Come all you that hold true communion with southern Confederates bold,
I will tell you of some men who for the Union in the northern ranks were enrolled;
Who came to Missouri in their glory, and thought by their power we´d be dismayed;
But we soon made them tell a different story when they met with Kelly´s Irish Brigade.

This page is dedicated to the memory of Gaylord Patrick O'Connor, (1916-1994) who was a longtime member of the Sterling Price Camp, No. 145 and "the driving spirit behind the Missouri Division". Pat, a former combat infantry officer of WWII, earned both the French and Belgian Croix de Guerre (Cross of War). A veteran of the Battle of the Bulge, he was a soldier of the highest character.

 
 

 Father John B. Bannon

and the St. Louis Irish ConfederateS

By S. K. Williams

     Father John B. Bannon, known for being the "Fighting Chaplain" of the Missouri Brigade not only served as a Pastor, but as a soldier and a secret agent for the South. Even though Confederate General Sterling Price declared that Father John B.  Bannon was the "greatest soldier I ever saw",  he is relatively unknown to most modern Missourians.  Who was he and where did he come from ? He  was born 29 Dec 1829 in Roosky, Ireland. He grew up near the Shannon river in the County Roscommon in west-central Ireland. Not much is known about his family except that his mother's maiden name was O'Farrell and he was the grandson of Henry Sanford Pageman Mahon. By the time he enrolled (27 August 1847) in the "Royal College of St. Patrick" at Maynooth (County Kildare), only his father and a brother were living. This was a time of the "Potato Famine", where nearly a million Irish men, women, and children died.

  Ordained a priest in May of 1853, Father Bannon volunteered to immigrate to America to serve the thousands of Irish who came to the New World. By September of that year, Bannon arrived by steamboat to St. Louis, Missouri.  Father Bannon first served as assistant pastor at what we now call, "The old Cathedral", which was the main Catholic Church at the time. The primary pastor  was Rev. Patrick J. Ryan, . This church,  an Irish congregation was attacked by mobs in August of 1854, as had also the Jesuit St. Louis University,  Catholic and Irish residences across the city. Many of the Irish community in St. Louis were living in utter poverty of the "Kerry Patch", an Irish ghetto in North St. Louis (named after County Kerry in Ireland).  St. Louis, like many of city, was ripe with anti-Irish discrimination and anti-Catholic prejudice. Part of this hatred was due to the rise of the "Know-Nothing" political party, but was much more widespread than those belonging to this political philosophy.

 
 

Battle Flag of Missouri Confederate Troops  (bearing the latin cross was sewn by the ladies of New Orleans)

 

      In addition, the growing German population of the city, which composed of many refugees from the failed 1848 "Peasant Revolution" of Germany,  was for the most part anti-Catholic, which translated to being also "anti-Irish".  The "free thinking" ex-revolutionaries or "green party" Germans as they were commonly known, formed social clubs that were considered by some to be a replacement for church. This pitted them against the "grays" (Germans that were mostly Catholic and conservative Lutherans).  It was kind of a "Civil war" but confined to rhetoric.  The "greens" were mainly those that arrived after 1848, so they were less Americanized than their earlier counterparts and  more likely to  be pro-Union.    Many had previous encounters with  Catholic Germans of the old country, so it was hard for them to see eye-to-eye with Irish Catholics. Likewise, the Irish community was not only losing jobs and political influence to these German speaking neighbors but were also seeing another growing threat prior to the war--- the massive militarization of the German "Wide Awake" militias under the direction of Missouri Senator Frank Blair.  The leadership of the German community was decidedly Pro-Union and in favor of a powerful Federal government. Many of their  leaders ("Forty-eighters") came to the United States after the Karl Marx influenced   "Peasant revolution" of 1848 failed to install a  centralized government  in Germany.  So it was natural when the Republican party began advocating a strong Federal Government, the German community rallied behind them. [Note: Karl Marx had an influence on the 1848 Revolution but the Germans revolutionaries were not all socialist, infact the majority were not.]

