While many of the men flocking to the colors to save the Union in 1861 were the grandsons of men who fought to create the nation, others were relatively new arrivals. Thousands of soldiers came from Ireland and the German states, lands which themselves were divided and torn by conflict.
"Be it for the defence, or be it for the assertion of a nation's liberty, I look upon the sword as a sacred weapon [...]by its redeeming magic the fettered colony became a daring, free Republic." Thomas Francis Meagher, 1847
Last updated: August 14, 2017