Revisiting the role Chicago’s Irish played in the Civil War

Revisiting the role Chicago’s Irish played in the Civil War
Tuesday marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War. Flickr/Lucy Rendler-Kaplan
Revisiting the role Chicago’s Irish played in the Civil War
Tuesday marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War. Flickr/Lucy Rendler-Kaplan

Revisiting the role Chicago’s Irish played in the Civil War

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On April 12, 1861, the first shots of the Civil War rang out at Fort Sumter. Over the next four years some four million men enlisted. Many of them would die from combat, sickness and disease.

Author Mary Pat Kelly’s book Galway Bay details the role the Chicago Irish played in the Civil War. Not all of the stories she came across fit in her book.  Now the Chicago native has found a different way to honor Chicago’s Irish civil war soldiers. She joined Eight Forty-Eight to explain more.

Music Button: Ciaran Tourish, “Oldtown”, from the CD Down The Line, (Compass Records)