USA > New Hampshire > Colony, province, state, 1623-1888: history of New Hampshire > Part 54
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when it joined General Sheridan and the army of West Virginia, and fought with him in the valley of the Shenandoah, at Win- chester and elsewhere. In January, 1865, the Fourteenth were ordered to Savannah, Georgia. The regiment was discharged the last of July, 1865. Among the officers of the Fourteenth were Colonels Robert Wilson, Alexander Gardiner, Carroll D. Wright, Theodore A. Ripley, and Tileston A. Barker ; Dr. Wil- liam H. Thayer, John W. Sturtevant, Solon A. Carter, Samuel A. Duncan, and Stark Fellows.
The Fifteenth regiment, of nine months' men, was organized in Concord in the fall of 1862, and arrived at New Orleans and joined the army late in December. In the summer of 1863 the regiment took part in the assault on Port Hudson and the siege which led to the capture of that stronghold. The regiment was mustered out in August. John W. Kingman, of Durham, was colonel. Among the officers were Lieutenant-colonel Henry W. Blair, and Thomas Cogswell, jr.
The Sixteenth regiment, of nine months' men, was mustered into the service about the middle of October, 1862, and started for the front in December, with James Pike, colonel, Henry W. Fuller, lieutenant-colonel, and Samuel Davis, Jr., major. Their destination was the department of the Gulf, where on their ar- rival they joined the "Banks expedition," and were present at the fall of Port Hudson. On their return North their route was up the Mississippi river.
The Seventeenth regiment, of three months' men, was raised in the Third Congressional District, and Henry O. Kent, of Lancaster, was appointed colonel. Seven hundred and ninety- one men were enlisted ; and the regiment assembled in Concord in November, 1862. It received a furlough from December until April, 1863, when upon reassembling it was decided by the authorities to consolidate the Seventeenth with the veteran Second.
Colonel Henry O. Kent, son of Richard Peabody and Emily Mann (Oakes) Kent, was born in Lancaster, February 7, 1834, graduated at Norwich Military University in 1854, read law, and was admitted to the bar in 1858. Soon after he became editor
1
Henry O. Kent
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of the Coos Republican. His editorials were strong, vigorous, and earnest ; and his paper became a power in the councils of his party. After the war, in 1870, he sold his interest in the paper and afterwards devoted himself to banking. In 1857 he was clerk of the House of Representatives, and a member in 1862, 1868, and 1869. He was a supporter of Horace Greeley for the presidency, in 1872, and thereafterwards was a member of the Democratic party. He was accorded the Congressional nomination in the Third District in 1875, 1877, and 1878. He succeeded Colonel Daniel Hall in the naval office at Boston upon the election of President Cleveland.
Joseph A. Gilmore received the Republican nomination for governor in 1863, and was elected ; and was re-elected in 1864. He was a man of wonderful activity and energy, pushing to completion any work left to his care. His messages were full of patriotic expressions and suggestions. He promptly furnished all troops demanded by the War Department, and was untiring in his attention to the soldiers in the field and in the hospitals.1
J. A. Gilmore was born in Weston, Vermont, in 1811, settled in Concord in early manhood, was engaged in heavy mercantile business, and was super- intendent of the Concord Railroad. He was a member of the State Senate in 1858 and 1859. He died April 17, 1867.
The Eighteenth regiment was raised in the summer of 1864, and went to the front under command of Colonel Thomas L. Liv- ermore. Joseph M. Clough was lieutenant-colonel, and Wil- liam I. Brown, major. The regiment did good service in the closing campaign of the war, and was mustered out in June and July, 1865.
The First regiment of New Hampshire Cavalry was raised in the spring of 1864, and did good service for the Union cause.
The State also sent to the front the First Light Battery, a regiment of Heavy Artillery and several companies of Sharp- shooters,-the latter were in thirty battles, - and several com- panies to the First New England Cavalry.
During the Rebellion the State sent out 31,426 volunteers : In the First, 765 ; Second, 2645 ; Third, 2013; Fourth, 1749;
1 O. F. R. Waite's New Hampshire in the Rebellion.
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Fifth, 2547 ; Sixth, 2531 ; Seventh, 1719; Eighth, 1586; Ninth, 1820; Tenth, 1293 ; Eleventh, 1622; Twelfth, 1417; Thirteenth, 1227 ; Fourteenth, 1346; Fifteenth, 876; Sixteenth, 874; Sev. enteenth, 203 ; Eighteenth, 951 ; New England Cavalry, 419; Light Battery, 163 ; Sharpshooters, 345 ; First Cavalry, 1491 ; Heavy Artillery, 1824. Of these, 1538 were killed or died of wounds ; 2541 died of disease ; and 285 were missing in action. 1613 re-enlisted.
