The Immortal Irishman

by Timothy Egan

  TFM pushes ahead, acknowledges disapproval, from undated letter to O’Doherty, Thomas F. Madigan Papers, New York Public Library.

  Meagher on his happy bride, from letter to O’Doherty, August 15, 1851, ibid.

  Mitchel description of a sunburnt Meagher, from Cullen, Young Ireland in Exile.

  Mrs. Mitchel observations on the young married couple, from letter, July 21, 1855. Letters of Mrs. John Mitchel, 1851–1855, New York Public Library.

  Meagher starting to chafe at life at Lake Sorell, from letter to Duffy, undated but from 1851, Montana Historical Society.

  TFM quotes on being useless, letter, August 15, 1851, from him to Mrs. Connell, from a University of Tasmania website devoted to the rebels, www.utas.edu.au/young-irelanders/their-story/.

  Meagher writing against Balfe, ibid.

  Denison warning about the perils of democracy, from A History of Tasmania, from Its Discovery in 1642 to the Present Time by James Fenton, Geo. Robertson and Co., 1884.

  Denison warning Earl Grey of Irish stirring up trouble, from his correspondence, cited in Touhill, William Smith O’Brien.

  Irish winning over the island, etc., from Petrow, “Men of Honour?”

  MacManus escape, from Touhill, William Smith O’Brien.

  Meagher longing to live under a flag he could love and serve, letter, May 21, 1851, to a neighbor, Dease, as quoted by Petrow, “Men of Honour?”

  Meagher escape plan, re Bennie, from his note to Elizabeth Townsend, telling her the story of his life, January 2, 1855, Montana Historical Society.

  Meagher description of giving up parole, from Memoirs.

  Further details of Meagher escape, formal note, reprinted in the New York Times, June 7, 1852.

  Order to arrest Meagher, one Irishman refused, from Jenny Mitchel letter, February 22, 1852, New York Public Library.

  CHAPTER 8: FLIGHT

  Meagher’s escape. His own account, backed by witnesses, from a letter he sent to the New York Times, written on June 5, 1852, and published on June 7.

  “I am O’Meagher,” from a contemporaneous account, South Australian Register, March 8, 1852, republishing a story from the Launceston Chronicle (Tasmania).

  Meagher’s account of the ten days he spent on Waterhouse Island, from “Six Weeks in the South Pacific,” his story of the escape, printed serially in the Irish News, April 9, April 14 and May 21, 1859.

  Papers rooting for Meagher, quoted in the Nation, May 22, 1852.

  Escape stories of other convicts, from “On the Run—Daring Convict Escapes,” an exhibit of the state library of New South Wales, Australia. http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/events/exhibitions/2006/ontherun/docs/ontherun_guide.pdf.

  The end of transportation, from Fenton, A History of Tasmania.

  CHAPTER 9: HOME AND AWAY

  The day Meagher landed, from New York Times, May 29, 1852.

  Population, from Census of the State of New York, 1855.

  Chant of “hot corn” girls, from The City in Slang: New York Life and Popular Speech by Irving W. Allen, Oxford University Press, 1993.

  Price of a room and brewery description, from “The Dens of Death,” New York Daily Tribune, June 13, 1850.

  Five Points, Dickens’s description and tourists “slumming,” from “Gangs of New York: Fact vs. Fiction” by Ted Chamberlain, National Geographic News, March 24, 2003, news.nationalgeographic.com.

  Five Points, more details, no grass or trees, from American Metropolis: A History of New York City by George J. Lankevich, NYU Press, 1998.

  Depiction of New York in 1852, including population figures and ethnic groups, from The New York Irish, edited by Ronald H. Bayor and Timothy J. Meagher, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

  The brewery, and New York politics in 1852, from New York City Mayors by Ralph J. Caliendo, Exlibris Corp., 2010.

  Highest death rate, ibid.

  Immigrants came from more than 20,000 villages, from Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics by Terry Golway, Liveright, 2013.

  Volume of manure swept into East River, and “pigs and Patricks” together, from Taming Manhattan: Environmental Battles in the Antebellum City by Catherine McNeur, Harvard University Press, 2014.

  Anticipation of great things for Meagher, from the Boston Pilot, quoted in Keneally, The Great Shame.

  Greeting O’Gorman and Dillon, from Memoirs.

  More on how TFM met old friends at law office, from Thomas Francis Meagher: A Memoir in Four Parts by Gerald R. Lalor, handwritten ms. Thanks to the American Irish Historical Society, New York, for allowing me to thumb through it.

