all
education and enlightenment forbidden by abominable, drastic laws.
If, as has been computed, 450,000 Irish fought and died in the
service of France between 1690 and 1745, a further 30,000 are to be
added down to 1793. A French writer estimates the whole Irish
contingent at 750,000, but, for a roster of seekers of glory from an
impoverished people, the more reasonable half-million should surely
suffice.
Long would be the story to follow the fighting fortunes of the Irish
Brigades. Officered by Irish gentlemen and drilled to perfection,
they soon came to hold in the French service the esteem that later
was given to Irish regiments in the service of England. King Louis
welcomed them heartily and paid them a higher wage than his native
soldiers. No duty was too arduous or too dangerous for the Irish
Brigades. Seldom were they left to rust in idleness. Europe was a
caldron of wars of high ambitions.
The Irish regiments fought through the war in Flanders. At Landen,
July 29, 1693, the French under the duke of Luxembourg defeated the
English under William III. with a slaughter of 10,473 men, losing
8,000 men themselves. In the retreat, Ginkel, William's general in
the Irish campaign, was almost drowned in the river Greete. The Irish
Royal Regiment of Footguards, that of Dorrington, was the first corps
to break through the English intrenchments, its gallant leader,
Colonel Barrett, falling as he headed the charge. Here also was
stricken Lieutenant-Colonel Nugent of Sheldon's Irish Regiment. Here
also fell--saddest loss of all--Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan,
brave, resourceful, a true unfaltering-soldier and lover of his
country. The legend of his life blood flowing before his eyes and his
utterance, "Would it had been shed for Ireland", may and should be
true, although he lived three days after the battle. Would, indeed,
it had been shed for Ireland--after such a day!
It was in 1703 that the celebrated defence of Cremona lifted Irish
renown to great heights throughout Europe. There were but 600 Irish
troopers all told in that long day's work, and from the break of day
till nightfall they held at bay Prince Eugene's army of 10,000 men.
The two battalions of Bourke and Dillon were surprised at early morn
to learn that the Austrians--and there were Irish officers among
them--were in the town. Major O'Mahony and his men ran from their
beds to the gates, and neither the foes without nor the foes within
could make them budge. Terribly they suffered under concentrated
attacks, but a withering fire from the Irish met every assault. It
was nightfall before relief came, and then the sons of Ireland who
had held Cremona for the French were acclaimed by all, but of their
600 they had lost nearly 350. Small wonder that the honor list that
day was long. In Bourke's battalion the specially distinguished were
Captains Wauchop, Plunkett, Donnellan, MacAuliffe, Carrin, Power,
Nugent, and Ivers; in Dillon's, Major O'Mahony, Captains Dillon,
Lynch, MacDonough, and Magee, and Lieutenants Dillon and Gibbon, John
Bourke and Thomas Dillon. Major O'Mahony was sent to Paris to carry
the news of the victory to the king, who presented him with a purse
of 1,000 louis d'or, a pension of 1,000 livres, and the brevet of
colonel.
So the history proceeds, the Irish regiments lost in the array of the
French forces, but showing here and there a glint of charging
bayonets, captured trenches, and gushes of Irish blood. In 1703 the
brigade regiments fought in Italy and Germany under the Duc de
Vendome. We hear of the regiments of Berwick, Bourke, Dillon, Galmoy,
and Fitzgerald vigorously engaged. In Germany the story is of
Sheldon's Horse and two battalions of the regiments of Dorrington and
Clare. At the first battle of Blenheim, September 20, 1703, the
regiment of Clare lost one of its colors, rallied, charged with the
bayonet and recovered it, taking two colors from the enemy. This was
a French victory. Not so the great battle of Blenheim, August, 1704,
when Marlborough and Prince Eugene severely defeated the French and
Bavarians. Three Irish battalions shared in the disaster. In 1705 at
Cassano in Italy an Irish regiment, finding itself badly galled by
artillery fire from the opposite bank of the Adda, declared they
could stand it no longer, and thereupon jumped in, swam the river,
and captured the battery. In 1705 Colonel O'Mahony of Cremona fame
distinguished himself in Spain. In the next year at the battle of
Ramillies, in which Marlborough with the Dutch defeated the French
under Villeroi, Lord Clare's regiment captured the colors of the
English Churchill regiment and of the Scottish regiment in the Dutch
service. In the same year and the next, the Irish Brigade fought many
battles in Spain. One cannot pursue the details of the engagements.
Regiments ever decimated were ever recruited by the "Wild Geese" from
Ireland--the adventurous Catholic youth of the country who sought
congenial outlet for their love of adventure and glory. Many Irish
also joined the French army after deserting from the English forces
in Flanders.
It was, however, at Fontenoy, May 11, 1745, that the Irish Brigade
rendered their most signal service to France. The English under the
Duke of Cumberland, son of George II., with 55,000 men including a
large German and Dutch auxiliary, met the French under Marshal Saxe,
and in the presence of the French king Louis XV., near Tournai in
Belgium. Saxe had 40,000 men in action and 24,000 around Tournai,
which town was the objective of the English advance. Among the troops
on the field were the six Irish regiments of Clare, Dillon, Bulkeley,
Roth, Berwick, and Lally, all under Charles O'Brien, Viscount Clare,
afterwards Marshal Thomond of France. After fierce cannonading on
both sides and a check to the allies on their right and left, a great
column of English veterans advanced on the French centre, breaking
through with sheer force. They had thus reached high ground when some
cannonading halted them. It was at this moment of gravest peril to
the French that the Irish regiments with unshotted guns charged
headlong up the slope on their ancient enemies, crying, "Remember
Limerick and British Faith!" The great English column, already
roughly handled by the cannon, broke and fled in wild disorder before
that irresistible onslaught, and France had won a priceless victory,
but the six Irish regiments lost one-third of their gallant men by a
single volley as they followed their steel into the English lines.
