The stories behind them, what were some of the men thinking as they participate with this units, and we will end with what they do at gettysburg. With that, we will get started. All right. So, the irish brigade. One might question how do you get interested in this topic . Why would you choose the irish brigade . When i started here as an intern in 1998, the summer of my junior year in college, i was all about history. I wanted to delve more into some of my ancestry and all the stories that i had heard was that we are of irish descent. I was not a great genealogist at that point, but it is still interesting anyway. I had a chance, an opportunity, over the next couple summers as i worked at gettysburg, to really look at this part of the battle. And did a campd fire program on it, somewhat similar to the one you see now, but later on what i was able to do was get married and eventually take a honeymoon to ireland, so what a perfect chance to visit the mother country. We traveled all aroun
Caribbean, and then he was sent to tasmania, and he had terrible asthma. Meagher was the great orator during the rebel times, mitchell was the great writer. So it was a onetwo punch. Mitchell would write in the newspaper, meagher would give speeches in front of thousands of people. They were very close. Mitchell finally comes to america as well, but he likes slavery. Something happens in him that he sees slavery as not a bad thing. He writes in his own newspaper that if you irishmen are coming to america looking for a start, get yourself a couple of slaves and come south. And so meagher and he, his other people, break with mitchell. Mitchell has three boys. Two of them were on the other side of that wall when the irish stormed marys heights. So there was not a technical irish brigade in the confederacy, but there certainly were irish who fought on the other side, including the very people who were the kids of his best friends. Also i have a scene in the book where they fight the irish
Its not going well. The union is losing. They start a draft this 1863, but you want to talk about inequality . In that draft you could buy your way out for 200. So the rich never served the union cause unless they were noble, unless they had a higher calling. For 200 you could get out of the draft, or you could present a live person. So if i brought you in and said, bruce, youre going to take my place, i wouldnt have to serve. I would have paid you to be my body. This really ticked off the irish. They could not pay for this. And as they rolled the barrel in the first draft in American History, the names that came out were heir began, omalley, you know, all these irish names. And so they rioted. I will not ever excuse the riot. It was the darkest point in irishAmerican History. They strung up africanamericans, they burned down buildings, they nearly destroyed new york. They would have killed mara because he stuck to the union til the very end had he not been in washington d. C. They wen
Beauty from old line, wasp money, meagher is a fugitive. He writes this beautiful love letter to her where he asks her her hand for her hand in marriage, and he goes, i am here alone, i am a homeless exile, i have nobody, i have no family. Im wanted by the british empire, you know . Im nothing, but the greatest thing in my life was to find you. And if you will take me as your husband, i will share everything with you. Take my past, take my heritage, let us join our lives together its a beautiful letter. And so she gives up everything to marry this irish rebel. Her father promptly disowns her. She ends up living the rest of her life on a 50amonth civil war widows pension, but they were like this. She nursed his wound. Women, i didnt know this, but women could come down to the camps. He was knocked from his horse twice, he had this horrible abscess on his knee, and also his confidence was shattered. He had lost so many people who were so close to him, people he had personally recruited w
Author timothy eagan. This is live coverage of the tucson book festival. Good morning, welcome, im going to be moderating this conversation this morning with timothy eagan. I want to expand thanks to cspan tv and book tv for sponsoring and will last approximately one hour, including questions and answers till the end of the panel immediately following the session tim will be autographing books at the bookstore, thats 153 by the university bookstores. Because youre enjoying the festival and im sure you all are, please consider joining the festival of the tucson festival of books. So become a friend by visiting the Student Union ballroom or go into our website. Out of respect for the author, please turn off your cell phones, now, if you would. This morning its our pleasure to have timothy eagan. The worst hard time and the National Best seller the big burn. Tims current book just released last week is entitled to immore eat irishman who became an american hero, a biography of thomas mar.