USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The story of the Irish in Boston, together with biographical sketches of representative men and noted women > Part 8
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His personal appearance was very striking; it is said that all visitors to Parliament were curious to know his name. Dr. Johnson wrote of him, "Let the man thus driven into exile for having been the friend of his country, be received in every place as a confessor of liberty." There is a statue of him in the Dublin City Hall. It must ever be regretted that his death, at the age of fifty-eight, pre- vented him from seeing the triumph of the struggle in whose birth he had been so warmly interested.
Another token of America's bounty to Ireland was the famine contribution of 1847. Of the one hundred and fifty thousand dollars received by the New England committee, over fifty thousand dollars was the gift of Boston; and on the departure of the expedition bear- ing this charity to the wards of step-motherly England, it was rec- ollected that Ireland had anticipated the idea one hundred and seventy years before. In 1677, after the close of King Philip's War, the Massachusetts colonies were in great distress. Out of a popu- lation of perhaps twenty-five thousand, five or six hundred, fully one-tenth of her fighting men, fell in battle with the savages. Very opportunely at this time came the famous " Irish donation," a whole
1 Charles Lucas, M.D., born Sept. 16, 1713.
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THE IRISH IN BOSTON.
shipload of provisions from some friends of the Boston churches in Dublin. The immediate occasion of this expedition was the appeal of Dr. Increase Mather to his friends in Ireland; the effectiveness of the appeal being probably due, at least in part, to the active sym- pathy of Nathaniel Mather, who was then in London, for the home of his family and the scene of his earliest labors.
The supplies came in " the good ship called the Katherine of Dublin," consigned to William Ting, James Oliver, and John Hull, who were authorized to sell enough of the cargo to pay the freight, amounting to four hundred and fifty pounds, and then to distribute the remainder to the poor. The directions as to this distribution furnish a touching commentary on the religious intolerance of the Massachusetts people : -
Wee desire that an equall respect bee had to all godly psons agreeing in fundamentals . . though differing about the subject of some ordinances, & pticularly that godly Anti-peodobaptists bee not excluded : wch wee the rather thus perticularly insert because sundry reports have come hither suggesting that godly psons of that pswasion have been severely dealt withall in New England & also because divers of that pswasion in this Citty have freely & very Considerably con- curred in advancing this releife.
That if any of ye Indians in New England who have adhered to the English in the present Warr bee bro't to distress by their barbrous Countrymen they bee by no means forgotten, . . Especially that those of them that are of the house- hold of faith may be singularly regarded.
The proportion of this town was fifteen pounds six shillings, distributed among twenty-nine families, comprising one hundred and two persons. The distribution was made in March, 1677, and went to show that Boston had suffered nearly five times as much by the war as any other place; but we must note that the Boston troops were not in any one of the great massacres, and that the presence of many of the distressed in Boston must be due to its being resorted to as an asylum by the hardy settlers whose homes had been scattered here and there in the unprotected country.
In an account of this occurrence Mr. Charles Deane gives us a little foot-note, saying, "Respecting this Irish charity, we must not
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indulge in the pleasing reflection that our fathers were indebted for its bestowment to the warm sympathies and generous impulses of the Irish Catholic. I intend nothing by the remark, but to make a state- ment of the fact."
This statement is undoubtedly true; because under the rule of Charles I., the Catholics were deprived of their property with a view to winning them into the Established Church, and under Parliament's rule they were banished in shiploads. When the king "got his own again," the change of masters gave no relief, and the Irish Catholics, who had fought not for their religion,1 but for their property, for their means of living, and for the homes of their ancestors, were left with little to live on, far less to give away. It seems hardly neces- sary for a man learned in the history of the world to say that the " Irish charity" must have come from those who alone had the means to be generous. Yet if it were not for the possessions that Irish Catholics once had, and had with little grace yielded, the warm heart of the Irish Protestant would have had to give from his own hard earnings, if he gave at all.
1 Clogy, " Life of Bedell," quoted in Lecky's "England in the XVIIIth Century," p. 185.
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CHAPTER VII.
THE IRISH SOLDIER.