  New York under British during the Revolutionary War, from Lankevich, American Metropolis.

  Cavanagh greets TFM, and the reception of the 69th, from Memoirs.

  Reaction to Meagher in America, from the New York Times, May 29, 1852, and the Irish American, June 19, 1851.

  Quotes from the Nation, reprinted in Memoirs.

  Brooklyn Common Council resolution, from the New York Times, June 28, 1852.

  Speech at the Astor House, from Memoirs.

  Smith O’Brien reaction, from letter, March 15, 1851, Letters of William Smith O’Brien, National Library of Ireland.

  Loss of baby, from Memoirs.

  Burial of baby, from http://www.tasmaniangeographic.com/iris-exiles-thomas-o-meagher.

  Meagher and Smyth, Fourth of July, from Memoirs.

  Meagher oath and intention to become a citizen, ibid.

  The Know-Nothings and riots, from “Nativist Riots of 1844” by Zachary M. Schrag, in Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, Rutgers University Press, 2013.

  Peak of Know-Nothing membership, from Golway, Machine Made.

  Father De Smet’s letters on the Know-Nothings: two letters, August 2, 1854, and November 28, 1854, from Life, Letters and Travels of Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, Harper, 1905.

  Know-Nothing song about Meagher, from Eccentric Nation: Irish Performance in Nineteenth-Century New York City by Stephen Albert Rohs, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2009.

  Speech at Metropolitan Hall, huddling with President Pierce, from Memoirs.

  TFM family visit, including Bennie, dates and details, ibid.

  “It is said they do not suit,” from Adam-Smith, Heart of Exile.

  Death of Catherine Meagher, dates, from Memoirs.

  O’Donoghue’s drunken fight at TFM’s birthday party, from the New York Herald, August 6, 1853.

  Details of escape and death of O’Donoghue, from Touhill, William Smith O’Brien.

  Details of Mitchel escape, and his comments on Van Diemen’s Land, from his Jail Journal, and ibid.

  Mitchel’s arrival in New York, from Touhill, William Smith O’Brien.

  Mitchel showing anti-black and anti-Semitic feelings, from Duffy, Four Years of Irish History.

  Jenny Mitchel letter on slaves, from her correspondence, April 20, 1854, on file at New York Public Library.

  Mitchel letter on “healthy negroes,” from John Mitchel: Irish Nationalist, Southern Secessionist by Bryan P. McGovern, University of Tennessee Press, 2009.

  The pardon, from Touhill, William Smith O’Brien.

  Meagher’s sadness at never seeing Ireland, “homeless exile,” from letter to Elizabeth Townsend, January 2, 1855, Montana Historical Society.

  CHAPTER 10: IDENTITY

  Meagher’s drinking, from personal observations by James Stephens, “Diary of an Irish Patriot,” numerous dates, courtesy New York Public Library.

  Father’s declaration of being a teetotaler, from the Waterford Chronicle, July 14, 1847.

  Electoral power of Know-Nothings, from Golway, Machine Made.

  1855 letter from Abraham Lincoln to Joshua Speed on Know-Nothings, from “The Other Emancipation Proclamation” by Adam Goodheart, in the New York Times: Disunion: Modern Historians Revisit and Reconsider the Civil War, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2013. Hereafter referred to as Disunion.

  Letter to O’Brien on church
, from Hearne and Cornish, Thomas Francis Meagher: The Making of an Irish American.

  Attacks on Meagher, from the Freeman’s Journal, July 5, 1854.

  The fight, all the details, between TFM and McMaster, from the New York Times, July 19, 1854.

  Meagher humbled, and on “time to be let down,” from letter to W. E. Robinson, undated but 1855, courtesy New-York Historical Society.

  Train wreck, details of TFM’s heroism, from a witnesses quoted in the New York Times, November 2, 1854.

  Meagher falls in love, from Memoirs.

  Townsend family background, from obituary of Peter Townsend, New York Sun, September 27, 1885.

  Disinherit, from the New York Times, November 16, 1854.

  Meagher’s letter to Elizabeth telling all, January 2, 1855, on file at the Montana Historical Society. Here also is his description of himself as a “homeless exile.”

  TFM oratorical powers, from the Sacramento Daily Union, January 27, 1854.

  Marriage date and minor details, from the New York Times, November 15, 1855.