When Charles Edward, the Stuart Pretender, landed in Scotland in
1745, he was followed by a small French force, including 500 Irishmen
from the Brigade. Colonel John O'Sullivan was much relied on by the
prince in his extraordinary campaign. Sir Thomas Sheridan also
distinguished himself. There were 475 Irish at the battle of
Culloden, that foredoomed defeat of the Stuart cause, and two days
later a score of Irish officers were among those who surrendered at
Inverness.
In Spain at the beginning of the 18th century there were hundreds of
Irish officers in the military service, and eight Irish regiments.
Among the officers were thirteen Kellys, thirteen Burkes, and four
Sheas. It seemed that Ireland had soldiers for the world. Don
Patricio, Don Miguel, Don Carlos, Don Tadeo took the place of
Patrick, Michael, Charles, and Thadeus. O'Hart gives a list of sixty
descendants of the "Wild Geese" in places of honor in Spain. General
Prim was a descendant of the Princes of Inisnage in Kilkenny. An
O'Donnell was Duke of Tetuan and field marshal of Spain. Ambrose
O'Higgins, born in county Meath, Ireland, was the foremost Spanish
soldier in Chile and Peru; Admiral Patricio Lynch was one of its most
distinguished sailors; and James McKenna its greatest military
engineer. The son of O'Higgins was foremost among those who fought
for Chilean independence and gained it, and one of his ablest
lieutenants was Colonel Charles Patrick O'Madden of Maryland.
In Austria the Irish soldiers were particularly welcome. They count
forty-one field-marshals, major-generals, generals of cavalry, and
masters of ordnance of Irish birth in the Austrian service.
O'Callaghan relates that on March 17, 1766, His Excellency Count
Mahony (son of the O'Mahony of Cremona), ambassador from Spain to the
court of Vienna, gave a grand entertainment in honor of St. Patrick,
to which he invited all persons of condition who were of Irish
descent. Among many others, there were present Count Lacy, President
of the Council at War, the generals O'Donnell, McGuire, O'Kelly,
Browne, Plunkett, and MacElligot, four chiefs of the Grand Cross, two
governors, several knights military, six staff officers, and four
privy councillors, with the principal officers of State. All wore
Patrick's crosses in honor of the Irish nation, as did the whole
court that day. Emperor Francis I. said: "The more Irish officers in
the Austrian service the better; bravery will not be wanting; our
troops will always be well disciplined." The Austrian O'Reillys and
Taaffes were famous. It was the dragoon regiment of Count O'Reilly
that by a splendid charge saved the remnant of the Austrian army at
Austerlitz.
In the American war of the Revolution, General Charles Geoghegan of
the Irish Brigade made the campaigns of Rochambeau and Lafayette. He
received the order of the Cincinnati from Washington and was ever
proud of it. Lieutenant General O'Moran also served in America. He
was afterwards executed in the French Revolution, for the "Brigade"
remained royalist to the end. General Arthur Dillon, who served in
the Brigade, was also guillotined in 1794, crying, "_Vive le roi!_"
At the foot of the scaffold a woman, probably Mme. Hébert, also
condemned, stood beside him. The executioner told her to mount the
steps. "Oh, Monsieur Dillon," she said, "pray go first." "Anything to
oblige a lady," he answered gaily, and so faced his God.
Lord Macaulay, commenting upon these things and deploring the
policies that brought them about, says with great significance:
"There were Irish Catholics of great ability, but they were to be
found everywhere except in Ireland--at Versailles, at St. Ildefonso,
in the armies of Frederic, in the armies of Maria Theresa. One exile
(Lord Clare) became a marshal of France, another (General Wall)
became Prime Minister of Spain.... Scattered all over Europe were to
be found brave Irish generals, dexterous Irish diplomatists, Irish
counts, Irish barons, Irish knights of St. Louis and St. Leopold, of
the White Eagle, and of the Golden Fleece, who if they remained in
the house of bondage, could not have been ensigns of marching
regiments or freemen of petty corporations."
The old Irish brigades ended with the French monarchy. Battalions of
the regiments of Dillon and Walsh were with the French fleet in the
West Indies at Grenada and St. Eustache, also at Savannah, and under
Rochambeau at Yorktown, but, except as to the officers, the surviving
regiments of Berwick, Dillon, and Walsh were largely French. With the
better times under Grattan's Parliament in Ireland, the soldier
emigration to France had all but ceased. The Irish Volunteers of 1782
numbered 100,000 men, of whom an appreciable proportion were
Catholics. Many Irish went into the English army and navy, but there
was another stream of fighting emigrants, that which flocked to the
standard of revolt against England in America, of which much was to
be heard thereafter.
In the American colonies before the Revolution there were thousands
of descendants of the Catholic Irish who had settled in Maryland and
Pennsylvania during the seventeenth century, as well as hardy Irish
Presbyterians from Ulster, who came in great multitudes during the
first half of the eighteenth century. They had suffered persecution
in Ireland for conscience sake from their fellow-Protestants. In
Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas
they constituted entire communities. The emigration of the Catholic
or purely Celtic Irish to America in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries was often compulsory. At any rate, after the middle of the
eighteenth century it was large and became continuous--a true drift.
