The 1861 Project - Volume 2 

Generations of Irish immigrants played an integral role in the American Civl War, often drafted into the Union army right off the famine ships.

Some of the new arrivals were offered citizenship and immediately conscripted. Others volunteered to join up, some to prove that they were worthy citizens and others because they believed in the American ideal of liberty for all. Still others enlisted to gain the military experience they would need to free their home country from the British after the American war was over. The Southern planters reminded them of the hated aristocrats and land owners in Ireland.

On the Southern side were Scots/Irish immigrants who had come to the US in the early 18th century and carved out a living for themselves on the Western side of the Appalachian mountains. They had no use for a centralized government in Washington which reminded them of the British rule in Ireland. Others, like Cleburne, fled the potato famine and wanted nothing more than to blend in wherever they lived, in his case Arkansas.

As a result, the American conflict of brother against brother turned into a war of Irish against Irish in one of the many brutal ironies of history.

There are so many compelling stories here, all brought to vivid life in the songs of The 1861 Project, Volume 2. 

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