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155th NEW YORK STATE VOLUNTEERS

by Kevin O'Beirne

Introduction

        Below is a very brief history of the 155th New York based on the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, regimental letter books, period newspaper accounts, and other first-person sources such as soldier letters and memoirs. A brief history of the 1866 Fenian campaign that culminated in the battles of Ridgeway and Fort Erie in Ontario, Canada is also included herein.

        McMahon’s "Buffalo Irish Regiment", which was known as the 155th New York before it left Buffalo, was presented with a beautiful green silk flag by the citizens of Buffalo on October 4, 1862. The flag, made in New York City, was two-sided and was edged with a golden fringe. The front of the banner featured the harp of Erin (which included the figure of a woman; this style of harp seems to have been unofficially adopted by the Legion as the brigade symbol in its recruiting posters) surrounded by a wreath of gold shamrocks and scrolls reading, "Corcoran’s Irish Legion" and "We Strike for the Union and Constitution". The reverse side of the flag included the seals of New York State and the Federal government, along with the words, "Corcoran Guard of Buffalo, N.Y." and various names relevant to the flag’s production and dedication.

        Many men who enlisted to fight for the Union in the dark summer of 1862 did so on the promise of bounty money and many the men of the 155th were no exception. When the promised bounties were not paid immediately, a large number of enlistees took "foot furloughs". For example, over one-third of McMahon’s troops deserted before the regiment ever saw its first battle; over seventy of them deserted on the very day the regiment left Buffalo.

        The Buffalo Irish Regiment left the Queen City on October 10, 1862. It marched two miles down Niagara Street from Fort Porter to the Exchange Street Railroad Station. Because other local regiments had recently departed the city with great fanfare, the exit of McMahon’s regiment was fairly low-key; the city’s failure to send off its Irish heroes with a grand parade was later roundly criticized by Buffalo’s newspapers. The Buffalonians traveled by train to Albany and then took a steamship down the Hudson River to New York City. The next day the "Buffalo Irish Regiment" arrived at the Corcoran Legion’s training grounds at Camp Scott on Staten Island, where they joined the rest of the Legion, including McEvily’s New Yorkers and Brooklynites.

        Corcoran’s Legion was originally intended to have eight regiments but only one of the colonels, Peter McDermott of the 170th New York (which was recruited within a single state senatorial district in Manhattan) had enlisted the full compliment of around 1,000 men. On November 8, 1862, the State of New York issued orders for consolidation of the units into "full sized" regiments of 750 to 1,000 men each. As part of the reorganization, for some unknown reason, General Corcoran split the Buffalo Irish Regiment in two. Much to the dismay of the men and their officers, the final version of the 155th New York contained only two companies (I and K) from Buffalo; the rest of the regiment was comprised of McEvily’s New York City men and the Binghampton company. Colonel John McMahon left the 155th and command of the regiment was assumed by McEvily.

        The other men of the Buffalo Irish Regiment, together with Colonel McMahon, were mustered into Corocran’s 164th New York; this regiment contained Company B from Lockport in Niagara County, and Companies C and D from Buffalo, with one company from the North Country of New York State and six companies from New York City. The 155th retained the green flag presented in Buffalo, while the 164th marched under a blue regimental banner emblazoned with a Federal eagle.

        The Buffalo men of the 155th and 164th apparently remained closer to each other than they did with the downstate recruits and, especially in their first year of service, there were several incidents of strife between the New York City men and "the Buffalo boys" of both regiments. The most notable was a fracas in the 155th’s camp on St. Patrick’s Day, 1863 in which the two factions waged a battle with revolvers in which live fire was actually exchanged; thankfully there were no injuries. Shortly after it was mustered in, the rift in the 155th New York was temporarily addressed when the Buffalo companies were separated from the rest of the regiment when they were detailed for several weeks as the brigade provost guard under the 155th’s Lt. Col. James P. McMahon, who was from Buffalo.