Catholics and Presbyterians alike brought hostility to the English
government with them, and their voices fed the storm of discontent.
The Irish schoolmasters, of whom there were hundreds, were especially
efficient in this. They came in every ship to the colonies. They had
no love for England, for they had experienced in Ireland the tyranny
of English law, and they would be more than human if they did not
imbue the minds of the American children under their care with their
own hatred of oppression and wrong and English domination. The log
schoolhouse of the Irish teacher became the nursery of revolution.
They were a very important factor, therefore, in the making of the
Revolution, and many of them took an active part as soldiers in the
field.
The Irish, both Catholics and Protestants, poured into the patriot
ranks once the standard of revolt was raised in 1775. The
Pennsylvania line, which General Lee called "the line of Ireland,"
was almost entirely Irish, and the rosters of several of the Maryland
and Virginia regiments contain a remarkably large proportion of Irish
names, in some cases running as high as 60 per cent. It is computed
that the Irish furnished not less than a third of the whole American
forces. A common cause blotted out all old religious prejudices
between Irishmen in the American service. It was John Sullivan, of
New Hampshire, son of a Limerick schoolmaster, who began the revolt
by seizing the fort of William and Mary and its storehouses filled
with that powder which charged the guns at Bunker Hill in the
following year. It was Captain Jeremiah O'Brien, with his brothers,
who made the first sea attack on the British off Machias, Maine, in
May, 1775, an engagement which Fenimore Cooper calls "the Lexington
of the Seas." There were fifteen Celtic Irish names among the Minute
Men at the Battle of Lexington. Colonel Barrett, who commanded at
Concord, was Irish. There were 258 Celtic Irish names on the rosters
of the American forces at the battle of Bunker Hill. John Sullivan
had been made a major-general, thereafter to be a notable figure in
the war at Princeton, Trenton, Newport, and in his Indian campaign.
The Connecticut line was thick with Irish names. Around Washington
himself was a circle of brilliant Irishmen: Adjutant-General Edward
Hand leading his rifles, Stephen Moylan his dragoons, General Henry
Knox and Colonel Proctor at the head of his artillery, John Dunlop
his body-guard, Andrew Lewis his brigadier-general, Ephraim Elaine
his quartermaster, all of Irish birth or ancestry. Commodore John
Barry, born in Wexford in 1739 and bred to the sea, was a ship
captain in his early twenties, trading from Philadelphia. When the
Continental Congress met, he at once volunteered, and was given
command of the _Lexington_, the first American ship to capture a
British war vessel. Later, after gallant fighting on sea and land, he
was given command of the U.S. frigate _Alliance_, in which he crossed
the Atlantic to France, and fought and captured in a rattling battle
two British warships, the _Atlanta_ and the _Trepasay_. He was the
Father of the American navy, holding captain's certificate No. 1,
signed by Washington himself--the highest rank then issued.
General Richard Montgomery, the brave and able soldier who fell at
Quebec as he charged the heights, was an Irishman. General George
Clinton, son of an Irishman, was a brigadier-general, governor of New
York and twice Vice-President of the United States. Fifty-seven
officers of New York regiments in the Revolution were Irish, and a
large number of the officers in the Southern regiments of the line,
as well as of the militia, were native Irish or of Irish descent. The
rosters of the enlisted Irishmen of the New York regiments run into
the thousands. Hundreds of Irish soldiers suffered in the prison
ships of New York, the horrors of which served so conspicuously to
stimulate American determination to carry the war to the only
rightful conclusion. Washington always recognized America's debt to
the Irish. "St. Patrick" he made the watchword in the patriot lines
the night before the English evacuated Boston forever on the
memorable 17th of March, 1776. After the war he was made, with his
own consent, an honorary member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick.
Major-General Richard Butler and his four brothers, all officers, and
Brigadier-Generals John Armstrong, William Irvine, William Thompson,
James Smith, and Griffith Rutherford all fought with distinction. All
of these officers were Irish-born. It was in truth an Irish war, so
far as Irish sentiment and whole-hearted service could make it. The
record of Irish soldiers' names alone would fill volumes.
The thirst of the Irish race for the glory of war is shown in the
large enlistments in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, and
since, in the English army and navy. Grattan, in pleading for
Ireland, claimed that a large percentage of the British forces were
Irish. Wolfe Tone avers that there were 210 Irishmen out of 220 in
the crew of a British frigate that overhauled his ship on its way to
America. Bonaparte had in his armies an Irish Legion that did good
service in Holland, Spain, Portugal, and Germany. Marshal Clarke,
Duke of Feltre, French Minister of War in 1809, was Irish. Up and
down the Spanish Peninsula, Irish blood was shed in abundance in the
armies of Wellington. Never was more brilliant fighting done than
that which stands to Irish credit from the lines of Torres Vedras to
Badajos and Toulouse. Of the Waterloo campaign volumes have been
written in praise of Irish valor. As Maxwell says in his _Tales of
Waterloo_:--"The victors of Marengo and Austerlitz reeled before the
charge of the Connaught Rangers." Wellington himself was Irish, as in
the later wars of England Lord Gough, Lord Wolseley, Lord Roberts,
Lord Kitchener, and General French came from Ireland. The Irish
soldiers in the English service by a pitiful irony of fate helped
materially to fasten the chains of English domination on the peoples
of India in a long series of wars.
