Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Historian's Report for October 2013
Irish Historian’s Report
Division One is honored to share Irish History articles provided
by The National Historian of The Ancient Order of Hibernians
Thomas Francis Meagher
By Mike McCormack
By Mike McCormack
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| Brigadier General Thomas Francis Meagher |
On July 1, 1867, three nations mourned the loss of one of their heroes; Ireland,
Australia and the United States. The hero’s name was Thomas Francis
Meagher and he was born on August 3, 1823. His grandfather’s successful
trading business made it easy for his father to own a small hotel and pub in
Waterford, where he was educated at a Jesuit boarding school. Later at a
Jesuit college in England he earned a reputation as an effective orator. He
returned to Ireland in 1843, just two years before a blight hit the potato
causing a great starvation among his people. Watching his countrymen
starve while the landlord’s crops grew in abundance for export, infuriated
young Meagher and he became a vocal opponent of the Crown’s policy of Laissez
Faire. As the Irish starved on the roadside, Meagher joined the Young
Ireland movement, and began to preach insurrection. He wrote for The Nation
newspaper, and earned respect as a spokesman for the nationalist cause. Upon
his return from a visit to post-revolutionary France, he introduced a tricolor
which Ireland eventually adopted as her national flag.
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| General Meagher Leading The Irish Brigade |
After a failed rising in 1848, Meagher was arrested on the charge of
treason and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment
at the British penal colony in Australia. After three years of
imprisonment, he escaped to New York, where he received a hero’s welcome from
the New York Irish for his part in the Young Irelander movement and the rising
of 1848. Meagher married in 1855, became an American citizen in 1857, and
commanded a company in New York’s 69th Militia, locally known as Corcoran’s
Irish Legion. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, the 69th New
York were the first to volunteer. Captain Meagher and the regiment marched away
under their commander, Colonel Corcoran. The Union army were badly
battered at Bull Run and Colonel Corcoran was captured, but the regiment fought
a successful rear guard action that saved the army. Meagher was asked to
exercise his considerable influence with the American Irish community, and
reorganize the 69th regiment. He did better than that; he formed a Brigade, and
the re-formed 69th regiment became an integral part of that famed Irish Brigade
under the command of the newly-appointed General Thomas Francis Meagher.
From Bull Run, the Brigade fought heroically at the bloodiest battles in that
tragic conflict. At Fair Oaks, Gaines Mill, Antietam, Fredericksburg,
Chancellorsville and virtually every major engagement fought by the Army of the
Potomac, the figure of General Meagher was seen leading his men into battle. By
the time Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Meagher had earned a reputation as one
of the nation’s most effective leaders.
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| Gettysburg Memorial |
After the war, President Johnson appointed him Secretary of the new
Montana Territory. In August 1865, the young Irishman’s life took a new
direction as he and his wife, Elizabeth, left for Montana. It was a difficult
life. Far from the comforts of their eastern existence, Meagher was reminded of
the rough, wild, and backward life he had escaped in Australia. Upon
arrival, Territorial Governor Edgerton handed him the official papers of
office, saying that he was unable to stomach the rigors of the frontier and was
heading back east to Ohio. Meagher thus became the acting Governor of the
Territory. Having seen more danger and heartache in his young life, one could
hardly have blamed Meagher if he had turned his back on the responsibility just
thrust upon him, but he was not a quitter; President Johnson had asked him to
bring Montana into the Union as a state, and he was determined to do it.
Acting Governor Meagher was immediately opposed by powerful men who had
carved a profitable empire out of the Montana wilderness, for statehood would
threaten their private domains. Self-appointed vigilante groups
threatened Meagher’s life and slanderous rumors were spread in an attempt to
reverse his popularity and frustrate his efforts. Yet, Meagher persevered. He
became immensely popular with the people of Montana, especially the
considerable number of Irish who had migrated west after the Civil War.
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| Irish Brigade Monument at Antietam |
Still torn by memories of Ireland in bondage, Meagher wrote to a friend
back east that, although he still desired to see Ireland free, he could not
turn his back on the job he had been assigned. He called for a territorial
legislature, which angered the profiteers. With danger on all sides from
vigilantes and local Indians, he convinced his old friend General Sherman, to
send a shipment of muskets up the Missouri to Fort Benton. Meagher and a
few of his officers rode overland for six days in the heat of a Montana July to
meet the shipment. Dehydrated and violently ill on arrival, Meagher retired to
a stateroom aboard the G.A.Thompson, a boat piloted by an old friend, Johnny
Doran.
As he lay his fevered head on the shipboard berth, he may have
reminisced on the words spoken at a Virginia City rally just six months
earlier, Look out, young Chief; you have done too much to bring the
traffickers in the political market into disrepute and bankruptcy, not to have
provoked their vengeance. That night July 1, 1867, Thomas Francis Meagher
disappeared. His body was never found, and the rumor mongers spread the
story that he had been drinking and fell overboard in a drunken stupor and
drowned. There was no one to dispute the claim, but few who knew the man
ever believed it. His loving wife walked the banks of the Missouri for
two months seeking his body in vain. Then, in May of 1913, a dying man in
Missoula, Montana, called for the local newspaper to witness his deathbed
confession. He was a local ne’er-do-well named Frank Diamond, and he
swore that he would not go to judgment without clearing his conscience of an
awful deed that he had been paid to do many years before. He told the
startled press that he had murdered Thomas Francis Meagher, under orders from
the local vigilantes, and thrown his body overboard on that hot July night, 46
years earlier.
Members of old and prominent Montana families, who had descended from
the early Vigilantes and profited from Meagher’s demise, swore that Diamond was
an irresponsible liar, but men don’t lie on their deathbed. Those who
knew the character of Thomas Francis Meagher were relieved that the truth had
finally been revealed, yet Frank Diamond, was never prosecuted for the
crime. He unexpectedly recovered from his malady and recanted his confession.
No more was said about the incident. Thus, the exact details of Meaghers
demise remain clouded by time and temperament, yet one positive consequence
evolved from the controversy surrounding the confession. In the eyes of
many, the character of Thomas Frances Meagher had been exonerated. He had
not fallen overboard in a drunken stupor, but fallen in service to others: as
he had served all his life – a life that began as an Irish patriot, continued
as he broke his chains of bondage in Australia’s Van Diemans Land, and ended as
an American legislator. Yet the brightest page in his exciting career will
always be the page he wrote as the Commander of America’s most celebrated, most
durable, and most beloved fighting force – the Irish Brigade.
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| Memorial at Fort Benton |
On Sunday, June 28, 2009, 3 days before the 142nd anniversary
of his death, the Thomas Francis Meagher Division of the AOH in Helena, Montana
dedicated a memorial they erected to their namesake at Fort Benton. It
was a slim, black granite base, 6 7 tall, topped by a heroic sculpted bronze
upper torso and head of Meagher, 2 9 high. A bronze plate on the front of
the stone bears an appropriate proclamation. The site is on the levee,
nearly directly across Main Street from the house where Meagher spent his
last hours prior to boarding the riverboat. The dedication was part
of an annual 3-day Fort Benton observance of their Summer Celebration.
The undertaking had the enthusiastic support of the Montana Historical Society.
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| AOH Plaque and Inscription on Fort Benton Memorial |
