The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-02-19

ahead of the Puritans of New England
in the revolutionary movement. The
| Irish of South Carolina were holder and
| more aggressive than the patriots OF
Massachusetts bay. And now, let me
recall some of the great wars in which
was allowed TO take an humble part.
| No battle was ever fought without he
roic irish blood REDEEMED the field of
carnage. The last successful fight of
the war was led by that born Irish
! soldier, General Phil Sheridan, at Five
Forks, Va 1t is conceded that Sheridan
was the greatest cavalry general of the
war, and he divides the honor with
Hancock and Hooker, as the most bril-
liant battlefield general.
The soldier who led the most des-
perate and hopeless cavalry charge of
the entire war was an Irishman-COl-
! Onel keenan, of the Eighth Pennsylva-
MIA cavalry. At CHARACTERISTIC he led
. charge OF four hundred cavalrymen
against the advance of StOnewall Jack
sons ten thousand confederates. This
charge stunned and scattered the adj
vance and in the confusion 'Stonewall
Jackson, next to Robert Z. Lee, the
greatest general of the confederate
army, was killed.
The famous Irish brigade, immortal
lied by the Irish poet-soldier, Colonel
Charles G. Halpine, did more desperate
lighting and lost more men than any
other brigade of the Union army. Cen
eral Phil hearney, the hero of four
wars, was an Irishman. He was desper-
ately wounded in tie battle of Chere-
buSco, Mexico, where he lost his left
arm. Kearney first served in the French
army in Algiers, Africa. He fought on
the French side in the famous battle of
Solferino, in the Crimean campaign of
1853, in which the allied French and
Sardinians, under Napoleon III, signal
ly defeated the Austrians. Owing to
kearney's splendid courage at Solferino,
Napoleon conferred upon him the Lee
gion of Honor. the first American who
ever received that decoration for mill
tary service. General Shields, another
Irish soldier. 4 famous fighter, lost his
left arm, shattered by a shell in the
first battle of Winchester"
Over forty-three years have passed
since this tribute to Irish soldiers was
uttered at Father Hannin's st. Patricks
day celebration, March II, 1866. Many
other Catholic heroes rise up in mem
DRY. notably Rosecrans, the hero of
Stone river; Archbishop Ireland, whose
fame has spread with his years, and
our own hero of Mission Ridge, John S.
Kountz, past commander in-chief of
the Grand Army of the Republic. /
must not forget to mention a valuable
book sent me by the author, the late
Rev William Corby, c. S. c., of Notre
Dame university. Indiana. entitled
Three Years Chaplain of the Famuos
Irish Brigade, Army of the Potomac"
This is one of the most remarkable
and brilliant historic works on the
achievements and heroism of the armies
of the Union l have ever read. Father
Corby was a three years veteran, at
the front, and chaplain of the Irish bri-
gade. This famous Irish brigade (con-
coded to be, the greatest fighting bri-
gade of the Army of the Potomac) was
commanded by that famous Irish SOL
der, Thomas Francis Meagher Six
regiments composed the brigade, and
five Catholic priests were chaplains
Father Corby is the central figure in
that famous picture Mass on the Bat
tlefield of Gettysburg. Irish World.
Why Millions Are Leaving ireland.
Ireland boasted a population of near
~ 100000 in 1S47. Today it is little
more than 4,250000, and nearly $4,000 of
the finest, strongest, ablest young peo-
pie of the country, the flower of the
land. are annually emigrating, nearly
80 per cent of them going to the United
States, where went at least 80 per cent
of the total emigration from Ireland
in the last century, and where today
people with a large percentage of Irish
blood number not less than 10000, 900,
says Seumas MacManus in the Travel
Magazine for February. At the natural
rate of increase, Ireland should have to-
day instead of 4,250,O00 inhabitants, at
ga =f hot no.
With $4,000 square miles of land, the
greatest portion of it exceptionally ia
vorable for the raising of grains, roots,
fruits and cattle; with magnificent wa
ter power, a water power equalled by
few countries: and with its we'll known,
If undeVeloped, great mineral resources,
Ireland is capable of supporting in
comfort and plenty 20,OO0,O0O people, ac-
2ording to Mr.. MacManus, who says:
Emigration has been a blessing as
well as curse to Ireland. While for
sixty or seventy years it has gone on
1epriving Ireland of all that was
1ealthiest and brainiest and best in the |
thus enervating the race at
nome, the Irish nation is not at the |
same time unmindful of the fact that
the millions of American money poured |
nome to Ireland in a steady stream, has |
helped through the trying decades that |
nave gone by, to keep alive an Ireland
at-home. In at least twenty of the thir-
.y-two counties OF Ireland it is rare to |
ind family that has not a representa-
i've in America. Some of them have |
our or five. In all the poorer noun
-ainous counties that border the rugged |
western coast there is hardly a COM |
,ortable new house erected that has not |
0een erected by American money"