USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The story of the Irish in Boston, together with biographical sketches of representative men and noted women > Part 10
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104
THE IRISH IN BOSTON.
V .- The War of Secession.
EVERY regiment in the Army of the North had in it soldiers who were Irishmen or Irishmen's sons. A mere list of these soldiers would make a volume of this size. They were not confined to the ranks. They furnished types of heroism in the navy, as well as in the army, and in all grades, even to the highest. The daring and romantic figure of Sheridan, unique in our history, is a fitting crown to the valor of Irishmen everywhere. They have fought on every field but Ireland's successfully; and the culmination of their labors is the salvation of the American Union.
As for Massachusetts, the army rolls at the adjutant-general's office in Boston furnish a striking revelation. Two of the regiments were so distinctively Irish that the State permitted them to carry the flag of their mother-country. Thus it was that the "sunburst" floated in companionship with the stars and stripes above the bay- onets of the famous Ninth Massachusetts Volunteers and the equally famous Twenty-eighth, the " Faugh-a-Ballaughs." Other regiments from the State might also have carried the green flag so far as the na- tionality of their membership was concerned. These long lists of brave men suggest to the imagination pictures of the martial possi- bilities of the Irish people. The thought comes of having them mar- shalled in one grand host. They would not lack for leaders. Sheridan first, and about him Shields, Meagher, Kearny, and the rest, would make the blows of such an army effective and lasting.
The two Irish regiments mentioned above are always referred to with high commendation in all the reports made to the adjutant-gen- eral during the four years of the war.1 Their record is as clear as the work of brave men can make it. No regiment should have a warmer place in the hearts of the citizens of Boston than the Ninth, for no regiment came closer to her people. Officers and men, the great majority of them, were her citizens.
' "The Ninth was one of the best regiments that ever left the State." - Adjutant- General's Report.
PATRICK R. GUINEY
THE IRISH SOLDIER.
105
Among the first to proffer his services to Governor Andrew at the outbreak of the war was Thomas Cass. His idea was to organize a regiment of Irishmen, who should be permitted to carry the Irish flag, and, with the governor's hearty approval, he perfected such an organization. It may be said that Colonel Cass made the regiment's renown. His officers partook of his spirit, his untiring devotion, his unfaltering belief in the ultimate triumph of the cause; so that when he fell, mortally wounded, in one of the seven days' battles, the regiment's loss was more bereavement than disaster. His mantle fell on Colonel Guiney, who proved a worthy successor. We give here a complete list of the war officers of this regiment. Some are gone; but their children are among us, and not forgotten.
Colonels.
Thomas Cass, **
Patrick R. Guiney. [Bvt. Brig. Gen.]
Lieutenant-Colonels.
Cromwell G. Rowell, Robert Peard, ***
Patrick R. Guiney.
Patrick T. Hanley. [Bvt. Father Thomas Scully,
Colonel.]
Father Charles L. Egan.
Thomas R. Roche, Timothy Burke, Patrick R. Guiney, Edward Fitzgerald, Jeremiah O'Neil,* George W. Dutton, Patrick T. Hanley, John H. Rafferty, John C. Willey, John H. Walsh,
Majors.
Captains.
Robert Peard,
Patrick R. Guiney,
Christopher Plunkett, James E. Gallagher,*
Michael A. Finnerty, Michael Flynn, Martin O'Brien,
George W. Dutton, Patrick T. Hanley, John W. Mahan.
James W. McNamara, t William Madigan .*
Surgeons.
Peter Pinco, James F. Sullivan, Stephen W. Drew.
John R. Teague, John Carey,* Charles J. McCarthy, James E. McCafferty,* Timothy O'Leary, John W. Mahan, Michael Scanlan, James F. McGunigle,
First Lieutenants. George W. Perkins, John Moran,
* Killed at Gaines's Mills.
t Killed in the Wilderness.
** Died in Boston of wounds received at Malvern Hill.
*** Died of disease while in the service.
.
Assistant Surgeons. Patrick A. O'Connell, Francis M. Lincoln, James F. Sullivan, Henry H. Fuller, John Ryan,
James W. Fitzpatrick.
