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John Armstrong, Sr. Appointed Brigadier General in the Continental Army

John Armstrong, Sr., an Irish American civil engineer and soldier, is appointed a brigadier general in the Continental Army on March 1, 1776. He also serves as a major general in the Pennsylvania Militia during the American Revolutionary War.

Armstrong is born on October 13, 1717, in Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, parents not determined, who married in 1704. He is one of approximately fifteen children born to his parents that included: Margaret Armstrong (1737–1817), who marries Rev. George Duffield (1732–90), and Rebecca Armstrong (1738–1828), who marries James Turner (1737–1803).

Armstrong is educated in Ireland and becomes a civil engineer before emigrating to Pennsylvania, with his brother-in-law, John Lyon, around 1740. He comes to Pennsylvania as a surveyor for the Penn family, the proprietary owners of the colony. In 1750, he lays out the first plat or plan for the town of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and is one of its first settlers. He is later appointed surveyor for the newly established Cumberland County.

In 1756, during the Seven Years’ War, Armstrong leads the Kittanning Expedition. In 1758, he leads 2,700 Pennsylvania provincial troops on the Forbes Expedition, the approach of which compels the French to vacate and blow up Fort Duquesne. He becomes a good friend to the other militia commander in this expedition, Colonel George Washington.

James Smith writes that in the fall of 1763, “I went on the Susquehannah campaign, against the Indians, under the command of General Armstrong. In this route we burnt the Delaware and Monsey towns, on the West Branch of the Susquehannah, and destroyed all their corn.”

In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War (1775-83), Armstrong is a brigadier general in the Pennsylvania militia. On March 1, 1776, the Continental Congress appoints him to that same rank in the Continental Army. He is sent south to begin preparations for the defense of Charleston, South Carolina. He contributes his engineering talents to the construction of defenses that enable them to withstand the Battle of Sullivan’s Island later that year. When General Charles Lee arrives to take command, Armstrong returns to his duties with the main army and with the Pennsylvania militia. Pennsylvania names him major general in charge of the state militia. This ends his service in the Continental Army, but not the war or his cooperation with General George Washington.

At the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, Armstrong’s militia holds the far left of the American line. They also guard the army’s supplies. After a hard day’s fighting, the Americans are forced to withdraw, or face being surrounded. He brings the supplies and his militia out from Pyle’s Ford after dark.

In the Battle of Germantown on October 4, Armstrong leads the American right. His mission is to skirt the British left flank and attack there and in their rear. Despite delays and the troubles some units have in moving, the overall attack is going well, until the center is held up at the Benjamin Chew House. The attack then collapses after a friendly fire incident in the fog in which General Adam Stephen‘s men fire on Anthony Wayne‘s troops causing their withdrawal. Armstrong, whose men have advanced nearly to the center of Germantown but are not greatly involved in the fight later complains that it was “…. a glorious victory fought for, and eight tenths won, …. mysteriously lost, for to this moment no one man can …. give any good reason for the flight.”

After Germantown, Armstrong is granted permission to give up active command. At aged sixty, his health is declining, and old wounds are troubling him. He serves until April 4, 1778.

After his service in the War ends, Armstrong returns home to Carlisle, where he is elected to the Continental Congress by the Pennsylvania Assembly. As a delegate from 1779 to 1780, he is a strong supporter of Washington and the army. He is firm in his support for a new United States Constitution and is returned to the Congress of the Confederation during its final days in 1787 and 1788.

Throughout his life Armstrong serves in a number of local or civic offices. One of these, the Carlisle school board, leads him to originally oppose Dr. Benjamin Rush‘s proposal to start a college in the town. He later relents and becomes a member of the first Board of Trustees for Dickinson College from 1783 to 1794.

In 1747, Armstrong marries Rebecca Lyon Armstrong (1719–97), daughter of Archibald Lyon and Ann Lyon. Together, they are the parents of:

Armstrong dies at his home in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on March 9, 1795, and is buried in the Old Carlisle Cemetery. In 1800, when Pennsylvania creates a new county with its seat at Kittanning, it is named Armstrong County in his honor.


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Birth of Dermot Earley, Military Official in Ireland & the United Nations

Lieutenant-General Dermot Earley DSM, high-ranking military official in Ireland and with the United Nations, is born on February 24, 1948, in Castlebar, County Mayo. He is the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces from 2007 to 2010.

Earley is educated at Gorthaganny National School, where his father Peadar is a principal teacher, and later attends St. Nathy’s College in Ballaghaderreen, County Roscommon.

Earley first joins the Roscommon minor football team in 1963, at the age of fifteen. In that year, his side reaches the Connacht minor final, losing to Mayo. Two years later, in 1965, he lines out in a second Connacht minor decider. Five-in-a-row hopefuls Mayo are beaten by Roscommon, giving him a Connacht Minor Football Championship title. Roscommon are later defeated in the All-Ireland semi-final. He also plays under-21 hurling with Roscommon. In 1969, he plays in the All-Ireland under-21 final where Roscommon faces Kildare, however Kildare wins on the day.

