The Faces of Irish Civil War Soldiers Edited by JoAnna M. McDonald

Item No. 96703 - Softbound - 8 1/2 x 11 1/2 -  54 pgs. - 8oz. - ISBN: 1-888967-03-X  - price  $14.95

When the call to arms went out in 1861 hundreds of Irishmen lined up at the recruiting station. Unfortunately, there has never been a complete study of the actual number of Irish who fought in the Civil War. It would not, however be unreasonable to state that thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, served in both the Confederate and Union armies.

Unlike their English neighbors who, for the most part, assimilated into the Union and Confederate bands, many Irishmen organized their own, unique units made up of their fellows and included the adjective "Irish" within their regimental names such as the 69th Pennsylvania Irish Regiment and the Irish Brigades of both the North and the South. Within these units one could find a wayward foreigner, but the majority carried the name of their Celtic ancestors.

The faces within represent the rank and file of the Irish legions, names which may not be readily known to the average student of the Civil War. Their families mourned as they disappeared into history leaving us their names, their songs and poems, their letters and battle accounts - and their photographs - to remind us of their passing and allow us to walk part of the way with them.

Herein are 200 photographs of those rugged Irish faces, some of whose portraits still hang on family walls or rest on fireplace mantels.

We also carry Irish County Boundary Maps

To Irish Books

  To Military Books