RISH valor, Irish decision, Irish perseverance, have filled the I
pages of American history with a story which has an intense interest for the people of Irish blood in the United States. From the early period, when the yoke of unjust taxation became unbearable, down to the casting aside of that other yoke, of unbearable human servitude, Irish thought as well as Irish heroes have come forth to take their places in the annals of this great nation. There are individual incidents when credit is accorded a brave man of French, Danish, or other foreign extraction, but none seem to have so firmly fixed themselves in a rightful demand for due credit in making and sustaining this republic as the Americans of Irish blood. To obtain this place, too, they had to overcome religious, social, and commercial obstructions raised by the very men by whose side they have stood now for over a century. They backed Col. James Barrett at Concord Bridge, and joined in that shot that awakened the world. They saw the great war-ships of a great nation humbled by Commodore Barry on Lake Erie. They helped to hunt Mexico, and were in at the death. They flocked by thousands to Lincoln's call in the sixties, fought to end the war, and have since fought in politics to bury the sectional strife engendered by it. The renown of their deeds is left to their descendants to record and boast of. There is no apology to make, no shame to veil. Properly to digest their military history alone, would require years of patient labor. The purpose of this chapter is to briefly present that part of it which relates to Boston. It has not been an easy task. The writers of the Irish-American people have left very imperfect records where they have left any, and the other historians have not cared, seemingly, to note the nationality of the people of whom they wrote.
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THE IRISH SOLDIER.
I. - Concord and Lexington.
They came into the full light of colonial history at Lexington and Concord. The cry of Paul Revere roused them to take their share in the defence of the common cause. They responded promptly. Among them was Hugh Cargill, the Ballyshannon man, formerly belonging to Boston, but now of Concord. To his prompt response Concord owed the safety of her records. Among them also was Col. James Barrett, who was the commander of the minute- men of the town. Hardly had he left his bed when he heard of the murderous work of the regulars at Lexington. He removed, as was his first duty, a part of the colonial stores which had been hidden in his town, and then, with his command, fought the intruders at the North Bridge. The news of the dire work spread; the minute-men gathered. No more beautiful picture of united patriotism adorns
history. They left their wives and children, their workshops and farms, to gather for the fight. They came in scattered groups, dressed as they happened to be when the tidings of the fight came to them, only stopping long enough to snatch up their flintlocks, examine the priming, belt on the powder-horn and bullet-pouch. All the roads centring towards the main one along which the English must retreat presented these groups. At every cross-road their numbers increased. In the hurrying knots of men were citizens of all the surrounding towns, who had been gathering since four o'clock that morning. Some were led by their preachers, others by chosen captains, while still others went into the fray without a leader. Young and old cheered one another on for the conflict. Along the line of their march, patriotic mothers, wives, sweet- hearts, and daughters bade them "God-speed." " Impossible to have conquered such a people" was the comment of a great British statesman. "The only way for Great Britain to regain her hold would have been to exterminate them, men and women alike."
When they reached the main road their first question was :
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Have the red-coats passed? Where are they? Then the hurrying to give them battle.
"You know the rest. In the books you have read How the British regulars fired and fled, - How the farmers gave them ball for ball From behind each fence and farmyard wall, Chasing the red-coats down the lane, Then crossing the fields to emerge again Under the trees at the turn of the road, And only pausing to fire and load."
They awoke the English to a true realization of the manhood of the new country. They were compelled to fly before the very men whom they had taunted with cowardice. The " battle of the minute-men " is without a parallel in history. Only another hour's delay, and the whole command that had gone forth in such martial splendor would have been compelled to lay down their arms to the unorganized, undisciplined farmer. The Yankees were marksmen. Every crack of their old flintlocks meant one red-coat less. They fired from behind the walls; they chased the British till the reën- forcing column received them into their midst; and the fugitives, their limbs powerless and their tongues hanging out with utter distress, dropped on the road from exhaustion.
To trace many of these marksmen back to the " old sod " would be an impossibility; but the list presented below, of Irish-American minute-men, is as complete and accurate as careful investigation and inquiry can make it. Names of an undoubted Irish origin are taken as substantial evidence of the nationality of the bearers themselves, or of their ancestors. Many others there were, of Irish birth or blood, whose identification is lost by intermarriage and the carelessness of historians. Of Col. James Barrett, who commanded at Concord, it is said that he was an Irish-American.