Earley is only seventeen years-old when he makes his senior debut for Roscommon in 1965. Over the next fifteen years, Roscommon wins four Connacht Senior Football Championship titles. In 1985, he sustains a fractured jaw in the Connacht semi-final against Galway, with many expecting it to end his career. He confounds everybody and lines out in the Connacht final against Mayo two weeks later. In spite of kicking six points, Mayo still triumphs by 2–11 to 0–8. At the age of thirty-seven, he decides to retire from inter-county football.

During the 1990s, Earley manages both the Roscommon county football team (1992-94) and the Kildare county football team (1994-96).

After completing his Leaving Certificate in 1965, Earley joins the Defence Forces as a cadet and is commissioned in 1967. His first posting is as a platoon commander in the Recruit Training Depot at the Curragh Camp and, in 1969, he is appointed an Instructor at the Army School of Physical Culture (ASPC). Two years later, in 1971, he obtains a specialist diploma in physical education at St. Mary’s College, Twickenham.

Earley’s service record includes overseas service with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) in 1975, Adjutant to the 52nd Infantry Battalion of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). From 1987 to 1991, he serves as deputy military adviser to UN secretary general Javier Pérez de Cuéllar and Battalion Commander of the 81st Infantry Battalion UNIFIL in 1997. While serving with the UN up to 1991 he is a member of negotiating teams dealing with the Iraqis and Kuwaitis and is a key adviser during the setting up of the UN’s mission in Kuwait – Unikom. He is involved in negotiating an end to the Angolan Civil War. He is a graduate of the Royal College of Defence Studies, London (2001), and holds a Master of Arts (Hons) in peace and development studies from the University of Limerick (1999). He undertakes the Ranger Course in the Defence Forces, which leads to the establishment of special operations training and the establishment of the Army Ranger Wing (ARW). He is the last serving member of that course.

Earley is appointed school commandant of the ASPC. In 1991, he is appointed an instructor at the Command and Staff School of the Military College and in 1994-95 he helps establish the United Nations Training School Ireland (UNTSI) in the Military College.

Earley is promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1995. He commands the 27 Infantry Battalion on the Irish border. He is promoted to colonel in 2001. In December 2003, he is made brigadier general and is appointed major general in March 2004 when he receives his final appointment. He replaces Lieutenant General James Sreenan. He becomes chief of staff in April 2007, leading the Army, Air Corps and Naval Service.

On April 18, 2010, Earley indicates he plans to retire from the Defence Forces due to ill health. He is awarded a Distinguished Service Medal with Honour from Taoiseach Brian Cowen. His resignation is accepted on June 9, 2010, and one of his previous deputies, Major General Sean McCann, is appointed Chief of Staff.

Earley dies of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) on June 23, 2010, at the age of 62. His Newbridge funeral on June 24, 2010, is attended by Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Irish government ministers and leading GAA figures, while former Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave issues a statement calling him “one of the great figures of this country.”


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Death of Major General William Hickie, Irish-Born British Army Officer

Major General Sir William Bernard Hickie, KCB, Irish-born senior British Army officer and Irish nationalist politician dies in Dublin on November 3, 1950. He sees active service in the Second Boer War from 1899 to 1902, is Assistant Quartermaster General in the Irish Command from 1912 to 1914 and serves in World War I from 1914 to 1918. He commands a brigade of the British Expeditionary Force in 1914 and is commander of the 16th (Irish) Division from 1915 on the Western Front.

Hickie is born on May 21, 1865, at Slevoir, Terryglass, near Borrisokane, County Tipperary, the eldest of the eight children of Colonel James Francis Hickie and his wife Lucila Larios y Tashara, originally of Castile. He is educated at St. Mary’s College, Oscott, Birmingham, England, a renowned seminary for training youths of prosperous Roman Catholic families.

Hickie attends the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from 1882 to 1885. He is commissioned into his father’s regiment, the Royal Fusiliers at Gibraltar, in 1885 and serves with them for thirteen years in the Mediterranean, Egypt, and India, during which time he is promoted to captain on November 18, 1892. In 1899 he graduates as captain at the Staff College, Camberley, and is selected when the Second Boer War breaks out as a Special Service Officer in which capacity he acts in various positions of authority and command. He leaves Southampton for South Africa on board the SS Canada in early February 1900, and is promoted from captain of mounted infantry to battalion command as major on March 17, 1900. He is subsequently in command of a corps until eventually at the end of 1900 he is given command of an independent column of all arms. He holds this position for eighteen months. He serves with distinction at the Battle of Bothaville in November 1900, and receives the brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel on November 29, 1900. He serves in South Africa throughout the war, which ends with the Treaty of Vereeniging in June 1902. Four months later he leaves Cape Town on the SS Salamis with other officers and men of the 2nd battalion Royal Fusiliers, arriving at Southampton in late October, when the battalion is posted to Aldershot Garrison. In December 1902 he is elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS).

