Thomas Francis Meagher

Thomas Francis Meagher
August 3, 1823- July 1, 1867
Brigadier General Thomas Francis Meagher, United States Army
Nickname	"Meagher of the Sword"
Place of birth	Waterford, County Waterford, Ireland
Place of death	Missouri River, Montana Territory, USA
Allegiance	Young Ireland Irish Confederation United States Army
Rank	Brigadier General
Commands	Company K, 69th New York Militia, "The Irish Brigade"
Battles/wars	Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848 American Civil War *First Battle of Bull Run *Battle of Antietam *Battle of Fredericksburg
Other work	Governor of Montana Territory

Thomas Francis Meagher aka: "O'Meagher", or "Meagher of the Sword" (August 3, 1823 – July 1, 1867) was an Irish revolutionary, who also served in the United States Army as a Brigadier General^[1] during the American Civil War.

Biography

Born in Waterford, County Waterford, Ireland, Meagher (pronounced Maw-her, or more commonly Mahr)^{[citation needed]} came from an established Catholic County Tipperary family of tailors & vintners. His father, Thomas Meagher (1796–1874), was born in St John's Newfoundland to Thomas Meagher (1763–1837) and Mary Crotty and was a merchant for the "Waterford-Newfoundland" trade. He was an MP for Waterford and its first Roman Catholic Lord Mayor in over two hundred years, thanks to Daniel O'Connell's successful agitation. His wife Alicia Quan (1798–1827) was the second eldest daughter of Thomas Quan and Alicia Forristall.

Early life

Meagher was educated at Jesuit boarding schools in Ireland (Clongowes Wood) and England (Stonyhurst College). While at school, Thomas Francis gained a broad and deep education and also came into his own as a speaker, although he developed what one Irishman called "a Saxon accent", becoming the youngest medalist of the Clowgowes Wood Debating Society at age 15. After graduating from Stonyhurst, Meagher left Ireland for a tour of the continent where he became imbued with the spirit of revolution then alive in Germany and France.

Meagher returned to Waterford in 1843, where he also first heard Daniel O'Connell speak. As a result of O'Connell's speech, he joined the campaign for the Repeal of the Act of Union with Great Britain of 1801.

In 1845, he became a founding member of the Young Ireland group, among them William Smith O'Brien, which favoured more aggressive action for home rule than O'Connell was willing to support, causing its split from O'Connell's Repeal party. It was a fiery speech by Meagher supporting armed insurrection as a means of Irish independence that finalized the split with Repeal and earned Meagher the sobriquet "Meagher of the Sword".

In January 1847, after the Great Hunger and a typhus epidemic swept Ireland, Meagher, together with John Mitchel, William Smith O'Brien, and Thomas Devin Reilly formed a new repeal body, known as the Irish Confederation and openly preached revolution. In 1848, Meagher and O'Brien went to France to study revolutionary events there, and returned to Ireland with the design for a new Flag of Ireland, a tricolour of orange, white and green gifted by the French. The acquisition of the flag is commemorated at the 1848 Flag Monument in the Irish parliament. The design used in 1848 was similar to the present flag, except that orange was placed next to the staff, and the red hand of Ulster decorated the white field. This flag was first flown in public on March 1, 1848, during the Waterford by-election, when Meagher and his friends flew the flag from the headquarters of Meagher's "Wolfe Tone Confederate Club" at #33, The Mall, Waterford.

Following the incident known as the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848 or "Battle of Ballingarry" in August 1848, Meagher, Terence MacManus, Smith O'Brien, and Patrick O'Donoghue were arrested, tried and convicted for sedition, which, due to a newly passed ex post facto law, meant that Meagher and his colleagues were sentenced to be "hanged, drawn and quartered". But it was after his trial Meagher delivered his famous Speech From the Dock – second only to Robert Emmet's pre-execution speech in the pantheon of Irish political rhetoric.

Meagher and his colleagues were soon joined in Richmond Gaol, Dublin, by Kevin Izod O'Doherty and John Martin; but the death sentences were commuted to transportation to "the other side of the world," and in 1849 all were transported to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania, Australia). On July 20th, the day after being notified he was to be transported to Van Diemen's Land, Meagher announced he wished henceforth to be known as Thomas Francis O'Meagher.

Van Diemen's Land

Meagher accepted the "ticket-of-leave" in Tasmania, giving his word not to attempt to escape without first notifying the authorities, in return for comparative liberty on the island. A further stipulation was that each of the Irish "gentleman" convicts were sent to reside in separate districts : Meagher to Campbell Town and shortly after to Ross (where his cottages still stand), MacManus to Launceston and later near New Norfolk (where his lodging "The Grange" still stands), Kevin O'Doherty to Oatlands (his stone cottage still stands), John Mitchel and John Martin to Bothwell ("Nant Cottage" still stands), Smith O'Brien (who initially refused a ticket-of-leave) to the "Penal Station" on Maria Island (where his cottage still stands) and later to New Norfolk.

