Kearsarge and Alabama

[irishamericancivilwar]

150 years ago today the USS Kearsarge engaged and defeated the CSS Alabama in one of the most famous naval engagements of the war. Many of the men on both sides were immigrants. Michael Ahern, William Smith and James Haley, all Irish, received the Medal of Honor for their actions that day. Ahern's is one of the most unusual of all Civil War stories. An unemployed clerk in Queenstown, Co. Cork, he had been illegally recruited by the Kearsarge in Ireland, who went to extraordinary lengths to keep him even after their activity had been exposed. Ahern had presumably never set foot in the United States up to the time he performed his Medal of Honor action. More on the 'Kearsarge Affair' here: http://irishamericancivilwar.com/20...sarge-and-the-queenstown-affair-co-cork-1863/

 

[Pat Young]

Thanks for posting. I'll take a look at this after work.

 

[Pat Young]

Very interesting case study of illegal recruitment in neutral territory.

 

[irishamericancivilwar]

It was the first prosecution under the Foreign Enlistments Act as far as I am aware. I go into more detail on it in the book, but they put all the men who were returned by the Kearsarge on trial and also called those who had taken them out to the ship as witnesses. Although found guilty they were not given a prison sentence. Almost certainly a Confederate agent in Queenstown Lieutenant Capston alerted the authorities to the recruitment taking place- an indication of the war of subterfuge that was taking place beyond Americas' shores during the war.

 

[Pat Young]

It was the first prosecution under the Foreign Enlistments Act as far as I am aware. I go into more detail on it in the book, but they put all the men who were returned by the Kearsarge on trial and also called those who had taken them out to the ship as witnesses. Although found guilty they were not given a prison sentence. Almost certainly a Confederate agent in Queenstown Lieutenant Capston alerted the authorities to the recruitment taking place- an indication of the war of subterfuge that was taking place beyond Americas' shores during the war.

And both sides looked to Ireland as a recruiting ground