        The Corcoran Legion wore a variety of uniforms. Throughout the war the majority of the 155th wore infantry dress (frock) coats with sky-blue piping around the collar and cuffs, with a smattering of fatigue blouses (sack coats). In February 1863 the 164th New York received Zouave uniforms with Chasseur-style trousers, similar to the uniform worn by the 9th New York (Hawkins Zouaves); the 164th’s uniform differed from the 9th New York’s attire in that the 164th wore blue fezzes with a green tassel. The other regiments of the Legion were attired as follows: the 182nd New York/69th NYNG, which was largely made up of men from New York City’s famous 69th New York Militia Regiment (Michael Corcoran’s former regiment) were trained in both infantry and artillery tactics and therefore wore distinctive red-trimmed heavy artillery-style frock coats. The 170th New York, which was attired in standard infantry frock coats like the 155th, was entirely from New York City. The 175th New York was recruited in the Albany/Troy/Utica area.

        Neither the 155th or 164th ever had a chaplain. Because the vast majority of men in the Legion were Irish and Catholic, the Legion’s only two chaplains were both Catholic priests: Father James Dillon of the 69th NYNG/182nd New York (who served in the Irish Brigade prior to joining Corcoran’s Legion) and Father Paul Gillen, who was assigned to the 170th New York. Dillon suffered ill health and eventually died of disease in the autumn of 1864 when he was still in his late twenties. Father Gillen, a tough old bird who was over fifty years old in 1862, appears to have remained with the 170th New York in the field throughout the war, and often shared the privations of the men, similar to the Irish Brigade’s famous Father William Corby.

        In mid-November 1862, the 155th New York left Staten Island for Newport News, Virginia (situated twelve miles from Fortress Monroe on the York/James Peninsula) where, on November 17-18, 1862, they were officially mustered into the United States Army for three years. The brigade remained at Newport News until the end of December.

        On December 29, 1862, the 820 men of the 155th New York, together with the rest of the Corcoran Legion, arrived at the Union base at Suffolk in southeastern Virginia near the North Carolina border for six months duty as part of the Union Seventh Corps. Suffolk was a backwater of the Civil War and, during the period of January through June 1863, the 155th participated in a few long and arduous reconnaissance marches between Suffolk and the Blackwater River.

        In mid-January the 175th New York, was detached from the brigade and assigned to service in Louisiana and never rejoined the Legion. The 175th, sometimes referred to as the "Albany Irish regiment" and the "Fifth Regiment of Corcoran’s Legion", suffered heavy casualties including its colonel, Michael Bryan (killed) in the May 26, 1863 assault on Port Hudson, Louisiana. In addition to Port Hudson, the regiment fought at Fort Bisland on Bayou Teche and Franklin, Louisiana, in early 1863, marched in the Red River campaign in early 1864, and participated in Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley campaign in Virginia in the autumn of 1864.

        The 155th New York "saw the elephant" on January 30, 1863, in a pre-dawn action called "the battle of the Deserted House" about ten miles west of Suffolk. Corcoran commanded all the Federal forces in the engagement, which involved about 5,000 Union troops, 1,800 Confederates, and a heavy, two-hour artillery barrage. The battle resulted in 5 casualties in the 155th and 26 total for the brigade, most from the 69th NYNG, and ended in a Confederate retreat. Afterward, life at Suffolk mostly involved incessant fatigue and picket duty. The Legion raucously observed St. Patrick’s Day on March 17, 1863.

        During this period the 155th was commanded by Colonel William McEvily, the Legion was commanded by Colonel Matthew Murphy of the 69th NYNG, and Corcoran led the division. Sadly, only days before St. Patrick’s Day, the man who recruited the Buffalo Irish Regiment, Colonel John E. McMahon of the 164th New York, died of consumption at his home in Buffalo; his brother James, then lieutenant colonel of the 155th, was promoted to command the 164th in John’s place.

        In April 1863, as part of an enormous foraging expedition, Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet’s corps "besieged" Suffolk; the siege caused Longstreet and his 18,000 men to be absent from the Army of Northern Virginia during the Chancellorsville campaign. The 155th was actively engaged during the siege, mostly serving on picket in the trenches on the south side of Suffolk. On April 15, 1863, the 155th’s Company I, together with the 164th’s Company B, a company of the 170th New York, and a squadron of the 1st New York Mounted Rifles made a rough reconnaissance on the White Marsh (Edenton) Road just south of Suffolk, where they put the 17th Virginia of George Pickett’s division to flight. Company I suffered 6 casualties in this engagement, including their commander, 1st Lieutenant Jack McAnally, who was shot in the leg; Company B of the 164th New York lost one man killed and the 170th New York lost one man mortally wounded.

