Irish American Civil War soldier’s last letter home

Lady,

This was cut from the pocket of a man I buried last evening – he was killed June 3, 1864, and buried where he fell.

This place was marked by a cut made in the tree where his head lay by Sergt Ewell of my company.

Kind regards

S. Dexter Ludden
Captain 8 NY Arty
Miss Mary McNamara
Buffalo NY

The body buried by Dexter Ludden and his men was that of Hubert McNamara, an Irishman in the 155th New York Infantry of Corcoran’s Irish Legion. Hubert had Registered in Buffalo On August 28, 1862, at the age of 34. Before becoming a soldier, Hubert supported his wife, Mary, and their three children by working as a coachman. She was described as 5 feet 6 inches tall, with hazel eyes, brown hair and fair skin.

Hubert had married Mary Donovan on January 2, 1859, but this was not his first marriage. Hubert’s first wife, Margaret (née McGrath), had passed away on January 26, 1855, in Hudson, NY, leaving Hubert to care for their three-year-old daughter Maria alone until he remarried.

By 1864 Mary had given birth to Hubert two more children at their home in Exchange Street; thomas, who came Maria – born on 30 November 1859 and 6 May 1862 – was only a month after her youngest daughter’s second birthday when her father met his death.

Corcoran’s Irish Legion had been with the Army of the Potomac for less than a month on June 2, 1864, when Hubert wrote his last letter. By the standards of many other brigades, the first 18 months of the Legion’s service were relatively quiet. Everything changed in May 1864 when they joined the Army of the Potomac in Spotsylvania, VA. In the following days the Irish had to adjust to almost constant fighting and mounting losses.

It was in this context that Hubert penned the few words he wrote to his wife on June 2. As he wrote this, he was aware that he would be involved in an attack on Rebel’s business the next day. Given the strength of the enemy’s position, many of his troops would be worried about what would happen next.

The 155th was brought into battle at Cold Harbor by Captain Michael Doran. While he dressed his men’s lines for the advance, they took temporary shelter from fire behind a slight ridge. Once beyond this cover they could see the main Confederate line about 150 yards away, but they could never reach it. A firestorm broke out from the rebel position. One member of the regiment recalled that ‘the artillery literally started to tear us to the ground’, while another said of the attack that ‘it wasn’t war, it was murder’.

The Irish never stood a chance; When they reached within 50 yards of the enemy position the attack was stopped and they were soon forced to withdraw. The massacre cost the 155th approximately 130 casualties, nearly half that number. Unfortunately, Hubert was one of them. those who will fallThe letter he just wrote to his family is in his pocket, unsent.

Papers recovered from Hubert’s body were included in his pension application by his widow to prove both Hubert’s death and her relationship with him. These are quoted below for the first time, and Page 1 Front Side?, Page 1 Back Side? Labeled as. and Front of Page 2. It is written in faded pen, making it difficult to transcribe, with Hubert’s body left exposed on the battlefield. These are reproduced below as Page 1 and Page 2, along with a version of the original transcription edited for modern readers.

(Page 1 Front Side?)

…God Almighty, we will be on good terms with them soon I’m okay, for now I thank God Almighty for his mercy (unreadable) possible (?) I’m making you wear a few lines (advertisement) I hope I find you and you The children are in good health at the time of departure, these few lines are that at the moment he lets me in Thank God Almighty we have been fighting the insurgency for the last 10 days and we have driven them this far 30 miles but most of our men are wondering and wondering but the environment (?)

(Page 1 Inverted?)

June 2, 1864

Portommack Armi Camp 7 miles from Richmond mi My dear wife and children I seize the opportunity (?) (unreadable) tell me when I will die or wonder But I trust in his mercy he pulls me there’s a fierce fight going on we fight against him knight and fight day Dear My wife and my children there’s nothing else I can say to you now, I have time now

(Page 2 Front Side)

It is very difficult to get paper or ink for anything other than John Dempsey and also Michael Lawler I wish you would tell his wife there is nothing else Dear wife and children, I think this is a very good thing for this file

now more from your loving husband Hubert Mc Namara 2 Corps 2 Division 4 Brigade Co I 155

portom mac’s army

good write soon

Edited

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(Page 1 Front Side?)

…God Almighty, we will finish them off soon. I am fine so far, I thank God Almighty for His mercy (unreadable), I am calling you with a few lines. Since the passing of these few lines has left me alone for now, I hope to find you and the children in good health. Thank God Almighty for His mercy on me. We have been fighting the rebels for the last 10 days and have driven them about 30 miles, but most of our men have been killed and wounded but they are in pretty good shape. surrounded (?)

(Page 1 Inverted?)

June 2, 1864

Potomac Army Camp is 7 miles from Richmond. My dear wife and children, I take the opportunity (unreadable) to tell you at what moment I will die or be injured, but I trust God to have mercy on me. There is a terrible conflict going on here, we are fighting day and night. My dear wife and children, there is nothing more I can tell you now, I don’t have time.

(Page 2 Front Side)

It’s very difficult to find paper, ink (or) anything else here. John Dempsey is fine and Michael Lawler is fine, I wish you’d told his wife. I think there is nothing left except my beloved wife and children, goodbye for a while. Now your beloved husband, Hubert McNamara, 2nd Corps, 2nd Division, 4th Brigade, Company I, 155th New York, Army of the Potomac, is no more. Goodbye write soon.

The exact order in which Hubert’s letter is intended to be read is not clear on the individual pages. I interpreted their ranking according to their content as presented above. I believe the first page (Page 1 Frontispiece?) is part of a letter that Hubert may have written before arriving in Cold Harbor. Here he talks about fighting the rebels for the ‘last 10 days’, which falls around 28 May. I suspect he may have found himself in front of the works at Cold Harbor and realized he was about to go in. He abandoned his previous letter to note a few words in case of his death. If this is the case, it makes the letter even more poignant.

The section titled ‘Page 2 Obverse’ may also have been written at Cold Harbor, but this is not clear. Captain Ludden wrote Hubert’s note to his wife on the back of this page. Cold Harbor was also the last battle of Michael Lawler, one of the comrades mentioned in Hubert’s correspondence. The mortally wounded man left behind a wife and four children. John Dempsey also appears to have been injured at Cold Harbor but eventually recovered. Hubert’s wife, Mary, lived a long life after her husband’s death and was a widow for more than half a century. The elderly Irish woman passed away on September 2, 1916, at the Holy Family Home in Williamsville, NY.

* Damian Shiels is an archaeologist and historian. IrishAmericanCivilWar.com The website where this article was first published. His book ‘The Irish in the American Civil War’ was published by The History Press in 2013 and is available. Here.

* First published in August 2015. Updated November 2024.