birthplaces of the men of the 23rd Illinois Infantry. “The Irish brigade” They fought in the American civil war 1861-1865. About 200,000 Irish Americans served in the Union army during the war.
https://i.redd.it/duoosmb2mqbg1.jpeg
Posted by Ok_Being_2003
25 Comments
Okay – now do it for the confederacy.
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Also about 1/4 of the entire US navy at the time were Irish.
The book City of sedition about NYC during the civil war goes into Thomas Meagher who led the brigade, it’s an interesting read.
You can see a flag of the Irish brigade at Collins barracks in Dublin.
https://preview.redd.it/gaxqsds6pqbg1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1c2c715162ae914642f7e8f5b3822b6219c6eba9
There’s also The Immortal Irishman which is about his life which I haven’t read yet.
A beautiful country and a bad$$ people. Can it be argued that there is another country this size that has contributed so much to the world?
What I find pretty fascinating is that 60% of Irish men of fighting age enlisted for the union, roughly 600,000 men total. Thats about 1 in 6 Irish people in America enlisting. And the 200,000 is just the first generation Irish who were born in Ireland. This made Irish people BY FAR the highest rate of service by ethnic background per capita.
It’s also worth noting that for the confederate side, it was literally 10 times fewer, although there were also fewer Irish in the South, so if I’m being cynical, it was just a job to many of them, but still fascinating.
Maybe the 23rd Illinois regiment had a nickname of ‘The Irish Brigade’ (which seems odd as it was a regiment, not a brigade), but ‘The Irish Brigade’ that most would think about when talking about the US civil war would be that formed by Thomas Meaghar (who was a pretty interesting charachter and introduced the modern Irish tricolour). That Brigade consisted of New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvanian regiments and was famous for getting shred to bits at Fredericksburg. I also imagine that it would have a much higher number of Irish born recruits, being raised in New York, Boston and Philidelphia on the east coast of the US than a regiment raised in Illinois.
In 1863 they legislated for a Draft to keep up with the manpower needs of the army. They also allowed substitution so a rich man could pay a poor man to serve instead of him.
I think that there were conscripted off the boat. No option. Press ganged. Must have been somthing coming from a village farm in north ferry to the killing fields of the civil war. Many never made it but a short while. Hopefully many made it through also. I guess some of my family could have been there given the numbers from kerry limerick.
Fair point. Most irish arrived in new york or canada i think. Some i guess found there way into the confederate. I dont think a kerryman would have had a strong option of eather side to be honest
It’s a pity they didn’t have social media in those days, the lads could have stayed at home and just posted stories about the conflict.
I have read quite a bit on this area. Those who fought in that war, essentially passed the confidence/baton/funds for the 1916 rising and war of independence. I genuinely think our efforts to get rid of the brits mightnt have happened. Quite a lot of these Irish in the US were running from the british or devastating effects from brits. Meagher was a revolutionary in the young irelanders, sent to australia, escaped to US, rallied the irish together there and became a hero of the civil war (all while drunk). It was their success, that rallied the irish to come back and make links with home. He also made the Irish flag I believe. It’s not to be shrugged off as another US claim to being Irish. Disclaimer I’m from ireland, and not from the US. I couldn’t find a person who part of the young irelanders, and 1916, but the baton was passed in the US for sure.
It’d be much more interesting if it was broken down by parish or diocese. Of course cork and Galway would be dark green. They’re the size of three or four smaller counties.
The smaller breakdown would give an idea of what actual communities they came from.
We also wiped out a lot of natives unfortunately
Would be good to see this for the San Patricios battalion too
John O’Neill (Fenian) 9 March 1834 – 8 January 1878) was an [Irish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland)-born officer in the [American Civil War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War) and member of the [Fenian Brotherhood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenian_Brotherhood). O’Neill is best known for his activities leading the [Fenian raids](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenian_raids) on Canada in 1866 and 1871.[^([1])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_O%27Neill_(Fenian)#cite_note-1)Founder of the City of O’Neill [https://cityofoneillnebraska.com/](https://cityofoneillnebraska.com/)
https://preview.redd.it/n3kgf8uv1rbg1.jpeg?width=276&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c732b8d9621abe87c7e70df18dbc7b8707cfe538
I’m not sure of the historical accuracy, but it’s a beautiful rendition of a related ballad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVKeIE8HQwY&t=25s
Is there a list of names to go with this map?
135 men with my surname were in both armies (more in the union than the confederacy thankfully) one particularly interesting chap was a sniper in the 13th Georgian rifles
“Not for honour nor for country
We kill for 3 square meals a day
Of the boat with back on shoulder
Gun in hand we’re here to stay”
Clear the way- John Doyle
It’s really fucked up when you consider that these were mostly poor immigrants, many of whom didn’t even speak English.
They really did use the most vulnerable people to fight their wars.
You can see the West is heavily represented, probably because the Famine was worse so more people emigrated from there.
And 30,000 died. Long forgotten by the conservative Yankee pricks
Interesting point. They learned english quick in base camp. Those who didn’t know english soon learned id say. Wouldn’t have taken too long. They would have been Welsh polish etc with them in this also no doubt.
Also waged war against the planes indians