Chaplains.
Michael F. O'Hara, John M. Tobin, Patrick W. Black, William A. Phelan, f
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THE IRISH IN BOSTON.
Michael Scanlan,
Richard P. Nugent,*
William B. Mahoney,
Patrick T. Hanley,
Timothy Dacey,
Martin O'Brien,
John W. Mahan,
Joseph Murphy,
Timothy Dacey,
William W. Doherty, Michael H. McNamara,
Michael F. O'Hara,
Patrick E. Murphy,
Patrick W. Black,
Charles B. McGinnisken, t
Timothy O'Leary, John M. Tobin,
John Doherty,
Christopher Plunkett,
Daniel G. Macnamara,
Hugh McGunnigle,
Thomas R. Roche,
Archibald Simpson, f
Archibald Simpson,
James E. McCafferty,
William B. Maloney,
James F. McGunigle,
Martin O'Brien,
R. P. Nugent, Timothy F. Lee, Michael Phalan,
William Strachan, Patrick Walsh,
John F. Doherty,
Michael A. Finnerty,
· Philip E. Redmond, John C. Willey,
William R. Burke.
William A. Phelan, Robert A. Miller, Bernard F. Finan, John F. Doherty,
William Burke,
John H. Rafferty,
Daniel G. Macnamara,
Michael Phalan,
Edward McSweeney,
William J. Blood,
Michael F. O'Hara,
John H. Walsh,
James W. McNamara,
Michael Flynn,
Philip E. Redmond, ttt
William R. Burke,
William A. Phelan,
Timothy Burke, John C. Willey,
James O'Donnell, William A. Plunkett,
Matthew Dacey,
Patrick W. Black,
Joseph Murphy,
Nicholas C. Flaherty, ¡
Edward Fennottie,
Frank McLalor,
John W. McNamara,
Michael Flynn,
Philip Redmond,
Patrick E. Murphy,
James O'Neill.t
Robert A. Miller,
Matthew Dacey, John Doherty,
The Twenty-eighth was mustered in on Jan. II, 1862, at Camp Cameron, near Boston. They first smelt powder at James's Island, June I and 2, in an effort to take Fort Johnson, which was successfully resisted. We give here a list of their war officers, and we shall leave further mention of their record till they join the Army of the Potomac, Aug. 16, 1862. Thus our history of the two regiments will be in the main a history of that famous army.
* Killed at Gaines's Mill.
¡ Killed in the Wilderness.
# Killed at Malvern Hill.
ttt Died in hospital at Washington, D.C.
John H. Walsh,
Christopher Plunkett,
Bernard F. Finan,
Michael C. Flaherty,
Edward McSweeney,¿
James O'Donnell,
Francis O'Dowd,*
John H. Rafferty,# Thomas Mooney,
Second Lieutenants.
Patrick Walsh,
Michael A. Finnerty,
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THE IRISH SOLDIER.
Colonels.
William Monteith,
Richard Byrnes, **** George W. Cartwright.
Lieutenant-Colonels. Maclellan Moore, Jeremiah W. Coveney, George W. Cartwright, James Fleming.ttf
Majors. Andrew P. Caraher,
Andrew J. Lawler .**
Surgeon. Patrick A. O'Connell.
Chaplains. Father Nicholas O'Brien, Father Lawrence S. Mc- Mahon.
Captains. Andrew P. Caraber, Lawrence P. Barrett, Charles P. Smith,* Andrew J. Lawler, John H. Brennan, Samuel Moore, John A. McDonald, John Riley, Patrick Nolan, *** Alexander Blaney,
George F. McDonald,
John Miner,
Michael Kiley,
Patrick H. Bird,
Martin Binney,
Patrick McIntyre,
Patrick W. Black,
John Maher,
John Knight,
Michael E. Pouderly,
Thomas J. Parker, ttt
Thomas Cook.
First Lieutenants.
Second Lieutenants.