     The majority of the Democratic Irish of St. Louis openly supported the Confederate cause, mainly because they opposed a strong centralized government like what they were under in the British Empire. They had seen the oppression that a totalitarian government could and would impose on their freedom. Many Irish in St. Louis and across Missouri fully accepted the principles of  "States Rights" and were willing to die for them.  Like the majority of Missourians,  Irish St. Louisians wanted to remain neutral and left alone by these nationalistic "Hessian" militias.

"Armed neutrality", was the Missouri State maxim of the day and was quite popular with St. Louis' Irish. There was an active Fenian movement in St. Louis, or exiled Irishmen seeking military experience to one day return to Ireland and to regain their emerald isle from the English.

Of the militia units at the annual Missouri Volunteer Militia encampment ("Camp Jackson") at Lindell's Grove, north of the city in early May 1861, at least four were nearly entirely Irish. These were, and many of the others had significant Irish. These were the Emmett Guards, commanded by Capt. Philip Coyne; the Washington Blues, by Capt. Joseph Kelly; the Washington Guards, by Capt. Patrick Gorman, and an artillery battery, "Guibor's Battery" ,under the command of Lt. Henry Guibor. High Irish enlistment also made up the a large percentage of the Minute Men Militia, commanded by Capt. Colton Greene and St. Louis Grays, by Capt. Martin Burke and a number of other units.

The intrusion of Irish neighborhoods, on the eve of May 10, 1861, by the German militia headed by a New England officer, Nathaniel Lyon outraged the Irish community that settled in the northern part of the City. The complete surrounding of Camp Jackson and the capture of the Irish militias (along with those of American born Missouri militias), polarized St. Louis to an intense degree. The presence of growing native Irish and American born crowds grew as the Camp Jackson spectacle became known. Men armed with shotguns, pistols, brickbats, stones shouted and threatened the "Hessian" militias. Even women joined the protests, while the cautious closed the shutters and sought refuge in the basements.

Even staunchly Union men among those at Camp Jackson were incensed over the Federal action at Camp. Elihu H. Shephard, a native of Vermont, Mexican war veteran and would later serve in the Union militia was one of Lyon's sharpest critics of that day.  Shephard was among his old "regiment" of the St. Louis Gray Militia at Camp Jackson which he called nothing but a "camp of instruction".  Shephard recalling the event, in his autobiography, "This outrage was not perpetrated without other atrocious acts of violence committed within a few yards of me, by which about thirty innocent persons lost their lives, under that false plea, "military necessity", by order of a malicious, dogmatical officer, who delighted in carnage and blood, and could find no other way but this of gratifying his evil propensity. We were closely guarded, and I occupied a position in the line of prisoners most favorable to observe and hear the whole transaction."

Following the invasion of Camp Jackson (near the Irish part of the city), the German militias fired upon a crowd of citizens in the streets, and Federal control of the city made neutrality no longer an option. Throughout the rest of the day and the following, the city of St. Louis was in riot (at least portions occupied by the Irish and Southern populations).

 Many of the Irish of the city fled South and joined up with Sterling Price's Army near the Arkansas border. Father Bannon writing home to St. Louis early in the war, recorded, "Some regiments have Catholic chaplains, the number of Catholics being so many as to give them the majority in the election.  Other regiments are entirely Catholic--Louisiana, Hibernian, Irish and French in Price's Army...about 1500 Catholics [under my care] trusting as I do on the voluntary gifts of the Catholics whom I serve...".  Open recruitment in St. Louis became no longer possible, the city was put under martial law, and newspaper reports became censored.  St. Lousians trickled down to join Confederate ranks in not only Price's command but also in Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee regiments. It is for this reason that the St. Louis Confederate Irish were never organized into their own regiments, but spread out over many different units.  In addition, an accurate total number of Irish recruits from St. Louis is not possible, especially since there are no complete set of rosters for the State in existence. Maj. William Clark Kennerly (nephew of Gen. Wm. Clark, the explorer  of "Lewis & Clark" fame), who served in the Confederate army, wrote that 5,000 St. Louisans went South after the war began. A fair rough estimate would be that atleast 1,000 to 2,000 of these were Irish St. Louisans. [Note: Some rosters have been reconstructed, please see our "St. Louis Confederate Units" page]

     Those that remained behind supported the southern cause in any way they could. This wasn't easy because the Federals had secret police, known as "detectives" stationed everywhere in the city. These  detectives could be a servant in a home or a vendor on the street. Simply by trying to discourage another neighbor from joining the Union army, if caught could send one to prison. Criticizing the way the war was being fought was another treasonable offense. This is why there was so many political prisoners among the POWs and why it was dangerous to be an outspoken Democrat in St. Louis. Furthermore, it wasn't easy making one's way out of the city, which was under martial law, as the roads were all guarded by Federal troops. Maj. Kennerly only made it out by outwitting guards that he and his couple companions were only going on a fishing trip south of the city for the day.