Hugh Cargill, to whom reference is made above, was a liquor dealer on Cambridge street, which at that time began at Sudbury street, and reached the edge of the water at about the line of West Cedar street. He was a member of Engine Company No. 6. He
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moved to Concord before 1796, and died there in 1799. He bequeathed to the town of Concord the Stratton Farm, valued in 1800 at $1,300, to be improved as a poor-house - for which pur- pose it is still used. He also gave several other parcels of real estate, valued at $3,720, the income of which is solely to be applied for the benefit of the poor. At the time of the Concord fight, Cargill was on hand, and assisted in removing the Concord town-records to a place of safety. He served at Bunker Hill as sergeant in Alisha Brown's company, in the regiment of Colonel Nixon. His tomb is marked by a plain slab: at the top is carved an urn, bearing his initials ; below is this epitaph : -
Here lies interred the remains of Hugh Cargill, late of Boston, who died in Concord, January 12, 1799, in the sixtieth year of his age. Mr. Cargill was born in Ballyshannon, in Ireland; came to this country in the year 1774, destitute of the comforts of life; but by his industry and good economy, he acquired a good estate; [demised] to his wife, Rebecca Cargill; likewise a large and generous donation to the town of Concord for benevolent purposes.
How strange, O God, that reigns on high, That I should come so far to die ! And leave my friends, where I was bred, To lay my bones with strangers dead ! But I have hopes, when I arise, To dwell with them in yonder skies.1
Another prominent name in the accounts of Concord and Lex- ington is Dr. Thomas Welsh, who was army surgeon to the patriots. He it was who met brave Dr. Joseph Warren, the hero of Bunker Hill, as he rode through Charlestown, at about ten o'clock on the morning of that memorable April day. The news of the firing had been brought to Dr. Warren by messenger, and he informed Dr. Welsh that the reports of the murderous work of the regulars were true.
" Well," said Dr. Welsh, "they are gone out."
" Yes," replied Dr. Warren, " and we'll be up with them before night." How true this prophecy was history tells.
1 Thomas D'Arcy McGee : Hist. of the Irish Settlers in America, p. 34.
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Dr. Welsh was born at Charlestown, June 1, 1754. He married Mary Kent of that town. He performed great service for his coun- trymen in attending to the dying and the wounded at Lexington and Bunker Hill. He was at Winter Hill, by which the troops that went to Cambridge retreated. He, with Samuel Blodgett, assisted in arresting the retreat of the New Hampshire troops flying from the re- doubt on Bunker Hill. He was surgeon at Castle Island in 1799, hospital physician at Rainsford's for many years, a member of the Boston Board of Health, vice-president of the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1814, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He died at Boston in February, 1831. He was the last of the orators on the " horred massacre" of 1770. The oration was delivered in the Old Brick Church on Chauncey place, off Summer street, March 5, 1783, the year peace was declared and the colonies were united in a growing republic. In his peroration he said: -
At length independence is ours. The halcyon day appears. Lo! from the east I see the harbinger, and from the train 'tis Peace herself, and, as attendants, all the gentle arts of life. Commerce displays her snow-white navies, fraught with the wealth of kingdoms. Plenty from her copious horn pours forth her richest gifts. Heaven commands ! The east and the west give up, and the north keeps not back. All nations meet and beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks, and resolve to learn war no more. Henceforth shall the American wilderness blossom as the rose, and every man shall sit under his fig-tree, and none shall make him afraid.
Below is given a list of Irish names from the rolls of the Lex- ington minute-men : -
Daniel Bagley,
Wait Burke,
Joseph Carroll,
John Barrett,
Daniel Carey,
Cornelius Cochran,
1
John Boyd,
Joseph Carey,
William Cochran,
Daniel Bradlee,
Peter Carey,
Henry Cogen,
John Bradlee,
William Carey,
John Collins,
William Bradley,
Silas Carty,
Jeremiah Collins,
Edward Breck,
John Carrell,
Mark Collins,
Joseph Burke,
Patrick Carrell, Nathaniel Collins,
Richard Burke,
Jonathan Carroll,
Samuel Collins,
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THE IRISH SOLDIER.