James B. West, ****
Jeremiah W. Coveney,
John J. Cooley,
Hugh P. Boyle, ***
James Magee, James McArdle,
James O'Keefe,
Benjamin F. Bartlett, William Mitchell,
Moses J. Emery,
James Magner, **
Edwin J. Weller, tt John B. Noyes, William F. Cochrane, **
Walter S. Bailey,
Jeremiah W. Coveney,
Michael Keiley,
Edward F. O'Brien,
Leonard Harvey, Martin Binney, Walter J. Morgan,
Cornelius McCarty, Thomas Cook, John McGlinn,
Patrick W. Black,
John Miles,
William McCarty, Alexander Barrett, *** **
John Conners,
David Hogan.
It was in April, 1861, that the Ninth Regiment was organized and encamped on Long Island. On June 29 Colonel Cass led them to Washington. Two days after the disaster at Bull Run they joined
* Killed at Wilderness. Killed at Chantilly.
** Killed at Spottsylvania.
t Killed at Sharpsburg.
Killed at Deep Bottomn.
**** Killed at Cold Harbor.
tt Killed at Fredericksburg. ttt Killed at Petersburg.
Josiah F. Kennison, John Ahern, Florence J. Buckley, James A. McIntyre,*
Nicholas J. Barrett, f William H. Flynn, *
J. Howard Tannant, Theophilus F. Page,
Addison A. Hosmer, John Ahern, William J. Lemoyne,
John Sullivan, tt
. Jacob Nebrich, Patrick W. Black,
M. Quilty,
John Miles, Patrick McIntyre,*
John Conners, ttt Patrick H. Bird.
Charles H. Sanborn, Humphrey Sullivan,
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THE IRISH IN BOSTON.
the troops posted as the guard of our national capital on Arlington Heights, - the scene of the first armed invasion of "the sacred soil of Virginia." Washington was then in a state of wholesome terror. The "powers that be" had gone into the war with the idea that one good blow would knock the Confederacy down; but the Confederacy countered unexpectedly at Bull Run, and after that the national "government was careful to keep its guard up. One good result of this defeat was the creation of the great Army of the Potomac,1 with Gen. George B. McClellan, then but thirty-five years of age, as its commander. The Ninth left Arlington Heights to join this famous army, in the early spring of 1862.
We have nothing to do with the controversy which makes com- parison between masterly retreats and brilliant victories; they both, it seems to us, are a necessity to the proper conduct and success of a war. In the eyes of his soldiers, or at least of a large majority of them, McClellan was the ideal soldier. He was an especial favorite of his Irish followers.
In the peninsular campaign the Ninth bore a beautiful national flag, which had been presented to the regiment by the boys of the Eliot school.2 It may seem hard to understand the dual patriotism symbolized by these two flags. Certain it is that the cry: " Rally round the green flag!" nerved this regiment to some of its bravest deeds. It must have been a surprise to the people of Alexandria, Va., on that March morning, to see a thousand boys in blue march- ing to the national tunes of Ireland and flying their Irish flag; and a still greater surprise to see that same flag flying at the peak of the U.S. Transport "State of Maine," which took the Ninth to Fortress Munroe.
1 The order for the transportation of Mcclellan's army was issued on the 27th of Feb- ruary, 1862, and four hundred vessels were required; for there were actually transported one hundred and twenty-one thousand men, fourteen thousand animals, forty-four batteries, and all the necessary ambulances and baggage-wagons, pontoons, and telegraph material. - Rossiter Johnson ; " A Short History of the War of Secession."
2 The Eliot school is located at the North End of Boston, in a section of the city which, at that time, was largely populated by people of Irish extraction. Many of the friends, rela- tives, and parents of the men of the Ninth lived at the North End. The battle-torn remnants of this flag now hang in the hall of the school-house on North Bennett street.
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THE IRISH SOLDIER.
The campaign upon which Mcclellan now entered was full of unforeseen difficulties. The first and greatest was the complete igno- rance of the Union army as to the topography of the country in which they were at work. It was some comfort to know that among the natives of the district, who knew only their own immediate neighborhood, the ignorance of the enemy was just as complete. Such a thing as a map of the peninsula had never been made. If the President had had a good map of the country he could have seen, and undoubtedly would have seen, the mistake that is now so easily pointed out. McClellan had planned an approach to Richmond along the James river on the north bank. The advantages of such a plan are readily seen by reference to our sketch.