        The entire Legion was present but not actually engaged during the larger battle that occurred on the White Marsh Road on April 24, during which the 164th New York lost 9 men to artillery fire. The siege of Suffolk lasted about three-and-a-half weeks until Longstreet retreated on May 3.

        Shortly after the siege Federal commanders decided to entirely abandon Suffolk. In early July 1863, the 155th and the Corcoran Legion were the last Federal units to be withdrawn from the area, around the time of the battle of Gettysburg.

        In mid-July 1863, the 155th New York moved to northern Virginia for guard duty along the vital supply line of the Orange & Alexandria Railroad. For ten months the regiment fended off Confederate cavalry raids and partisans; at one point, the 155th’s regimental sutler and his wagons were captured by Mosby’s Rangers. The Legion was assigned to the ad-hoc Twenty-second Corps.

        During this time, Corcoran reverted back to command of the brigade and Colonel McEvily of the 155th was discharged from the army. The reasons for McEvily’s discharge are unclear. He was court-martialed in June for allegedly stealing part of of the regimental surgeon’s pay but was found not guilty. McEvily was replaced by his second-in-command, Lt. Col. Hugh Flood of New York City.

        A notable skirmish during this period occurred during the evening of December 17, 1863, when two regiments of Confederate General Thomas Rosser’s cavalry brigade—probably about 1,000 men—attacked a railroad bridge over Pope’s Run near Sangster’s Station guarded by the sixty-five or so men of the 155th’s Company I. After a sharp fight in the dark in a thunder-and-lightning storm the Rebels withdrew, leaving the bridge and railroad intact despite the fact that Company I was outnumbered better than ten to one. Company I lost four wounded and nine taken prisoner during this action, most of who died in Andersonville prison in Georgia. During the fight, the Confederates captured and burned Company I’s Sibley tents.

        Just prior to the fight at Sangster’s Station, the 164th New York had, incredibly, inadvertently left their new regimental flag, still in its shipping crate, at Fairfax Station along O&A Railroad. Captain Jack McAnally of Company I, recovered from his Suffolk wound, found the 164th’s flag and kept it in his quarters until he could give it back to Colonel James P. McMahon of the 164th. During the December 17 fight, however, Rosser’s troopers broke into McAnally’s quarters and took the flag, which they presented to the Virginia Military Institute a week later. While the 155th New York never lost its flag in battle, the 164th’s state flag was captured while in the custody of the 155th’s Company I.

        Only five days after Company I’s battle at Sangster’s Station General Corcoran, weakened by his 1861-1862 captivity, died of apoplexy while riding the horse of former Irish Brigade commander General Thomas F. Meagher; Corcoran was only 36 years old.

        During the winter of 1863-1864, desertions, disease, and accidents continued to take their toll on the 155th New York, which was eventually whittled down to about 400 men by spring. In mid-May the Legion’s four regiments numbered less than 1,600 men present for duty.

        In May 1864, the 155th New York was assigned to Major General Winfield Scott Hancock’s Second Corps of the Army of the Potomac midway through the battle of Spotsylvania Court House. The regiment, together with the rest of the Corcoran Legion, was assigned to the 2nd (Gibbon’s) Division, originally as the 4th Brigade and later as the 2nd Brigade. On May 29, 1864, the Legion was augmented by the non-Irish 8th New York Heavy Artillery. This 1,654-man regiment served as infantry and was recruited in Niagara, Orleans, and Genesee Counties in western New York.

        The 155th New York joined the Army of the Potomac late in the evening of May 17, and, at dawn the next day, participated in a large assault in the area of Mule Shoe salient. In this attack the regiment lost 60 men including all its field officers: Lt. Col. Hugh Flood (severely wounded), Major John Byrne, and "acting Major" Captain John O’Dwyer. Byrne was shot clean through the head—the bullet entered his temple, wrecked the back of one of this eyeballs, and exited his opposite cheek—but he lived. Incredibly, he returned to the field to command the 155th only ten weeks after receiving his disfiguring wound. While Byrne convalesced the 155th was commanded by Captain Michael Doran of Company B.

        Brigade commander Colonel Matthew Murphy was also wounded at Spotsylvania and Colonel James McIvor of the 170th New York took over the Legion—the first of numerous changes in the brigade command during the next five weeks.

