1st Lieutenant Temple Emmett

Born: 1838

Died: 1862

Mr.William Aaron has graciously sent to us the handwritten journal of Temple Emmet (1837-1862) of the 88th NYSV during the American Civil War, describing events between April 21st, 1861 to the end of May, 1861.  Transcription of writing, along with scanned obituaries of Temple and his brother, Richard Riker, are included at the end of the book. It is available in PDF format. Click on the link below to open. 

Patrick Doonan

D.O.B: Oct., 1834

P.O.B: n/a

D.O.D.:Mar. 31, 1901

P.O.D.: n/a 

Enlisted September 18, 1861, at New York city, to serve three years; mustered in as corporal, Co. E, 88th New York State Volunteers September 27, 1861; returned to ranks, no date; wounded in action, September 17, 1862, at Antietam, Md.; discharged for wounds, March 18, 1863.

Burial: Holy Cross Cemetery Brooklyn, Kings County, New York,USA

Plots, Range 24, Grave 34

Obituary The Brooklyn Eagle
  On Sunday, March 31, 1901, PATRICK DOONAN, beloved husband of Mary Rogers.
Relative and friends are invited to attend the funeral from his late residence 478 Park Place,
on Wednesday morning at 9:30 o'clock: thence to St. Teresa's Church, where a solemn mass of requiem will be offered for the repose of his soul.

 Research by Michael J Doonan, Col, USAF(ret)

Patrick Nolan

D.O.B. n/a
P.O.B. n/a
D.O.D October 22nd 1864
P.O.D. Andersonville, Georgia

Enlisted at New York City, to serve Three years and mustered in as a Private, Company E
of the 88th New York State Volunteers , April 28th 1864: wounded in action at Petersburg
June 16th 1864.Captured and sent to Andersonville Prison in Macon County Georgia.

                       Buried at Andersonville National Cemetery
                                                       Plot 11356

  

George Ford

D.O.B.1840
P.O.B: Ireland
D.O.D:November 1883

Enrolled at New York City, to serve three years, and mustered in as Sergeant, Co. E, 88th New York State Volunteers September 18th 1861: promoted to Sergeant- Major , June 12th, 1863: re-enlisted as a veteran, December 30th 1863 mustered in as 1st lieutenant Co. E July 13th 1864;mustered out with company, June 30th 1865 at Alexandria Va.

At Sailors Creek, Va., 6 April 1865, Lieutenant Ford  captured a confederate Battle Flag. For his actions, on May 10th, 1865 he will be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor .

Buried at Calvary Cemetery Woodside Queens New York

Section 2-26/ Avenue T/ grave marker RP 52

William J. Welch (Walsh)

P.O.B. unknown
D.O.D. Oct 18, 1862

Enlisted at New York City, to serve three years and mustered in as a private, Company C, October 21, 1861Wounded in battle at Sharpsburg, Maryland Sept 17th.

 

Buried at Antietam National Cemetery

GN 275/RP 166

Pierre Teller

Enlisted at New York City, to serve 3 years and mustered in as a private, Co. K 88th NYSV November 8, 1861; wounded in action Sept. 17th 1862 at Sharpsburg, Md. Died of his wounds, Nov.9th 1862 in hospital, Frederick Md.

Buried at Antietam National Cemetery

GN 234/ RP 161

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

Lt. Thomas Henry O’Brien

D.O.B. March 1841
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

Research by Michael Kane and Chris Caroll

 

John Powell

Enlisted as a private Company "C" 88th New York State Volunteers (Irish Brigade) on Feb. 1864

Captured at the Batlle of the Wilderness May 1864 ; prisoner exchanged in December 1864

Rejoined with the 88th at City Point in April of 1865. Mustered out in June of 1865.Buried at the National Cemetery at the Presidio in San Francisco, California. 

John Ferry

DOB; 1843
POB; New York USA
DOD; July 3rd, 1863
POD; Gettysburg PA, USA

Enlisted in New York City to serve three years as a private; Company "I" 88th New York State
Volunteers (Irish Brigade) on December 11th, 1861
Transferred to Company "B" June 12th, 1863
Killed in Action July 3rd, 1863 at The Battle of Gettysburg

Buried at The National Cemetery Gettysburg Pa.

