P.O.B County Waterford, Ireland
D.O.D June 19, 1900
P.O.D Boston, MA
The son of Michael and Mary O’Brien, his family immigrating to Troy, New York in 1848. O'Brien, age 21 years; enrolled April 24, 186I, at Troy to serve two years; mustered in as First Lieutenant, Company H, May 14, I861, in the 2nd NYS Vols. He was engaged in the 1st Land Battle Big Bethel, VA June 10, 1861, before resigning due to conflict with Colonel Carr Nov. 3, 1861. O’Brien age 22 years, enrolled at New York City, to serve three years, and mustered in as Private, Company F, 88th NY Vols. on January 7, 1862, and was quickly promoted to Sergeant. Mustered as 2nd Lieutenant on September 13, 1862. He was wounded at Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862 slightly in the chest, and severely at Fredericksburg Dec. 13, 1862. His jaw was shattered and windpipe partially severed. He was dragged off Marye's Heights by Lt. J.W.Byron and two enlisted men. Was promoted 1st Lieutenant January 21, 1863 and transferred to Company A. After recovering, he rejoined the 88th and was present at Gettysburg. He resigned his commission January 1864. Most of 1864 he spent as a student at Notre Dame, probably on the recommendation of Father Corby. He became Official Head Centre of The Fenian Brotherhood (Irish Republican Brotherhood) at Peekskill, New York in 1865. In January of 1866, he was arrested in Belfast and in Dublin in February of 1866, with brother formal Federal officers leading an insurrection against British rule of Ireland. He spent over a year in Mountjoy Prison, and Naas Jail, returning to the States in 1867. He moved to Boston, Ma in the late 1870’s and was employed as an Expressman. He married twice with no surviving children. He lived in Sarasota, New York, Chicago, and died of cancer of the Larynx caused by his wounding at Fredericksburg in Boston June 19, 1900. He is buried in an unmarked grave in Mount Calvary Cemetery in Roslindale, Ma. Thomas H O'Brien was buried on June 20, 1900. Grave lot is owned by a Patrick Donegan. Burial Plot is: Section 1, Range 42, Lot 15. Occupation at death, insurance. His name is remembered on the Harbinson Memorial Plot in the Milltown IRA Cemetery, Belfast, Ireland He had a brother Patrick, his mother's maiden name was Welch. She probably died in Ireland. Letter of Captain W. J. Nagle, to his father, dated Fredericksburg, December 14, 1862, in the New York Irish American, December 27, 1862. He states that he, and his brother, Edmund, were unhurt. “The 88th Regt. this morning numbers ten officers and forty-one men.” “Irish blood and Irish bones cover that terrible field today.” “Lieutenant O’Brien, of my company (Company F) is, I believe, mortally wounded.
Letter of John Madigan, dated December 14, 1862, in the New York Irish American, December 27, 1862. “This morning the whole five regiments together only muster 250 men.” “Major Horgan and Lieutenants Murphy (Company A) and O’Brien (Company F), of the 88th, are killed…….. The Wounding of Lt. Thomas Henry O’Brien (Fredericksburg)
Lt. John W. Byron of the 88th NY Vols recalls...... “ That after a retreat was ordered and while on the retreat I saw O’Brien lying on the field with a wound in the neck which at the time I believed to be a mortal wound—with the assistance of one or two men removed O’Brien to a house near the base of Maries (Marye’s) Heights unfastened his sword belt neck tie and collar, O’Brien apparently unconscious. I gave him water and as he attempted to swallow it , it leaked out of the orifice in his neck made by the bullet which had struck him—after staunching the wound as well as be could with a rag gave direction to one of his assistance to remain with O’Brien under all circumstances. I then left O’Brien never expecting again to see him alive.”
After the war, Fr. William Corby who was Regimental Chaplain to the 88th NY wrote this about 88th N.Y.at Fredericksburg in his MEMOIRS OF CHAPLAIN LIFE. "Needless to say, our brigade was cut to pieces. Many were seriously wounded and recovered later on, but for a time we had only the remnants of a brigade. I saw one of the officers, Lieut. O'Brien, of the Eighty-eighth shot in the neck, the ball coming out near the jugular vein. When he tried to eat a piece of ginger cake it partly came out through the hole made by the ball. Strange to say he recovered."
From: Lt. Thomas H. O’Brien .....“I lay upon the field (Fredericksburg) for some time as was then taken to some house at the base of Marie’s Heights by the assistance of some friends where I remained some two days and was then removed to the Regimental Hospital where I remained 2or 3 days and then was sent by rail to Aquila Creek and from thence Mount Pleasant Hospital in Washington D.C. where I remained upwards of a month when I obtained a leave of absence 40 days to visit home at Troy where I went and remained until the furlough had nearly expired when I applied to Dr. Mason S Lagsworth? Dept. Surgeon I had the furlough extended for 40 days and near the expiration of said furlough I reported to Camp at Falmouth, Va and when there about one week I had an operation performed Dr. T Reynolds Surgeon of the Regiment neck was then swollen to an alarming extent and the ball was extracted I was then granted a leave of absence for 20 days when I again came home at expiration of furlough reported again to Regt at Camp Falmouth I remained with Regt until discharge” 24, Jan 1864
Here are the names of Fenian Prisoners held in Belfast prison as related on the Fenian Monument in Milltown Cemetary, Belfast. The monument was primarily the work of Jimmy Steele, the veteran Belfast IRA leader. "The following are the names of the sufferers in the jails of County Antrim in the course of the year, 1866/67. "Officers of the US Army Colonel Kelleher, Captain John P Dunne, Peter Healey, Captain Thomas H. O'Brien, Lieutenant Patrick Hassan, Mark O'Niell "In memory of Willian Harbinson, died in Crumlin Road Gaol, 9th September, 1867
"I have, therefore fought and bled for the maintenance and perpetuation
of American Institutions, and I,who have sealed my citizenship with my
blood ,am going to be denied the protection and respect of that country"
Thomas Henry O'Brien