After the end of the war in South Africa there follows various staff appointments, the first from December 1902 as deputy-assistant adjutant general for district staff in the Cork district. In 1907 Hickie is back in regimental service in Dublin and Mullingar with the 1st Royal Fusiliers, where he is in command of the regiment for the last two years. From 1909 to 1912 is appointed to the Staff of the 8th Infantry Division in Cork where for four years he is well known in the hunting field and on the polo ground. In May 1912, he is promoted to colonel and becomes Quartermaster General of the Irish Command at Royal Hospital Kilmainham for which he is appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath.

When war is declared, the Staff of the Irish Command becomes automatically the staff of the II Army Corps and accordingly with the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Hickie is promoted to brigadier general and, as part of the British Expeditionary Force in France, takes charge of the Adjutant and Quartermaster-General’s Department during the retreat of the II Corps after the Battle of Mons, to Paris, and during the First Battle of the Marne. In mid-September 1914, he relieves one of the brigadiers in the fighting line as commander of the 13th Brigade (5th Infantry Division) and then commands the 53rd Brigade (18th Infantry Division) until December 1915, when he is ordered home to assume command of the 16th (Irish) Division at Blackburn.

Promoted to major general, Hickie takes over from Lieutenant General Sir Lawrence Parsons. It is politically a highly sensitive appointment which requires the professionalism and political awareness he, fortunately, possesses as the division is formed around a core of Irish National Volunteers in response to Edward Carson‘s Ulster Volunteers. He is much more diplomatic and tactful than his predecessors and speaks of the pride which his new command gives him but does not hesitate to make sweeping changes amongst the senior officers of the Irish Division. After putting the division through intensive training, it leaves under Irish command of which each man takes personal pride. It arrives in December 1915.

In the next two years and four months during which Hickie commands the 16th (Irish) Division, it earns a reputation for aggression and élan and wins many memorials and mentions for bravery in the engagements during the 1916 Battle of Guillemont and the capture of Ginchy, both of which form part of the Battle of the Somme, then during the Battle of Messines, the Third Battle of Ypres and in attacks near Bullecourt in the Battle of Cambrai offensive in November 1917.

During this period the Division makes considerable progress in developing its operational techniques but at a price in losses. The growing shortage of Irish replacement recruits, due to nationalist disenchantment with the war and the absence of conscription in Ireland, is successfully met by Hickie by integrating non-Irish soldiers into the division.

In February 1918, Hickie is invalided home on temporary sick leave, but when in the hospital the German spring offensive begins on March 21, with the result that after his division moves under the command of General Hubert Gough it is practically wiped out and ceases to exist as a division. Although promised a new command, this does not happen before the Armistice in November. He typifies the army’s better divisional commanders, is articulate, intelligent and is competent and resourceful during the BEF’s difficult period 1916–17, laying the foundations for its full tactical success in 1918. He is advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1918.

Hickie retires from the army in 1922, when the six Irish line infantry regiments that have their traditional recruiting grounds in the counties of the new Irish Free State are all disbanded. He identifies himself strongly with the Home Rule Act and says that its scrapping is a disaster and is equally outspoken in condemning the activities of the Black and Tans. In 1925, he is elected as a member of Seanad Éireann, the Irish Free State Senate.

Hickie holds his seat until the Seanad is dissolved in 1936, to be replaced by Seanad Éireann in 1937. He is President of the Area Council (Southern Ireland) of the Royal British Legion from 1925 to 1948. He never marries.

Hickie dies on November 3, 1950, in Dublin and is buried in Terryglass, County Tipperary.


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69th Infantry Regiment Refuses to March in Parade for the Prince of Wales

On October 11, 1860, all the militia units of New York City are ordered to turned out to march in in a parade in honor of the visiting Prince of Wales, the 19-year-old Albert Edward, heir to the English throne, who is visiting New York City at the time. Colonel Michael Corcoran, a native of Carrowkeel, near Ballysadare, County Sligo, refuses to march his 69th Infantry Regiment in the parade to protest against British rule in Ireland. He is removed from command and a court martial is pending over the matter when the American Civil War begins.

Five days earlier, Corcoran refuses tickets to a ball in the prince’s honor, telling those who invited him that he is “not desirous of joining in the festivity.”

As for the order to march, Corcoran says he refuses to ask the sons of Erin to honor the son of “a sovereign under whose reign Ireland was made a desert and her sons forced to exile.” He is also heard to refer to the prince as “the bald-faced son of our oppressor.”

Corcoran’s actions cause a firestorm of outrage around the country and especially in New York. U.S. citizens, most completely ignorant of the conditions under which many of these men had lived in British-controlled Ireland, see the actions of the men of the 69th Infantry Regiment as an insult to American hospitality in welcoming these immigrants to their adopted country, though in truth, the welcome is much less than lukewarm.

Corcoran has written his name forever in the pantheon of Irish heroes in America. New York’s Irish present the regiment with a green flag commemorating the event.