In America, the War of 1812 once more gave opportunity to the
Fighting Race. The commanding figure of the war, which opened so
inauspiciously for the United States, was General Andrew Jackson, the
hero of the battle of New Orleans, and afterwards twice elected
President of the United States. "Old Hickory", as he came to be
lovingly called, was proud of his Irish father, and sympathized with
the national longings of the Irish people. He was a splendid soldier,
and his defeat of the English general, Pakenham, on January 8, 1815,
which meant the control of the mouths of the Mississippi, as well as
safeguarding the city of New Orleans, reflected the highest credit on
his skill and unflagging energy. The English had superior numbers,
between 8,000 and 9,000 men, against a scant 6,000 under Jackson, and
their force was made up of veterans of the European wars. In command
of the left of his line Jackson placed the gallant general William
Carroll, born in Philadelphia, but of Irish blood, who was afterwards
twice governor of Tennessee. The British general made the mistake of
despising the soldier value of his enemy, yet before evening of that
day he saw his artillery silenced and his lines broken, as he died of
a wound on the field. The battle was actually fought after the
signing of the treaty of peace at Ghent; it annihilated British
pretensions in this part of the world, anyway.
After Commodore Perry, the victor in the battle of Lake Erie, and
himself the son of an Irish mother, the northern naval glory of the
War of 1812 falls to Lieutenant Thomas MacDonough, of Irish descent,
whose victory on Lake Champlain over the British squadron was almost
as important as Perry's. Admiral Charles L. Stewart ("Old
Ironsides"), who commanded the frigate _Constitution_ when she
captured the _Cyane_ and the _Levant_, fighting them by moonlight,
was a great and renowned figure. His parents came from Ireland, and
Charles Stewart Parnell's mother was the great sea-fighter's
daughter. Lieutenant Stephen Cassin commanded the _Ticonderoga_ and
fought her well. Captain Johnston Blakely, who was born in Ireland,
captured in the _Wasp_ of 18 guns the much larger British _Reindeer_
of 20 guns and 175 men in a splendid fight, and later sank the
_Avon_, an 18-gun brig. After capturing a great prize, which he sent
to Savannah, he sailed for the Spanish main and was never heard of
more. Captain Boyle, in the privateer _Comet_ of Baltimore, fought
the _Hibernia_, of 18 guns, and later in the _Chasseur_, known as the
phantom ship, so fast she sailed, took eighty prizes on the high
seas. General A.E. Maccomb, who commanded victoriously at Plattsburg,
was of Irish descent, and Colonel Robert Carr, who distinguished
himself in the same campaign, was born in Ireland. Major George
Croghan of Kentucky, the hero of Fort Stephenson, was the son of an
Irish father who had been a soldier in the Revolution. Colonel Hugh
Brady, of the 22nd Infantry, commanded at Niagara. He remained in the
army and fought in Mexico. William McRee, of Irish descent, was
General Browne's chief engineer in laying out the military works of
the American army at Niagara.
Let it not be forgotten that in this memorable company brave Mrs.
Doyle has a place. Her husband, Patrick Doyle, an Irish artilleryman,
had been taken prisoner by the British in the affair at Queenston and
had been refused a parole. Accordingly, when the guns were trained on
the English lines before Fort Niagara, Mary, emulating the example of
her countrywoman, "Molly" Pitcher, at Monmouth, determined to take
her husband's place, and, regardless of flying British balls, tended
a blacksmith's bellows all day, providing red-hot shot for the
American gun battery, and sending a prayer with every shot into the
British lines.
After the Queenston affair, it is well to note, the English doctrine
of perpetual allegiance was abated. Twenty-three Irish-born men were
among the captives of the English in that engagement. They were
manacled to be sent to Ireland to be tried for treason, not as
enemies taken in the field. Winfield Scott, then lieutenant-colonel,
was also a prisoner with them. He protested loudly against this
infamous course. Upon his release he laid aside twenty-three British
prisoners to be treated like the Irishmen, eye for eye and tooth for
tooth. As a result, the Irish prisoners were exchanged.
Colonel John Allen, who fell at the head of the First Regiment of
Kentucky Riflemen at the battle of the river Raisin on January 21,
1813, was one of the Irish Allens of Kentucky. His father and mother
were natives of Ireland.
The Mexican War (1846-48) again showed Irish valor at the front. It
was not a great war, though brilliantly fought and rich in
territorial accessions. The campaigning comprised the work of two
main expeditions and a subsidiary movement in California. One column,
under General Zachary Taylor, penetrated northern Mexico and fought
the battles of Matamoras, Palo Alto, and Resaca de la Palma, in May,
1846, with a force of 2,200 men; forced the evacuation of Monterey in
September, his army swelled to 5,000; and defeated Santa Anna at
Buena Vista in February, 1847. General Winfield Scott, with a naval
expediton, attacked Vera Cruz from the sea in March, 1847, and took
up the march, 13,000 strong, to Mexico City, fighting the battles of
Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, and Chapultepec,
and entered Mexico City on September 14. General James Shields, born
in Tyrone, Ireland, in 1810, was in command with his brigade under
Scott. A brilliant soldier, he was severely wounded at Cerro Gordo
and again at Chapultepec. He served as United States Senator after
the war and again took the field in the Civil War, his forces
defeating Stonewall Jackson at the first battle of Winchester in
1862. The glamour of chivalry lights the name of Phil Kearney. Here
was a born soldier. He was a volunteer with the French in Algiers in
1839-40. He also commanded under Scott with brilliant bravery, and
was brevetted major on the field for "gallant and meritorious
conduct" at the battles of Contreras and Churubusco. In the French
war with Austria in 1859-60, Kearney fought with the French,
distinguishing himself at the decisive and bloody battle of
Solferino. In the Civil War he was brigadier-general of New Jersey
troops in 1861 and major-general in 1863, taking distinguished part
in the battles of the Peninsula and second Bull Run, and was killed
while reconnoitring at Chantilly. General Stephen W. Kearney, with
the Army of the West, by dint of long marches, secured California
among the fruits of the war. General Bennet Riley, born in Maryland
of Irish ancestry, commanded a brigade at Contreras, making a
wonderful charge, and also fought brilliantly at Cerro Gordo and
Churubusco, and was brevetted brigadier-general. He attained the army
rank in 1858. Major-General William O. Butler, under Zachary Taylor,
was one of the heroes of Monterey. Born in Kentucky, son of Percival
Butler of Kilkenny, who was one of the famous five Butler brothers of
the Revolutionary War whom Washington once toasted as "The Butlers
and their five sons," General Butler succeeded General Scott in
command of the entire American army in Mexico in February, 1848.