     Then there was the problem of avoiding the Union draft. Few Irish in St. Louis wanted to enlist and they had a unique way in avoiding it. Although they hated the English occupation of Ireland, they now were experiencing the Yankee occupation of St. Louis. Those that were born in Ireland could claim British citizenship (and  the protection from the draft by the British government).  So hundreds of them applied for this protection and obtained resident amnesty under the St. Louis British Consulate office. Union officials knew the scam but they could not violate international law. These St. Louis Irish (that claimed to be British subjects) were closely watched and were considered "disloyal" as if they were pro-Confederates. 

     From the State of Missouri, uniquely Irish Confederate units included Capt. Joseph Kelly's "Fighting Irish" (Company F, 5th MO. Infantry) and Capt. Ephraim V. Kelly's battery known as "Kelly’s Irish Light Artillery". It is not certain if any of the members of this second unit came from St. Louis or not. These units and the rest of the Missouri Brigade were considered "the South's finest" in fighting ability. When it came to hold a difficult position or to charge a formidable force, the elite Missouri brigade was frequently a commander's preferred pick. Father John Bannon who ministered to these brave men, was a man cut from the same cloth. Archbishop Patrick J. Ryan, in 1884 when leaving St. John Church in St. Louis (founded by Father John Bannon), tenderly expressed his affection for Father Bannon, who was his personal friend. Ryan, stated, "He built this church, and having completed it, and being so deeply attached to it, as a priest will be to a church for which he has begged and for which he fought, loving it tenderly, and loving it with that great heart of his, sacrificed all, and without hesitation left everything; because he heard that there were Catholic young men of the city in the Confederate Army without a chaplain to minister to them who might fall in battle at any moment. He risked his life crossing the lines, was for a time pursued, but with the same high motive and sense of duty and self-sacrificing charity for the young men whom he knew and loved, he made this sacrifice and left an imperishable record of his personal courage and devotion to the great cause. Twice did the Commanding General order him off the field, and threaten him with arrest because he did not keep within the proper lines when someone had fallen among the rushing balls in the midst of the greatest danger. His heart I am sure is with us tonight."

     For the first year of the war there was no Irish Union regiment that could be recruited from the city. Union officials were alarmed at the direction the war was going. It had by all appearances an ethnic war--the Irish vs. the Germans.  Some renegade St. Louis Irish did enlist in the Union Army (8th Missouri Volunteer Infantry USA "Fighting Irish Zouaves") and fought their St. Louis neighbors on the battlefield. No doubt some families had family members in both armies. Those who fought for the Union were offered large bounties and other favors for enlisting in an unholy war on brothers.  However, Federal recruiters could not find enough Missouri Irish to fill the ranks of the "Fighting Irish Zouaves".  Large numbers of Irish were recruited in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio and brought to Missouri.  That's how St. Louis was able to field an Irish regiment for the Union, there was absolutely no other way.      

Nationally, the Irish were bearing the brunt of being Union "cannon fodder". Union recruiters were going as far as Ireland to enlist men for the Army. As soon as they arrived off the ship, they were given the security of pay, regular food, and a nice new uniform. But thousands of these men would never again see Ireland or even New York again. They were slaughtered in a war in which many had no interest in fighting. Father John Bannon seeing this, following the fall of Vicksburg,  knew he had to save "Irish souls by keeping them out of such a devil's scheme to crush the Southern people".  Joining Bishop Patrick Neison Lynch (son of Conlaw Peter Lynch and Eleanor MacMahon Neison; b. 1817 County Monaghan, Ireland) of South Carolina, Bannon became an emissary to Ireland and secret agent of the Confederacy. Father Bannon and Bishop Lynch met with Irish clergy congregations, and even Pope Pius IX (who was sympathetic with the Southern People).  The Pope appropriately addressed President Jefferson Davis in his letter as "The Illustrious and Honorable Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America." Father Bannon's successful efforts greatly reduced by over two-thirds the number of Irishmen entering Union ranks.  By early 1864, the people of Ireland. Bannon reported, "sympathized with the South, the priesthood advocated the Southern cause, ...and should the ...Confederate recruiting officers be allowed to enter the field of competition for recruits...the Southern cause would attract four-fifths of the material."