Corcoran is arrested and stripped of his command by New York and a court martial is planned. But before he can be tried on the charge, Fort Sumter is fired upon, and the country is more worried about saving the Union than honoring visiting princes. With the outbreak of war, the court martial is dropped and Corcoran is restored to his command because he had been instrumental in bringing other Irish immigrants to the Union cause.

Corcoran leads the 69th Infantry Regiment to Washington, D.C., and serves for a time in the Washington defenses building Fort Corcoran. On July 21, 1861, he leads the regiment into action at the First Battle of Bull Run with what is now called the “Prince of Wales Flag” flying proudly above his men.

After promotion to brigadier general, Corcoran leaves the 69th Infantry Regiment and forms the Corcoran Legion, consisting of at least five other New York regiments.

The Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, unveils Ireland’s national monument to the Fighting 69th in Ballymote, County Sligo, on August 22, 2006. The monument is sculpted by Philip Flanagan. The inscription around the top of the monument reads “Michael Corcoran 1827–1863” Around the base is inscribed “New York Ballymote Creeslough Bull Run.” Underneath the monument is a piece of steel from the World Trade Center, donated by the family of Michael Lynch, who died in the tower on September 11, 2001. Lynch’s family are from County Sligo.

(Pictured: Michael Corcoran, Irish American general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and a close confidant of President Abraham Lincoln)


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Patrick Cleburne Commands Brigade at the Battle of Perryville

On October 8, 1862, Irish-born Confederate Brigadier General Patrick Cleburne commands a brigade at the Battle of Perryville, (Kentucky) in the American Civil War. His brigade is part of the army of General Braxton Bragg. Encouraged by Jefferson Davis, Bragg invades Kentucky in August. On August 30, at the Battle of Richmond, Cleburne receives a very painful injury when a ball passes through his open mouth and out his left cheek, taking several teeth with it. However, less than a month later, he is back with his command in time for the crucial battle at Perryville.

The largest and last major battle of the Confederate Heartland Offensive (Kentucky Campaign), the Battle of Perryville, pits Bragg’s Confederate army against General Don Carlos Buell‘s Union army. While Bragg wins the battle tactically, Confederate forces retreat from the battlefield and end the campaign, leaving Kentucky under Union control for the rest of the war.

In conjunction with General Edmund Kirby Smith, Bragg invades the Commonwealth of Kentucky in August 1862. While the Confederate forces see early success in the Battles of Richmond and Munfordville, they ultimately are unable to achieve their larger goal of taking control of the state. By late October, Bragg and Smith’s armies retreat into Tennessee.

On October 7, 1862, the 55,000-man Union Army of the Ohio under the command of General Buell converges on the small crossroads town of Perryville, Kentucky, in three columns. Union forces first skirmish with Confederate cavalry on the Springfield Pike before the fighting continues on Peters Hill as the gray-clad infantry arrive. Based on the intelligence Bragg receives from his cavalry, he believes that he faces only a small portion of General Buell’s army, not the main body. Both sides settle in for the coming battle that would decide the fate of Kentucky.

In the early morning hours of October 8, 1862, fighting begins around Peters Hill as a Union division advances up the pike searching for water, halting just before the Confederate line. General Bragg orders his army to attack the supposedly isolated Union force, but it is noon before the assault gets underway. By that point, a new Union Corps, numbering about 13,000, arrives on the field further to the Union left, led by General Alexander M. McCook. The Confederates shift their focus on this isolated corps, believing it to be the force they faced earlier in the morning.

In the afternoon, the Confederate attacks open up. Bragg plans to commit three divisions. Due to the surprise of the Confederates, the plan works. Many of the Union soldiers in McCook’s corps are inexperienced and have been in the service for less than three months. For over five hours, McCook’s corps struggle to survive.

Cleburne’s brigade enters the battle at about 3:40 p.m. Cleburne’s horse, Dixie, is killed by an artillery shell, which also wounds Cleburne in the ankle, but he keeps his troops moving forward. As they advance up the slope, they are subjected to Confederate artillery fire. Cleburne later surmises that the friendly fire is caused by his men wearing blue uniform trousers, which had been captured from Union soldiers at Richmond. On Cleburne’s left, Brigadier General Daniel W. Adams‘s brigade joins the attack against the 15th Kentucky, which had been reinforced by three companies of the 3rd Ohio. The Union troops retreat to the west toward the Russell House, McCook’s headquarters.

Meanwhile, the majority of the veteran Union forces are under orders not to engage because General Buell, only two miles from the main fight, cannot hear the battle raging. The acoustic shadow dissipates in the area’s rolling hills. In the fighting, the Confederates see much success all across the battlefield at places like Open Knob, where they capture seven Union cannons, Loomis’s Heights, and the H. P. Bottoms Farm. They manage to push back the Union corps over a mile from their positions. Eventually, the Union troops are reinforced by two brigades that stabilize their line, bringing the Confederate attack to a halt. Later, a Confederate brigade assaults the Union force on the Springfield Pike but is repulsed and falls back into Perryville. The Union forces pursue, and skirmishing occurs in the streets in the evening before dark.