1st Lieutenant/adjutant William (Augustus) McClelland

DOB; 1839
POB; New Jersey
DOD; July 3rd, 1863
POD; Gettysburg , PA.

Enlisted at Jersey City, New Jersey for three years, Sept. 30th 1861
Company "G" 88th New York Volunteers (Irish Brigade)
Wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg; promoted to sergeant December 13th, 1862
Mustered in as 2nd Lieutenant November 26th. 1862
Became 1st Lieutenant/ adjutant May 1st, 1863
Transferred from Comp. "G" to  Field and Staff  May 13th, 1863
Mortally wounded July 2nd. 1863 at The Battle of Gettysburg

Buried at The National Cemetery Gettysburg, PA

James H. McBride

 Enlisted at New York City to serve three years.
Mustered in as a private in Company "A" of the 88th New York State Volunteers
(Irish Brigade) August 8th, 1862.

Killed in Action at the Battle of Gettysburg July 2nd, 1863

Buried at The National Cemetery at Gettysburg Pennsylvania

Dennis F. Burke

Born: April 15th, 1840
P.O.B. Limerick County Cork, Ireland
Died: October 19th, 1893
P.O.D. New York City, USA
Lt. Colonel 88th New York (Irish Brigade) November 1864

Burke began in the 88th as a 2nd Lieutenant in Company "C". He was wounded three times at Fredericksburg, then Chancellorsville and then at Petersburg during a night attack at Fort Mahone) He did receive Brevet Colonel rank April 9th, 1865 and mustered out June 30th, 1865.

Dennis Burke , along with Lt. B. McDermott and Colonel Michael Kerwin (Who would later marry Burke's widow) were arrested in Dublin, Ireland on suspension of habeas corpus in February of 1866. He was jailed at Mountjoy jail for seven months where  the photo below was taken. He was returned to the United States and became a publisher of  "The Emerald" and "The Irish People".

Dennis Burke is buried at Woodlawn  (Calvary) Cemetery in the Bronx






Lt. Colonel Burke's sash and belt



 

Cornelius O'Leary

Birth: August 15th 1840

POB; Tipperary, Ireland

Lived most of his life in Kings County, New York
Death: March 16^th, 1926
POD: Phoebus Virginia
Entered as a Pvt., one month later promoted to Cpl., then 2 months later promoted to Sgt.
Company" E" 88th New York State Volunteer (The Irish Brigade) 
He was white, black hair, blue eyes, 6' 1" tall, slender build
Commanded by Capt. Patrick Clooney
Enlisted: about December 10, 1861 at Fort Schuyler , NY
Discharged September 30, 1862
Disabled July 1, 1862
Shot through left hand, musket ball took off ring finger and permanently paralyzed 2 other fingers, damaged tendons in hand and arm to make it useless.
Contracted Malaria poisoning, life long illnesses, lung infections and heart troubles for the rest of his life
Treated at Lincoln Hospital, Washington, DC

Here are a few notes taken from his obituary:
Cornelius O'Leary, Civil War Hero and Irish Patriot Buried at Holy Cross

A survivor of Meagher's Irish Brigade and the only survivor of the Irish Papal Brigade. Funeral service was held at Holy Ghost in Fort Hamilton.. He was appointed postmaster of Lincoln Hospital in Washington, and was subsequently made a doorkeeper for President Lincoln at the White House. In about 1867 he was employed at the Wheeling W. VA. Custom House. Later in life he was employed at the Brooklyn City Railroad and stationed in the Fort Hamilton section.

 Holy Cross Cemetery 

One Irish Woman and her Umbrella June 1862

Brian K. Burton’s book Extraordinary Circumstances: The Seven Days Battles makes reference to an account of a fascinating incident that occurred at White Oak Swamp Bridge on 30th June 1862, part of the Peninsula Campaign. The Irish Brigade were positioned here as part of the Union rearguard during the Federal retreat/change of base to the James River. Confederate General Stonewall Jackson was tasked with applying pressure to the Union positions at this location, and the fighting principally manifested itself in the form of an intense artillery duel. William Watt Hart Davis of the 104th Pennsylvania Regiment was also present as the shells began to fall, and he witnessed an extraordinary sight as the Irish Brigade endured the barrage:

