The harp and the eagle: The impact of Civil War military service in the Union Army on the Irish in America

This dissertation challenges the historical theory that Civil War military service aided Irish-Americans in their assimilation into the core of American society, which in the mid-nineteenth century was the white, Anglo-American Protestant middle-class. To accomplish this the work addresses the motivations that led Irish-Americans to join the Union Army and it disputes the popular argument that many Irish men volunteered to prove their loyalty to America with the expectation that this would earn the respect of the native-born population and inspire greater tolerance for the Irish in America that would lead to new opportunities and improved conditions, thus aiding their assimilation into the postwar nation.;I argue that most Irish-Americans volunteered for issues that were important to them and their communities and had little, if any, interest in assimilating into American society. For example, Irish nationalists such as the Fenians volunteered for service to gain military training for their planned future war to liberate Ireland. Others fought for the Union out of a sense of duty to help their adopted home in a time of national crisis, but related this to a desire to preserve a united America as a safe haven for future generations of Irish immigrants. Some Irish men enlisted simply for money and had little interest in the Union cause. Few of these men, however, mentioned an expectation of future opportunities resulting from a grateful native-born populace as the inspiration behind their service. Finally, this work argues that not only was assimilation not a goal of most Irish-Americans in the Civil War, but there is little evidence to support the argument that their service aided Irish-American assimilation in the postwar era. Large levels of anti-Irish and anti-Catholic prejudice remained in late-nineteenth century America. The historical evidence indicates that what limited advances did occur resulted from Irish-American political activism, unity within the Democratic Party and the Catholic Church, or through generational advancement as native-born Irishmen functioned within American society with greater ease than their foreign-born fathers.