After five hours of brutal fighting, on October 8, 1862, night falls upon the battlefield at Perryville. During the night, word finally reaches General Bragg of the true nature of what lay before him. Rather than facing a small Union force, he faces Gen. Buell’s entire army, the majority of which do not see combat. Weighing his options, Bragg, short of men and supplies, withdraws during the night and, after pausing at Harrodsburg, continues the Confederate retreat by way of the Cumberland Gap into East Tennessee.

Cleburne performs a final valuable service to the Confederate cause during Bragg’s retreat. He saves thousands of rifles, cartridges, and other supplies by using stragglers to drag the supply-wagon train to safety.

The Confederate offensive is over and the Union controls Kentucky.


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Irish 69th New York Infantry Regiment Fights at the First Battle of Bull Run

On July 21, 1861, at the First Battle of Bull Run, the first major engagement of the American Civil War, the Irish 69th New York Infantry Regiment fights under the green flag of Erin and the Stars and Stripes for the first time. The unit is in a brigade commanded by Col. William Tecumseh Sherman, whose name is now one of the most well-known of the war. He is not, however, well loved by the 69th New York.

The battle, called the Battle of First Manassas by the Confederate State Army, is fought in Prince William County, Virginia, just north of the city of Manassas and about thirty miles west-southwest of Washington, D.C. The Union Army is slow in positioning themselves, allowing Confederate reinforcements time to arrive by rail. Each side has about 18,000 poorly trained and poorly led troops. The Union army suffers an ignominious defeat that day, but the 69th is among a handful of Union regiments that perform well during the battle. Held in reserve at first, the 69th soon advances and routs the 4th Alabama. But when the brigade meets stiffer opposition, Sherman attacks with one regiment at a time, wasting his numbers. The battle is followed by a disorganized post-battle retreat of the Union forces.

Just months after the start of the war at Fort Sumter, the northern public clamors for a march against the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, which is expected to bring an early end to the Confederacy. Yielding to political pressure, Brigadier General Irvin McDowell leads his unseasoned Union Army across Bull Run against the equally inexperienced Confederate Army of Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard, whose forces are camped near Manassas Junction. McDowell’s ambitious plan for a surprise flank attack on the Confederate left is poorly executed; nevertheless, the Confederates, who had been planning to attack the Union left flank, find themselves at an initial disadvantage.

Confederate reinforcements under Brigadier General Joseph E. Johnston arrive from the Shenandoah Valley by railroad, and the course of the battle quickly changes. A brigade of Virginians under a relatively unknown brigadier general from the Virginia Military Institute, Thomas J. Jackson, stands its ground, which results in Jackson receiving his famous nickname, “Stonewall.” The Confederates launch a strong counterattack, and as the Union troops begin withdrawing under fire, many panic and the retreat turns into a rout. McDowell’s men frantically run without order in the direction of Washington, D.C.

One of the last regiments off the field, the 69th loses 38 men that day, the first being Capt. James Haggerty from Donegal, and 59 wounded. Ninety-five are sent to Confederate prison camps, including its Sligo-born colonel, Michael Corcoran. One of the last men off the field is Waterford‘s Thomas Francis Meagher, captain of Company K, who eventually swims the last yards to safety across Bull Run creek. It is a rough beginning, but the regiment has begun a storied history that soon earns them the sobriquet “Fighting 69th.”

Both armies are sobered by the fierce fighting and the many casualties and realize that the war is going to be much longer and bloodier than either have anticipated. The First Battle of Bull Run highlights many of the problems and deficiencies that are typical of the first year of the war. Units are committed piecemeal, attacks are frontal, infantry fails to protect exposed artillery, tactical intelligence is minimal, and neither commander is able to employ his whole force effectively. McDowell, with 35,000 men, can commit only about 18,000, and the combined Confederate forces, with about 32,000 men, also commit 18,000.


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Death of Thomas Francis Meagher

Thomas Francis Meagher, Irish nationalist and leader of the Young Irelanders in the Rebellion of 1848, drowns on July 1, 1867, after falling overboard from the steamboat G. A. Thompson into the Missouri River.

Meagher is born on August 3, 1823, at Waterford, County Waterford, in what is now the Granville Hotel on the Quay. He is educated at Roman Catholic boarding schools. When he is eleven, his family sends him to the Jesuits at Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare. It is at Clongowes that he develops his skill of oratory, becoming at age 15 the youngest medalist of the Debating Society. After six years, he leaves Ireland for the first time, to study in Lancashire, England, at Stonyhurst College, also a Jesuit institution. He returns to Ireland in 1843, with undecided plans for a career in the Austrian army, a tradition among a number of Irish families.

