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Updated 8/4/04, 1 PM
An Unknown Hero of the Great Civil War
By John G. Coyle, M.D.
PART 3 OF 3: THE DEATH OF O'MEARA
National Archives
Ulysses S. Grant examines the rough terrain of Lookout Mountain after the Battle of Chattanooga. |
On October 11, 1863, Gen. William T. Sherman, with his escort, the Sixty-sixth Indiana Volunteers and the Thirteenth United States Regulars, was surrounded" at Colliersville. Tenn., by a much superior force of Confederates. General Sherman telegraphed Gen. John M. Corse for assistance. Corse sent Colonel O'Meara in command of the relief expedition. O'Meara took his regiment and. a battery of artillery by special train, but had to detrain by reason of an accident and hurry forward on foot. They routed the Confederates speedily and relieved General Sherman promptly.
It was at the battle of Chattanooga that Colonel O'Meara met his death. On November 23, 1863, began that famous fight at Chattanooga, running for three days, including Orchard Knob, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. Grant commanded the Federal forces, Bragg the Confederates, the former with 65,000 men, the latter with 45,000. The Federals lost 757 killed and 4,529 wounded. Colonel O'Meara fell, mortally wounded. Men came to carry him to the rear. "Go, do your duty," said the gallant O'Meara, motioning them to continue the battle.
The colonel was prepared for death, receiving Extreme Unction and Holy Viaticum and died on the morning of November 26. How General Grant was affected by the news is told in "The Tanner Boy," published by Roberts Bros., of Boston. in 1864:
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Ulysses Grant bent over O'Meara's open coffin and began to cry.
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"O'Meara is dead, then?" said General Grant at Chattanooga. "Yes. sir," replied the officer of the day to whom the inquiry was addressed. His body is about to be sent forward." "Gallant O'Meara," continued Grant, as if communing with his own spirit and the spirits of the brave around him. "Gone! A braver man never filled a saddle."
"He is at the landing now waiting to be put on the boat," said the officer of the day. "I knew him well," the general spoke on as if he heeded not what was said by his companion, "he was with us in the Army of the Tennessee. I shall never forget his noble defense of the trestle-work at Holly Springs. He saved us all from starvation. Noble O'Meara! Brave Irish Legion!"
"Would you like to see him, general?"
"I should. Let us go."
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Tears and the 'American Sphinx'
By Frank Scaturro
Special to TheWildGeese.com
Ulysses S. Grant crying alongside the remains of Col. Timothy O'Meara at Missionary Ridge is a striking image. No less so because, in his time, Grant was known at times as the "American Sphinx," a man whose impenetrable visage reflected the determination and discipline of a fearless soldier. It is unsurprising that some, including detractors who contributed the dominant image of Grant in the 20th century, thought him devoid of emotion.
As it turns out, Grant’s sensitivity was one of his many laudable traits, and history has caught other glimpses of it. It was seen on the Pacific Coast in 1853 when, separated from his family, Grant cried while showing fellow officers a tracing of his infant son’s hand sent by his wife. During the Civil War, in addition to the O'Meara incident, tears were a visible reaction to news that a comrade had been killed on the battlefield.
Grant's oldest son observed his father crying when his father saw the wounded during the Vicksburg Campaign. On the first, bloody evening of the Battle of the Wilderness, Grant broke down in his tent. While Lincoln lied in state, he stood alone at the head of the president’s catafalque and wept softly. The day his daughter Nellie was married in the White House, he sobbed intensely in a more secluded room. WGT
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The two officers passed together to the little steamer by the levee of the river. It was a touching sight. A group of officers and men had gathered on the deck and levee, while others stood looking on along the adjacent heights. The coffin, covered with the American flag, lay on the army bier. The procession had halted, and the boat was about to start.
"Stop the steamer a moment," said the general solemnly, "I want to see him."
An orderly removed the colors and the coffin lid. The hero bent over his departed comrade and dropped a silent tear on the cold face. His lip quivered, as it always does when he is experiencing deep emotion. He clasped his hands over the breast of the young Irish volunteer, who had come so willingly with him from the same State, who had stood so gallantly by his side in the deadly hurtlings of battle, who had fought so bravely to save his noble army from death by starvation, and who had now offered up a youthful life as a sweet, rich sacrifice on the altar of his country. An exile and a pilgrim from his own native land, he had come to America to die for the flag that is the emblem of liberty throughout the world.