     It is well authenticated that many an Irish Emigrant on landing at the other side of the Atlantic, is set up, cajoled, and enticed away, to swell the ranks of the Federal Army. The moment that an Emigrant Ship reaches the port of America, the unpretending Emigrant, full of warm and friendly feelings to the Country, is persuaded by interested Agents to declare his intention to become a Citizen (as they term it, a Real American); after his declaration being made, according to the late Act of Congress, he comes under the CONSCRIPTION LAW.

And no alternative is left. He becomes a SOLDIER. In 48 hours he is landed in the Swamps of Carolinas, or on the Sand Bars of Charleston.  There to imbrue his hands in THE BLOOD OF HIS COUNTRYMEN, and fight for a people that has the greatest antipathy to his birth and creed.

 Let Irishmen remember the fate of MEAGHER's Brigade, on the bloody field of Fredericksburg, 5,000 strong ! Now no more; and were refused permission to reorganize; some of the New York Papers stating that they could afford to lose a few thousand of the scum of the Irish."

     Very soon after serving as Captain of Company F,  Kelly was promoted to a Colonel serving on Gen. Mosby M. Parson's staff.  Captain Patrick Canniff replaced  Kelly as commander of  Company F.  Only a very small handful of this company ever returned back to St. Louis.  Company F for instance, lost 70% of their number in the battle at Corinth, Mississippi. Here they were faced off against renegade Unionist Irish of St. Louis under command of Col. Patrick E. Burke.  Irish fighting Irish, St. Louisans fighting St. Louisans. The Irish Missouri Confederates never lost faith that they were on the side of true justice and honor.  Both Burke and Canniff would later be killed  in the war on the same year, 1864. The overwhelming majority men of Company F may be buried on some lonely battlefield, but their families back in St. Louis never forgot them.

     One soldier, a Lt. Warren,  recorded an episode where Company F, under Capt. Caniff saw intense action at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain  (27 Jun 1864). "Those of us that were sleeping late this morning (having been on picket three consecutive days) were aroused by the most terrific outburst of artillery that the enemy has yet treated us to.  Every gun that could reach us was brought to bear on Little Kennesaw.  We knew what the shelling foreboded--every man sprang to his arms--Caniff shouted for each to take his place in the trenches, and in a moment all was ready.  I shall always wonder how I got safely across the bald mountain top, through the flying mass of shells and fragments of rock."

     "The artillery soon slackened its fire and we could hear the volleys delivered by our skirmishers as they met the first line of the enemy. Poor fellows !--few of them could get back up that rugged mountain side in time to save themselves. In a few minutes the enemy made their appearance, a solid line of blue emerging from the woods, a hundred yards below us.  We gave them a volley that checked them where they stood.  As this line was melting away under our steady fire, another pressed forward and reached the foot of the mountain. Behind this came yet another line, but our fire was so steady and accurate that they could not be induced to advance, through their officers could be plainly seen trying to urge them up the hill. Then came another column, the heaviest that had yet appeared, which made the final, as well as the most determined assault, and which stood their ground longer than the others. Some of these men came twenty or thirty yards up the side of the mountain, but they were nearly all shot down, which deterred the others from following. Our men shot with unusual accuracy, because they had the low stone breastworks, which we had constructed with so much labor, on which to rest their guns."