Meagher becomes a member of the Young Ireland Party in 1845 and in 1847 is one of the founders of the Irish Confederation, dedicated to Irish independence. In 1848 he is involved, along with William Smith O’Brien, in an abortive attempt to mount an insurrection against English rule. Arrested for high treason, he is condemned to death, but his sentence is commuted to life imprisonment in Van Diemen’s Land, now Tasmania.

Meagher escapes in 1852 and makes his way to the United States. After a speaking tour of U.S. cities, he settles in New York City, studies law, and is admitted to the bar in 1855. He soon becomes a leader of the Irish in New York and, from 1856, edits the Irish News.

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Meagher becomes a captain of New York volunteers and fights at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. He then organizes the Irish Brigade, and in February 1862 is elevated to the rank of brigadier general. After his brigade is decimated at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, he resigns his commission, however in December he returns to command the military district of Etowah, with headquarters at Chattanooga, Tennessee.

At the close of the war, Meagher is appointed secretary of Montana Territory where, in the absence of a territorial governor, he serves as acting governor.

In the summer of 1867, Meagher travels to Fort Benton, Montana, to receive a shipment of guns and ammunition sent by General William Tecumseh Sherman for use by the Montana Militia. On the way to Fort Benton, the Missouri River terminus for steamboat travel, he falls ill and stops for six days to recuperate. When he reaches Fort Benton, he is reportedly still ill.

Sometime in the early evening of July 1, 1867, Meagher falls overboard from the steamboat G. A. Thompson, into the Missouri River. His body is never recovered. Some believe his death to be suspicious and many theories circulate about his death. Early theories included a claim that he was murdered by a Confederate soldier from the war, or by Native Americans. In 1913 a man claims to have carried out the murder of Meagher for the price of $8,000, but then recants. In the same vein, American journalist and novelist Timothy Egan, who publishes a biography of Meagher in 2016, claims Meagher may have been murdered by Montana political enemies or powerful and still active vigilantes. On the frontier men are quick to kill rather than adjudicate. A similar theory shown on Death Valley Days (1960) has him survive the assassination attempt because his aide had been mistakenly murdered when he accepted one of his trademark cigars, and Meagher uses his apparent death as leverage over his political opponents.


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Birth of Sir William Bernard Hickie, British Army General

Sir William Bernard Hickie, British Army general, commander of the 16th (Irish) Division (1915–18) and an Irish nationalist politician, is born on May 21, 1865, at Slevoir, Terryglass, near Borrisokane, County Tipperary.

Hickie is the eldest son of Colonel James Francis Hickie, JP, of Slevoir, former commanding officer of the 7th Royal Fusiliers, and Lucila Calista (de Tejada) Hickie, daughter of Don Pablo Lariosy Herreros de Tejada of Laguna de Cameros, Castile. He is educated at St. Mary’s College, Oscott, before attending the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and is commissioned into the Royal Fusiliers in 1885, serving in Egypt and India.

A major at the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899, Hickie serves on the staff of Lieutenant-Colonel P. W. J. Le Gallais, commanding officer of the mounted infantry. On November 6, 1900, he is involved in an attempt to capture General Christiaan De Wet at the Battle of Bothaville, when a force led by Le Gallais and Lieutenant-Colonel Wally Ross storm De Wet’s camp. De Wet escapes, while a rearguard of 100 men engages the British force. In a fierce fight Le Gallais is killed, and Wally Ross is badly wounded. Hickie decides to charge the Boer position and leads his small force forward just as reinforcements under Major-General C. E. Knox arrive. The Boers immediately surrender, and some are found with explosive bullets. He wants to execute them immediately, but Knox insists that they be tried. Exasperated with the whole affair, Hickie gives a highly critical interview after the action which is later published in The Times History of the War in South Africa (7 vols, 1900–09), edited by Leo Amery.

Hickie is promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel in 1901 and appointed deputy-assistant adjutant general of the 8th division (1903–06). In 1906, he is given command of the 1st battalion of the Royal Fusiliers. Promoted to colonel in 1912, he serves as assistant quartermaster general of the Irish command (1912–14) and is appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1914. On the outbreak of World War I, he is promoted to brigadier general and serves in Belgium and France in command of the adjutant’s and quartermaster-general’s department of II Corps. In this capacity, he is involved in the retreat following the Battle of Mons and during the First Battle of the Marne (September 1914). In December 1915, he is appointed to command the 16th (Irish) Division, with the rank of major general, replacing General Sir Lawrence W. Parsons. The division is based around a core of Redmondite National Volunteers, and Hickie, a Catholic and a home ruler, is an acceptable commander to John Redmond and other Irish nationalists.