The base of supplies could be on the James, transports and supply- boats could come up to C headquarters, and it would be unnecessary to R M leave heavy garrisons for covering a long line of communication. The gov- PLAN OF THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. ernment at Washington, however, was very nerv- M Fortress Munroe. Y York River. R Richmond. J James River. ous, and, although they W White House. C Chickahominy River. now had about 70,000 men, including McDowell's corps, which should have been with McClellan, the War Department issued an order, May 18, directing that the army should approach Richmond from the north. This made it necessary for McClellan to make his base of supplies on the York and Pamunkey in- stead of on the James. The mistake of such a plan is now clearly seen. The accompanying rough map of the peninsula shows the relative positions of Fortress Munroe, Richmond, and White House, where, according to this order, McClellan made his base of supplies. The entire route, from whatever camp he might be in, to this last point, had to be kept secure from hostile occupation,
110
THE IRISH IN BOSTON.
or else, some fine day, the army would have to fight for their supper, with a slim chance of any being left for them. Again, the Chicka- hominy river lay between them and Richmond. Sudden rains might, in a single day, make this stream a torrent, and in two days impass- able. When the army should cross this river they would leave it between them and their supplies; to leave a sufficient guard on the other bank would hopelessly weaken the attack, and to leave no guard would be to stake every hope of safety, not only for them- selves, but for the Union, upon the chances of a single day's fighting.
McClellan was finally aroused to the imminent danger of his situation by the daring raid of a body of about 1,500 Confederate cavalry, which rode completely around his army, between him and White House. This was on the 12th of June. If, instead of " Jeb " Stuart and his audacious band, the invaders had been Jackson, with a large detachment, and if, instead of hurrying by, they had stopped to wreck the stores at White House, the result can be imagined. McClellan was then astride the Chickahominy, and determined to change his base to conform with his old idea.
Soon after this Lee began to lay his plans for attacking the Union army. On June 26, in pursuance of a plan for a change of base, the heavy guns and a large part of the baggage train were removed to the north bank of the Chickahominy. Lee, Longstreet, and the two Generals Hill crossed the Chickahominy and attempted to turn the flank of the Federal troops; but the artillery literally mowed them down, and they gained no advantage. The next day McClellan continued the plan he had entered upon. Porter was covering the removal of the remainder of the stores, when he was attacked by Gen. A. P. Hill, and thus was brought on the battle of Gaines's Mills, or Chickahominy. The desperate character of this engage- ment may be estimated from the fact that the National army lost 6,000 men, and the enemy's loss is estimated at a much larger figure. The Ninth lost nearly 300 men, - over one-fifth of their fighting strength. The Ninth was in General Porter's corps, the available strength of which on this day was about 25,000 men, while Long-
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THE IRISH SOLDIER.
street and the Hills brought against him an army of at least 55,000 men.
The battle was begun by Gen. A. P. Hill, about two o'clock in the afternoon, and for two hours he hammered Porter, blow on blow, only to be hurled back with frightful loss. Jackson came with reën- forcements, and then heavy masses of Confederate troops made assaults all along the National line. Volley responded to volley; batteries that remained after the infantry supports had fallen back were decimated, captured and recaptured. The enemy finally suc- ceeded in breaking General Porter's line, and at sunset he was compelled to retire.
The work of Porter's men in this engagement was so desperate and deadly that the Confederate generals thought they were fighting the whole Union army. Part of the rebel force was completely demoralized. Whole regiments were deliberately marching back, and there was the most outrageous skulking on their side ever seen during the war. No one who reads the story of the peninsular battles can doubt the bravery of the Southerners, but this time they had roused a lion; the Ninth was as firm as a rock on the beach.1 The reckless charges of the secessionists broke against their steady bayonets and well-directed fire; the entire staff of a regiment before their line would frequently disappear, and the headless ranks drift back to shelter.