The State was honorably represented in the navy during the struggle to suppress the Rebellion. Among those who espe- cially distinguished themselves were Captain George E. Belknap and Captain George Hamilton Perkins.1 The latter, a son of Hon. Hamilton E. Perkins, of Concord, commanded an ironclad monitor in the attack on the defences of Mobile Bay, and op- erated his vessel from a position on top of the turret.
During the Rebellion the country and the Union cause was served by men of New Hampshire birth who had removed to other States. Among these were Benjamin F. Butler, John A. Dix, William Pitt Fessenden, Salmon P. Chase, Henry Wilson, Horace Greeley, and Edward Henry Durell, beside a multitude of others in less conspicuous positions.
Hon. E. H. Durell, a Union man, and an eminent lawyer of New Orleans, was appointed by President Lincoln, in 1863, judge of the United States District Court for the eastern district of Louisiana. During the occupation of that city by the Union army, he was a friend to all Northern soldiers, especially those from his native State. He resigned his office late in the year 1874. Judge Durell was offered the Austrian mission, and the office of governor of Louisiana, both of which he declined ; and was the leading candidate of Southern Republicans for the vice-presidency in 1886. He died in Schoharie, N. Y., March 29, 1887.
* George H. Perkins was born October 20, 1836, was appointed cadet midshipman in 1851, and was noted through the war for his coolness and bravery.
EttSmiek
,
+ Denis M. Bradley
IF IE CI MAINIERĪCE
CHAPTER XX.
IRISH IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.1
EARLY IRISH SETTLERS - SOLDIERS IN INDIAN WARS -AT LOUISBURG - CONQUEST OF CANADA - REVOLUTION - EMIGRATION OF 1840-60 - SHIP FEVER -TERRORS OF THE PLAGUE - HAWTHORNE'S DESCRIPTION - MOB IN MANCHESTER - REBELLION - GROWTH OF CATHOLIC CHURCHI - BISHOP BRADLEY.
A S the ore can be traced by the outcroppings on the ledges in the mountains of Colorado and Nevada, so can the nationality of those sprung from the Emerald Isle be determined from the old Milesian or Scottish names which appear in the Provincial records, almost from the first entry in 1623 down to the out- break of the Revolutionary war in 1775. The terrible condition of affairs in Ireland between 1640 and the final establishment of William of Orange as the ruler of the British Empire in 1688, drove thousands away from Ireland. Many were sold, young men and women, during the reign of Cromwell, in the West India Islands and New England, thus losing their religion and nationality.
On the defeat of James the Second the Irish army was dis- banded, the greater part leaving their country for ever to take service in the Continental countries ; the strength of their arms and the intensity of their hatred towards England being felt on scores of bloody battlefields for more than a hundred years afterwards. It is not at all unreasonable to believe that many were induced to go to America from a love of adventure, as their names appear on the military rolls of the colony at an early date, doing good work for the settlers, fighting the French
I From the pen of Hon. John C. Linehan.
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in the north and the Indians around them. Not only in New Hampshire but in nearly all of the thirteen colonies, and most especially in Pennsylvania, were their services in demand, it being a matter of record that William Penn applied for a con- tingent for the defence of his infant colony. Darby Field, an "Irish soldier for discovery," is undoubtedly entitled to the credit of being the first of his race to step foot on the old Granite State. He was sent here by Captain John Mason, in 1631, and according to all writers on New Hampshire was the first Euro- pean to ascend the White Mountains, in 1635. From 1641 to 1660 there will be found in the Provincial records such names as Duggan, Dermott, Gibbons, Vaughan, Neal, Patrick, Buckley, Kane, Kelly, Brian, Healey, Connor, Murphy, Malone, Corbett, McClary, McMullen, Pendergast, Keilly, McGowan, McGinnis, and Sullivan. On following up the records, it will be found that many of the names have in the lapse of time been changed, but their identity can easily be established. In a company commanded by Captain John Gilman, in 1710-12, appear the names of Connor, Leary, Driscol, McGowan, Carthy, and Patrick Greing. What is called the " Scotch-Irish " settlement of Londonderry took place in 1719, but for seventy years before that date those distinctive Irish names are found here and there in the Provincial records.
