As for my Irish Civil War relatives:
Patrick Kennedy (my great x3 grandfather), the oldest child of Michael and Anna (Quinn) Kennedy, was born on February 27, 1831 in Ireland and immigrated with his parents and several younger siblings to Boston in 1848. Continuing on, the family settled on a farm outside of Ogdensburg, NY where Patrick began his family when he married Catherine Dewan on October 21, 1851. From 1852 to 1856, they had four children, all of whom would survive into the 19-teens. After his father's death in a silo accident in 1858 (which also killed his younger brother, John who was 9), Patrick took over the farm. Staying home in the opening years of the war, Patrick finally enlisted in November 1863 in order to get the enlistment bounty. He joined Company G, 14th New York Heavy Artillery (which recruited heavily from upstate New York and included many veterans from 2-year regiments who had gone home in the spring and summer of 1863) but was given a medical discharge on December 17, 1863. He immediately turned around and enlisted on January 4, 1863 in the 6th New York Heavy Artillery, receiving another bounty. The 6th NYHA served throughout the Overland Campaign and saw heavy service in the Valley Campaign of 1864, suffering 567 casualties from May 1864 until Appomattox. Patrick was discharged on July 19, 1865 at Petersburg, VA and began his trip home. Unfortunately, although he was never wounded, he was deeply scarred by the war. Prior to the war, Patrick seems to have been a relatively typical hardworking farmer but crawled into a bottle when he returned. From 1865-68, he was arrested several times for public drunkenness, publicly abusing his wife, and fighting. Catherine divorced him in 1868 and Patrick married Clara Sampier (who was 23 at the time) in 1871. They would have 6 children born from 1872 to 1880 (my great x2 grandfather was their first-born). Patrick had neglected the family farm after he returned from the war and was practically indigent except for the generosity of his youngest brother, Michael Jr. (born 1854), who had taken over the farm from Patrick. He abandoned the pregnant Clara late in 1879 who had to move into the poorhouse with all of her children (George Kennedy was born in the poorhouse in 1880) and was found dead on the side of a road near Ogdensburg, likely from an alcohol related incident or disease. Understandably, his oldest son Charles would never allow alcohol in his house or around him his entire life.
Ryan