Throughout his time in Tasmania, Meagher continued to meet clandestinely with his fellow Irish rebels, especially at Interlaken on Lake Sorell. On 22nd February 1851 Meagher married Katherine Bennett ("Bennie"), daughter of Bryan Bennett of "The Grange" , friend of MacManus. Mitchel and Martin both attended. A mysterious man looking like MacManus also attended - it later transpired that MacManus had in fact escaped to America, and a friendly Irishman had acted his part at the wedding to divert the authorities.

In January 1852 Meagher abruptly surrendered his "ticket-of-leave" (to the disapproval of O'Brien and Martin, but not of Mitchel) and escaped to America. Katherine's health was poor, and she died in Ireland in May 1854 at the home of Meagher's father, having been able to spend only four months with Meagher in America.

American Civil War

Meagher arrived in New York City in May 1852. When the question of "honour" was later raised, Meagher agreed to subject himself to a "trial" of American notables and agreed to return to Van Diemen's Land if they held against him. The "jury" (of unknown ethnic extraction) found for Meagher.^{[citation needed]}

Meagher pursued journalism and studied law, gave lecture tours and with John Mitchel, who had also since escaped, published the radical pro-Irish, anti-British "Citizen". They split over slavery, Mitchel went to Richmond, Virginia and Mitchel's three sons served with the Confederate States Army; Willy Mitchel was killed at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Meagher served the Union Army as a U.S. citizen. As acting Major he led Company K of the 69th Regiment (which would be known as the "Fighting 69th") of the New York State Militia at Bull Run (1st Manassas). He returned to New York to form the Irish Brigade and led it at as Brigadier-General in the Peninsula Campaign at Fair Oaks, Mechanicsville, Gaines' Mill, Peach Orchard (Allen's Farm), Malvern Hill, Antietam (see Meagher's battle report, Antietam [2]), Fredericksburg (Meagher's battle report, Fredericksburg [3]), and at Chancellorsville. He resigned in May 1863 over the army's refusal to let him return to New York to raise reinforcements for his battered brigade: 4,000 strong in mid-May 1862, by late May 1863 the brigade had only approximately 500 combat-ready men left.

Thomas Francis Meagher

After the death of another leading Irish political figure, General Michael Corcoran, Meagher's resignation was rescinded and he was assigned to duty with the western armies, serving under General William Tecumseh Sherman, a Catholic convert. Sherman considered Meagher a foreign rabble-rouser and assigned him to non-combat duties outside of the theater of operations, in which capacity he finished out the war.

Territorial governorship

After the war, Meagher was appointed Secretary of the new Territory of Montana, and soon after arriving in the territory was designated the Acting Governor. As acting governor, Meagher attempted to create a working relationship between the territory's Republican executive and judicial branches and the Democratic legislative branch. He failed, making enemies in both camps.

The Territory of Montana was created from the eastern portion of Idaho Territory in recognition of the influx of settlers following the discovery of gold there in 1862. When the Civil War was finished, a flood of settlers entered the territory...often ignoring U.S. treaties with the local Native American tribes in their quest for riches. In 1867 the renowned Western explorer John Bozeman was reportedly killed by a band of Crow and several other attacks were made against the territory's settlers. Meagher responded by mustering the militia. He secured funding from the federal government to campaign against the natives, but was unable to find the offenders...or retain the militia's cohesion.

Death

In the summer of 1867 he traveled to Fort Benton, Montana, to receive a shipment of guns and ammunition sent by General Sherman for use by the Montana Militia. Meagher fell ill on the way to Fort Benton, the Missouri River terminus for steamboat travel, stopping six days en route to recuperate. When he reached Fort Benton, he was still ill, but took some time with local politicians and admirers.

Some reports state that he spent the afternoon imbibing with his well wishers. Others say that he was simply too ill to drink. Meagher's supposed compatriot, Colonel W. F. Sanders, stated that Meagher appeared to be acting "mentally deranged" and was "loudly demanding a revolver to defend himself against the citizens of Ft. Benton." It was allegedly suggested to the General that he should get some rest, and that is what he allegedly purported to do, reboarding his steamboat, the G. A. Thompson, sometime in the early evening.

After about 11:00 PM, according to Sanders, "there was a colored man...the barber...[who] said a man had let himself down from the upper to the lower deck and jumped into the river and gone on down the stream." Sanders goes on to say that "the next day some members of the general staff" said that he, Sanders, must not mention anything about Meagher's mental condition or that the drowning was not an accident in his letter to Meagher's wife. But this Sanders refused to do, and explained everything to Mrs. Meagher as he saw and as he was told by the witnesses.