Another of clear Irish descent who fought under Zachary Taylor was
Major-General George Croghan, whose father, born in Sligo, Ireland,
had fought in the Revolution. He himself took part, as we have seen,
in the War of 1812, and now was at the front before Monterey. Once,
when a Tennessee regiment wavered under a hot converging fire,
Croghan rushed to the front and, taking off his hat, shouted, "Men of
Tennessee, your fathers conquered with Jackson at New Orleans. Come,
follow me!" and they followed in a successful assault. Major-General
Robert Paterson, who was born at Strabane, Ireland, and was the son
of a '98 man, saw service in 1812, and became major-general of
militia in Pennsylvania, whence he went to the Mexican War. He also
lived to serve in the War of the States.
Among Irish-named officers mentioned honorably in official despatches
are Major Edward H. Fitzgerald, Major Patrick J. O'Brien; Captain
Casey, chosen to lead the first storming party at Chapultepec;
Captains Hogan, Byrne, Kane, McElvin, McGill, Burke, Barny,
O'Sullivan, McCarthy, McGarry, and McKeon. Captain Mayne Reid, the
novelist, a native of Ireland, was in the storming of Chapultepec.
Theodore O'Hara, the poet, served with the Kentucky troops and was
brevetted major for gallantry at Contreras and Churubusco, while on
the staff of General Franklin Pierce (afterwards President of the
United States). O'Hara's magnificent poem, "The Bivouac of the Dead,"
has made his name immortal. It was written on the occasion of the
interment at Frankfort, Ky., of the Kentucky dead of the Mexican War,
where
"Glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead."
Irwin C. McDowell, who was brevetted captain at Buena Vista,
commanded a corps in the Civil War. George A. McCall, brevetted
lieutenant-colonel at Palo Alto, was a major-general in the Civil
War. Francis T. Bryan was a hero of Buena Vista. Lieutenant-Colonel
Thomas P. Moore and Captain James Hogan both won fame in the 3rd
Dragoons. Lieutenant Thomas Claiborn of the Mounted Rifles became a
colonel in the Confederate Army. Lieutenant-Colonel J.W. Geary fought
brilliantly and was to be heard from later with renown.
Colonel John F. Reynolds of the 3rd Artillery lived to be
major-general in the Civil War, and to fall gloriously at Gettysburg.
Nor must we forget Major Folliot Lally's bravery at Cerro Gordo;
Second Lieutenant Thomas W. Sweeny, a brigadier-general of the Civil
War and the planner of the Fenian invasion of Canada in 1866;
Lieutenant Henry B. Kelly of the 2nd Infantry, afterwards a
Confederate colonel; Captain Martin Burke of the 1st Artillery,
killed at Churubusco; nor Lieutenant William F. Barry of the 2nd
Artillery, a brigadier-general in the Civil War. There were scores of
other Irish named officers. In the whole American force of 30,000
engaged, the Irish born and Irish descended troops of all arms were
numbered by thousands.
It was, however, in the Civil War that the flood of Irish valor and
loyalty to the American Republic was at its height. The 2,800,000
enlistments on the Northern side stood probably for 1,800,000
individual soldiers serving during the four years of the war. Not
less than 40 per cent, of these were Irish born or of Irish descent.
Of the 337,800 men furnished by the State of New York, 51,206 were
natives of Ireland out of the total of 134,178 foreign born, or 38
per cent, of the latter, while not less than 80,000 of Irish descent
figured among the 203,600 native born soldiers. Of the 2,261
engagements in the war, few there were that saw no Irishmen in arms,
and certainly, in every one of the 519 engagements that made Virginia
a great graveyard, the Irish figured largely. Of the 1,000,516
mustered out in 1865, not less than 150,000 were natives of Ireland,
while those of Irish descent numbered hundreds of thousands. They
fought well everywhere, and it would require volumes to give the
names and deeds of those who distinguished themselves more than their
fellows.
One name, however, shines with a great blaze above them all, the name
of Philip H. Sheridan, one of the three supreme soldiers of the
Union, Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman being the
others. Had Ireland furnished only Sheridan to the Union cause, her
service would be beyond reward. He was born in Albany, N.Y., in
March, 1831, the year after his parents, John and Mary Sheridan,
arrived there from the Co. Cavan, in Ireland. The family moved to
Somerset, Perry Co., Ohio, the following year. There Philip began
village life. How he gained the beginning of an education; worked in
a grocery store; became a bookkeeper; longed for a West Point
nomination and got it; how he worked through the Academy in 1853;
served as lieutenant on the frontier, in Texas, California, and
Oregon, until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he was promoted
captain and ordered east, can be quickly told. His history until the
fall of the Confederacy would need many long chapters. His military
genius included all the requirements of a great captain, and his
opportunties of exhibiting all his qualities in action came in rapid
succession. In every service from quartermaster to army commander his
talents shone. His tremendous vigor, incredible mental alertness, and
genius for detail, added to his skill and outreach, continually set
him forward. He stood 5 feet 5 inches high, but somehow looked
taller, owing to his erect, splendid bearing. There was something in
the full chest, the thick muscular neck, the heavy head, the dark
blazing eyes, and the quick bodily movements that arrested attention.