In the regiment commanded by Colonel Moore at the capture of Louisburg, Cape Breton, in 1745, the following men served. The names are Celtic, unmistakably, some peculiar to Ireland and Scotland, but the majority to Ireland :-
Richard Fitzgerald, Roger McMahon, John Welch, Thomas Leary, Daniel Kelly, Daniel Welch, Patrick Gault, Andrew Logan, James McNeil, John Logan, Thomas Haley, John Foy, John McNeil, James McLaughlan, James McLeneehan, Grace, Foy, Kenny, Malone, Connor, Murphy, Flood, Griffin, McGowan, Moore, Kelly, Farley, Moloney, and McCarthy. Eleven years afterward, in the war which ended in the capture of Canada - " the Old French War"-are enrolled the names of Moore, McDuffy, O'Neal, McClary, Mitchel, Logan, Carthy, Con- nor, Flood, McCormack, Malone, Strafon, Kelly, McMahon,
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Hart, Sweeny, Murphy, Ryan, Moloney, McMahon, Cunning- ham, Mooney, McGowan, Sullivan, Madden, Welch, Molloy, McCarthy, McLaughlan, Connor, McCarrill, Tobin, Clark, Don- nell, Mckeon, Driscol, Rowan, McClennen, Connolly, Moylan, Haley, Kennedy, Laney, McConnihie, Broderick, Rankin, Grady, Meroney, McMillan, Ennis, McGee, Moran, Murphy, and Powers. Many of these men bear the distinctive Irish given names of Patrick, Michael, Dennis, Cornelius, and Darby, and all are in appearance " Irish as the hills."
Bryan McSweeny, a veteran of the French war, was one of the selectmen of Holderness, in 1773, and Michael Dwyer, in 1786; Obadiah Mooney in Canterbury, in 1786, and Jacob Flynn in Duxbury, the same year. In Peterborough, 1786, were the families of McNee, Kenny, and McDonnell ; in Concord, McMillan, Roche, Guinlon, and Shute ; in Bedford, Callahan, Flynn, Murphy, Manahan, O'Neil and McCleary ; in Allens- town, in 1787, the family of Duggan ; in Rochester, Killey, Lynch, and Patrick Murrey. Hon. Robert Means was born in Ireland and came to Amherst in 1764.
Antrim's first settler was Philip Roiley, 1774; and two of the most eminent citizens in its early days were Maurice Lynch and Tobias Butler, both natives of Ireland. Stephen and Dennis Pendergast were among the Barnstead settlers, in 1788; and in Durham, 1749, the Sullivan family appear often. John, James, Humprey, Valentine, Ebenezer, and their descendants, have been among the first in New England. With these were the names of Driscol, Furness, Cogan, Pendergast, Ryan, and Welch. Fitz- geralds appear in the Boscawen town records in 1757, and Callahan in 1783. Carrigain in Concord, and Kelly and Mc- Gowan in Brentwood, kept up the connection ; and Dorchester furnishes a Darby Kelly and McClanathan ; Cocheco, a Connor, Kelly, and Hern; Exeter, Roger Kelly and Cornelius Lary. Dublin was first settled by Thomas Morse, John Alexander, Henry Strongman, and William Scott, natives of Ireland. Epsom and the McClarys are inseparable in colonial and State records. In Francestown, 1772, Thomas, John, William, and Thomas Quigley, jr., represented one of the best old Irish
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families ; and in Gilmanton were Magoon, Malone, Mooney, Casey, and Connor. In Goffstown one of the great Irish clans had a representative in John O'Neil, in 1783, and Richard Coughlan represented another in Chesterfield, in 1777. In Holderness was quite a collection of Celts in 1789- Hogan, Mooney, Dwyer, Connor and McSweeny ; in Hopkinton, Connor and McLaughlan ; in Nottingham, Thomas Barry ; and in Londonderry, among the names of others, are those of Donahoe, O'Neil, Donavan, Kelly, Callahan, Murphy, McLaughlan, and Haley ; in Merrimack, McConihie, McCormick, and Griffin ; in Dunstable, 1762, Donally and Lonergan ; in New Boston, 1775, McLaughlan, Rowan, Donavan, Quigley, Butler, and McGinnis ; in New Castle, Malone, Neal, and Shannon ; in Newmarket, Fitzgerald, Malone, and Driscol. There is no doubt but that Irish blood was well mixed with that of the English set- tlers in New Hampshire previous to the Revolution; and that contest proved there was no deterioration from the intermixture ; for the names of Sullivan and Stark will go down to posterity beside those of Poor and Cilley, as gallant defenders of the liberties of the people of the States. One illustration will prove the presence of those of Irish blood here before the Revolution. The expedition against the Six Nations, in 1777, was under the command of Major-general John Sullivan, the son of Irish parents. The division was made up of three brigades ; and two of the bri- gade commanders, Generals William Maxwell and Edward Hand, were natives of Ireland; and at least two of the regimental com- manders, Colonel William Butler and Colonel Thomas Proctor, were from the same country. Of the part taken by the Irish in New Hampshire in the struggle for independence, her rolls of the killed and wounded bear witness, from Bunker Hill to Yorktown. The Mac's and the O's were generally in the thickest of the fray, and their record in the new world for bravery and deter- mination equalled their best efforts in Europe.
