Revolutionary Times:
General William Thompson – The
namesake of Cumberland County Division 2 of the
AOH, William Thompson was born in County Meath
Ireland. He served as a Cavalry Officer in the
French and Indian War and was a personal friend
of General George Washington. He later like Washington
served as a surveyor, until the War for Independence.
Thompson lived in Carlisle Pennsylvania and upon
recognizing the need of the Continental Army
for expert marksman; he formed a unit of rifleman
which was made up primarily of Irishman from the
central Pennsylvania area, both Catholic and Protestant.
These riflemen became known as Thompson’s
Rifles and then the Pennsylvania Rifles or
the Ist Pennsylvania Militia. This unit was commissioned
into service and became the 1st Continental
Rifles with Thompson as their Colonel, the first
Colonel commissioned into the U.S. Army. Thompson
led his rifles to Bunker Hill and then to the
Battle of New York, where he provided cover fire
which allowed General Washington and his Army
to flee the battle and imminent capture. For
this service the City of New York named a park
in his honor. Thompson then led his men north
to fight the British in New York and Quebec.
He was part of Sullivan’s
Army, but unfortunately he was to be captured
in the Battle of Trois Rivere, Quebec. He
was not paroled until several years later and
spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner
under extremely harsh conditions. He was finally
paroled in 1789 and died within a year of
his parole in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He is buried
there in the old town cemetery. His grave
is marked with a Connamarra Marble Celtic Cross
and the local AOH commemorates him every
year on the anniversary of that death.
Pennsylvania
Rifles – “The Irish Line” Thompson’s
Riflemen who came to be the 1st Pennsylvania
Militia and the 1st Continental Rifles. They
fought valiantly throughout the war in almost
every major engagement always led by Irish
Generals. They were often referred to as the “Irish
Line” because the majority
of the unit was comprised of men of Irish
descent. There flag which is of course Green,
depicts the Lion (England) being netted by
a colonial soldier who is armed with the traditional
Irish weapon, the pike. The motto on the Flag
states “Nolo Dominari”. “We
will not be dominated”.
General Hand
- Was born in Tipperay, Ireland
and moved to Lancaster Pennsylvania. He
was appointed Lieutenant Colonel and served
as Thompson’s
second in command. This made Hand the first
commissioned Lieutenant Colonel in the
U.S. Army. When Thompson was captured at
the Battle of Trois Rivere, Hand took over
command of the “Irish
Line”. He was promoted to general
and served in that role until the surrender
of the British at Yorktown. He was then
promoted to Major General and made Adjutant
General of the entire U.S. Army. He also
served as a member of Congress following
his resignation from the U.S. Army.
General
Irvine – Also of Irish descent,
born near Enniskillen and educated at Dublin
University, also lived in Carlisle, Pennsylvania
and was directed by General Washington
to lead his force in support of Thompson
in Canada. Irvine was also captured, but
was paroled within a few months and led
the 2nd Pennsylvania Militia. He served
in various commands and positions during
the remainder or the war and became a member
of Congress after his retirement. He was
instrumental in obtaining Pennsylvania’s
outlet to Lake Erie at what is today Erie,
Pennsylvania. He attempted to negotiate
resolution of the Whiskey Rebellion in
western PA and when that failed he led
the Pennsylvania Militia in pacification
of the rebellion. He had two son’s
who served as officers in the U.S. Army
during the War of 1812.
General Mad Anthony
Wayne – The third of Thompson’s
Colonels, also of Irish descent, but born
in Pennsylvania was Anthony Wayne. Wayne
survived the Battles in New York and Canada
and avoided capture in the Battle of Trois
Rivere. He went on to win notoriety as
an excellent leader and vicious fighter,
which earned his the nickname “Mad
Anthony”.
He was later killed in fighting in the
Ohio Valley and it remains a mystery what
ever happened to the body of Wayne, which
was prepared for shipment back to Pennsylvania,
but is said never to have been found.
Molly
Pitcher (Mary McAulley) – Also
of the Carlisle area and buried in the
Carlisle Old Town Cemetery is the legendary
Molly Pitcher. She is said to have brought
water to revolutionary soldiers in the
heat of battle and when her husband fell,
Molly grabbed his ramrod and began working
as part of the canon crew. She was the
first woman to gain a military pension.
Although having a German Maiden name, the
local residents of Carlisle stated that
Molly always spoke with an Irish brogue
and was known to be of Irish descent and
of course married an Irishman.
Early Catholic
Church – The Catholic
Church in central Pennsylvania was largely
in its early days made up of Irish Americans.
This explains why three of the earliest
churches were names for the patron saint
of Ireland, St. Patrick. Carlisle and York
being the earliest and Harrisburg soon
following with the Cathedral being named
for St. Patrick. In colonial times, the
church of central Pennsylvania was considered
a mission church and priests had to ride
circuit into the various parishes. The
Churches early support of black and Native
American education efforts was well known
and support by such distinguished early
Catholics as Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton,
who used her own families wealth to promote
the faith in PA.
Whiskey Rebellion -Whiskey
(Bourbon whiskey) is an American native
spirit, with a history steeped in the cultures
of the earliest settlers. This unique American
product was involved in the history of
the first use of armed force by the new
post-Revolution United States of America.
Although whiskey was produced throughout
the colonies (George Washington was among
the noted whiskey producers of the time),
the Scotch-Irish settlers of western Pennsylvania
are where bourbon roots began, and where
rebellion to the United States first was
occurred in opposition to an excise tax
imposed upon whiskey by the new federal
government. The one and only time a U.S.
President has led an Army into action was
when Washington rallied his “federal” army
in Carlisle to confront this tax rebellion,
which was quickly resolved without any
great loss of life.