His name has come down to this generation mainly as a great cavalry
leader, but he was a natural commander of all arms, a great
tactician, a born strategist. His campaign of the Shenandoah Valley
was a whirlwind of success. His great battles around Richmond were
wonderful. General Grant's opinion of Sheridan, given thirteen years
after the war, sums up the man. It is here quoted from J.R. Young's
book, _Around the World with General Grant_. It runs, in part, as
follows:
"As a soldier, as a commander of troops, as a man capable of doing
all that is possible with any number of men, there is no man living
greater than Sheridan. He belongs to the very first rank of soldiers,
not only of our country but of the world. I rank Sheridan with
Napoleon and Frederick and the great commanders in history. No man
ever had such a faculty of finding things out as Sheridan, of knowing
all about the enemy. He was always the best informed of his command
as to the enemy. Then he had that magnetic quality of swaying men,
which I wish I had, a rare quality in a general. I don't think anyone
can give Sheridan too high praise."
Praise from U.S. Grant is praise indeed. A peculiar feature of the
Civil War was the growth of the generals: Grant, Sherman, Sheridan,
Thomas, Meade, all conspicuously experienced it. With Sheridan,
however, one point is notable, namely, that He triumphed in every
branch in each successive extension of the field of his duties, and
he went from captain to major-general in three years of the regular
army. His care for his men was constant. His troops were always the
best fed, best clothed, best rested in the armies en either side, but
on no troops was there more constant call for endeavor, and they were
never found to fail him. In action he is described as severe,
peremptory, dominating, but his determinations were mighty things,
not to be interfered with. He wanted things done and done at once.
His men of all grades soon conceded that he knew best what to do, and
set about doing it accordingly. Out of action he was joyous of
spirit, but, in fight or out of it, his alertness and his
lightning-like decisions marked him apart from every other commander.
His career in the Tennessee campaign was meteoric. Of his score and
more of great conflicts, the most picturesque was his wonderful
battle at Cedar Creek, to fight which he rode at breakneck speed
"from Winchester twenty miles away" through the dust and debris of a
broken army to the extreme front, rallying the scattered regiments
and turning a defeat into a crushing victory, which recovered all
that had been lost, taking 25 cannon and 1,200 prisoners, and driving
for miles the lately victorious enemy under Early. Captain P.J.
O'Keefe was one of the two who made the ride beside him. The battles
of Waynesboro, Five Forks, and Sailor's Creek showed the same
brilliant generalship on the part of Sheridan. His hold on the
affection of the army and the admiration of the people continued to
the day of his death, August 5, 1888, when he held the headship of
the United States army as general in succession to the great Sherman.
General Sheridan, towards the end of the war, had a soldier's
difference with Major-General George G. Meade, commander of the Army
of the Potomac, but that did not blind "Little Phil" to the real
merit of the victor in the tremendous three days' battle of
Gettysburg, handling an army new to his hand against Robert E. Lee.
The Meade family is of Irish descent. George Meade, the grandfather,
came from Dublin and was a patriot in the American Revolutionary War.
General Meade commanded a division at Antietam and a corps at
Fredericksburg, and held command of the Army of the Potomac to the
end of the war. He was a fine soldier and gentleman. Of quiet manners
at most times, he was most irascible in the hour of battle, but his
temper did not becloud his judgment. General James Shields and
General Irwin McDowell, both fine Irish soldiers, have already been
mentioned.
It would be hard to compass in a brief article even the names of the
general officers of Irish blood in the Civil War. General John Logan,
who fought with the western armies, is worthy of high and honorable
mention, as is General Thomas Francis Meagher, a patriot in Ireland,
a prisoner in Australia, a soldier of dash in the Civil War.
Meagher's Irish Brigade left a record of valor unsurpassed: their
charge at Fredericksburg up Marye's Heights alone should give them
full meed of fame. General Michael Corcoran, a native of Ireland,
commanded the wholly Irish 69th Regiment when it departed for the war
in 1861, and after his exchange from a Confederate prison raised and
organized the Corcoran Legion. Major-General McDowell McCook
commanded brilliantly in the western campaigns. Who has not heard of
the Fighting McCooks?--a family of splendid men and hardy warriors.
Brigadier-General Thomas C. Devin was a superb cavalry commander, who
led the first division of Sheridan's Shenandoah army through all its
great operations. General James Mulligan of Illinois was of the true
fighting breed. Colonel Timothy O'Meara led his superb Irish Legion
from Illinois up Missionary Ridge. Brigadier-General C.C. Sullivan of
western army fame was one of the five generals, headed by Rosecrans,
who recommended Phil Sheridan for promotion to brigadier-general
after the battle of Booneville as "worth his weight in gold." General
Brannan was a gallant division commander in the Middle Tennessee
campaign. Colonel William P. Carlin made a name at Stone River.
General James T. Boyle, of the Army of the Ohio under Buell, was the
brave man whose promotion to division commander left a vacancy for
"Little Phil", that was to be an immediate stepping stone to higher
opportunity. Brigadier-General McMillan, who commanded the second
brigide at Cedar Creek; Colonel Thomas W. Cahill, 9th Connecticut;
Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Neafie of the 156th New York; Captain
Charles McCarthy of the 175th New York; Lieutenant-Colonel Alex. J.
