THE IRISH ELEMENT IN THE SECOND MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS IN THE RECENT
WAR (WITH SPAIN).
BY REV. JOHN J. McCOY, P. R., CHICOPEE, MASS.
“What have ye brought to our Nation-building, Sons of the Gael?
What is your burden or guerdon from old Innisfail?
Here build we higher and deeper than men ever built before;
And we raise no Shinar tower, but a temple forevermore.”
—_John Boyle O’Reilly._
Just after the Parnell investigation in 1885, when the Irish
Parliamentary party came out of the fires of ill will and fraud, and was
crowned with the world’s credit, John Boyle O’Reilly said to a priest
friend of mine, the Rev. Dr. O’Callaghan of Boston, “Father Denis, in
the clubs of Boston to-night it is a glory to be an Irishman.”
What the hot-hearted O’Reilly said that happy night of exclusive and
scholarly Boston may as truthfully be said now of the whole state from
the Cape to the Berkshires. Men who most love the Bay state’s white
flag, with its protecting shield and uplifted arm, are saying it is a
glory in Massachusetts to-night to be an Irishman or an Irishman’s son;
and they find their reason for this in the heroic showing of her citizen
soldiers, who went out from a people that had not enervated under more
than thirty years of softening peace, right into the zone of flame and
blood at El Caney, San Juan, and Santiago, and bore themselves so
gallantly there, and in the other fact that more than every second man
in the Massachusetts contingent had the heart within him warmed by the
red blood of the fighting Gael.
The Ninth Massachusetts Volunteers, though not entirely as is usually
supposed of Irish blood, is yet so nearly so, that at home our people
commonly speak of the splendid command, as “the Irish Ninth;” while the
Second, which has won imperishable renown in Cuba, and has awakened the
honest pride of every patriotic heart at home, in the valley of the
Connecticut, upon the Berkshire hills, and along the quiet Quinsigamond,
is spoken of by press and people as the ideal Massachusetts regiment,
and as made up from the best blood of liberty-loving New England. This
is true; and it is the best blood because most of it is Irish blood.
Many men appear to think that a man to be of Irish stock must be an
O’Sullivan, an O’Brien, a McCarthy or an O’Neill.
Five young men of my near neighborhood went to the war. Their names were
Tobin, Nesbett, McCullough, Braziel and Judd. Three, Tobin, Braziel and
Judd, were of Irish parents, but American born, and a few months before
were boys in my parish school. The two others, McCullough and Nesbitt,
were Protestant boys born in Ireland. Only one of the names would
ordinarily be recognized as Irish. Thinking that what was true in this
case might be in others, and that many of the men of the regiment might
be of Irish blood, I sought for the facts, believing that the facts when
known would make for the credit of our people. I sought the rosters of
the companies, and asked the officers to mark the names of men of Irish
blood, and from this excellent source have I the word which I say
to-night.
In answer to a letter sent to the captains of companies, I received
replies giving me the following figures:
Company A has 11, known to be of Irish blood, and then such names as
Allison, Fay, Cardin and Young have not been counted in.
Company B has 33 men of Irish blood, and does not count Devine or Young.
Company C has 9 men. Company D has 14 men. Company E has 6, and still we
find such names as Doane, Leonard and Blake outside the count. Company F
has 14 men.
Company G has 40 Irish Catholics, 2 Irish Protestants, 2 Italians, 3
Germans, 3 Scots, 2 Swedes, 1 Nova Scotian, 7 French-Canadians, and 17
of old Yankee stock.
Company H has 13 men. Company I, 24 officers and men. Company K has 12,
and still we are not counting such names as Verrily, Kelley, Carr and
Crehy.
Company L has 13, and outside of that we find Barnes, Carney, Kingston,
Norton and Raymond.
Company M has 22, and beyond that 22 there is a Simmons, a Carey,
Daniels, Graham, Manning, Riley and Ward—all good old Irish names.
The count I have given you is in most cases that of the captains of
companies, as far as received, and is as close as hasty work can hope to
be. I am satisfied that with more time and kindly aid of officers and
men, I shall be able to make the roll exact and the number of men of
Irish stock much increased.
