Custer's Immigrant Army: The Irish & Why They Fought

Siobhan Fallon (youtube.com)   "Captain Myles Keogh wasn't the only Irish-born soldier to fight and die alongside George Custer.

"Why were there so many Irishmen at Custer's Last Stand? "From turmoil, repression, and starvation at home in Ireland, to discrimination and hardship in America, the United States Army's Seventh Cavalry offered both Irish-born and first generation Irish Americans a chance to forge their own way in a new world..."

"Quite excellent, Siobhan! You provided many specifics regarding the persecution and cruelty the Irish Catholics suffered under England. Certainly, immigration to the US was often times a reprieve from death. I do know that my grandfather's grandfather left Ireland in 1847,as a 16-year-old, for this reason. Although he never served in the Army, even during the US Civil War, due to having 5 children. Moreover, in my childhood, I remember my grandfather (1908-1986) would refuse to watch a British production on television for the reason that "The English hate us," meaning Irish Catholics. This came from the mouth of a charming, stellar and loving man. He made it clear that this is what he had been taught as a little boy."

Siobhan Fallon | Siobhan Fallon author of Confusion of Languages

"This channel focuses on Custer's Last Stand & the Seventh Cavalry-- officers and soldiers, military spouses and families, enemies and allies, newspapers and books, artists and writers and lifestyle, events leading up to the 1876 Little Bighorn fight, as well as those that ripple out from it (the Reno Court of Inquiry in 1879 to the Custer Equestrian Statue in 1910, etc). "I'm a published author working on my third book, and, you guessed it, it's about the Battle of the Little Bighorn, George and Elizabeth Custer, the Seventh Cavalry, and the US military on the frontier. "Though I have been called a "war writer," I am more interested in the people than the fight, and this channel illuminates the elements that best capture the wild spirit of the time."

Links

The Author Side of Things...  siobhanfallon.com