  CHAPTER 11: THE FEVER

  Kansas battles, from Bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Missouri, edited by Jonathan Earle and Diane Mutti Burke, University of Kansas Press, 2013.

  Lawrence, Kansas, details, descriptions, etc., from author visit to Lawrence and the hotel that was burned.

  Senator Sumner beating, from “The Crimes Against Sumner” by William Gienapp, Civil War History, September 1979.

  Dred Scott quotes of Chief Justice Taney, from the Scott v. Sandford decision.

  Value of cotton, productivity, from author visit to exhibit at the American Civil War Museum at Tredegar, Richmond, Virginia.

  Senator Tombs quote, from “Moses’ Last Exodus” by Adam Goodheart, in Disunion.

  Lincoln adrift, decides to run for Senate, quotes, from Abraham Lincoln: A Life by Michael Burlingame, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.

  Decline in black population of Five Points, from Bayor and Meagher, The New York Irish.

  O’Connell quote on slavery in Boston, from The Harp and the Eagle: Irish-American Volunteers in the Union Army by Susannah J. Ural, NYU Press, 2006.

  Meagher position on slavery, from the Irish News, reprinted in the New York Daily Tribune, August 27, 1856.

  Meagher and Smith O’Brien exchange views on slavery, from Letters on Our National Struggle by Thomas Francis Meagher, public domain reprint, letter to the editor of the Dublin Citizen, September 26, 1863, wherein he recounts the exchange.

  Lincoln quote on Know-Nothings, from an 1856 speech, quoted in The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume 1: Fort Sumter to Perryville by Shelby Foote, Random House, 1958.

  Description of Irish News, from author perusal of a year’s issues, beginning in 1856. Courtesy American Irish Historical Society, New York.

  Proposal to ship Irish children to Protestant families, from Golway, Machine Made.

  Thomas Jefferson quote, from author visit to the Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C.

  Letter from Mitchel on slavery, August 8, 1857, from McGovern, John Mitchel: Irish Nationalist, Southern Secessionist.

  Meagher advice to tenement Irish, from the Irish News, July 5, 1856.

  Mitchel letter from Tennessee, undated, from Adam-Smith, Heart of Exile.

  Meagher on his wife, from letter to Smith O’Brien, August 8, 1856, from the Correspondence of William Smith O’Brien, National Library of Ireland.

  Meagher on separation of church and state, and vitality of American diversity, from a speech given in San Francisco, January 24, 1854, reprinted in Lyons, Brigadier General Thomas Francis Meagher.

  Meagher speech on “festival of memory,” from the New York Times, March 18, 1855.

  Lincoln at the Cooper Union, from the National Park Service website, www.nps.gov/liho/historyculture/cooperunionaddress.htm.

  Fernando Wood, from Lankevich, American Metropolis.

  Mitchel a “formidable monster,” from Adam-Smith, Heart of Exile.

  Frederick Douglass on no prejudice in Ireland, from Kinealy, “The Black O’Connell.”

  Douglas on hardened attitudes, from “Frederick Douglass in Ireland,” in the Irish Echo, February 16, 2001.

  Michael Corcoran, from “Colorful and Gallant: General Michael Corcoran” by John J. Concannon, from his monograph written for the unveiling of a new gravestone for Corcoran in 1990.

  Meagher comments on Corcoran, from Harper’s Weekly, October 20, 1860, and from Ural, The Harp and the Eagle.

  Meagher letter on being yesterday’s novelty, from a letter in September 1858 to a Meagher club, as quoted in “Thomas Francis Meagher and John Mitchel” by Joseph Jude Rzeppa, M.A. thesis, Texas Christian University, 2007.

  Meagher to Smith O’Brien, “I’ve become a spectator,” letter, August 15, 1859, William Smith O’Brien Papers, National Library of Ireland.

  Lincoln in New York, speech, from National Park Service transcript. Details of the speech may be found on the Cooper Union website, www.cooper.edu.about/history.

  Presidential election outcome of 1860. I relied on the American Presidency Project, which has good state-by-state numbers: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showelection.php?year=1860.

  Slavery in the Confederate States Constitution, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_csa.asp.

  Quote from Davis, number of slaves owned by him, from Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis as Commander in Chief by James M. McPherson, Penguin, 2014.

  Davis and liberty cap, http://www.aoc.gov/blog/liberty-cap-art-us-capitol.

  Quote from Confederate vice president on slavery, from Foote, The Civil War, Volume 1.

  “Nigger better than an Irishman,” from the Albany Argus, September 7, 1860, quoted in Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson, Oxford University Press, 1988.