We may note, too, that our count to-night is only of men Irish born or
in the first American generation. Many of the best in the regiment have
it farther back, as for instance the gallant colonel himself, who writes
me, “My great-grandfather was Patrick Clark who came from Ireland.”
In the regiment was a young second lieutenant, whom the correspondents
praised and the artists pictured, and who drew the eyes of Massachusetts
to himself by his cool bravery and marvelous skill as a sharpshooter
which he used in silencing the murderous Spaniards who fired from the
trees at our wounded. A Spanish mauser ploughed through his shoulder,
but he is alive and well, and to-day the gentlest and most unspoiled
hero of the war is Lieut. Daniel Moynihan of Northampton.
“I myself am of Irish blood, and Second Lieut. Thomas F. Burke is of
Irish blood also,” writes the city marshal of Springfield, Henry
McDonald, who was captain of Company B.
Of Irish blood, too, is the captain of Company G, who was acting major
in the dangerous time, John J. Leonard. So, too, is his soldierly and
capable first lieutenant, William G. Hayes. So, too, the second
lieutenant, Edward J. Leyden, and Sergeants Scully, Ward, Murphy and
Gibbons.
After a long and intimate knowledge of the regiment, and a closer
acquaintance with its _personnel_ than any other man could possess just
now, its colonel, who is high sheriff of Hampden county and known for
his conservativeness and thoughtfulness of speech, thus gives me his
estimate, and writes it over his own hand: “If we go back for two
generations, I think from one half to three fourths of the members of
the Second Massachusetts Volunteers were of Irish blood.”
This regiment had in the war the gratuitous services of a chaplain whose
name is a benediction to-day in the Connecticut valley, Father
Fitzgerald, chaplain of the Twenty-second Infantry, U. S. A. He is an
Irishman born, and may fittingly be spoken of in this connection, and
the world will honor us as well as him. Every man of the regiment,
Catholic and Protestant alike, loves him, and can scarcely meet a priest
to-day without claiming kindly right to speak of him. The gist of the
general love is in the words of an enthusiastic captain, who writes me
in this manner: “The Rev. E. A. Fitzgerald, chaplain Twenty-second
Infantry, U. S. A., was as truly chaplain of the First Brigade, Second
Division of the Fifth Army Corps, comprising the Eighth and
Twenty-second Regular Infantry and the Second Massachusetts Volunteers.”
Chaplain Fitzgerald had the respect of all the officers and men of the
brigade for his earnest devotion to their interests and for his
unflinching courage during the progress of the battles at El Caney and
San Juan, where he confronted danger at every turn and amid shot and
shell attended to the needs of the wounded. He won for himself a name
unequaled in bravery by that of any other chaplain in the Santiago
campaign. While he was not wounded, his clothing showed the effect of
the mausers.
During the time of disease, a horror of war more trying than battle, he
was unceasing in his labors for the sick, going from one end of the
brigade to the other daily, and reeking with sweat during the heat of
the day. His cheerful countenance and kindly disposition in his daily
work brought comfort and true sunshine to many a drooping soldier
irrespective of creed or race. Colonel Clark, Second Massachusetts
Volunteers, says of him: “One of God’s noblemen,” and Adjutant Hall,
Twenty-second Infantry, in speaking of him, said that he was the “salt
of the earth.” The officers and men of the brigade are unstinted in his
praise, and his name will ever be cherished with reverence, respect and
good wishes by his comrades in the Santiago campaign, the rank and file
of the unassuming volunteers of the Second Massachusetts. I am satisfied
that a study of the men who fought on land and on the sea in the war
with Spain, will be highly creditable to our people.
[Illustration:
MR. JOHN D. O’BRIEN,
Of Minnesota.
Residence, ST. PAUL.
]
[Illustration:
REV. M. C. LENIHAN,
Of Iowa
Residence, MARSHALLTOWN.
]
[Illustration:
MR. EDWARD FITZPATRICK,
Of Kentucky.
Staff of the _Louisville Daily Times_.
]
[Illustration:
MR. MICHAEL GAVIN,
Of Tennessee.
Residence, MEMPHIS.
]