     "In three-fourths of an hour the attack was over and the Federals were gone, leaving large numbers of their dead lying at the bottom of the hill. I never saw our boys behave with greater coolness and courage. The enemy renewed and kept up their shelling until night, which was most efficiently and gallantly replied to by the batteries of Bledsoe and Guibor." (Guibor battery was another St. Louis unit that served in the Confederate Missouri Brigade)

     At another time (28 May 1864) in a much more friendly encounter with Federal troops, Lt. Warren records, "Just after dark firing ceased on the line. A Yankee vidette called out to our vidette to come over and get a cup of coffee. Private Dan Monahan answered and said he would go if they would promise to let him come back. The promise was made and Monahan went over to their pits and shared their hard-tack and coffee. He made an exchange of some tobacco for Northern papers, and was just preparing to start back when an officer came up. Monahan's presence being explained to him, he told the venturesome Irishman to go back and ask the officer in charge of our skirmishers to meet him half-way between the lines, as he wished to arrange for the removal of two of our dead that were lying close to his skirmish pits. Monahan returned with his message, and when the signal was given, Capt. Caniff went out and met the officer.  They had arranged that matter and were just commencing to talk on other topics, when suddenly a heavy fire was opened by the Mississippians on our left.  They thought the enemy were advancing, their skirmishers ran in and volley after volley was fired from the main works. This idea seemed to to take possession of the armies, for the fire was opened on both sides with musketry and artillery and extended along the the whole front for miles.  Our Brigade was the only one, I do believe, that was not affected by the general scare; they did not fire a shot, for they knew where the enemy were before them. The Yankee in our front, however, were affected like the rest.

    "Caniff and the Yankee officer had to shelter themselves behind a tree until the heaviest volleys were over. They then separated. Caniff got safely in; we don't know how the other fared in getting back to his line. The regiment opposing us was the seventh Illinois, and Monahan says they are 'devilish good fellows'. Both armies were on the alert the balance of the night, each thinking the other meant a night attack."

     Due to his battlefield valor, Patrick Caniff was put in command of  the combined regiments of the third and fifth Missouri Infantry at the Battle of Franklin (Tennessee). [Due to thinning ranks, the regiments were combined]. This was a battle of many unfortunate horrors for the Missouri Brigade.  Many of the men have marched shoeless in cold sub-zero weather, with scant clothing, and meager rations.  At Franklin, the Missourians were ordered to make a frontal charge against a well entrenched enemy. After the battle was over the entire Missouri Brigade had lost nearly two-thirds of its men. A disastrous lost, comparable to the loss of the British Light Brigade at Balaklava. .

    On Dec 1 1864, Lt. Warren writes, "When daybreak did come, and the fog and smoke of battle was lifted like a curtain, such a spectacle as this field of death presented to our eyes, I hope I may never witness again.  Here, indeed, was a Carnival of Death.  There must have been three thousand stiffened corpses lying in this little space, in full view. There may have been many more, I am sure there were no less.  In may places, they were in heaps, the ditch around the works, in some places, was filled with dead. Numbers lay where they fell, on top and on the sides of the embankment, and a few were found inside the works, shot and bayoneted."

     "I found poor Caniff and Wat Marnell; the former close up to the breastworks, the dead body of his horse being near by...Capt. Caniff was knocked from his horse by a shot in the right shoulder, and it must have been while lying on the ground, that he was struck in the top of the head, the ball coming out under the chin. My heart bled when I first stood over the rigid form of Lieutenant Crow; he was a kind, true friend and a perfect gentleman, as gentle and modest as a woman, and yet as brave as the bravest." [Lt. Wayman Crow, also of Co F, 5th Mo Infantry].

Capt. Arthur McCoy,

St. Louis' "Wild Irishman" of Shelby's Cavalry

     Arthur McCoy was one of the early leaders of the pro-secessionist "Minute Men" Militia in St. Louis. He along with four others (Rock Champion, Colton Greene, Basil W. Duke, and James Quinlan) early on March 4th 1861 had climbed the Federal courthouse of St. Louis, removed the U.S. Flag, and replaced it with the Missouri State flag. At the secessionist headquarters of the city, the Berthold mansion (located  at corner of Fifth and Pine Streets) they flew what has been called by some eyewitnesses as a "Confederate flag". However according to descriptions of the flag, this was not any flag being flown by the Confederacy. Colton Greene describes it as "a nondescript conceit--a red field, emblazoned with a white cross, star and crescent--made by Arthur McCoy's wife." Some sources have indicated that this flag was raised more for the purpose of a gag not anything to have been serious. Perhaps it was to taunt Gen. Lyon into doing something (they would not have to wait long since Camp Jackson was captured by Lyon on May 10 of that same year.)