Afterwards, no one seems to have questioned the barber's report as suspicious, or the fact that Sanders had alienated himself from Meagher saying that "the secessionists (then called Democratic)...took charge of Gov. Meagher."

One other witness, a female passenger who had remained on board the steamboat, recalled that she heard a deck-hand yelling "man over-board" at about the same time Meagher disappeared; and several years later at least two people attempted to "admit" that they in fact had something to do with Meagher being murdered. But none of the accounts did lead to any sufficient discovery.

Meagher's death, is still considered to be suspicious, however; and as he was outspoken, there could have been numerous persons who would have wanted to murder him.

Meagher was survived by his second wife, Elizabeth Townsend (1840–1906) the daughter of Peter Townsend (1803–1885) and Caroline Parish of Monroe, Orange County, New York, and at least one child that he had by the first marriage: Thomas Francis Meagher Jr.

He is remembered for his service to Montana with a statue on the front lawn of the Capitol grounds in Helena, Montana, and with another statue in Billings, Montana. The county of Meagher County, Montana was also named in his honor.

End notes

1. ^  Meagher had at times been appointed Brevet Major General.

Quotes

The ecstasy...

...The glory of the old Irish nation, which in our hour will grow young and strong again. Should we fail, the country will not be worth more than it is now. The sword of famine is less sparing than the bayonet of the soldier.

On deciding to fight for the Union

It is not only our duty to America, but also to Ireland. We could not hope to succeed in our effort to make Ireland a Republic without the moral and material support of the liberty-loving citizens of these United States.

On presenting the flag to the people of Dublin April 1848

The white in the centre signifies a lasting truce between the 'Orange' and the 'Green', and I trust that beneath its folds the hands of the Irish Protestant and the Irish Catholic may be clasped in generous and heroic brotherhood.

Books By Young Irelanders (Irish Confederation)

• An Apology for the British Government in Ireland, John Mitchel, O Donoghue & Company. 1905
• Jail Journal, John Mitchel, M.H. Gill & Sons, Ltd 1914
• Jail Journal: with continuation in New York & Paris, John Mitchel, M.H. Gill & Son, Ltd
• The Crusade of the Period, John Mitchel, Lynch, Cole & Meehan 1873
• Last Conquest Of Ireland (Perhaps), John Mitchel, Lynch, Cole & Meehan 1873
• History of Ireland, from the Treaty of Limerick to the Present Time, John Mitchel, Cameron & Ferguson
• History of Ireland, from the Treaty of Limerick to the Present Time (2 Vol), John Mitchel, James Duffy 1869
• Life of Hugh O'Neil John Mitchel, P.M. Haverty 1868
• The Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps), John Mitchel, (Glasgow, 1876 - reprinted University College Dublin Press, 2005) ISBN 1-905558-36-4
• The Felon's Track, Micheal Doheny, M.H. Gill & Sons, Ltd 1951 (Text at Project Gutenberg)
• The Volunteers of 1782, Thomas Mac Nevin, James Duffy & Sons. Centenary Edition
• Thomas Davis, Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co, Ltd 1890
• My Life In Two Hemispheres (2 Vol), Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, T. Fisher Unwin. 1898
• Young Ireland, Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co 1880
• Four Years of Irish History 1845-1849, Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co 1888
• A Popular History of Ireland: from the Earliest Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Cameron & Ferguson (Text at Project Gutenberg)
• The Patriot Parliament of 1689, Thomas Davis, (Third Edition), T. Fisher Unwin, MDCCCXCIII
• Charles Gavan Duffy: Conversations With Carlyle (1892)
• Davis, Poem’s and Essays Complete, Introduction by John Mitchel, P. M. Haverty, P.J. Kenedy, 9/5 Barclay St. New York, 1876.