Colonel Cass was disabled by illness and a slight wound early in the battle, and his men were led by Lieutenant-Colonel Guiney, who, upon the death of Cass at Malvern Hill, succeeded to the command. The order came to charge; Guiney ordered the colors forward, and at his call the men sprang to support them. It is the proud record of this regiment that they never lost a color, and their daring charge in this hotly contested battle went far to save the colors of their brother regiments. Surely it is not just to call theirs a divided patriotism; that green flag, symbol of hopes
! "The Irish held their position with a determination and ferocity that called forth the admiration of our own officers." - Report of a Prussian officer serving in the rebel army, quoted in McNamara's "Irish Ninth."
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THE IRISH IN BOSTON.
deferred for generations, and of bitter, fruitless struggles for home and freedom; the flag that was bought by their children and deliv- ered into their hands by the most famous Irish soldier then living,1 - would they be men if it did not rouse the deepest and strongest passions of their nature ? Would they be worth our citizenship if they did not follow it, through wounds and death, to the greatness of the fame that history awards them to-day?
As the day wore on with its fearful work, McClellan sent as reinforcements Slocum's division, and later Meagher's and French's. These last troops saved the day. Stragglers were beginning to work their way towards the bridges, and the thin and war-worn lines of heroes, having been under fire for two days, gladly rested behind the bulwark formed by the fresh troops. The enemy were finally baffled ; their victory, all but won, was again deferred. They were very willing to permit the retreat of an enemy less than half their number, that had resisted their most ferocious and reckless attacks for a whole day. The Ninth was among the last regiments to leave this field of dreadful carnage. After all the terrible strain of the day, they kept their ranks with the steadiness of veterans, and marched without a symptom of panic, an exemplar of discipline to the rest of the army, and a nucleus for stragglers that had courage enough to stay where they could find fighting companions. We quote from the New York "Herald's " war correspondent : -
The Ninth Massachusetts Regiment was the rear of the retreating column, which had passed over a hill into a large, open plain. .
To break and run was not for the men who had covered themselves with glory during the entire day. Col. P. R. Guiney (now in command) decided to form a line of battle on his colors, and resist the approach of the enemy until the advance of the retreat should have been far enough to leave ground sufficient to enable him to commence his retreat in good order. Colonel Guiney, with his standard-bearers, advanced upon the rebels with the words, "Men, follow your colors !" It was enough. Before that small band of jaded heroes waved the stars and stripes and the green flag of Erin, and with loud huzzas they rushed upon the rebels, driving them up hill.
After the battle of Gaines's Mills, McClellan continued the
' Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher, then commanding the "Irish Brigade."
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THE IRISH SOLDIER.
movement that he had begun. The enemy fancied that, being forced to abandon his depot at White House, he would retreat by the way he had come, and consequently lost valuable time in pur- suing him. They did attack him again, however, and harassed him all along his line of retreat, till he finally entrapped them at Malvern Hill. This was a small eminence on the north bank of the James river. The ground was peculiarly well situated for defence, and McClellan's keen engineering sense saw every point of vantage it could afford.
Porter's division, of which the Ninth was a part, shared with Couch's the brunt of the attack. At 6 o'clock P.M. the artillery of the enemy concentrated its fire upon their fronts. Brigades formed in heavy masses under the cover of the trees, and raising the " rebel yell," started on the run across the open ground to storm the batteries. They were received first by a shower of grape and canister from the guns; daring and determined, they pressed on to within a few yards of the line only to receive the deadly volley that their opponents had been saving for close quarters; then the Union. soldiers leaped to the charge, and their bayonets drove the remnant. of their foes, in utter confusion, down and away, capturing colors and prisoners in goodly numbers. More than once in this fight the charges of the Irish Ninth decided a critical point of the contest.1. Colonel Cass had told General Porter 1 in the morning that his men would sweep the enemy before them, and they did it, though poor- Cass paid for it with his life.