Hickie is professional, politically adept, and popular with his men, and under his leadership the 16th is renowned for its aggressive fighting spirit. He commands the division during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and, while proud of his men’s success in capturing Guillemont and Ginchy (September 1916), is appalled by their losses. When the division is ordered to capture Messines (now Mesen) in June 1917, he gives Major Willie Redmond permission to advance as far as the first objective and, following Redmond’s death, reproaches himself bitterly. After this attack the division is transferred to the fifth army and provides assault troops for future attacks. During the Third Battle of Ypres, and especially during the attack on Langemarck in August 1917, the division suffers horrendous casualties, losing 221 officers and 4,064 men. Among the casualties is Fr. Willie Doyle, who Hickie unsuccessfully recommends for a Victoria Cross. The division’s losses at Langemarck are highlighted by Irish MPs in the House of Commons, and Hickie’s handling of the attack is criticised. By this time, nationalist disillusionment with the war means that few Irish replacements are available, and Hickie is forced to accept increasing numbers of non-Irish conscripts into the division. Worn down by years of command, his health finally breaks, and, in February 1918, he is sent home on sick leave, being replaced by Major-General Sir Richard Amyatt Hull.

In 1918, Hickie is created a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) and is also awarded the French Croix de Guerre. During the Irish War of Independence (1919–21), he is critical of the methods used by Crown forces, denouncing in particular the indiscipline of the Black and Tans. In 1921 he retires from the army and becomes a prominent figure in the Royal British Legion in Ireland, tirelessly campaigning on behalf of ex-servicemen. In the 1920s he is involved with the Irish battlefield memorial committee, which erects memorial crosses at Wytschaete, Guillemont, and Salonika, commemorating the 10th and 16th divisions. He later serves as a senator of the Irish Free State (1925–36). Retiring from public life in 1936 to his residence at Terryglass, County Tipperary, he devotes his last years to gardening and reading.

Hickie dies on November 3, 1950, in Dublin, and is buried at Terryglass. He marries a daughter of the novelist Rev. J. O. Hannay, who predeceases him. There is a small collection of his papers in the National Library of Ireland (NLI).

(From: “Hickie, Sir William Bernard” by David Murphy, Dictionary of Irish Biography, http://www.dib.ie, October 2009)


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Birth of Myles Byrne, United Irishman & French Army Officer

Myles Byrne, United Irishman, French army officer and author, is born into a Catholic farming family in the townland of Ballylusk, near Monaseed, County Wexford, on March 20, 1780.

At the age of 17, Byrne is asked to join the government Yeomanry. He chooses instead to join the Society of United Irishmen. In defiance of the British Crown and the Protestant Ascendancy the oath-bound movement is determined to achieve an independent and representative government for Ireland. He participates in preparations in Wexford for the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and, at the age of 18, fights at the Battle of Tubberneering on June 4 and, in command of a division of pikemen, in the Battle of Arklow on June 9, in which the rebel leader Father Michael Murphy is killed. In the face of a general rout, he leads a rebel charge in the Battle of Vinegar Hill on June 21.

Keeping command of a small band, Byrne seizes Goresbridge on June 23 but has to deplore the murder of several prisoners and other atrocities committed by his men in revenge for the torture and executions that had been visited upon the peasantry by the yeomanry and government militia. After further skirmishes he joins Joseph Holt and Michael Dwyer in taking to the Wicklow Mountains to continue a guerrilla resistance.

After Holt accepts transportation to Australia in November, Byrne, assisted by his sister, escapes to Dublin. He recalls of his sister, “If I had not remarked a long scar on her neck, she would not have mentioned anything herself. A yeoman … threatened to cut her throat with his sabre if she did not tell instantly the place in which I was hiding. The cowardly villain, no doubt, would have put his threat in execution had not some of his comrades interfered to prevent him.”

In the winter of 1802-03, Byrne enters into the plans of Robert Emmet and Anne Devlin for a renewed uprising. In his Memoirs he describes a meeting he arranged between Robert Emmet and the Wexford rebel leader Thomas Cloney at Harold’s Cross Green, Dublin, just prior to Emmet’s Rebellion, “I can never forget the impression this meeting made on me at the time – to see two heroic patriots, equally devoted to poor Ireland, discussing the best means of obtaining her freedom.”

In July 1803, the plans unravel when Anne Devlin’s cousin, Michael Dwyer, still holding out in Wicklow, recognises that there are neither the promised arms nor convincing proof of an intended French landing. In the north Thomas Russell and James Hope find no enthusiasm for a renewal of the struggle in what in 1798 are the strongest United Irish and Catholic Defender districts.

In Dublin, with their preparations revealed by an accidental explosion of a rebel arms depot, Emmet proceeds with a plan to seize the centres of government. The rising, for which for Byrne turns out with Emmet and Malachy Delaney in gold-trimmed green uniforms, is broken up after a brief confrontation in Thomas Street.

Two days after the fight in Thomas Street, Byrne meets with the fugitive Emmet and agrees to go to Paris to procure French assistance. But in Paris he finds Napoleon‘s attentions focused elsewhere. The First Consul uses a cessation of hostilities with Britain to pursue a very different venture, the re-enslavement of Haiti.

Byrne is commissioned as a captain in Napoleon’s Irish Legion. But at a time when he is convinced that “all Catholic Ireland” is “ready to rise the moment a rallying point was offered,” the Irish exiles cannot deflect the First Consul from other priorities. Rather than in Ireland, with his diminishing Irish contingent, he is to see action in the Low Countries, Germany and Spain.