Additional Reading

• The Politics of Irish Literature: from Thomas Davis to W.B. Yeats, Malcolm Brown, Allen & Unwin, 1973.
• John Mitchel, A Cause Too Many, Aidan Hegarty, Camlane Press.
• Thomas Davis, The Thinker and Teacher, Arthur Griffith, M.H. Gill & Son 1922.
• Brigadier-General Thomas Francis Meagher His Political and Military Career,Capt. W. F. Lyons, Burns Oates & Washbourne Limited 1869
• Young Ireland and 1848, Dennis Gwynn, Cork University Press 1949.
• Daniel O'Connell The Irish Liberator, Dennis Gwynn, Hutchinson & Co, Ltd.
• O'Connell Davis and the Collages Bill, Dennis Gwynn, Cork University Press 1948.
• Smith O’Brien And The “Secession”, Dennis Gwynn,Cork University Press
• Meagher of The Sword, Edited By Arthur Griffith, M. H. Gill & Son, Ltd. 1916.
• Young Irelander Abroad The Diary of Charles Hart, Edited by Brendan O'Cathaoir, University Press.
• John Mitchel First Felon for Ireland, Edited By Brian O'Higgins, Brian O'Higgins 1947.
• Rossa's Recollections 1838 to 1898, Intro by Sean O'Luing, The Lyons Press 2004.
• Labour in Ireland, James Connolly, Fleet Street 1910.
• The Re-Conquest of Ireland, James Connolly, Fleet Street 1915.
• John Mitchel Noted Irish Lives, Louis J. Walsh, The Talbot Press Ltd 1934.
• Thomas Davis: Essays and Poems, Centenary Memoir, M. H Gill, M.H. Gill & Son, Ltd MCMXLV.
• Life of John Martin, P. A. Sillard, James Duffy & Co., Ltd 1901.
• Life of John Mitchel, P. A. Sillard, James Duffy and Co., Ltd 1908.
• John Mitchel, P. S. O'Hegarty, Maunsel & Company, Ltd 1917.
• The Fenians in Context Irish Politics & Society 1848-82, R. V. Comerford, Wolfhound Press 1998
• William Smith O'Brien and the Young Ireland Rebellion of 1848, Robert Sloan, Four Courts Press 2000
• Irish Mitchel, Seamus MacCall, Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd 1938.
• Ireland Her Own, T. A. Jackson, Lawrence & Wishart Ltd 1976.
• Life and Times of Daniel O'Connell, T. C. Luby, Cameron & Ferguson.
• Young Ireland, T. F. O'Sullivan, The Kerryman Ltd. 1945.
• Irish Rebel John Devoy and America's Fight for Irish Freedom, Terry Golway, St. Martin's Griffin 1998.
• Paddy's Lament Ireland 1846-1847 Prelude to Hatred, Thomas Gallagher, Poolbeg 1994.
• The Great Shame, Thomas Keneally, Anchor Books 1999.
• James Fintan Lalor, Thomas, P. O'Neill, Golden Publications 2003.
• Charles Gavan Duffy: Conversations With Carlyle (1892), with Introduction, Stray Thoughts On Young Ireland, by Brendan Clifford, Athol Books, Belfast, ISBN 0 85034 1140. (Pg. 32 Titled, Foster’s account Of Young Ireland.)
• Envoi, Taking Leave Of Roy Foster, by Brendan Clifford and Julianne Herlihy, Aubane Historical Society, Cork.
• The Falcon Family, or, Young Ireland, by M. W. Savage, London, 1845. (An Gorta Mor)Quinnipiac University

References

• Forney, Gary R., "Thomas Francis Meagher: Irish Rebel, American Patriot, Montana Pioneer" (2003) Published by Xlibris. ISBN 1-4134-2109-1
• Reginald A. Watson, The life and Times of Thomas Francis Meagher: A Biography (1988) Published by: Anglo-Saxon-Keltic Society, P.O. Box 187, Sandy Bay, Tasmania 7005 Australia. ISBN 0-9595746-5-4.
• Tom Stout, editor, Montana, Its Story and Biography; A History of Aboriginal and Territorial Montana and Three Decades of Statehood (1921) vol. 1, pp. 300–303 [Death of General Meagher]
• Helen Fitzgerald Sanders, A History of Montana (1913)
• Merrill G. Burlingame, M.D. & K. Ross Toole, Ph.D., A History of Montana (1957, 2 volumes)
• Eamonn McEneaney, editor, A History of Waterford and Its Mayors From the 12th to the 20th Century (1995)
• Robert G. Athearn, Thomas Francis Meagher: An Irish Revolutionary in America (1949)
• Michael Kavanagh, The Memoirs of General Thomas Francis Meagher (1892)
• Capt. W.F. Lyons, Brigadier-General Thomas Francis Meagher, his political and military career : with selections from his speeches and writings (1869) [includes the account of John T. Doran who was the Captain of the steamship "G.A. Thompson" that Meagher was on]
• John O'Hart, Irish Pedigrees; or The Origin and Stem of The Irish Nation (1923) Appendix, pp. 812–816 [Meagher's Irish Brigade: listed as Major General]
• Hubert Howe Bancroft, The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft (1889, vol 31) [History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana (1845–1889)]
• United States Census Records for 1860, 1870, 1880, and 1900
• Thomas Keneally, THE GREAT SHAME : and the Triumph of the Irish in the English-Speaking World (1998, Australian edition) [several pages concerning Thomas Francis Meagher with photos of Catherine Bennett, Elizabeth Townsend, Thomas Meagher Sr, etc.]
• Peter O'Shaughnessy, editor. The Gardens of Hell. John Mitchel in Van Diemen's Land 1850-1853. Kenthurst NSW Australia: Kangaroo Press, 1988.

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