     Capt. Arthur McCoy is best known for his service in the Confederate Cavalry but he did fight at Shiloh in the Missouri Infantry. On several occasions he rode into St. Louis fully armed, delivering the mail to the ladies of the city. On one occasion, he forced a Yankee Major, at gun point,  to dance to the tune of Dixie and on the same journey through St. Louis, challenged a Federal soldier, acting as a pickett at Benton Barracks, to a duel. To read more about these events, please visit our page on "Price's Last Raid".  During Price's 1864 raid, originally planned to invade St. Louis, Capt. McCoy rode in the vanguard of J. O. Shelby's cavalry and it is very likely he entered St. Louis county to gather military intelligence. During this same raid, McCoy fought alongside Jesse James at the Battle of Westport along the Big Blue river in western Missouri. (see above link for more on this).

Father Patrick John Ryan was born Feb 20, 1831 in the town of Thurles of County Tipperary, Ireland. After his study at St. Patrick's College, Father Ryan arrived in St. Louis in 1852. Father Ryan was the Vicar General of St. Louis and Pastor of the "Old St. Louis Cathedral". In 1860 he helped create the Church of the Annunciation as well as the neighboring parochial school. It was under Father Ryan that John B. Bannon served as assistant pastor. Father Ryan was a known Southern sympathizer, but instead of leaving St. Louis to go into the Confederate Army, he was appointed  by Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick to be "spiritual adviser" for Confederate POWs at Gratiot Street Prison.  He refused a federal commission to be prison Chaplain, as it would decrease his effectiveness to be a "Federal" in his POW ministry.  He was also supportive of the ladies of the Confederate Aid Society as well as the secret Confederate mail network of the city.  Following the war, Father Ryan transferred to the Church of St. John the Evangelist where he served until 1884, when he departed for Pennsylvania. His departure from St. Louis was a sad occassion to all that knew him, Confederate veterans Catholic and non-Catholic alike. Known as a great orator, Father Patrick J. Ryan later became Archbishop of Philadelphia.

 Father Patrick J. Ryan's parish church,  the Basilica of St. Louis IX, King of France, more commonly called the  "Old Cathedral"  sits today near the base of the Gateway Arch in downtown St. Louis.  Originally a French congregation, it later became dominated by St. Louis Irish.

     Father A. J. Ryan, like Father Bannon, served as a Chaplain in the Confederate Army. Although not born in Ireland, he was the son of Irish immigrants (Matthew Ryan and Mary Coughlin of Clonmell, Ireland). As a young child he moved to St. Louis  where he was educated at Christian Brothers' Cathedral School, located immediately adjacent to the McDowell Medical College that would later become known as the infamous Gratiot Street Prison where Confederate POWs were held.  In preparation for the priesthood, Abram first attended St. Mary's of the Barrens Seminary in Perryville, Missouri. Later he went away to Niagara Falls, New York to attend Our Lady of Angels Seminary. After returning to St. Louis, Abram became ordained at priest on Sep 20, 1860. Due to health problems, and with prior commitments in both New York and Missouri, Father Ryan did not join the Confederate cause until September 1862 even though from the beginning he was an ardent Confederate. In 1863, his younger brother (David Ryan), also a Confederate,  was killed on the battlefield and which "deeply affected" him throughout his remaining life. He wrote the poems, "In Memory of My Brother", and "In Memoriam"about his beloved brother.