Sad yet glorious scene! It was like the framework of a tender, silent, historic picture to unfold and preserve the lineaments of Ulysses Grant, the man who inspired the living by honoring the gallant dead.
The Irish colonel's body was forwarded to New York, where the Common Council, on December 10, 1863, passed resolutions eulogizing the life and services of Colonel O'Meara. The use of the Governor's Room at City Hall was offered to the members of O'Meara's family that the body might lie in state and the honors of a public funeral be conferred upon the gallant Irish-American officer. The O'Meara family preferred to have the funeral conducted in a more modest manner. The colonel's body was taken to St. Mary's Church, on Grand Street, where a Solemn Mass of Requiem was chanted and the remains interred in Calvary Cemetery. A monument over Colonel O'Meara's body may be seen close by the Soldiers' Monument in the cemetery.
WGT Photo/Gerry Regan
Timothy O'Meara's gravestone at First Calvary Cemetery, in New York City. For a close-up of the stone's increasingly illegible engraved text, click here. |
Colonel O'Meara was a brave officer, a loyal American patriot, a resourceful and daring soldier, and lived and died a Catholic gentleman. The published testimonies of living and dead officers and men record his bravery, his power of command, his courageous leadership, his exemplary conduct, his soldierly career and his Christian death.
Such men should be honored in public memorials as well as in the hearts of those who knew them. Congressman Daniel J. Griffin, of Brooklyn, where Colonel O'Meara's nephew, William J. O'Meara, lives, at No. 360 Seventy-second Street, has offered a bill in the House of Representatives to place on the battlefield of Chattanooga a memorial monument to the brave Irish Colonel who stood with his men to the last at Ball's Bluff, who championed his government against detractors in the military prison, who earned the thanks of Ulysses S. Grant for his defense of the road at Coldwater, and Holly Springs, Miss., who rescued Sherman at Colliersville, who died in command of a brave regiment of Irishmen, who drew the tear of sorrow and the noble word of praise and tenderness from the greatest general of the war, U. S. Grant.
May the memory of men like O'Meara be preserved to inspire American youth and manhood with ideals of patriotism—self-sacrificing, enduring, courageous, and Christian!
Part 1: From Mexico to Ball's Bluff
Part 2: Commanding the Irish Legion
Part 3: The Death of O'Meara
Endangered Legacy:
Officer's Story in Stone Now Nearly Illegible
NEW YORK — Timothy O'Meara and his wife Mary are, like nearly 750,000 others, permanent residents of New York City's First Calvary Cemetery. Their grave adjoins a towering Civil War monument provided by the City of New York to honor the cemetery's many fallen Catholic, largely Irish, soldiers. Also nearby are the graves of Michael Corcoran, who recommended O'Meara be given command of the 90th Illinois, and Mathew Murphy, late-war commander of Corcoran's Irish Legion.
O'Meara's gravestone, white marble, like many other Civil War-era graves in the cemetery, has not stood the test of time. It is largely illegible, and with the passing of time, the text on the stone will become completely inscrutable. (For a close up of the stone, click here.)
Within the past 15 years, the now-dormant Irish Brigade Association, working with various Irish county groups, helped erect similarly needed gravestones for Michael Corcoran, Gettysburg hero James McKay Rorty, and fellow Donegal native James Haggerty, Cavan-born Irish Brigade commander Richard Byrnes, and others. We hope that a similar effort might yet rescue the vanishing legacy of the bold Tim O'Meara. Contact us, at ger@thewildgeese.com, if you or your organization would like to become a part of such an effort. WGT
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This page was produced by Joseph E. Gannon.
Copyright © 2004 by GAR Media LLC. This article may not be resold, reprinted, or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior permission from the authors. Direct questions about permissions to permissions@garmedia.com.
READ MORE ABOUT ULYSSES S. GRANT AND THE IRISH:
Grant in Ireland, Part 1: 'Wild Irishman' Hits Dublin
Grant in Ireland, Part 3: Farewell to Ireland, Forever
'Never Seen the Blarney Stone': Grant's Dublin Speech
Freeman's Journal's Take on Grant
Grant's Cork Controversy: The Issues Still Resound
The Irish Fight for Grant at Cold Harbor
Scrappy Phil Sheridan: The U.S. Army's Little Big Man
Grant's Grandfather Called Tyrone Home
Assessing Grant's Place in History
Timothy O'Meara: Plaudits—and Tears—From U.S. Grant
Get a "Grant and the Irish" Commemorative Item
Selected Bibliography
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