irish brigade memorial

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Bruce Curley Irish Brigade Monument

Bruce Curley4210 Candice Drive

Mount Airy, MD [email protected]

The Irish Brigade Memorial

by

Bruce Curley

Captain General Sir Bernard OBrien del Carpio saysthat Sir Cornelius OBrien, his father, being in Ireland anobel Gentleman of the use of the Count of Thomond, oneof the oldest and most illustrious of that Kingdom, andlord of three estates on which he had three castles, wasimprisoned by the English in the year 1622, and accusedthat in the wars of that Kingdom he had taken the side ofthe Catholics, and hand engaged in service to the Crownof Spain, and they confiscated his inheritance andproperty.

Excerpt from an unpublished diary of

Bernard OBrien from the 1600s.Translated from the Brazilian diary writtenin 7 languages and 23 dialects in which itwas written by Sir Bernard OBrien,translation by Father Martin ODonnell,America Catholic Missionary to Brazil.

The paragraph above is an excerpt from the opening lines of a diary discoveredby Father Martin ODonnell in the national library of San Paolo, Brazil. When amissionary in the upper Amazon, he ran across little children with the surname of his

mother, OBrien, in the middle of their many names. Now, what would this have to dowith the Irish Brigade Monument, the Forgotten Irish Monument?

Well...Martin ODonnell, in a completely selfless way, dedicated years of histalent, treasure and time translating the story of an Irish nobleman, Bernard OBrien,who is the forgotten ancestor of those children. He spent years in a library discoveringand painstakingly reconstructing the story of a Bernard OBrien, a forgotten man whohad been defeated in a battle against the English in the early years of the 1600s.

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However, rather than being killed as were so many before and after due to suchinvasions, he was fortunate enough to use his talents to get out of prison and to securepassage on an English ship to Brazil. The rest of his adventures in Brazil and elsewherereflect an intelligence, survival instinct, mastery of language, and shear grit that would

easily make it a best seller. Yet it remains unpublished, a forgotten monument to a greatIrish man.

Much Irish emigrant history is like that: unbelievably exciting epics of character,strength, indomitable will, intelligence, grit, and that special combination of Irishqualities that seems to overcome hellish adversity. Such is also the story of another Irishemigrant: Thomas Francis Meagher, Born in Waterford, Ireland, he was arrested in1848 for a seditious speech. After and international cry was raised to spare his life --under the law at the time he could have been hanged for exercising what we deem theFirst Amendment Right to Free Speech -- Queen Victoria, always wise to internationalopinion, banished him to a penal colony in Tasmania, Australia, instead. Like SirBernard OBrien, he was too sharp to be held inside that Tasmanian prison, and escaped

after spending three years there.Like so many Irish at the time, by whatever means necessary, he made his way tothe United States, specifically to New York City. He had tremendous powers of oratoryand was a very skilled at rhetoric (in the old, good sense of the word) and soon rose to aposition of prominence in the New York political machine. As a reward for his supportof the Union Cause, in 1862 President Lincoln commissioned him a Brigadier General ofthe Irish Brigade.

Thomas Meagher organized the Irish Brigade, a group of Irish Americans, mostlyimmigrants, who were involved in the bloodiest and hardest-fought battles of the CivilWar. They suffered unusually high casualties in the Peninsular Campaign, atFredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Battle of the Wilderness, and manyothers. But what they are best known for in the history books, if once forgotten in themonuments that line the site, is their role in the Battle of Antietam.

On September 17, 1862, in a battle that presaged the horror of Gettysburg, majoradvance units of the Union and Confederate forces faced off around Sharpsburg,Maryland. Brigadier General Meaghers Irish Brigade was tasked with leading a frontalassault on a well dug in Confederate along a shallow dirt road that became known asBloody Lane due to the carnage that day.

The Irish Brigade frontal attached a Confederate Armys fusillades of cannonballs, grape shot, and thousands of rounds of lead ball bullets. For four hours, theyrushed the Confederate positions over and over taking over 60% casualties. As CaptainMichael OSullivan of Company F, 63rd New York, in one of the few surviving accountsof the battle, described it to a New York newspaper:. We have fought the enemy, and

our company has either been killed or wounded, with the exception of eleven.The cost of the Battle of Antietam? Over 22,000 men killed and wounded. Of

that total, the Irish Brigade took 607 casualties. It was the greatest loss of life inAmerica on any single day before or since. Even more sad, many of these men died frombullets fired by recent Irish immigrants from New Orleans, but thats another story.