Daniel Connors, William Connors, John Crehore,
Richard Hacket,
John Mack,
Thomas Hacket,
Patrick McKeen,
William Hacket,
James McKenny,
Timothy Crehore,
Joel Hogan,
Joseph McKenny,
William Crehore,
John Haley,
John McLeary,
James Dempsey,
Thomas Haley,
David McLeary,
Philip Donehue, Benjamin Donnell,
John Healy,
Thomas McMullen,
James Donnell,
John Holland,
John Madden,
Joseph Donnell,
John Hugh,
Daniel Mahon,
John Donnelly,
David Kelly,
James Mallone,
John Downing,
George Kelly,
John Manning,
Andrew Duningan,
John Kelly,
Robert Manning,
John Fadden,
Patrick Kelly,
Samuel Manning,
Thomas Fanning,
Peter Kelly,
Thomas Manning,
William Fanning,
Richard Kelly,
Timothy Manning,
. John Farley,
Samuel Kelly,
William Manning, Benjamin Maxy,
John Fay,
David Kenny,
James Magoone,
Thomas Fay,
James Kenny,
John Mehoney,
Timothy Fay,
John Kenny,
Daniel Mullikin,
William Fay,
Nathaniel Kenny,
Ebenezer Mullikin,
John Fife,
Thomas Kenny,
John Murphy,
Robert Fife,
William Kenny,
Patrick Newjent,
John Flood,
Jeremiah Kinney,
Patrick O'Brien,
William Flood,
Daniel Lary,
Richard O'Brien,
John Foley,
Samuel Lauchlin,
Daniel Shay,
Mathew Gilligen,
James Logan,
John Shea,
Richard Gilpatrick,
Joseph McAnnell,
Edward Tappan,
James Gleason,
Thomas McBride,
Michael Tappan,
John Gleason,
John McCarty,
John Walsh,
Thomas Gleason,
Andrew McCauseland,
Joseph Walsh,
John Golden,
John McCullin,
Benjamin Welsh,
Joseph Golden, James Gooly, John Grace,
James McFadden, Ebenezer McFarley,
John Welsh, Joseph Welsh,
Daniel Griffin,
Thomas McFarley,
Samuel Welsh,
Joseph Griffin,
Henry McGonegal,
Thomas Welsh,
John Hacket,
John McGrah,
Daniel McGuire,
Walter Welsh, William Welsh.
Joseph Hacket,
Michael McDonnell,
Edward Welsh,
Michael Farley,
Stephen Kelly,
John McMullen,
William Haley,
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THE IRISH IN BOSTON.
II. - Bunker Hill.
War alone could subdue the angry passions engendered by the fight at Lexington. English power needed more humble subjects, and the colonists had decided not only to avenge their injuries, but to fight for absolute freedom. The expedition to Lexington and Concord was the last the English soldiers made from Boston into the interior of the colony.
The commands of Colonel Smith and Major Pitcairn finally eluded destruction at the hands of the sharpshooters, who had made their return to camp a trail of blood. They were destined in a few months to be compelled to move again, and to be kept moving until they finally departed from the country forever. Lexington had cured British conceit. Bunker Hill would amaze and alarm them. Farmers whom recklessness had driven into revolt acquired the art and science of war as if by intuition; and the fearlessness, stability, and discipline of veterans came to them as the need for it grew. They proclaimed rebellion, and cooped the ruling power of the whole colony within the narrow confines of the city. The patriots hovered about, zealous to drive them into the sea. They taunted General Gage. They harassed him by small raids and seizures of supplies. They knew that he had been reenforced by Howe, Burgoyne, and Clinton, and by thousands of recruits. They were not terrified by the odds against them. They waited a month for the great generals to come out and crush them, and then, evidently tired of waiting, they started in to crush the great generals.
When the sun rose on the morning of June 17, 1775, the inhab- itants of the town of Boston saw a wonderful sight. There were breastworks on the top of " Breed's Hill," 1 manned by New England yeomen. It was a challenge to battle which could not be disre- garded. The English did succeed in driving the brave fellows from their works, but that victory only lent new lustre to the American arms. The soldiers who had planted St. George's cross on many heights in
' Historically known as Bunker Hill.
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the face of a desperate foe, who had made it respected the world over, found behind those humble breastworks an untrained militia that had the grit to withstand their best generals, and that hurled them back again and again. The fight of Bunker Hill made the reputation of the Continental troops, and inspired a confidence that never forsook them.
There were many on that famous height who had their first opportunity then to strike a blow for liberty, and another in revenge for the dreadful oppression of their forefathers in Ireland. The first spadeful of earth on Breed's Hill was turned just before midnight on the night of the 16th of June, 1775. There were one thousand men at the work, under command of Col. William Prescott, of Pepperell, Mass. They worked all through the night under the veil of darkness. When the sun lit up their works to the astonished British on the morning of June 17, they greeted the sight with a fierce cannonade from the war-ship " Lively," which was anchored off what is now the Navy Yard. Tired and hungry, the patriots worked on, exposed to that fire, awaiting reinforcements calmly, determined to defend those works with the last drop of blood.