An Irish camp woman, belonging to a New York regiment, made herself quite conspicuous during the action. She remained close to the side of her husband, and refused to retire to a place of security. She was full of pluck. Occasionally she would notice some fellow sneaking to the rear, when she would run after him, seize him by the nape of his neck and place him in the ranks again, calling him a “dirty, cowardly spalpeen,” and other choice epithets. The flying shells had no terrors for her. During the hottest of the cannonade, this courageous woman walked fearlessly about among the troops, encouraging them to stand up to their work. Her only weapon, offensive or defensive, was a large umbrella she carried under her arm. In one instance she shamed a commissioned officer into returning to his duty. She belonged to the Irish Brigade, and her stout person, full, red face and broad language betrayed her undoubted origin. 

Irish Molly at Antietam

- “I was told, too, that a woman, who followed the Irish Brigade as laundress or nurse, went up
with it, and standing with it in the fight, swung her bonnet around and cheered on the men.”
     Thomas Livermore, Days And Events  5th New Hampshire

  “As our first brigade was forming to relieve them, (Meagher’s Irish Brigade attacking the Sunken Road) we saw “Irish Molly,” of the 88th New York, a big, muscular woman who had followed her husband in all the campaigns, and he a private soldier in the ranks. She was a little to the left of their line, apparently indifferent to the flying bullets, and was jumping up and down, swinging her sunbonnet around her head, as she cheered the Paddys on. Our regiment was maneuvering for position at the time, and the bullets that passed the Irishmen were pretty thick, so there was no time for anything else, as we were moving lively, but the glimpse that I got of that heroic woman in the drifting powder smoke, stiffened my back-bone immensely.”  Charles C. Hale  Company C  5th New Hampshire Volunteers “The Story of  My Personal Experience at the Battle of Antietam.”

A Hand Raised at Gegttysburg

On July 2^nd the Irish Brigade hearing of a battle already engaged at Gettysburg, proceeded to march at the double time from Taney town Maryland. Late that afternoon, just as the Irish Brigade was about to be ordered into the fray, Father Corby of the 88th New York – realizing that he had no time to hear individual confessions, asked for an opportunity to give a general absolution to the soldiers in his charge. An officer of the brigade recalled the scene;

Father Corby stood upon a large rock in front of the Brigade. Addressing the men, he explained what he was about to do, saying that each one could receive the benefit of the absolution by making a sincere contrition and firmly resolving to embrace the first opportunity of confessing their sins, urging them to do their duty well and reminding them of the high and sacred nature of their trust as soldiers and the noble object for which they fought, ending by saying the Catholic Church refuses Christian burials to those who turn their backs upon the foe or deserts their flag. The Brigade was at “order arms”and as he closed his address,every man fell on his knees with their head bowed down. Then, stretching out his right hand towards the brigade, Father Corby pronounced the words of the general absolution; Dominus noster Jesus Christius vos absolvat. The scene was more than impressive; it was awe inspiring …..I do not think there was a man in the brigade who did not offer up a heartfelt prayer. For some, it would be their last.

Father Corby later said, “My eyes covered thousands of officers and men. The situation really reminded me of the day of judgment.......so great were the whirlwinds of war then in motion”.The event affected officers not even from the Irish Brigade. Major General Hancock of the 2^nd Corp removed his hat and bowed in reverential devotion. General Samuel K. Zook commanding another brigade in the same division as the Irish Brigade, was heard to say “My God!!!, that was the most impressive sight I have ever witnessed”Later that day the General would lose his life.

Father Corby took satisfaction in his daily work among the soldiers.”When men stand in a common danger,a fraternal feeling springs up between them and generates a charitable sentiment that often leads to most excellent results” he concluded.

Some officers of the Irish Brigade held great respect for the chaplain. St. Clair Augustine Mulholland,

commander of the 116^th PA. Infantry called Father Corby the fighting chaplain for whom “no spot was too dangerous or too exposed to the fire of the enemy”.

Second Lieutenant William L. O'Grady of the 88^th New York,added that father Corby was “a man whose courage was not surpassed by the bravest soldier of our armies, whose unflinching devotion on the march,in camp,and under fire made him eminent,whose magnificent conduct at Gettysburg has become historical, one of the most picturesque and beautiful incidents of that great drama”.