Any Information Will Be Most Thankfully Received by His Mother': Tracing Missing Irishmen in 1860s New York

Every week in the New York Irish-American a series of advertisements were run under the heading ‘Information Wanted.’ For $1 you could place a few carefully chosen lines in three issues of the paper, in the hope of finding a loved one. These ads were some of the most emotive and powerful records of the impact of conflict. In an age before mass media and the internet, many friends and families searched fruitlessly for years in an effort to restore contact with cousins, sons and brothers. Some were successful; others received the bad news they had been dreading.

INFORMATION WANTED Of John Callaghan, a native of Kilrush, Co. Clare, Ireland. He was a member of Co. G, 88th Regiment, Meagher’s Irish Brigade. Was taken prisoner at the Battle of Fredericksburg, and has not been heard of since. Any intelligence respecting him will be thankfully received by his brother, Patrick Callaghan, 602 Sixth Avenue, New York. (New York Irish-American, 29th August 1863)

John Callaghan had enlisted in the 88th New York on 25th August 1862 and appears to have been captured at Chancellorsville rather than Fredericksburg. he was paroled on 3rd June 1863 and would eventually rise to the rank of First Sergeant in Company E before mustering out at the war’s conclusion.

Research by damian shiels