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Tell them that Brigadier General Francis Meagher, who was condemned to behanged in Ireland in 1848 for daring to state that the Irish people must be free in Ireland,not only led the Irish Brigade in the Union victory in the Civil War, went on to becomethe Territorial Secretary of Montana after that war. Although his disappearance and

death there is an unsolved mystery, his example of courage, eloquence, and indomitablespirit paved the way for others, and the eventual triumph of other Irish Americanpoliticians like Al Smith, James Michael Curley, and John F. Kennedy.

Help keep the memory of the Irish Brigade alive. Visit the memorial site or learntheir story. Tell that story to your children to recapture the lost story of those men atBloody Lane.

The Forgotten Irish Monument is now located right next to the famousobservation tower on the Antietam Battlefield on Bloody Lane. It has two bronzesculptures cut into a piece of Irish granite. The front side depicts the battle, the backside depicts General Thomas Francis Meagher.

Although there is no monument to Bernard OBrien or millions of other Irish an

Irish Americans who died and left behind no record, and although the government hasnot seen fit to honor such individuals and groups in any way, there is a small butdetermined group who are working to built the Forgotten Irish Monument that isknown as the Irish Brigade Monument Project. Send them money for these brave menand for all the Forgotten Irish. That way, at least in one place on Gods green earth, atthe Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg, Maryland, you can take your children orgrand children or great grand children and explain the story of the Forgotten IrishMonument, that here and in many places on this earth the Irish were driven from theirland, survived unspeakable poverty and oppression, but rose above it to makecontributions to which whole mountains would not be monument enough.

And when some of those same children come home from school and ask if it istrue that during the anti-draft riots in New York in the early 1860s, Irish emigrants andIrish Americans oppressed other minorities -- and that is all they are taught of IrishAmericans at that time -- explain to them the story of the Irish Brigade drawn in fargreater numbers from those very same people. And to make the point further, send a taxdeductible contribution to the following address:

Irish Brigade Monument Projectc/o Jack OBrien

11109 Belton Street

Upper Marlboro, MD 20772301 336 5167

Jack OBrien and his Irish Brigade Monument Project Foundation commissionedthe Irish Brigade Memorial and saw it to fruition. They still have a few bills to pay and

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would welcome contributions at the above address. They are also working oncurriculum and other programs to bring this story to a wider audience.

Or maybe youd rather own a piece of Irish American history from the IrishBrigade Monument at the Antietam National Battlefield? Well...300 granite cobble

stones were shipped from the quarry at Ballynockan, County Wicklow, Ireland for use asa walkway around this monument to the Irish. Due to the Americans with DisabilitiesAct requirements, however, these stones were deemed unsuitable due to the needs of thehandicapped. So...

To help pay off the remaining $10,000 debt, you can now own one of the 300pieces of Ireland for a tax deductible contribution of $100.00. I have block 083 and itsgreat. I grew up playing in a graveyard, and I can assure you it is first-rate engravedstone. It measures four inches square. Three sides are engraved; one is labeled IrishBrigade with a shamrock, their symbol, one is labeled Antietam, Oct. 25, 1997, thedate of the dedication, and one is labeled Irish Wicklow Granite 083-300. One otherside is smooth, and three are rough cut. Obviously, theyre going fast so order it now to

make sure you get a granite piece of Irish and Irish American legend.The Irish Brigade story did not end in 1865. The 69th, the sole surviving unit ofthe Irish Brigade, volunteered to the call for volunteers of the Spanish-American war. In1916, they were posted on the Mexican border against Poncho Villa. In World War I,the 69th was redesignated the 165th Infantry and fought as part of General DouglasMacArthurs shock division, the 42nd (Rainbow). The Fighting 69th served from 1940to 1945 in the Pacific campaign, including Makin, Saipan and Okinawa campaigns. (Myuncle, Frank Curley, died when a Japanese Zero dropped a bomb on his B-17 on his 49thmission in the Pacific. I like to think he may have provided cover for the 69th on someof those missions.) The Fighting 69th continues under the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry(Mechanized), New York National Guard. Garryowen and Glory! For a completestory of their long and distinguished history, contact:

Vic and Barbara OnleyPOB 2069

Beach Haven NJ 08008-0109800 805 0069

[email protected]: 212 802 6423

7 Stuyvesant Oval Apt 11-BNew York, NY 10009-1901

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212 780 7412

This General Meagher was eventually appointed Governor of the Territory ofMontana. He disappeared mysteriously while riding his horse in that territory. What

baffles me is why Hollywood (or the vibrant Irish movie industry) has yet to make amovie about the Irish Brigade or the life of General Meagher baffles me. (Then again,where is the epic movie on the life of Brian Boru?) Maybe they just need the right novelor script. Contact the Irish Brigade Monument Project, care of Jack OBrien, get theoutlines of the story down, and then maybe you can be the one to write it.

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