        Following Spotsylvania the 155th was lightly engaged along the North Anna River and Totopotomoy Creek and eventually arrived at Cold Harbor, Virginia early on June 2, 1864 with about 330 men in the ranks. Shortly before its arrival at Cold Harbor, Colonel McIvor was replaced by Brigadier General Robert Tyler, who’s tenure in the Corcoran Legion lasted only five days.

        The 155th was heavily engaged during the Union’s pre-dawn assault of June 3 at Cold Harbor and lost 164 men in twenty-five minutes. Much of the rest of the Corcoran Legion suffered similar casualties and the brigade as a whole lost around 900 men in the assault—more than any other brigade at Cold Harbor. Among the casualties were General Tyler (severely wounded) and his successor, Colonel Peter Porter of the 8th NYHA (killed). Brigade command was assumed by an outsider, Colonel John Ramsey. The 155th’s sister regiment, the 164th, lost approximately 155 men in the charge, including Colonel James P. McMahon, who was killed on the Confederate breastworks while holding his regiment’s flag.

        Although no member of the 155th New York ever received the Medal of Honor, the Overland Campaign witnessed deeds by other members of the Corcoran Legion that were so recognized. Two Medals of Honor were earned at the North Anna River—one by Lt. Col. Michael Murphy of the 170th for keeping his regiment in its front-line position despite having run out of ammunition, and by the Sergeant Major of the 182nd New York for braving a gauntlet of enemy fire to single-handedly bring ammunition to the regiment; two at Cold Harbor—by a corporal in the 164th’s Company E for making a dangerous reconnaissance alone and subsequently leading skirmishers in a successful assault on the enemy picket line, and by a sergeant in the 8th NYHA for recovering Colonel Porter’s body from a position only fifty feet from the Confederate line; and on June 16 at Petersburg when a sergeant in the 164th’s Company E braved enemy fire to save a wounded comrade. All of the Corcoran Legion’s Medals of Honor were earned in a mere three-and-a-half week period.

        After the battle of Cold Harbor the Army of the Potomac moved south to Petersburg. The 155th New York took part in the massive Federal assaults on Petersburg on June 16-18, 1864. On June 16, during a late afternoon/early evening charge on well-defended enemy breastworks near the future site of Fort Stedman, the regiment suffered over 50 percent casualties for the second time in less than two weeks, losing about 80 men and being reduced to less than 80 muskets. During this assault, the 155th was deployed as brigade skirmishers and was pinned down for three hours only thirty yards from the Confederate entrenchments, until ordered to withdraw under cover of darkness. Overall the Corcoran Legion lost around 600 men in this charge.

        Brigade commander Ramsey was wounded on June 16 and was replaced by a Massachusetts officer, Colonel William Blaisdell, who was killed in action after commanding the Legion for only four days. By mid-summer, Colonel Matthew Murphy had recovered from his Spotsylvania wound and returned to command the Legion; Major John Byrne returned to command the 155th on July 21.

        Less than a week after the initial assaults on Petersburg, during the June 22-23 battle of Jerusalem Plank Road, the Corcoran Legion helped to drive Confederates from earthworks they had occupied a day earlier, at a cost of almost 150 casualties for the brigade. The 8th NYHA bore the brunt of the loss and the 155th suffered only a few casualties in this engagement.

        Realizing that the Armies of the Potomac and James were spent after six weeks of nearly constant fighting, General Grant "laid siege" to Richmond and Petersburg. For nearly ten months, Grant worked to grind down the defenders of the Confederacy’s capital and "Cockade" cities while working to extend Federal lines northward around Richmond and westward past Petersburg to cut the last remaining railroad lines into both cities. Grant’s efforts resulted in a number of vicious battles between in late July 1864 and late October, with sporadic engagements continuing until the end of the Petersburg campaign in late March 1865.

        In late July and mid-August the 155th New York was only lightly engaged during the Second Corps’s offensives north of the James River in the vicinity of Deep Bottom and Strawberry Plains.

        The 155th and the rest of the Corcoran Legion were, however, in the thickest of the fight on August 25 at Reams Station on the Petersburg-Weldon Railroad about ten miles south of Petersburg. Grant sent Hancock with two small infantry divisions—including Gibbon’s—and two small cavalry divisions to destroy the Weldon Railroad from Globe Tavern southward as far as possible. Only a few days earlier Federal troops had cut the Weldon line at Globe Tavern after a four-day battle.

