A new and noble cause. More Irish fought in the American Civil War than in WWI and WWII combined. It's time for Ireland to recognise their sacrifice...


A number of like-minded individuals, who wish to promote Irish involvement in the American Civil War, have begun to commemorate this iconic conflict in Ireland. The aim is to develop a Civil War Trail and Memorial to those from the entire island who were caught up in the conflict. A site has now been developed to further this goal, called the Irish American Civil War Trail. It provides the project’s mission statement, and also a drop down list of potential trail locations within Ireland categorized by county.

The site is still under development and there are many images and locations to be added, particularly concerning the birthplaces of Colonels and Medal of Honor recipients. However, it will be added to over time and it is hoped it will act as a catalyst for the development of local interest at these locations. Please drop by and have a look at the site, and feel free to make suggestions as to potential additions, clarifications or to provide further detail on entries. We would also welcome any photographs of sites in Ireland that could be added. If you would like to contact the group you can do so on the Civil War Trail site or by emailing americancivilwarandireland@gmail.com.

Commissioned for the National Museum of the Morgan Horse, this original oil painting is now on display at that museum in Middlebury, Vermont. It was the artist's intention that the details relating to period, uniform, accessories and horse tack were accurately represented in the painting. The artist, signed as Lazarus, even modeled a horse in similar tack to get the posture correct.

Behind Captain Keogh and 'Comanche' are Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and, left to right, Crow King, Rain In The Face, Gall & Sitting Bull.

It is expected that prints in two sizes will be commercially available in the near future.

On March 21, 1865 and after months of planning, including Keogh's lengthy stint in Kentucky refitting prospective regiments, George Stoneman could finally report to Generals Thomas and Grant that his whole command was now on the road. "It is a long, rough, bad road where we are going" he continued, "and every precaution and care has been and must continue to be taken in order that our horses may not be broken down in the first part, which is over a country destitute of subsistence."

Among the precautions that Stoneman alluded to were, in part, influenced by Grant's requirement that the raiders march light. Circulars from HQ dictated that each company of cavalry was allowed only two pack mules - one for ammunition and the other for the officers' mess and company cooking utensils. Each man was to carry 63 rounds of ammunition, two horseshoes and nails, kitchen utensils, a canteen and horse-grooming tools.

This cavalry division of the District of East Tennessee, under the immediate command of Brig. Gen. Alvan C. Gillem (left), was composed of three brigades: Colonel William J. Palmer's First Brigade, Brevet Brig. Gen. Simeon B. Brown's 2nd Brigade, and Colonel John K. Miller's 3rd Brigade, as well as a battery of artillery under Lieutenant James M. Regan. As commander of the East Tennessee district, Stoneman personally accompanied Gillem's cavalry division to oversee the mission. Alongside the general would be his senior aide-de-camp, Major Myles Keogh.

While Stoneman's raid was a cavalry expedition, a two brigade infantry division - Brig. Gen. Davis Tillson's 4th Division of the Department of the Cumberland (4500 soldiers) - marched behind the mounted troopers with the express role of repairing railroad tracks and holding captured terrain and mountain passes.

As the raiders progressed through East Tennessee, little occurred of significance apart from battling the unkind elements of wind, rain and frost. By Sunday, March 26, Stoneman's raiders had reached Doe River Cove near the North Carolina Road. The general and his staff spent the night bunking in a nearby cabin where they were sought out by John J. Wickham, an expert telegraph operator. Apparently, Wickham entered the dimly lit cabin, saw Stoneman at the opposite end of the dwelling and proceeding to tip-toe over the slumbering figures on the ground, unwilling to disturb their rest. Unfortunately for the visitor, he clumsily trod on none other than Myles Keogh. The Irishman angrily awoke from his sleep and confronted poor Wickham. Harsh words were initially exchanged between the two men but the matter soon ended and they eventually bunked down together, grabbing a few hours of much needed rest. A presumably bemused Stoneman continued with his planning.

