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Introduction: The Irish in the American Civil War

So went the chorus of a rousing song that travelled throughout the USA during the summer of 1861. Sung from the point of view of a woman, the lyrics encouraged ‘John’ to enlist in the American Civil War, also called ‘the uncivil war’, ‘the war between the states’, ‘the war of Northern aggression’, and ‘the rich man’s (woman’s) war and the poor man’s (woman’s) fight’. The verses assured that a cohort of women would handle field and farm until those bearing arms ‘for the cause’ could, in the words of yet another popular song of the day, ‘come marching home’. Indeed, just about everyone had to manage differently as a result of this conflict, which claimed more lives than did all of the other wars fought by the USA combined and which altered irrevocably the hopes and dreams of many more. One hundred and fifty years later, this wrenching conflict continues to capture the imagination of academics and laypeople alike and to shape the master narrative regarding the USA’s national identity. Although the Civil War’s causes continue to be debated, most agree that the future of labour in an era of Western expansionism, federal versus states’ rights, the growth of the abolitionist movement, the question of slavery, and the election of 1860 factored heavily. Northern states became increasingly committed to the abolition of slavery; southern states felt threatened by the government’s refusal to allow them the right to nullify – or declare unconstitutional – federal enactments with which they disagreed. Even prior to Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration on 4 March 1861, the states of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had already seceded; by June, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee had followed suit. Some argue that the Civil War commenced on 12 April 1865, when Fort Sumter, which lay in the harbour of Charleston, South Carolina, was fired upon. Others proffer an earlier date, 16 October 1859, when extremist John Brown staged a raid at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. Like Harriett Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, John Brown’s ‘bloody sacrifice’ for the cause of Abolition galvanized hearts and minds in the North. Although there may be doubt as to when the Civil War began, one thing is certain: it was only after four bloody and bitter years of fighting and a turbulent Reconstruction Era marred by political upheavals and negotiations that the Republic began to return to some sense of ‘normalcy’. In addition to the end of slavery, other changes wrought by the conflict are indisputable: breakthroughs in medicine and the advancement of women, to cite but two.