        At Reams Station, the Legion under Colonel Matthew Murphy was assigned to the southern apex of an eastward-facing U-shaped line of Federal entrenchments. During a late-afternoon frontal assault by determined Confederate troops, the Legion was subjected to artillery fire from the flank and rear, a flanking infantry attack when units of another division gave way, and a charge on their front by two divisions of dismounted Rebel cavalry. During the battle Murphy assigned the diminutive 155th and 170th New York to a portion of the works that faced west along the Weldon Railroad, while the rest of the brigade faced south behind them.

        The Corcoran Legion lost 500 men at Reams Station—most of them taken prisoner—and was nearly destroyed. Among other casualties, the 155th’s commander, Major John Byrne of Buffalo, was captured. The day after Reams Station, the entire 155th New York mustered only thirty-eight men and three commissioned officers—one captain and two lieutenants. The day after the battle the 164th had a lone commissioned officer and around forty men, and the 170th New York reportedly had only thirty-five men left. The 182nd was in similar sorry shape and the formerly large 8th NYHA numbered barely 300 men.

        To boot, both the 164th New York and 8th NYHA lost their colors in hand-to-hand combat at Reams Station. These regiments, together with the 36th Wisconsin, were by order of General Meade subsequently deprived of the right to carry any colors at all until they proved their worthiness in battle in late October.

        After Reams Station the Corcoran Legion spent two months on picket duty in earthworks and redoubts around Petersburg, usually near Fort Stedman, and experienced all the misery of trench warfare and constant fatigue duty building earthworks.

        Formerly wounded and sick men continued to return to the ranks until the 155th counted about 130 men around its flags by late October. Between September 1864 and February 1865 the 155th was commanded by captains (Michael Doheny of Company B, Thomas Dunbar of Company F, and Hugh Mooney of Company I) until Byrne was paroled from his Confederate prison in February 1865.

        Colonel Murphy’s health failed and, by October, Colonel James Willet of the 8th NYHA was temporarily in command of the Legion. During the autumn of 1864 the 2nd Division was under the command of Brigadier General Thomas Egan.

        In late October 1864 the Legion, together with the rest of Hancock’s Second Corps, went into battle southwest of Petersburg on the Boydton Plank Road near a pond at Burgess Mill on Hatcher’s Run. The brigade acquitted itself well in this fight, in which the 164th New York captured a Rebel cannon and caisson. That night, when encirclement by Confederate forces appeared imminent, the Second Corps withdrew to avoid, as a man in the 155th put it, "another Reams Station". The 155th lost 19 men in this fight including, killed in action, Company I’s Sergeant George Tipping, who left a legacy of over 110 letters chronicling the regiment’s deeds.

        After the battle of Boydton Plank Road, the 155th’s corps commander, Winfield S. Hancock, left the Army of the Potomac and was replaced by Major General Andrew Humphreys.

        Winter settled over the Petersburg front and trench warfare continued. The Corcoran Legion spent the winter of 1864-1865 quartered in huts behind the lines in the vicinity of Fort Stedman. In early February 1865, while the 2nd Division was commanded by Brigadier General William Hays, the 155th New York was lightly engaged in battle along Hatcher’s Run, not far from the scene of their late-October fighting. While the 155th and the Legion lost few men at Second Hatcher’s Run (also known as the battle of Dabney’s Sawmill), brigade commander Colonel Matthew Murphy was wounded in the knee by a Rebel sniper and died of his injury in April. Colonel James McIvor of the 170th New York again took command of the Legion, this time permanently and for the rest of the war.

        During the war, the Corcoran Legion lost seven brigade commanders, including three killed by enemy fire: General Michael Corcoran (died of natural causes), Colonel Matthew Murphy (wounded at Spotsylvania), General Robert Tyler (wounded at Cold Harbor), Colonel Peter Porter (killed at Cold Harbor), Colonel John Ramsey (wounded at Petersburg), Colonel William Blaisdell (killed at Jerusalem Plank Road), and Murphy (mortally wounded at Second Hatcher’s Run). Commanders of the 155th New York who became casualties were Lt. Col. Hugh Flood (wounded at Spotsylvania) and Major John Byrne (wounded at Spotsylvania and captured at Reams Station).