  CHAPTER 12: WAR

  Fort Sumter on the eve of war, from National Park Service handbook at Fort Sumter National Monument, Department of the Interior, 1984, and author visit.

  Strike a blow, from McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom.

  Quote from London Times, ibid.

  Mitchel fired one of the first shots, from the Charleston Mercury, April 13, 1861.

  Whitman’s reaction, from “How Manhattan Drum-Taps Led” by Tom Chaffin, in Disunion.

  Meagher making up his mind what to do, the conversation, from Memoirs.

  Meagher’s ad, reprinted in ibid.

  Southern newspaper critical of Meagher, from the Staunton (Virginia) Spectator, May 14, 1861.

  “Beauty and booty,” from a flier on display at Manassas National Battlefield Park, Virginia, author visit.

  Meagher and formation of Irish Zouaves, from the New York Times, May 17, 1861.

  Sherman quote, from Foote, The Civil War, Volume 1.

  Sherman background, from Fierce Patriot by Robert L. O’Connell, Random House, 2014.

  Sherman on “no cohesion,” from Memoirs of William T. Sherman, Penguin Classics, 2000.

  Soldiers “gathered from the sewers,” from the Raleigh Banner, as quoted in Foote, The Civil War, Volume 1.

  Lincoln in camp, Meagher view of Sherman, blessing of a cannon, all from Memoirs.

  March from Fort Corcoran to Bull Run, from The Irish Brigade in the Civil War by Joseph G. Bilby, Da Capo Press, 1995, and from The Last Days of the 69th in Virginia by Thomas Francis Meagher, quoted in Memoirs.

  CHAPTER 13: FIRST BLOOD

  The details of the battle are taken, in the early part, from Memoirs of William T. Sherman, public domain publication and http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4361/4361-h/4361-h.htm.

  Haggerty’s death, ibid.

  Haggerty’s life, from “Irish in the American Civil War,” www.irishamericancivilwar.com.

  Meagher’s description of Haggerty is from a funeral oration TFM gave in New York, August 1861, cited in Memoirs.

  Battle details, from Meagher, The Last Days of the 69th in Virginia, cited in his Memoirs.

  More details of battle, from �
��Report of Captain James Kelly, 69th,” Civil War Official Records, Series 1, Volume 2.

  Description of the battle site, from author visit to Manassas National Battlefield Park, Virginia.

  Quotes on battle, from the New York Times, July 26, 1861.

  Meagher knocked from his horse, rescued, from Memoirs, and from Bilby, The Irish Brigade in the Civil War.

  Corcoran missing, forms rear guard, from his letter, July 24, 1861, reprinted in Memoirs.

  Stonewall Jackson quote, “We have them whipped,” from the official story at the National Park Service battlefield site, author visit.

  Congressman Ely captured, from “Civil War Trust: Spectators Witnesses to History at Manassas,” www.civilwar.org.

  Quote from rebel soldier after capturing Ely, from Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of Edward Porter Alexander, University of North Carolina Press, 1989.

  Praising Meagher as heroic, from the New York Times, July 26, 1861.

  Officers praising Meagher, reprinted in Memoirs.

  Whitman describing bedraggled Union soldiers, from The Greatest Brigade by Thomas J. Craughwell, Crestline, 2012, quoting from the Brooklyn Standard.

  Horace Greeley, quoted in Foote, The Civil War, Volume 1.

  Meagher confronts Sherman, Lincoln reaction, from Memoirs of William T. Sherman.

  CHAPTER 14: THE CALL, THE FALL

  Details of Michael Corcoran’s capture, from his letter, July 24, 1861, reprinted in Memoirs.

  Corcoran’s ordeal in prison, threatened with hanging, from “Irish Identity—Michael Corcoran,” www.irishidentiy.com/geese/stories/corcoran.htm.

  Meagher turns down two offers, including one by Frémont, from TFM’s letter of August 5, 1861, reprinted in Memoirs.

  Idea for an Irish brigade, from the New York Times, August 26, 1861.

  Speech at Jones’s Wood, reprinted in Memoirs. Reporting about the event and transcript of the speech, from the New York Times, August 30, 1861.

  Cotton statistics, from McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom.

  Meagher speech in Boston’s Music Hall, from the New York Times, September 24, 1861, and excerpts reprinted in Lyons, Brigadier General Thomas Francis Meagher, although Lyons has an incorrect date for the speech.