Civil War:
Rock of Erin – 69th
Pennsylvania Volunteers – That’s
right New York was not the only State to have
an Irish Unit carrying the designation of the
69th . A unit of largely working class Irish
who were not completely embraced by the people
of Pennsylvania; which was common at that time
in Pennsylvania History. They were led by Colonel
Dennis O’Kane of
County Derry; although organized under a stern
Welshman named Owens, who did not particularly
care for the Irish. The unit was force marched
from Virginia to defend their native Pennsylvania
at Gettysburg. They had gone 48 hours without
any provisions when they were sent to the center
of the union line near the clump of trees used
by General Lee as the rallying point for General
Pickett’s
Force. The second day of the battle at Gettysburg,
the Pennsylvanian held off an attack of a Georgia
unit, many of whom left their rifles in front
of the 69th Pennsylvania’s
position. O’Kane the strict and frugal
disciplinary directed his men to recover these
rifles from the ground in front of their position.
As a result of this action many of the Irishman
were armed with two rifles, loaded and ready
for action. The next day, the temperatures were
sweltering and this tired unit was left out in
the heat of the day protected only by this small
clump of trees. O’Kane had
his men hold position, but also knew the time
to allow his men to relax. His men were said
to be unkempt and disorganized; laying around
under makeshift tents in the heat of the day.
A ferocious artillery barrage began and O’Kane
ordered his men into line. The well disciplined
unit sprung to life and planted the unit’s
Green Flag with Harp next to the Flag of Pennsylvania.
General Hancock road along the line and was smartly
saluted by O’Kane
who asked the General to be careful, he made
an easy target. Hancock responded that “Sometimes
the Life of a Corps Commander doesn’t matter.” He
was shot moments later, but would recover from
these wounds. Pickett’s Charge began in
earnest and the Irish held and countered. O’Kane
told his men to “Stand and Fight for their
State.” O’Kane
was shot in the heat of the battle through the
abdomen. He did not leave the field until he
lapsed into a coma and died as the result of
his wound. His men held the line and the charge
was repelled; the center of the line held. This
point in the line became known as the “Rock
of Erin”.
Pennsylvania Buck Tails – Another
unit made up of Irish and German frontiersmen
and crack shots also was present ion the civil
war from Peninsula Campaign through Gettysburg
and beyond. This unit of frontiersmen who were
crack shots and excellent hunters wore buck’s
tails on their caps and similar to Thompson’s
men in the Revolutionary War bore the name of
their leader and became known as Kane’s
Bucktails. General Thomas Kane, an abolitionist
of Irish Descent from Philadelphia who had moved
to north central Pennsylvania, similar to William
Thompson almost 100 years before valued Pennsylvania
marksmen and formed this group of marksman to
serve in Pennsylvania’s Militia and the
Union Army. He also like Thompson was captured
early in the war, but unlike Thompson was paroled
early on and able to return to the fight at his
own risk. He again like Thompson never fully
recovered from his time as a prisoner and died
at a young age, but not until after leading the
Mormons under the order of the President from
Pennsylvania and surrounding areas to the new
territory of Utah.
Father Corby – One of
the most famous figures and examples of Catholic
faith during the civil war. He gave the Irish
Catholic Troops at Gettysburg general absolution
before they went into battle. The troops gathered
around him and he blessed them and forgave
their sins in a special act of general absolution,
knowing many of them would not survive the
days fight.
Molly Mcguires -Many have viewed
the Molly Maguires as Irish miners who terrorized
the anthracite coal region of eastern Pennsylvania
in the 1860s and 1870s. Recent Books and
Reviews of the Molly have argued that the Molly
Maguire violence was a form of "retributive
justice" common in rural Ireland between
1760 and 1850 that "was adapted in Pennsylvania
to the conditions of industrial exploitation" that
many Irish miners faced. Although there may
be evidence that the Molly Maguries were
conspiratorial, these accounts argue that
the claims that mine owners and other contemporaries
greatly exaggerated the conspiracy to discredit
enemies which actually had no ties to the
Mollies. These included Irish miners, Irish
organizations like the Ancient Order of Hibernians
(AOH), and the powerful Workingmen's Benevolent
Association (WBA).
It may be true that many
miners came to Pennsylvania from exactly
those parts of north-central and northwestern
Ireland where secret agrarian societies like
the Whiteboys and the Molly Maguires had
retaliated against disruptive landholding
practices earlier in the nineteenth century.
(The Molly Maguires apparently derived their
name from the practice, perhaps borrowed
from mummery, of disguising themselves as
women.) They eked out meager lives as unskilled
miners in Schuykill County and fumed because
the better jobs went to their Scotch, German,
English, and Welsh neighbors. The violence
attributed to Molly Maguires erupted during
the Civil War. The Mollies were blamed for
two assassinations, attacks against draft
officials and mine owners, and even robbery
and brawling. "By the end of
the war the term Molly Maguires was being
used in the lower anthracite region to describe
any and all forms of violence and disorder
involving Irish mine workers" Kevin Kenny.
Making Sense of the Molly Maguires. New York:
Oxford University Press. 1998. Pp. xii, 336.
Post
Civil War
Jim Thorpe – We all know of
Jim Thorpe and his success in the Olympics
and in Professional Football and Baseball,
but did you also know he was of Irish Descent.
His mother was Native American from the Oklahoma
Indian Territory, but his father was an Irish
trader who did business in the Indian territory.
Jim Thorpe attended the Carlisle Industrial
Indian School and began his early sports successes
at that location. He went on to be one of our
nations greatest Olympians and a professional
athlete in boy baseball and football. The town
of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania changed its name
in honor of this greatest American Athlete.
