Remembering the many Irish lost at Gettysburg

Hundreds of Irish died in the Civil War battle 150 years ago, but they and 35,000 other dead Irish have not been recognised here, writes Damian Shiels.

TODAY marks the 150th anniversary of Gettysburg. The American Civil War battle saw more than 165,000 Union and Confederate soldiers swarming around the woods and fields of the crossroads Pennsylvania town. When it was over, Gettysburg ranked as one of the most important victories of the war for the North, but it exacted a terrible price. In just three days over 51,000 men had become casualties — many hundreds of them Irish.

The slaughter of the Civil War took place thousands of miles from Ireland’s shores and has remained far from our historical consciousness. However, outside of World War One, the conflagration that engulfed the United States between 1861 and 1865 saw more Irishmen in uniform than at any other time in history. Wartime America was home to over 1.6m people of Irish birth; they accounted for over a quarter of New York’s population alone.