Kenny of the 8th Indiana; Lieutenant Terrence Reilly of the Horse
Artillery, all won distinction in the Shenandoah Valley. Such
splendid fighters as General James R. O'Beirne, Colonel Guiney,
Colonel Cavanagh, Colonel John P. Byron, Colonel Patrick Gleason,
General Denis F. Burke, wrote their names red over a score of battle
fields, but one cannot hope to cover more than a fraction of the
brilliant men of Irish blood who led and bled in the long, hard, and
strenuous struggle. The 69th New York Regiment was the mother of a
dozen Irish regiments, including the Irish Brigade of Meagher and the
Corcoran Legion. The 9th, 28th, and 29th regiments of Massachusetts
were all Irish. A gallant Irishman, born at Fermoy, was
Brigadier-General Thomas Smyth, who made a name and died in the
battles around Richmond. There was not a regiment from the middle
western and western States that did not hold its quota of Irishmen
and sons of the Irish. After the names of Porter and Farragut in the
Navy stands next highest in honor that of Vice-Admiral Stephen C.
Rowan, born in Dublin, of the famous family that produced Hamilton
Rowan, one of the foremost of the United Irishmen. It was the son of
the vice-admiral, a lieutenant in the army, who carried "the message
to Garcia" from the United States War Department to the Cuban
commander in the eastern jungle of Cuba, before the outbreak of the
war with Spain, and did it so well and bravely through such
difficulties and dangers that his name will stand for "the faithful
messenger" forever.
As a consequence of their stand with the American people in the Civil
War, the position of the whole mass of the Irish and Irish-American
people was vastly uplifted in American eyes. The unlettered poverty
of scores of thousands of Irish immigrants, who came in multitudes
from 1846 on, had made an unfavorable and false impression; their red
blood on the battle field washed it out.
On the southern side as well, Irish valor shone. While the great
flood of the mid-century Irish immigration had spread itself mainly
north, east, and west, the larger cities of the South also received a
share. The slave system precluded the entry of free labor into the
cotton, corn, lumber, and sugar lands of the South, but such cities
as New Orleans, Mobile, Charleston, Savannah, Vicksburg, and Richmond
gave varied employment to many of the Irish who made their homes in
the Southland, and so they came to furnish thousands of recruits to
the local Confederate levies. The "Louisiana Tigers", who fought so
valiantly at Gettysburg on the Southern side, included many Irish.
The Georgia brigade, that held the Confederate line atop of Marye's
Heights at Fredericksburg, up which the Irish brigade so heroically
charged, had whole companies of Irish. There were scores of Irish in
many of the regiments that made Pickett's memorable charge at
Gettysburg. All through the Confederate armies were valiant
descendants of the earlier Irish immigration that settled the uplands
of the Carolinas and Virginia and the blue grass region of Kentucky.
Most famous, most glorious of these was "Stonewall"
Jackson--Lieutenant-General Thomas Jonathan Jackson--next to Robert
E. Lee the greatest soldier on the southern side. No more splendid
soldier-figure rises out of the contest. Educated at West Point,
serving in Mexico, then a professor of philosophy--and
artillery--next a volunteer with his State when Virginia took arms
against the Union, his long and brilliant service included a large
share in the victories at Bull Run, Gaines Mill, Malvern Hill, Cedar
Mountain, Harper's Ferry, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and
Chancellorsville, where he was accidentally wounded by his own men.
He was once defeated by General Shields, as has been noted. The piety
and purity of his life belie the supposed necessity for the coarser
traits that are thought to go with the terrible trade. General
Patrick R. Cleburne was born in 1828, near Cork, Ireland. He was in
the English army three years, and, coming to the United States,
became a lawyer at Helena, Ark. He enlisted in the Confederate army
as a private, rose rapidly to the command of a brigade, and made a
great name at Shiloh. As major-general he led divisions at
Murfreesboro and Chickamauga, and was thanked by the Confederate
Congress. He fell at the battle of Franklin--a soldier of commanding
presence, skill, and daring, beloved by the whole Army of the West.
The gallant colonel Thomas Claiborne was a striking cavalryman. It
was Lieutenant Thomas A. Claiborne of the 1st South Carolina who,
with Corporal B. Brannan, lashed the broken flagstaff on Fort Sumter
in June, 1864, when, under a withering fire, the flag of the
Confederacy had been shot away. The fighting of Major-General Gary of
South Carolina around Richmond was desperate. He was the last to
leave the city when it fell, as told by Captain Sullivan: "He
galloped at night through the burning city, and at the bridge over
the James cried out, 'We are the rear guard. It is all over; blow the
bridge to h--l!' and went on into the night"
The story of the Civil War is a mine of honor to the Irish, and
Irishmen should set it forth at length. Here it can be merely glanced
at.
