The conference on Irish involvement in the American civil war (1861-1865), which has elicited calls and correspondence from over 30 people since first mentioned in this column, finally opens today in Boston.
That so many people from all over the Republic and further afield contacted Southern Report reflects the fact that for many families the American civil war is history that has come down to them in a very real way through story, anecdote and artefacts. And the Irish diaspora in America is vibrant in all this.
One note that stood out came from Denis Fahey, of Drumcondra, Dublin. He wanted David Kincaid, who spent 10 years collecting Irish ballads of the American civil war for a CD, to be made aware of his own researches into the subject. Mr Fahey mentioned the ballad Song from the Backwoods. The words "We'll toast old Ireland/Dear old Ireland/ Ireland boys hurrah!" will bring the tune to mind. This the American civil war soldiers adapted as "Deep in Canadian woods we've met/From one bright island flown/ Great is the land we tread but yet, our hearts are with our own." Followed, of course, by the famous chorus.
In his researches, Mr Fahey came across a letter written to the Irish People in New York in 1867, two years after the war ended, evoking the following poignant scene. "I may also mention that the evening echoes were disturbed in Virginia many a time and oft, when Captain Downing sat at his tent door and led off this popular chant, the entire Irish Brigade taking up the chorus. On the night after the bloody battle of Fredericksburg, the federal army lay sleepless and watchful on their arms, with spirits damped by the loss of so many gallant comrades. To cheer his brother officers, Captain Downing sang his favourite song. The chorus of the first stanza was taken up by his gallant regiment: next by the brigade; next by the division; then by the entire line of the army for six miles along the river. And when the captain ceased, it was but to listen with indefinable feelings to the chant that came like an echo from the Confederate lines on the opposite shore, of - `Dear old Ireland! Brave old Ireland! Ireland! boys hurrah!' "
Mr Mike Heavey of Lucan, Co Dublin, was another of those who contacted the column. " I hope at a minimum to help create an Irish section on the existing website concerning the civil war. I await a reply from a Mr Duva in the States who runs it. The reason I am interested is because I have at least three family members who joined in 1861 near the start of the war. James Heavey (18), served with the 72nd Regiment, New York Infantry, and was discharged for disability in February, 1863.
"Peter Heavey (29), enlisted in the 1st New York Artillery but deserted while under arrest for drunkenness in Washington in January 1862. John Heavey (38), died on Morris Island, South Carolina on August 8th, 1863, while serving with the 24th Massachusetts Volunteers.
"I am trying to gather up a store of factual knowledge and anecdotal material which will always be available in memory of our displaced countrymen . . . I have already been contacted with family war histories by Dennistons from Longford; Doughtertys from West Virginia; O'Briens from Clare; McCannScullys from Cork; Busteeds from Cork; Lomasneys from Fermoy; and O'Donohoes from Louth . . .
"P.S. just imagine Sean and Dolores Keane singing the ballads you mentioned - fantastic."
And then Mr Louis Hanley made contact to say that in his home in Cork he had a framed print of Thomas Francis Meagher, darling of the Irish Brigade, and that although the passage of time and some water damage had not left it in pristine condition, it was in sufficiently good repair for him to believe that Meagher had signed it himself. Unlike Mr Heavey he was not aware that his forebears were involved in the war but was sure that the print was handed down by his grandfather, Mr Louis O'Connor.
Balladeers were in touch too, wondering how to get hold of the Kincaid CD. David Kincaid's address is 3147, Broadway, Apartment 19, New York, N.Y. 10027, USA.
And for now, that's where the subject should be left. The American conference will reach its conclusions and the papers emanating from it will be published in due course. When that happens, maybe there'll be more good reasons to come back to it.