The following day, Stoneman issued orders for a rapid push across the Watauga River and into North Carolina. As the evening wore on and darkness fell, the mountain roads over which the line of cavalry men rode would be particularly treacherous. Some loyal citizens lit fires by which the men were guided over the winding tracks. Soldiers later vividly recollected these evenings where the "fires were lighting up everything about, and the troopers looked like mounted specters, moving silently along."

After an exhausting night's ride, Stoneman awoke on March 28 to news that a meeting of Confederate Home Guard would be taking place in Boone, the Watauga County seat, that very day. Home Guard units were, essentially, the last defence against any invading Union forces and, in those final stages of the war, took on a more active role as the South had few fighting-fit regular army personnel to spare. Many of the Home Guard volunteers were wounded soldiers who had returned to home to recuperate.

Stoneman directed Major Keogh to take command of a detachment of the 12th Kentucky Cavalry and proceed to Boone to investigate the reports. The 12th Kentucky had a poor record for behaviour such as desertion and a habit of "insulting and otherwise doing violence to peaceable citizens." Much of the blame for this has been laid at the feet of their commander, Major James B. Harrison. Regardless, the 12th could fight and it is likely that Keogh was given command to ensure discipline while carrying out reconnaissance on a civilian town. The Union detachment was guided to Boone by lead scout, William McKesson Blalock (right) ; a southerner who had become a Unionist after initially fighting for the Rebels. A North Carolina native, Blalock was only itching to exact some retribution on locals who had persecuted him for abandoning the Confederate cause.

The Watauga County Home Guard, Major Harvey Bingham's 11th Battalion, were no ramshackle unit. Bingham, a twice-wounded veteran, had raised two companies and created "Camp Mast" were the men could be stationed. This Home Guard had been battling Unionist sympathisers like Blalock with some degree of success until just weeks before Keogh and the 12th Kentucky rode into town. The previous month, "Camp Mast" had been attacked by around one hundred "Tar Heels" - a title bestowed on Unionists from the North Carolina area. The outpost was captured and Bingham's men were routed. The meeting on March 28 was the locals first step in reorganising their militia. Unfortunately for them, the Union cavalry would put paid to those aspirations.

Boone was nestled in a valley surrounded by tree-covered hills and mountains. Although not large, it did consist of several log cabins, some larger homes, a court house, an inn and a general store. A little after eleven o clock in the morning, its peace was shattered as Major Keogh led the Kentucky boys straight into the town centre. About one hundred Home Guardsmen were armed and drilling at that time near the courthouse and, despite Keogh attaining the element of surprise, the militia resolved not to be defeated for a second time in as many months. The locals opened fire and the blue-coated troopers were welcomed with a hail of bullets.


Major Keogh ordered a charge and, with sabers drawn, the raiders galloped up the main street at the Confederates. According to one of the Union participants, the skirmish became "hotly contested." Unslinging their carbines and letting loose a number of volleys of their own, Keogh's men blasted away at any thing that moved. One of the townsfolk, Mrs. James Councill, stepped onto the doorway of her porch, her child in her arms, and into an enfilade of fire. The wooden porch around her was peppered with bullets but miraculously, she and the child escaped unharmed. The Home Guardsmen quickly realised that their attackers were more than just local Unionists springing another attack and that the enemy to their front were, in fact, part of Stoneman's dreaded raiders. The militia began to flee but were shown little mercy by some of the Union cavalry. The bodies of some fallen Confederate volunteers indicate that they were shot in the back. Evidence also suggests that the scout, William Blalock, shot one of the locals, a Mr. Warren Green, while he was trying to surrender. In the heat of battle, some discipline was discarded when the opportunity for vengeance presented itself.

The fight did continue in the town as a series of running street skirmishes where some of the Rebels refused to flee. The local sheriff, A. J. McBride, gave as good as he got. Intent on seeking out Blalock, the lawman fought until he was incapacitated by a bullet to his chest. Fifteen-year-old Steel Frazier led the cavalrymen on a cat and mouse chase around the outskirts of the town, eventually escaping and later claiming that he had "hit two bluejackets."