The war of 1898 with Spain--that great patriotic efflorescence--was
brief in its campaigning. Immediately provoked by the blowing up of
the U.S.S. _Maine_ in Havana harbor on February 15, war was declared
on April 19. Admiral Dewey sank the Spanish fleet in Manila Harbor,
May 1. The first troops landed on Cuban soil June 1. The first--and
last--real land battle before Santiago occurred on July 1-2, with
13,500 troops on the American side against an available Spanish force
somewhat less in number, but holding strongly fortified and
entrenched positions around the town. The advance and charges uphill
necessary to capture El Caney and the steep heights of San Juan
called for desperate courage. It was there, however, and the Irish in
the army exhibited dash and persistence, as duty demanded. In the
second day's fighting the Spanish assaults on the American positions
were repelled, and the land fighting was over. The Americans in the
two days lost over 10 per cent killed and wounded. The destruction of
Cervera's fleet on its attempt to escape from Santiago on July 3
ended the struggle. With the regiment of Rough Riders, under Theodore
Roosevelt--who says he reckons "an O'Brien, a Redmond, and a man from
Ulster" among his for-bears--were many gallant Irishmen--Kellys,
Murphys, Burkes, and Doyles, for instance. His favorite captain,
"Bucky" O'Neill of Arizona, fell at the foot of San Juan. The white
regiments of the regular army had their quota of Irish, as had most
of the volunteers. The 9th Massachusetts was all Irish. The 69th New
York, all Irish, never reached the front in the war, but shared the
fate of the 150,000 troops cantoned through the Southern States,
their only effective enemies being dysentery, typhoid, and malaria.
A little splash of Irish blood came with the Fenian dash into Canada
on June 1, 1866. There had been active preparations for a real
invasion by some 50,000 Irish-born or Irish-fathered soldiers who had
served in the Civil War. The American government, using its army
force, intervened to prevent the bellicose movement, not, however,
before Colonel John O'Neill, who had served in the cavalry with
Sherman on his march to the sea, with Captain Starr, one of
Kilpatrick's cavalry, Captain O'Brien, and about 700 well-armed men,
all Civil War veterans, had slipped across the Niagara River at Fort
Erie. They made short work of all in sight, threw out a couple of
hundred men who burned a bridge and tore up the railroad tracks.
Their scouts fired on a small British detachment, which ran. On the
morning of June 2 news came of a larger Canadian force advancing, and
O'Neill went out to meet them. Deploying his men in a field near the
high road at a place called Ridgway, he sent his pickets forward.
They found heavy ground in front and about three-quarters of a mile
away some 1,400 men of the "Queen's Own" of Toronto and the Hamilton
Volunteers advancing rapidly in line. O'Neill, after a few rounds,
withdrew his pickets, and the Canadians, taking the movement for
flight, came briskly on. As soon as they were clear of cover,
O'Neill, firing a volley, gave orders for a charge. At it they went
with a cheer, and the whole Canadian line gave way. They ran as fast
as their legs could carry them, leaving some fifty killed and
wounded. After chasing them for two miles, O'Neill halted his men and
brought them back to Fort Erie, where they intrenched. The Canadians
did not stop until they reached Colburne, eighteen miles away. The
Fenian loss was twenty-five. In the night O'Neill learned that no
help was coming from the United States' side, while news reached him
that a force of 5,000 Canadian and British regulars was advancing on
Fort Erie. Accordingly, at 2 a.m. on June 3, he surrendered to the
United States forces with 400 of his men, who were detained for a few
days on the U.S.S. _Michigan_ and then let go. The balance of his
force, about 250 men, escaped in groups across the river. There was
another little victorious skirmish with the Canadians lower down
under Captain Spear, who also slipped back over the border unpursued.
What fighting took place was workmanlike and creditable.
There was a flicker of Irish fighting spirit in the Boer War. Many
thousands, no doubt, were in the English army of 250,000 men brought
against the 30,000 Boers, but there was a small "Irish Brigade" that
fought on the Boer side, and was notably engaged at Spion Kop, where
the English were driven so sweepingly from their position by
desperate charges.
In the War of 1870, between France and Prussia, the good wishes of
the Irish went with France, for the sake of the old friendship,
largely helped, no doubt, by the fact that at the summit of army
command was Marshal MacMahon, a descendant of a warrior of the old
Irish Brigade. His service in Algiers; his skill and daring in the
Crimean War before Sebastopol, where he led the division which
stormed the Malakoff; his victories in the Italian War of 1859
against Austria, including the great battle of Magenta, all made him
a striking, romantic figure. He failed in 1870 against the Prussians
at Worth, and was made prisoner with his army at Sedan, but he
suppressed the Commune after the war and was President of France from
1873 to 1879. The device by which 300 Irishmen took part on the
French side in the war with Germany has a grim humor. They went as
aides in an ambulance corps fitted out in Dublin by subscription,
but, once on French soil, enlisted in the army. "Maybe we can kill as
well as we can cure," said one of them. The _Compagnie irlandaise_,
as it was called, did creditable work, and was in the last combat
with the Prussians at Montbellard. Their captain, M.W. Kirwan, was
offered a Cross of the Legion of Honor, but for some reason declined
it. Dr. Constantine J. McGuire, who won the decoration for bravery
before Paris during the siege of the Commune, did, however, accept
it, receiving the cross from the hands of Marshal MacMahon, and, hale
and hearty, wears the red ribbon on occasion in New York today.
Even as this chronicle of daring deeds and daring doers is being
penned, in the ranks and as commanding officers on the side of the
allies in the far-flung battle lines of the great European war, are
men of Irish birth, and, let it not be forgotten, not a few of the
opposing side are the descendants of the Irish military geniuses who,
in days gone by, fought so gallantly across the continent "from
Dunkirk to Belgrade". They are all, every man of them, bearing
bravely, as of yore, their own part amid the dangers and chances of
the fray.
If the inspiring story is of necessity here barely sketched in
outline, it nevertheless clearly indicates that, as it has been for
two thousand years of Irish history, so it will be to the end of the
human chapter--the Irish race is the Fighting Race, and willing, even
eager, to risk life itself for vital issues.