Byrne rises to the rank of brigadier general and is awarded the Legion of Honour in 1813. Following the Bourbon Restoration, with fellow legionnaire John Allen, he narrowly avoids deportation as a foreign Bonapartist. An introduction to the Prince de Broglie, then vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies, and two audiences with the Minister of War, Marshal Henri Clarke, the Duke of Feltre, contribute to the latter’s decision to quash the deportation order. In August 1817 Byrne is naturalised as a French citizen.

For much of the next decade Byrne finds himself effectively retired on half pay. Returned to active military service in 1828, he distinguishes himself in the French expedition to Morea during the Greek War of Independence. He retires in 1835 with the rank of Chef de Bataillion.

In the 1840s, Byrne is Paris correspondent for The Nation in Dublin, the Young Irelander newspaper that does much to rehabilitate the memory of the United Irishmen.

In his last years Byrne writes his Memoirs, which are an account of his participation in the Irish Rebellion and his time in the Irish Legion of Napoleon. These are first published in three volumes in 1863, but there have been many subsequent reprints. Against the portrayal of 1798 as a series of disjointed, unconnected risings, his memoirs present the United Irishmen as a cohesive revolutionary organisation whose aim of a democratic, secular, republic had captured the allegiance of a great mass of the Irish people.

Byrne dies at his house in the rue Montaigne (now rue Jean Mermoz, 8th arrondissement, near Champs-Élysées), Paris on January 24, 1862, and is buried in Montmartre Cemetery. His grave there is marked by a Celtic Cross, however this headstone appears to be a 1950s replacement for an earlier one.

(Pictured: Miles Byrne (1780-1862), United Irishman. Photograph taken by an unknown photographer in Paris in February 1859. The photograph now resides in Áras an Uachtaráin, the residence of the President of Ireland, in Dublin.)


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Stephen Moylan Appointed Colonel in the Continental Army

Stephen Moylan, Irish American patriot leader during the American Revolutionary War, is appointed colonel in the Continental Army on January 5, 1777. He has several positions in the Continental Army including Muster-Master General, Secretary and Aide to General George Washington, 2nd Quartermaster General, Commander of The Fourth Continental Light Dragoons and Commander of the Cavalry of the Continental Army.

Moylan is born to a Catholic family in Cork, County Cork, in 1737. His father, John Moylan, is a well-to-do merchant in Shandon, County Cork. His older brother Francis becomes Bishop of Cork. His family sends him to be educated in Paris. He then works in Lisbon for three years in the family shipping firm. He settles in Philadelphia in 1768 to organize his own firm. He is one of the organizers of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, an Irish American fraternal organization, and serves as its first president.

Moylan joins the American Continental Army in 1775 and upon the recommendation of John Dickinson, is appointed Muster-Master General on August 11, 1775. His brother John acts as United States Clothier General during the war. His experience in the shipping industry affords the United States a well-qualified ship outfitter, who helps fit out the first ships of the Continental Navy. On March 5, 1776, he becomes secretary to General George Washington with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He is appointed Quartermaster General in the American Continental Army on June 5, 1776, succeeding Thomas Mifflin. He resigns from this office on September 28, 1776. However, he continues to serve as a volunteer of General Washington’s staff through December 1776.

In January 1776, Moylan writes a letter using the term “United States of America,” the earliest known use of that phrase.

Moylan then raises a troop of light dragoons, the 4th Continental Light Dragoons, also known as Moylan’s Horse, on January 3, 1777, at Philadelphia. The regiment is be noted for taking the field in captured British red coats. However, they see action in green coats at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, and the Battle of Germantown on October 4, 1777, and end the year by protecting the Cantonment at Valley Forge. He succeeds General Casimir Pulaski as Commander of the Cavalry in March 1778. Moylan’s Horse sees action at the Battle of Monmouth on June 28, 1778.

In the campaign of 1779 Moylan and the 4th Dragoons are stationed at Pound Ridge, New York, and see action when the British raid Norwalk, Connecticut, on July 11, 1779. He and the 4th Dragoons take part in the Battle of Springfield in New Jersey, on June 23, 1780, and General Anthony Wayne‘s expedition at Bull’s Ferry, New Jersey, on July 20, 1780. He commands his Dragoons at the Siege of Yorktown in October 1781, after which he is to take the cavalry to the Southern Campaign. However, his failing health causes him to leave the field and return to Philadelphia, where he constantly appeals to the Continental Congress to man, equip and maintain the Continental Dragoon Regiments.

Moylan is rewarded for his service by being breveted to brigadier general on November 3, 1783.

Moylan is married to Mary Ricketts Van Horne on September 12, 1778, and has two daughters, Elizabeth Catherine, and Maria. His two sons die as children. He dies in Philadelphia on April 11, 1811, and is buried there in the churchyard at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church.