When the gunfire finally ceased, the injured were treated and a morgue was set up in a local dwelling. Keogh's men suffered few casualties; likely a handful of wounded but no fatalities. In later reports, both Generals Stoneman and Gillem recorded that nine Home Guardsmen had been killed and a little over sixty captured. Gillem was clear as to who should attain any glory from this lively skirmish: "Much credit is due to Major Keogh and the gallant officers and men of the Twelfth Kentucky Cavalry engaged in this affair." Before leaving the town, General Gillem ordered that the local jail be burned to the ground. As the black smoke rose above Boone, the rest of the cavalry division approached from the west, reuniting Stoneman's command for the next stage of their mission.

Source and additional recommended reading:

'Stoneman's Raid 1865' by Chris J. Hartley.

On this day, 175 years ago, Myles Keogh was born at Orchard House just outside Leighlinbridge, County Carlow in Ireland. We continue to honour his life and his military career:

"A man who defends his own country or attacks another is no more than a soldier. But he, who adopts some other country as his own and makes offer of his sword and his blood, is more than a soldier. He is a hero."

Emile Barrault, French author and philosopher

Courtesy of Keogh Family

A descendant of one of the most heroic and dashing figures from American military history died in the fighting in Dublin during the 1916 Easter Rising, and was immediately commemorated, not without controversy, by republicans as the Rising's "first martyr."

Nurse Margaret Kehoe, slain during an exchange of rifle fire between Irish and British forces in South Dublin Union, was grandniece to 'Beau Sabreur' Myles Walter Keogh, a captain in the Seventh U.S. Cavalry who perished in June 1876 alongside his commander George Armstrong Custer and about 220 troopers in "Custer's Last Stand."

In Dublin on Easter Monday, April 24,1916, the first day of fighting during the Rising, Kehoe was on duty at the public workhouse and hospital. The 1916 Rebellion Handbook, first published by The Irish Times not long after the Rising, mentions Kehoe, more or less in passing, as an innocent bystander. She was "accidentally killed by a stray shot whilst discharging her duty." However, accounts vary as to how Margaret died in the bloody fight at the South Dublin Union, a place for Dublin's destitute, infirm and insane.


The complex was spread over 50 acres and consisted of an array of buildings. Records show that in April 1916, 3,282 people, including patients, doctors, nurses and ancillary staff, were housed or working among the buildings.

Most sources and witnesses stated that Kehoe had been on duty that Monday in one of the hospital buildings, Hospital 2-3, as the battle raged all around. Six republican riflemen, who had been firing from a top floor on the British soldiers, vacated their position and there was a lull in the firing.

Nurse Kehoe decided to look into the safety of any patients or wounded on the lower floor. At the foot of the stairs, the corridor was occupied by two British soldiers kneeling out of sight, covering the open doorway with their rifles. As she entered the corridor, they both fired, killing her instantly.

A distraught colleague rushed to her aid but it was too late. Her body was placed on a table in the corridor. Shortly afterwards, Irish Volunteer Dan McCarthy, who had been badly wounded in the volley of gunfire that caused Margaret Kehoe to descend, was laid beside her on the table. McCarthy survived, becoming president of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) from 1921 to 1924.

The South Dublin Union

Eamonn Ceannt, the commander of the garrison, addressed the men afterward, and declared that the nurse was the "first martyr" of the rebellion, and asked the those present to remember her sacrifice. Ceannt stated: "She died for Ireland just as surely as if she'd worn the Volunteer's uniform."

Since her death, Kehoe has been claimed by republican sources as one of their own, a member of the Irish women's republican movement, Cumann na mBan. Yet the assertion that she was an active participant has never been verified by the canonical listing prepared for the National Graves Association, nor in any reputable sources of the 1916 Rising.

The ownership, as it were, of Kehoe's death remains disputed. Perhaps her fate -- doing her duty while caught in crossfire during the Rising -- provides an apt metaphor for the experience of women in the Irish revolution.

Margaret lived on the family farm at Orchard, Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, Myles Keogh's birthplace. She was buried in the Union grounds, where she was shot, but afterward her body was exhumed and reinterred in Ballinabranna cemetery, in her native parish of Leighlin. Commemoration ceremonies in honor of her memory and sacrifice commonly take place there.


This article was first published on the Irish Heritage Site, www.thewildgeese.com