The outbreak of the French Revolution, the long wars that followed, ending only at Waterloo, and the brief period of pros- perity that resulted from that contest to the people of Ireland, in an increased demand for her agricultural products at an
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enhanced value, checked for the time being the tide of emigra- tion from that country.
For the first time for centuries the people there had a compara- tive peace. No outbreak had taken place since the rebellion of 1798. The population of the country had rapidly increased, so that in 1840 it was over eight millions of souls. Up to this year very few of the Irish people had sailed for America since the year 1800; scarcely any to New England. The result was that when the dreadful famine broke out between 1840 and 1850, and the exodus to America began, the Irish people were strangers to those of their kindred in New Hampshire whose ancestors had left Ireland more than a century before. And to add to the feel- ing of estrangement, the difference in religion made itself felt, as the great bulk of the new emigrants were Catholics.
The outlook then for the poor Irish Catholic, whom poverty or misfortune had driven to the United States during the period between 1835 and 1855, was anything but pleasing, especially in New England ; while the fearful stories told of the dreadful scenes on shipboard, the deaths from the famine fever, and the consequent fear of infection, made their presence both undesir. able and unwelcome. The native American riots in Philadelphia and New York; the burning of the convent in Charlestown, Mass. ; the blood-curdling stories circulated by Maria Monk ; and the brutal and false harangues of the apostate priests - Hogan, Chiniquy, and Gavazzi, -aided by the insensate ravings of the fanatic madman, the " Angel Gabriel," influenced public sentiment, which had already been deeply prejudiced against anything Catholic by early teachings, strengthened by the liter- ature of the day. What the Irish Catholics suffered in those sad days the present generation can form no conception of. Starv- ing and dying at home, those, who were fortunate enough to have the means, left their native land in despair; and, turning their faces to the west, resolved to seek their fortunes in America, where they could earn an honest livelihood, and give their fami- lies a decent maintenance. The emigration first inclined towards Canada, from whence it overflowed into the States. It was but natural that the terrible disease which they brought across the
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ocean with them inspired terror and deepened the prejudice, already strong enough, against them, although their sufferings and misery appealed strongly to the best sympathies of the human heart. The first of the fever-smitten ships to enter the St. Lawrence was the " Urania" from Cork, with several hun- dred emigrants, a large proportion of them sick and dying from the awful plague, on May 8, 1847; and before the first week of June following eighty-four ships of various tonnage were quar- antined at Grosse Island, Quebec, not one of which was free from the taint of malignant typhus, the offspring of famine and of the foul ship-hold. This fleet of vessels literally reeked with pestilence. All sailing vessels, the merciful speed of the well- appointed steamer being unknown to the emigrants of those days, -a tolerably quick passage lasted from six to eight weeks, while passages of ten or twelve weeks, and even a longer time, were not considered at all extraordinary at a period when craft of every kind the most unsuited, as well as the least sea- worthy, were pressed into the service of human deportation. Who can imagine the horrors of even the shortest passage in an emigrant ship crowded beyond its utmost capacity of stowage with unhappy beings of all ages, with fever raging in their midst. Under the most favorable circumstances it is impossible to maintain perfect purity of atmosphere between decks, even when ports are open and every device is adopted to secure the greatest amount of ventilation. But a crowded emigrant ship of forty years since, with fever aboard !- the crew sullen or brutal from very desperation, or paralysed from terror of the plague ; the miserable passengers unable to help themselves, or afford the least relief to each other; one-fourth or one-third or one- half of the entire number in different stages of the disease ; many dying, some dead ; the fatal poison intensified by the in- describable foulness of the air breathed and rebreathed by the gasping sufferers ; the wails of children, the ravings of the delirious, the cries and groans of those in mortal agony! Of the eighty-four vessels anchored at Grosse Isle, in the summer of 1847, there was not a single one to which this description might not rightly apply. Sheds were built for the unfortunate
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people, sick and dying ; and round their walls lay groups of half- naked men, women, and children. Hundreds were literally flung on the beach, left amid the mud and stones to crawl on the dry land how they could. A priest who was an eye-witness of these distressing scenes said he had seen, one day, thirty-seven people lying on the beach, crawling on the mud and dying like fish out of water. Many of these, and many more besides, gasped out their last breath on that fatal shore, not able to drag themselves from the slime in which they lay.