     At the wars end Abram was serving as a Confederate chaplain in Augusta, Georgia. Remaining in Georgia for a number of years in post war days, Abram worked as a pastor and writing his poetry. His master piece, "The Sword of Lee" after being put to music was sung in southern homes for generations.  Always on the move, Ryan served as a priest in Nashville, Knoxville, Clarksville (Tennessee) as well as Mobile, New Orleans and Macon (Georgia). As far as it is known, he never returned to St. Louis to stay for any duration. He worked in efforts to help southern children that were orphaned as a result of the war as well as assisting widows of Confederate soldiers. He gave lecture tours in Mexico, Canada and throughout the United States to drum up support for the relief of southern victims of recurrent plagues. In Mobile, Alabama  he served as assistant of the Cathedral and as a bishop's secretary. In retirement, Father Ryan moved to Biloxi, Mississippi where he developed an intimate friendship with Jefferson Davis who lived in nearby Beauvoir.   In his final days of life, Father Abram  Ryan visited the Franciscan monastery in Louisville, Kentucky. It was here he died on Apr 22, 1886. He was buried in Mobile, "where a monument has been erected by the children of the South through a dime collection which the Mobile Register newspaper promoted."

     Father Abram Ryan  was  loved throughout the South for his service and writings. TheCatholic Encyclopedia  (1913) states, "In the hour of defeat he won the heart of the entire South by his poem, Conquered Banner...Within the limits of the Southern Confederacy and the Catholic Church in the United States, no poet was more popular. After the war he exercised the ministry in New Orleans, and was editor of The Star, a Catholic weekly; later he founded  The Banner of the South  in Augusta, Georgia, a religious and political weekly; then he retired to Mobile. In 1880 he lectured in several Northern cities. As a pulpit orator and lecturer, he was always interesting and ... brilliant. As a man he had a subtle, fascinating nature, full of magnetism when he saw fit to exert it; as a priest, he was full of tenderness, gentleness, and courage."

 

"The Prayer of the South"

"CSA"

By Father Abram J. Ryan

Do we weep for the heroes who died for us,

Who living were true and tried for us,
And dying sleep side by side for us;
The Martyr-band
That hallowed our land
With the blood they shed in a tide for us?

Ah! fearless on many a day for us,
They stood in front of the fray for us,
And held the foeman at bay for us;
And tears should fall
Fore'er o'er all
Who fell while wearing the Gray for us.

How many a glorious name for us,
How many a story of fame for us
They left: Would it not be a blame for us
If their memories part
From our land and heart,
And a wrong to them, and shame for us?

No, no, no, they were brave for us,
And bright were the lives they gave for us;
The land they struggled to save for us
Will not forget
Its warriors yet
Who sleep in so many a grave for us.

On many and many a plain for us
Their blood poured down all in vain for us,
Red, rich, and pure, like a rain for us;
They bleed -- we weep,
We live -- they sleep,
All lost, -- the only refrain for us.

But their memories e'er shall remain for us,
And their names, bright names, without stain for us;
The glory they won shall not wane for us,
In legend and lay
Our heroes in Gray
Shall forever live over again for us.

---

Imprisoned Irish-Americans of St. Louis

     These are some of the citizens (all civilians) of the city that were imprisoned for their political convictions, aiding the Confederate cause in some manner, or were discouraging fellow Irish from joining the Union Army. A father or mother sending their son, a "care package" (food, warm gloves, or socks) if caught could be imprisoned for the duration of the war. These prisoners, except for the women, were held in the same cells as Confederate POWs at military prisons in the St. Louis area (Alton, Ill.; Gratiot Street; or Myrtle Street). The women listed here were mostly kept on a separate floor at Gratiot, but a few were held at the other prisons.  All these citizens were exposed  to the same cruelties as the Confederate POWs, and many died as a result of conditions and prison diseases. This was America under the Lincoln regime, which bragged they could put anyone, "with a ring of the bell", in a place "where they could not even hear the dogs bark". Only now are the true details of these crimes against democracy being released.

     Below are the names of civilian prisoners that I have identified as Irish. They are spelled the way the Federals recorded them. I did not include names that were also commonly non-Irish (like Brown), even though many Irish had surnames that could be also English or German in origin. There are also some names that could be either of Irish or Scottish origin, like those prefixed with "Mc", I did not attempt to sort them out since many of these names were common in both countries.

