March Toward the Thunder Part 27

Medical discharge August 14, 1865 at Stanton General.

Hospital, Washington, DC.

My great-grandfather was Canadian, but a Canadian of Native descent whose ancestral roots were in what became the United States. Records list his birth place as St. Francis, the name then used for the Abenaki Indian reserve of Odanak, a mission village made up largely of refugee Indians from New England who fled north to escape the English during the eighteenth century. (I've written about the eighteenth-century experiences of Odanak Abenakis in two of my earlier novels, The Arrow Over the Door and The Winter People.) Like numerous other young Canadian Indian men, my great-grandfather came south to find work because little was available around the reserve.

And, in 1864, it was in the United States that a recruiter for the Irish Brigade found him.

THE IRISH BRIGADE.

During the Civil War, it is estimated that more than 150,000 Irishmen fought for the Union. There was also an entire Southern brigade of Irishmen that fought on the side of the Confederacy. Why was this so? The answers can be found in recent Irish history.

Despite centuries of struggle against British rule, throughout the nineteenth century Ireland was still a colonial possession of England. Although Irish men and women had already been coming to the United States for many years in large numbers, the greatest influx of Irish immigrants occurred in 1846, as a result of a blight that destroyed the Irish potato crop in 1845. In one of the greatest disasters in history, the population of Ireland dropped from about 8.5 million to 6.5 million. Many starved, but an estimated 1,600,000 Irish men and women came to the United States.

These new immigrants were generally not welcomed. They were Catholic in what was then a largely Protestant nation. They were competing for scarce jobs in a struggling economy. Many refused to hire anyone with an Irish name. Signs reading NO IRISH NEED APPLY began to appear in American cities.

In 1851, well before the Civil War, the Irish citizens of New York City formed a volunteer militia that was accepted as part of the New York State Militia as the 69th Regiment. After the attack on Fort Sumter, the 69th, led by Colonel Michael Corcoran, fought at the first battle of Bull Run, serving as the rear guard during the Union retreat. Two more New York regiments that were mostly Irish, the 63rd New York and the 88th New York, and two other regiments, the 28th Ma.s.sachusetts and the 116th Pennsylvania, were added to the 69th to form the Irish Brigade.

With a lack of opportunity for other jobs, the example of prominent Irish Americans, the generous cash bonuses being offered to recruits . . . it's not surprising that many Irish jumped at the chance to enlist. Moreover, by the mid-nineteenth century the Irish already had a long and honorable history of military service, having signed on as mercenary soldiers in wars all over the European continent. Becoming a solider was a familiar path for a young Irishman with no other road to take. Although the cash bonuses offered for volunteering were attractive, their motives were not just monetary. Some saw it as a way to gain military experience that they might use when the American Civil War was won, in a later battle to free their own homeland from British rule.

There is no doubt too that after years of struggle against "English despotism" that made the proud Irish people feel like slaves, many identified with the Union cause. A recruiting advertis.e.m.e.nt that appeared in the Boston Herald on July 30, 1862, begins with these words, which appeal to that Irish pride and patriotism:.

"Shall villains drag our starry flag.

By the blood of warriors consecrated.

And raise instead the viper's head.

O'er Northern freemen subjugated?.

No, no, the boasts of Southern hosts.

By heaven right soon we'll make them swallow.

They'll shortly feel our Yankee steel.

Backed by an Irish Faugh au Ballaghs."

Faugh au Ballaghs is a Gaelic phrase that means "Clear the way." It became the battle cry of the largely Irish regiments that became known as the Irish Brigade, men who combined the pride of being Irish with their desire to fight for freedom. In large part, the men of the Irish Brigade lived up to that motto. They were usually the first into battle where the fighting was the worst. By the end of the war, no other Brigade had been more praised for gallantry, dash, and discipline. They also suffered the third-highest casualty rate in the Union army. Of the 7,715 men who served in its ranks, over 4,000 were killed or mortally wounded.

Riamh Nar Dhruid O Saprin lann. Those words, also in Gaelic, mean "Who never retreated from the clash of spears." They were emblazoned on a field of green, under a sunburst and an Irish harp, on the regimental colors of the 69th New York, that first and most famous of the five regiments that made up the Irish Brigade. Their nickname, the "Fighting 69th," was given them by none other than Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who was less than pleased whenever he saw their green flag facing his lines.

Because their losses were always so great, the Irish Brigade went through several periods of major recruitment. One of them was in the early part of 1864. And although the Brigade was still mostly Irish, other men who had been common laborers, men from communities with an equal lack of opportunity, joined up. Some were American Indians, some were Canadians, and some, like my own great-grandfather, were both.

Selected Bibliography.

I read hundreds of volumes in researching this novel. Here are a few I found especially useful and interesting, books that should also be helpful for any reader wishing to know more about the history behind my story.

Between Two Fires: American Indians in the Civil War by Laurence M. Hauptman. New York: The Free Press, 1995.

The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac 1861-1865 by E. B. Long with Barbara Long. New York: Da Capo Press, 1971.

Civil War Weapons and Equipment by Russ A. Pritchard Jr. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Civil War by Alan Axelrod. New York: Alpha Books, 2003.

The Everything Civil War Book by Donald Vaughn. Holbrook, MA: Adams Media, 2000.

The Irish Brigade and Its Campaigns by David Power Conyngham, edited by Lawrence Frederick Kohl. New York: Fordham University Press, 1994.

The Life of Billy Yank: the Common Soldier of the Union by Bell Irvin Wiley. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978.

The Life of Johnny Reb: the Common Soldier of the Confederacy by Bell Irvin Wiley. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978.

The Negro's Civil War by James M. McPherson. New York: Vintage Books Civil War Library, 2003.

They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the Civil War by DeAnne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook. New York: Vintage Books, 2002.

Warrior in Two Camps: Ely S. Parker, Union General and Seneca Chief by William H. Armstrong. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1978.

What They Didn't Teach You About the Civil War by Mike Wright. New York: Ballantine Books, 1996.

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