The Irish and the American Civil War

Introduction:

On April 12, 1861, the hostilities in the American Civil war began when the Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. At that point in time, nobody could foresee that this struggle between the pro slavery southern states, the Confederates, and the abolitionist northern states, the so called Unionists, would last for four long bloody years. Many people especially in the north thought that the south with only nine million inhabitants, of which a big number were actual slaves, would not stand a chance against the northern states with its twenty-two million inhabitants. But history proved those people wrong. Many historians call the American Civil War the first total war because the casualties among the civilians were just as high as the casualties among the troops of both sides. Furthermore, popular methods to discourage the opponent included cruelties, rape, and murder of civilians. By the end of the war in April 1865, approximately 620,000 Confederate and Unionist soldiers and an undetermined number of civilians had died during the war between the North and the South. No other war in which the United States had ever been involved had killed so many Americans.

But this war was not only fought by Americans actually born in the United States. Thousands and thousands of immigrants mostly from Germany and Ireland enlisted in the troops of both sides and joined the war. Between 1840 and 1870, roughly two million people emigrated from Ireland to the United States. The biggest reason for this sudden rise of Irish immigration into the United States was the catastrophic Potato Famine in Ireland, which lasted from 1845-1853.

It is understandable that big ethnic groups, such as the Irish or the Germans, would leave a noticeable mark on a historical event like the American Civil War. But the Irish left the biggest mark on the history of the war than the other foreign groups. The Irish as the most politically active and contentious of the nation’s mid-19th-century immigrant groups shared many of the experiences of the Northern soldiers. Yet in some ways, the Irish were different, not only from native-born soldiers, but from other immigrant groups as well. They were the only ethnic group who carried not only the Union flag, but their own colours as well, into battle. The Irish units always carried flags in Irish green with them into battle. No other group was granted such a privilege.

But why did the Irish participate in the American Civil War in such a great number? Why were they so special? German immigrants, for example, joined the war in just as a big number as the Irish did. But never did a unit that consisted of mainly Germans carry the colours or symbols of their homeland into a battle of the American Civil War like the Irish did.

In my paper I want to clarify why the Irish had such a big impact on the American Civil war. Further, I want to show that the Irishmen fought for more than just the Confederation or the Union but for their home country and much more.

Irish soldiers in the North and South:

The Irish, like most Americans, were loyal primarily to their region rather than the nation as a whole. That explains why Irish immigrants fought for both sides and not only for one. Normally the Irish would have preferred the underdog, which in this case would have been the southern confederation. When we consider that the Irish population in the United States was also primarily pro-slavery, the confederate army seemed the likelier choice for an Irish man to join. But, the region in which an Irish immigrant lived was crucial for his choice. Therefore, most of the Irish living in the north fought for the Union and those in the southern states of the United States fought for the Confederates.

The Confederate Army had five Irish born generals, Cleburne, Finnegan, Hagan, Lane and Moore. One of them, General Patrick Cleburne, the commander of the 5th Confederate regiment, was probably the most successful and outstanding Irish-born leader of the Confederate Army. The Irish also presented the largest number of foreign-born troops in the ranks of the South. This does not even include the number of first and second-generation Irish soldiers who already considered themselves not as Irish but as American. So called Irish units of the Confederate Army were raised all over the south. The states of Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee and Virginia all had their own Irish units. The town of New Orleans even had its own Irish Brigade (Kevin 122, 123).

[...]