March-July 1865

        During the winter of 1864-1865 the Corcoran Legion recovered a portion of its strength when veterans, paroled or recovered from wounds, returned to the front. Prior to the spring campaign, John Byrne, exchanged after six months in a Confederate prison and promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, returned to command the 155th.

        On March 25, 1865, in the aftermath of the Confederate repulse at Fort Stedman, the 155th New York assisted in taking the advanced Confederate rifle pits on the western end of the Petersburg lines near the Watkins house along Hatcher’s Run in hard fighting, sustaining 12 casualties. During this battle, the 164th New York and 8th NYHA first occupied the enemy’s picket line but were driven back. The 155th New York successfully counterattacked the Rebels and retained their advanced position until nightfall.

        A week later (April 2, 1865), while stationed along the far western flank of the Union entrenchments near Hatcher’s Run and the Boydton Plank Road near the Crow house, the 155th and the Legion participated in the final, successful Federal attack on Petersburg and captured three Rebel cannon.

        In the first few days of the ensuing Appomattox Campaign the Legion was assigned to guard supply wagons in the rear but, after hard marching, rejoined their division late in the day of April 6, 1865 as the battle of Sailor’s Creek was winding down. During these final battles, the 155th’s division was commanded by the grizzled veteran, General Francis Barlow. The 155th’s last combat actions occurred at Farmville and Cumberland Church, Virginia, on April 7. The regiment was present for the surrender of Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia on April 9 at Appomattox Court House and participated in President Johnson's Grand Review of the Federal Armies on May 23 in Washington D.C. The regiment was mustered out of the service in Washington D.C. on July 15, 1865 and, a few days later, was paid off and discharged in New York City.

        In a near-comical postscript to years of "upstate-downstate" strife and inter-regimental rivalry within the Legion, in the New York City armory in which the unit was quartered its last night in the service, a grand fistfight broke out when men from another regiment in the Legion insulted the 155th’s green flag. Based on an eyewitness account, the veterans of the 155th successfully defended their ground in their final "combat action". The next day the regiment dispersed to history as its members returned to their homes in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Long Island, Buffalo, and Binghampton.

        In three years of conflict the 155th New York suffered a total of 187 deaths and roughly 300 wounded, captured, or missing, for an overall casualty rate of 59.4 percent.

        Few monuments to the Corcoran Legion exist. The non-Irish 8th NYHA has a monument in the Cold Harbor National Cemetery and several monuments in the counties where it was recruited. A small monument to Company I of the 155th and Rosser’s Virginia troopers was erected in a farmer’s field near Sangster’s Station—this writer has a photograph of it taken in 1959—but it disappeared sometime in the early 1960s. In September 2002 a monument to the Buffalo men of the 155th and 164th New York was dedicated on the City of Buffalo harborfront. Otherwise, the history of Corcoran’s Legion appears to be nearly forgotten by most Civil War enthusiasts.

Spear’s Blackwater Expedition, near Suffolk, Va. (January 8-10, 1863)

Battle of the Deserted House, Va. (January 30, 1863)

Siege of Suffolk, Va. (April 12-May 3, 1863)

Ø Reconnaissance on the Edenton Road (April 15, 1863)

Ø Battle on the Edenton Road (April 24, 1863)

Ø Pursuit of Longstreet to the Blackwater (May 3-4, 1863)

Expedition to the Blackwater (June 12-18, 1863)

Orange & Alexandria Railroad (July, 1863-May, 1864)

Ø Action at Sangster’s Station, Va. (December 17, 1863)

Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, Va. (May 17-21, 1864)

Ø Landron House/Second Assault in the Mule Shoe (May 18, 1864)

Battle of the North Anna River, Va. (May 23-26, 1864)

Actions along the Pamunkey River and Totopotomoy Creek, Va. (May 26-31, 1864)

Battle of Cold Harbor, Va. (June 2-12, 1864)

Second Assault (June 3, 1864)

Battle of Petersburg, Va. (June 16-18, 1864)

Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road, Va. (June 22-23, 1864)

Battle of First Deep Bottom/Fussell’s Mill (July 27-28, 1864)

Battle of Second Deep Bottom/Strawberry Plains (August 14-18, 1864)

Battle of Reams Station, Va. (August 25, 1864)

Battle of Boydton Plank Road/Burgess Mill/First Hatcher’s Run, Va. (October 27-28, 1864)

Siege of Petersburg, Va. (June 1864-March 1865)