It seems proper to insert at this point the last words that Mc- Clellan ever wrote, the grateful tribute of the illustrious commander to the men with whom and by whom his fame was made : -
So long as life lasts, the survivors of those glorious days will remember, with quickened pulse, the attitude of that army when it reached the goal for which it had striven with such transcendent heroism. Exhausted, depleted in num- bers, bleeding at every pore, but still proud and defiant, and strong in the conscious- ness of a great feat of arms heroically accomplished, it stood ready to renew the
1 The authority for these statements is Gen. Fitz-John Porter.
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THE IRISH IN BOSTON.
struggle with undiminished ardor whenever its commander should give the word. It was one of those magnificent episodes which dignify a nation's history, and are fit subjects for the grandest efforts of the poet and painter.
It was while the regiment was at Harrison's Landing that Col. P. R. Guiney received his promotion as Colonel Cass's successor. He had been with the regiment from the date of its commission, and had rapidly risen in distinction for ability and bravery. He was one of the active organizers of the regiment. It was his gallant and meri- torious conduct at the battle of Gaines's Mills that gained him the colonelcy, his promotion having been urged by Gen. Fitz-John Porter himself.
In leaving now, as we must, the peninsular campaign to follow the fortunes of the regiment elsewhere, it must not be supposed that we have done justice to their story. We have omitted the account of important battles in which the Ninth participated, and we have omitted accounts of individual and regimental gallantry that should properly be told. The trouble is not the lack of incident, but the lack of space to recount it. What has been given is only to show the importance of this particular campaign, and to show the share of our Irish regiments in preventing the disastrous termination which was so imminently threatened and so narrowly averted. To write in the same way a full account of all the battles in which the Ninth and its peer, the Twenty-eighth, took part, would be equivalent to writing a history of the greater part of the Civil War. Grateful as that task would be, and proud as the record of our race would be in it, it is not our present purpose; we must confine ourselves to the most sketchy accounts, and be content with the omission of many im- portant incidents.
When we next see the Ninth in battle, they are serving under Pope in the second Bull Run. On August 29, they were a part of the corps which Porter refused to lead to almost certain destruction, - a refusal which caused one of the most unjust military sentences known to history. The next day, they were a part of the troops which Mc- Dowell hurled desperately at Lee's attacking column, still trying to
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THE IRISH SOLDIER.
obey their blundering chief as best they could. The Twenty-eighth was also in this battle, having recently come from South Carolina, and did good service in repelling the flank attack of Jackson's troops at Chantilly on the last day of the fight. The total loss of the latter regiment in the three days' battle was over two hundred.
After the second battle of Bull Run, as after the first, the Government turned to McClellan. Lee was moving North, and Mc- Clellan started on his track. The Ninth and the Twenty-eighth were now following the same leader. Sometimes one was in action, sometimes the other. After McClellan had forced the passes at South Mountain, the Ninth had to watch inactively from the left bank of Antietam Creek while the Twenty-eighth fought with the heroic fragment of the army that McClellan was able to put into action. Their loss here was twelve killed, thirty-six wounded, out of less than two hundred taken into action.
Foiled in his attempt at a Northern invasion, Lee started homeward. McClellan followed, but hesitated to attack him in the strongly intrenched positions that he was able to secure. The politicians at Washington again got after him, and between them and Halleck, Lincoln was persuaded to "swap horses " again, and Burnside was substituted for "Little Mac." True to the old proverb, the new commander rushed in where McClellan feared to risk his well-beloved men, and the disaster at Fredericksburg followed. We were pushed to an impossible attack, slaughtered by a determined foe impregnably intrenched; but the way in which these brave men " went to their graves like beds " is the brightest example of daring, heroic, unflinching devotion to duty that the pages of history afford. Burnside ordered a charge to seize the heights back of the city. French and Hancock's divisions made the attack, the former leading. They came on bravely; shells burst in their ranks, but they closed the gaps and marched on; they met the fire of the infantry, dropping by hundreds, but not stopping. Finally two brigades rose up from a sunken road and delivered a murderous fire almost in their faces. They halted and sought shelter, and then came Hancock's division with the brigades of Zook, Meagher, and Caldwell, - about five
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