The mortality was frightful, and on that barren isle the dust of more than twelve thousand human beings, the victims of famine and plague, mingle with the soil of the " land of promise." Of this number full five thousand were simply described as un- known. Several priests -a few Irish, the majority French Can- adian - caught the infection, and out of twenty-five who were attacked seven paid with their lives the penalty of their devo- tion. Not a few were professors in colleges, but at the appeal of the archbishop they left their classes and their studies for the horrors and perils of the fever sheds. This deplorable havoc of human life left hundreds of orphans dependent on the charity of the public ; and nobly did the French Canadians respond to the unconscious appeal of this multitude of little ones. From the loss of the parents it was hard to determine the relationship between the unfortunate waifs. It was only by patiently observ- ing the little creatures when they found strength to play, and one infant ran to meet another, or caught its hand, or smiled at it, or kissed it, or showed pleasure in its society, that a clue was found, and many children of the same parents thus preserved ; but many more were separated forever, and both name and iden- tity lost. Thousands were in this way adopted and brought up by their kind protectors, but lost to their tongue and name. Sunday after Sunday, as the children got well enough, they were exposed at the churches after mass by the good priests, who made touching appeals to those who could provide them with homes ; and these appeals were not in vain, for all found shelter and pro- tection from the kind-hearted French farmers. But it was not alone at Quebec that such dreadful scenes were witnessed, as
1
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Montreal, farther up the river, had their counterpart - over six . thousand dying at the east bank of the river, at a point not far from the terminus of the Victoria Bridge. As at Quebec, the priests and nuns were unwearied in their care of the afflicted, and thirteen out of thirty of the Grey nuns who were stricken gave their lives a sacrifice for the poor and lowly. With one exception, every priest in the city was down with the plague, and eight of them went to their graves. From Bishop Bourget down to the lowest secular priest all were equally exposed, and faced death to relieve the wants of those unable to help themselves. Among the first to fall a victim was Father Richards, a venerable man long past the time of active. service.
A convert from Methodism in early life, he had specially devoted himself to the Irish, who were then but a very small portion of the population.
Not only did he mainly provide for the safety of the hundreds of orphan children, but, in spite of his great age, he labored in the fever sheds with a zeal which could not be excelled. "Father Richards wants fresh straw for the beds;" said a messenger to the mayor. "Certainly he shall have it. I wish it was gold, for his sake;" said the mayor. A few days after the Protestant mayor and Catholic priest were martyrs of charity.
Only a few days before stricken down, Father Richards preached on Sunday in St. Patrick's, and those who heard him on that occasion never forgot the venerable appearance and im- pressive words of that noble servant of God. Addressing a hushed and sorrow-stricken audience, as the tears rolled down his aged cheeks, he thus spoke of the faith and sufferings of the Irish :-
" Oh my beloved brethren, grieve not, I beseech you, for the sufferings and death of so many of your race, perchance your kindred, who have fallen, and are still to fall, victims to this dreadful pestilence. Their patience, their faith, have edified all whose privilege it was to witness it. Their faith, their resigna- tion to the will of God under such unprecedented misery, is something so extraordinary that, to realize it, it requires to be seen. Oh my brethren, grieve not for them ; they did but pass
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from earth to the glory of heaven. True, they were cast in heaps into the earth, their place of sepulture marked by no name or epitaph ; but I tell you, my dearly beloved brethren, that from their ashes will spring up the faith along the St. Lawrence, for they died martyrs, as they lived confessors, to the faith." How prophetic the words of this good man were, the innumerable spires, surmounted by the cross, from the St. Lawrence to the Golden Gate, bear witness. There, as at Quebec, the orphan chil- dren were provided with homes among the generous Canadians and their own loving kindred, the Irish of Montreal. For years no stone or epitaph marked the last resting-place of the bodies of those who left their native land with such high hope of the future ; and it remained for the workmen who built the Victoria Bridge, most of them Englishmen, to place a memorial there of the sad event. In the centre of a railed-in spot of land at Point St. Charles, within a hundred yards of the bridge, there is a huge boulder taken from the bed of the river and placed on a platform of roughly hewn stone, and on it there is this inscription : -
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