Battle of Second Hatcher’s Run/Dabney’s Sawmill, Va. (February 5-7, 1865)

Actions at Watkins House, Va. (March 25, 1865)

Appomattox Campaign (April, 1865)

Ø Fall of Petersburg (Crow House; April 2, 1865)

Ø Battles at Farmville and Cumberland Church, Va. (April 7, 1865)

Ø Appomattox Court House (April 9, 1865)

        Because Michael Corcoran was a leading figure in the Fenian Brotherhood—a militant organization dedicated to freeing Ireland from British rule—many New York State "Fenians" enlisted in his Legion. Many soldiers of the 155th New York were Fenians and, with many hundreds of other Union and Confederate veterans of Irish birth and ancestry, participated in the Fenian invasion of British America (Canada) in June 1866.

        Most Buffalo-area Fenians from the old 155th and 164th New York were part of the Fenians’ 7th "Buffalo" Regiment, commanded by Colonel John Hoy. Desiring to "smite the tyrant [of Great Britain] wherever we can", the Fenians planned to occupy Canada and either set up an Irish republic in exile from which to struggle for Ireland’s freedom, or use it as a bartering tool for Irish independence. The Fenians’ grand scheme for three main Irish-American invasion columns did not come off as planned and only one border crossing was truly effected.

        Just after midnight on June 1, 1866, a small Fenian brigade of about 600 men commanded by Lt. Col. John O’Neill advanced across the Niagara River from Black Rock (two miles north of Buffalo) and went into bivouac three miles north of Fort Erie, Ontario. O’Neill was an Irish-born Tennesseean who had served in the Union army’s 15th United States Colored Troops and the 7th Michigan Cavalry during the Civil War and was wounded at the battle of Nashville in December 1864.

        In 1866 O’Neill’s small Irish command included the Fenians’ 7th (Buffalo) Regiment, the 13th (Tennessee) Regiment, the 17th (Louisville, Kentucky) Regiment, the 18th (Cleveland, Ohio) Regiment, and two companies from Terra Haute, Indiana.

        Throughout June 1 O’Neill sent out scouts mounted on commandeered Canadian horses and attempted to determine the British/Canadian response to the Fenian incursion. A contingent of Fenians entered Fort Erie and hoisted the tri-colored Irish flag over British soil for the first time in history. During the day, O’Neill’s force lost at least 100 men to desertion, but the remaining 500 proved to be fairly disciplined soldiers who, after the incursion ended, were complimented by the locals in the Fort Erie area. That evening, while the British hurried redcoated regulars and Canadian militia to the Niagara peninsula, O’Neill took a position on Black Creek about ten miles northwest of Fort Erie to block the strategic Erie & Ontario Railroad. The British most feared that the Fenians would occupy or damage the important Welland Canal, which connects Lake Ontario and Lake Erie while allowing ships to bypass Niagara Falls.

        During the night of June 1-2 O’Neill’s scouts informed him of two forces arrayed against the Fenians. The first, comprised of 2,000 British regulars with artillery and cavalry, was awaiting reinforcements at Chippewa (just south of modern-day Niagara Falls, Ontario and the site of a bloody battle in the July 1814 Niagara Campaign). This force, commanded by Colonel John Peacocke, was too big for O’Neill to tackle with his small Fenian brigade of 500 men. However, the second force converging on the Fenians was 840 poorly trained Toronto militia commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Booker, without artillery or cavalry. Booker’s command arrived at Port Colborne (fifteen miles west of Fort Erie) late on June 1 and was a tempting target for the Fenians.

        At 3:00 a.m. on June 2, O’Neill’s men were up and soon marching southwest along Limestone Ridge toward Port Colborne. Meanwhile, Booker was ordered by Peacocke to move his men by rail to the small hamlet of Ridgeway (seven miles west of Fort Erie), and then advance northeast toward Chippewa to combine with the British regulars. The Fenians and Booker’s Toronto militia were on a collision course.

        Marching southward along the Ridge Road, about seven miles west of Fort Erie, where Ridge Road crosses Garrison Road (modern-day Ontario Route 3), and just north Ridgeway, the Fenians heard Booker’s troop-train arrive in Ridgeway. O’Neill deployed one of his regiments as skirmishers with orders to slowly fall back and draw the Canadians into an ambush. Heavy skirmishing broke out at 8:00 a.m. on June 2 and both sides fed additional battalions and companies into the fray.