 
 

F.G. Bradley Henry E. Bradley H.D. Brady Henry K. Boyd Michael Burk Daniel Burke Jno. E. Burke Michael Burke Peter Burke Thomas Burke John Burkes Jasper Byrne Patrick Byrne Daniel Callahan John Callahan James Carroll Lane L. Carroll Wm. Carroll Timothy Clancay (Clancy ?) Henry Collins Wm. M. Collins Terrence Connelly Christy Conner Peter Conner Thomas L. Conner John Conners Patrick Connor Kate Conway Martin Conway Wm. J. Corkery Peter Dailey Michael Daley Wm. Donahue John Donnlly Wm. H. Dougherty Michael Duffy Patrick Dugan Chas. E. Dunn George H.  Dunn Thomas Dunn John Egan Michael Fahey James Farrell Thomas Farrill Timothy Finagin Henry Fitzgerald Jas. Fitzgerald Michael Fitzgerald Patrick Fitzgerald Richard Fitzgerald Dennis Fogarty Wm. Fogarty John Gaffney Henry Gallagher Hugh P. Gallagher Peter Gallagher John Grady

Patrick Grady Patrick Gury Tim. Kavanaugh Andrew Kelley Bridget A. Kelley Andrew Kelly James Kelly James A. Kelly James B. Kelly Michael Kelly Thomas Kelly James Kennedy, Sr. S. M. Kennedy Thos. Kinney Albert G. Leary Dennis Leary R.S. MacDonald Michall Maguire Thos. Mahan James Maher Michael Maher John Mahoney Pat. Mahoney Wm. Malone Thomas Maloney Timothy Maloney Annie B. Martin John Martin M. E. Martin Thos. J. Martin Thos. L. Martin Wm. Martin David R. McAualty Edward McCabe Patrick McCabe Wm. McCaffrey Joseph McCale Patrick McCarty Francis E. McClure Louis McClure Patrick McClusky Peter McConigal Wm. McCorkle James McCormick John McCormick Michael McCowan F. McCullough Joseph McDonald Phillip McDonald Pleasant McDonald Robert S. McDonald Wm. McDonald Wm. McDonough Michael McEnnis Thos. F. McEnnis Michael McFadden

Jas V. McFillen Cornelius McGinnis John F. McGinnis Peter C. McGinnis Thos. McGovern James J. McGrath Geo. W. McGuire Wm. McGuire Thos. McHainy August McKennon Dr. H. J. McKillap Valentine McKinney Michael McLaughlen Hugh McMahan Bernard McMannaring Patrick McMarsh James McMurray Ellen McQuigg James McShane James O'Brien Laurence O'Brien Richard O'Brien Chas. J. O'Burne Pat. O'Connell Bernard O'Conner Michael O'Conner William O'Donnell Martin O'Gara James O'Hara John O'Hara Michael O'Malley M. J. O'Mally Henry O'Neal John O'Neil Martin O'Neil Michael O'Neil John O'Tool Wm. Ragan James Regan Patrick Reilly Peter Reilly Thomas Reilly Dan'l W. Rhea Anthony Riley Jos. F. Riley Mich'l Riley, Sr. Thos. P. Riley Andrew Ryan Dennis Ryan James Ryan John Ryan John M. Ryan John Scott Michael Shannon John Sheehan Gerald Walsh

 ***Note:  While Irish Americans were regarded as second class citizens in much of the North, they found full equality and acceptance in the  ranks of the Confederate Army. In fact, one Irish immigrant, Patrick Ronayne Cleburne who enlisted in the army as a private, rose to the rank of Major General before being killed at the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee. Cleburne prior to the war was active in the Democratic party and spoke out against the constitutionality of "discriminatory legislation against Catholics and foreigners".

On May 7, 1861 Cleburne stated, "...I believe the North is about to wage a brutal and unholy war on a people who have done them no wrong, in violation of the Constitution and the fundamental principals of the government. They no longer acknowledge that all government derives it's validity from the consent of the governed. They are about to invade our peaceful homes, destroy our property, inaugerate a servile insurrection, murder our men, and dishonor our women. We propose no invasion of the North, no attack on them and only ask to be left alone." Three days later, Nathaniel Lyon's federal forces illegally captured the Missouri State Guard at Camp Jackson in St. Louis, immediately followed by a massacre leaving men women and children dead. Facing this bleak outlook, Cleburne could have returned to Ireland but he declared he would stand up for his friends, as they "have stood up [for] me on all occasions." Cleburne became a hero to generations of Irish Americans and his statue stands in the American Museum of Immigration at the abase of the Statue of Liberty.