The Life of Paddy Yank: The Common Irish-American Soldier in the Union Army

Nearly 150,000 Irish-born men served as soldiers in the Union army during the American Civil War and since the nineteenth-century, Irish soldiers have been a popular topic of scholarly study. Yet despite the abundance of publications on Irish service, the Civil War, and on Irish America, we know little, if anything about the common Irish-born Union soldier. Indeed, most publications provide little sophisticated analysis and nearly all recycle nineteenth-century stereotypes of Irish immigrants. This study attempts to fill the void in the literature, contributing to the understanding of common Civil War soldiers as well as the history of the Irish in America.;Using regimental descriptive books -- a source long-ignored by many scholars studying Irish Civil War service -- as well as pension and census records, the author constructed a longitudinal social-mobility study of Irish-born soldiers in ethnic Union regiments. In doing so, the study ascertains the typical profile of the Irish immigrant soldier in the sample, the characteristics of his soldiering, and his postwar experience. The data suggests that the typical Irish-born volunteer does not fit the description laid out by previous scholars. Most Irish soldiers were not young, unskilled laborers who had only recently arrived in America. Compared to most other Irish immigrants, they were economically successful. Most were old, older than the typical Union soldier, and had resided in the United States long before hostilities broke out between the North and South. This information also offers insight to Irish American identity and Irish motivation for enlisting, which was likely not for financial reasons as scholars have claimed.;Yet diversity existed as well. The soldiers' county of birth illuminates cultural differences that existed within Ireland and also shows the presence of immigrant networks and migration chains that connected regions in Ireland with specific places in America. As soldiers, the Irish-born paradoxically deserted and fought and died in large numbers, which calls into question not only how they had previously been characterized, but the validity of using those categories as accurate measures of soldier commitment to the Union. Lastly, in the postwar years, Irish veterans enjoyed both economic success and failure.