Through General Ward's doubt of what the English generals would do, he delayed sending reinforcements to Breed's Hill. He feared to weaken his force in Cambridge, for the English might make that the point of attack rather than the breastwork on the hill. This doubt could not restrain the brave men of his army. They saw their countrymen under the fire of the English war-ships, and groups of them, all the morning long, crossed the neck, and entered the redoubt. They sought only a place in the fight, without regard to the commands in which they served. Such were Generals Warren and Pomeroy. When General Ward became satisfied that the English would undertake to dislodge the patriots, reinforcements were immediately ordered over. They came across the neck, which was made a perfect death-hole by the concentrated fire of the English guns.
Among them was the regiment of Col. John Stark, an Irish- American, whose bravery and devotion had put him at the head of
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his New Hampshire troops, and afterwards made him one of the most famous commanders of the Revolution. His career in the cause of liberty is full of that dash and spirit which crowds the rec- ord of the late General Sheridan. Mr. Bagenal, in a book on the American Irish, published a few years ago in New York, says of Colonel Stark : " He was the son of an Irish farmer of New Hampshire. He inherited a good fund of mother-wit, and a brogue as mellifluous as if he was born and reared on the banks of the Inchigeelah, in the County Cork." A number of the men in his regiment came from Londonderry and Derryfield (now Manchester), both in New Hampshire, and both settled by emigrants from Ireland. He had the love, not of his own troops only, but of the whole army. He was hardy, independent, and brave, - a fit associate for the fearless Putnam, the energetic Pomeroy, and the veterans Prescott and Ward.
The character of Colonel Stark may be shown by an incident at. the crossing of the neck. From one till half-past three o'clock on that bloody afternoon, the Americans continued to cross. They were enfiladed by a galling fire from the ships and batteries. When Colonel Stark arrived, about two o'clock, it seemed a perfect hell of hissing shot and fire. Captain Dearborn, who was by his side, suggested to him the expediency of quickening his steps across; but Stark replied, " One fresh man in action is worth ten fatigued ones," and, with the same deliberation, he continued his march. When he arrived at the fortifications, the English troops had already landed on the beach. He made one of his fiery addresses to his men, pointed out their red-coated foes, and then led them to the rail-fence. This fence had just previously been manned by Captain Knowlton, by orders of Colonel Prescott, to prevent the English from flanking the Americans. It was near the base of Bunker Hill, six hundred feet in the rear of the redoubt; one-half of it was stone, with two rails of wood. A little distance in front of this rail was another parallel line of fence, and the space between the fences was filled with newly cut grass. There Stark and his brave Paddies fought for hours. It was a strategic point, and General Howe, in person, led
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the attack upon it. The English generals and soldiers underrated their opponents. That they would drive them from the redoubt was never questioned. They had only to move, and the Yankees would run. It was a trying time for the brave bands of men who were waiting for the attack, ignorant yet of the power of their own stern purpose. Charlestown was blazing; shots from ships and batteries were hissing around them; many had never been in battle before ; very many had worked all night long, and were almost ready to sink to the ground with exhaustion. Twice they hurled back from their defences the flower of the English army, and when they did retire, it was when their powder had given out, and they were overwhelmed by the superior force of their foes.
At the rail-fence they successfully resisted every attempt to turn their flank. Stark's men, like most of the other patriots, were marksmen. They used the rails of the fence to rest their flintlocks. They were intent on cutting down the British officers. When one was in sight, -that is, when they "could see the white of his eye," - they exclaimed, " There, see that officer ! Let's have a shot at him!" and two or three would fire at the same moment. They cut up the companies with terrible severity, and so great was the car- nage that the English columns, a few moments before so proud and firm, were disconcerted and broken to pieces. Colonel Stark was everywhere among his men; he led their cheers when their foes fell back, and was among the last to leave the works. Near him was a company of Charlestown volunteers, a portion of Colonel Gardner's regiment from Middlesex, under Capt. Joseph Harris. Their hearts were filled with a wilder hate, for they could see their homes blazing, and they thought of the dear ones left behind. They fought fiercely, never for a moment thinking of giving ground. Colonel Swett says of this company, " They were fighting at their own doors, on their own natal soil. They stood like the Greeks of Thermopyla, and they kept the pass till the enemy had discovered another."
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