        As the Canadians advanced toward the Fenian trap they sighted O’Neill’s mounted scouts on the Ridge Road—a local topographical eminence. Word passed through the Canadian ranks that Fenian "cavalry" were preparing to charge and, as the redcoated 13th York Battalion was relieving the front line troops of the green-coated Queen’s Own Rifles, the Queen’s Own formed squares—the traditional defense against a mounted charge.

        O’Neill brought up all of his men, and the Irishmen fixed bayonets and fired into the packed squares. The Irish war cry, "Faugh a ballagh!" sounded as O’Neill ordered a bayonet charge who’s approach broke the already-shaky Canadians into confusion. Panic erupted and Booker’s men fled the field. Most of the Canadians did not stop running until they reached Port Colborne eight miles away. During the rout the Fenians captured two Canadian flags.

        The tired Fenians rested on the battlefield until 2:30 p.m. During the day O’Neill’s scouts informed him that Peacocke’s British regulars, reinforced to over 3,000 men, had advanced to within a few miles Ridgeway. Seeing few alternatives O’Neill ordered a retreat eastward toward Fort Erie. When they arrived on the Niagara riverbank late in the afternoon of June 2 the Fenians found ninety Canadians in a battle line near the wharf. These were Toronto militia who had been detached from Booker’s force at Port Colborne before the fighting started at Ridgeway. A brief but bloody skirmish broke out, fought mainly on the Fenian side by Hoy’s 7th "Buffalo" Regiment, which ended in a Fenian victory.

        O’Neill and his men went into camp in the old stone fortress of Fort Erie and contemplated their next move. Learning that neither of the other Fenian invasion columns had crossed into Canada, O’Neill, now more concerned with not needlessly wasting his men’s lives, decided to retreat back across the Niagara River to Buffalo.

        During the night of June 2-3 local Fenian leaders in Buffalo, including the young tavern owner Hugh Mooney, who had commanded Company I of the 155th New York, brought two barges across the river to withdraw O’Neill’s fighters. The Fenians were half way across the river during the night when they were intercepted by the ironclad U.S.S. Michigan and arrested for violation of neutrality laws.

        The Fenian threat was regarded as a real one because hundreds or thousands—depending on the source—of additional Fenian troops were in Buffalo and attempting to find a way across the river when O’Neill and his men were arrested. The arrests were ordered by U.S. Army Major General George Meade, the Union’s hero of Gettysburg, and were personally superintended by Meade’s superior, Lt. Gen. Ulysses Grant, who hurried to Buffalo when the crisis erupted.

        Canadian casualties at Ridgeway were 10 dead, 37 wounded, and several prisoners; at Fort Erie the Toronto men lost 6 severely wounded and 40 prisoners. Irish casualties at Ridgeway numbered about 8 dead and 27 wounded, plus 3 more killed and 4 wounded at Fort Erie; approximately 40 Fenian stragglers were captured and later put on trial in Toronto.

        The Fenians’ main invasion column, which numbered about 5,000 men, was to advance from northern Vermont toward Montreal in Canada East (Quebec). This column, which most certainly included many Corcoran Legion survivors from New York City, finally crossed the border a few days after the failure of O’Neill’s incursion. After a small skirmish just beyond the border with few casualties on either side, the Fenians withdrew.

        Many of the Fenians received little more than a slap on the wrist from the United States, reportedly because their anti-British activities were tacitly condoned by the Johnson administration as a way of twisting the English lion’s tail for its undeclared support of the Confederacy during the American Civil War. The Fenian raids were a direct catalyst to the formation of the Commonwealth of Canada the following year, primarily for reasons of Canadian self-defense. During the following decade the Fenians, led by O’Neill, made additional raids into Canada but none were the size or threat as the June 1866 invasion. Irish independence finally came in 1920, although it had nothing to do with military activities in North America in the 1860s and 1870s.

        Today, the Ridgeway battlefield historic site, located on the battlefield in the shadow of Limestone Ridge only seven miles west of Buffalo, includes a monument and small visitors’ center that is open on weekends during July and August. Additional relics from the Fenian invasion are displayed in the nearby Town of Fort Erie Historical Museum.

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Last updated: 28 December 03 at 1315 hrs
by Mark (Silas) Tackitt