An Irishman at the Battle of Lynchburg

By Eli Stewart

Despite being a lesser-known engagement, the Battle of Lynchburg acts as a unique tapestry in which an array of notable people from across the East Coast convened in a seemingly insignificant town to fight in the Civil War. Many of these individuals went on to do prominent work after the war while others left a lasting impact before their deaths on the battlefield. This blogpost reflects on the life of Irish-American journalist and Union soldier, Major Charles Halpine. Through his gifts of humor and journalism, Halpine not only grants a unique perspective of America during the 1850’s and 60’s, but also sheds light into the lives of Civil War soldier in compelling way. As historian William Hanchett describes, Halpine “deserves recognition as being one of the major minor figures of American history.”

Charles Graham Halpine was born in Oldcastle, Ireland on November 3, 1825 to his mother, Ann and his father, Nicholas Halpine, who served as a Protestant clergyman. In 1844, he enrolled at Trinity College in Dublin (the alma mater of his father) and pursued a degree in medicine. Dropping out before he graduated, Charles continued his education in London where he studied law and contributed article to English newspapers and magazines. On January 25, 1849, Charles married Margaret G. Milligan while both were only 19 years old. The following year, Charles left his wife and newborn daughter Syble in the care of Margaret’s parents and sailed for America, as many Irishmen did in the years following the historic potato famine.

Initially settling in Boston, Halpine became good friends with Benjamin P. Shillaber, a writer for the Boston Post, and in September, 1850 began printing a weekly paper through their press called the Carpet-Bag. Despite being short-lived, the Carpet-Bag printed a variety of jokes, poetry, stories, essays, and cartoons from across the nation. One notable entry was Mark Twain’s first published story called “The Dandy Frightening the Squatter,” released on May 1, 1852.

In the fall of 1852, Charles moved to Brooklyn, New York to work for the New York Herold as a French translator and then at the New York Times as a correspondent. In 1857, Charles took on a lead editorial role at the New York Leader after purchasing a one-third stock of this declining political journal. During his tenure, Halpine increased the circulation of the Leader and gained status as a political talking-head which would later aid him during the Civil War.

With his wife and children Syble, Lucie, Lonnie, and “Baby” now stateside, Charles once again made the decision to leave his family, this time for the call of duty. Nearly a week after the firing at Fort Sumter, marking the beginning of the Civil War, Halpine enlisted as a ninety-day volunteer for the famous Sixty-Ninth New York Infantry, a regiment of Irishmen. A short time later he met General David Hunter and joined his staff as an aide-de-camp. When his 90 day enlistment expired Halpine left the army. However Hunter wanted Halpine to remain on his staff and convinced him to reenlist now holding the rank as an Assistant Adjutant General.

Halpine accompanied Hunter through a number of assignments in the West as well as in the South. A prominent accomplishment of Halpine during this time was drafting plans for the US Army’s first black regiment, under direction of Hunter while in South Carolina in March, 1862. Although unsuccessful, due to a lack of political support, Hunter and Halpine may have loosened up the status quo. Robert Smalls, a freed slave and Union war hero, soon convinced Lincoln to authorize a black regiment only weeks after Hunter disbanded his Black regiment.

Halpine’s influence through writing did not stop there either, during his time in South Carolina, Halpine also began to write letters, articles, and poems under the pen name Miles O’Reilly, a fictional Irishman who served as a private in the Union Army. Writing under this pseudonym gave Halpine a certain anonymity which allowed him to be a hard critic of Northern generals and politicians he didn't agree with.

O’Reilly first made waves across Northern states when he wrote a radical poem on black soldiers fighting in the war called “Sambo’s Right to be Kilt.” The poem emerged from the wake of the Emancipation Proclamation in early 1863 when many Northerners, especially those of Irish heritage, may have held abolitionist ideals but remained bias against the pursuit of equality, in this case, fighting alongside newly-freed Blacks. What made O’Reilly’s poem so effective was his use of dark humor to “persuade whites to accept blacks as soldiers without in the least disrupting their fundamental prejudices against Negroes.”

In the poem, he makes the argument for allowing black soldiers to fight, but for the sole purpose of taking the bullet thus preserving the lives of white soldiers. Although this can be interpreted as cruel and demeaning today, Mark Meigs, Professor of U.S. History at the University of Paris-Diderot makes it clear that, “in the context of shared white memory of the war…the poem could be read as self-deprecating humor: as ‘the human side,’ which is to say, a momentary lapse from that uniform valor that North and South should share. North and South can now share this human weakness too.” The poem was turned into song and was even dedicated by O’Reilly to General Hunter.

Halpine served under Hunter until July of 1863 when he was relieved of his duties due to his declining eyesight. He pursued work in politics, first in Washington D.C then in New York. However, not even a year after he was discharged, Charles rejoined General Hunter for one final campaign in Virginia, in what became known as “Hunter’s Raid.” While in Lexington, Halpine saw many of the horrors of war. Most notably was Hunter’s command to burn building and private residences, including the Virginia Military Institute and the home of former Virginia Governor John Letcher. On June 12, Charles laments in his journal saying, “my God! How I felt on seeing Gov. Letcher’s family sitting out on the lawn on their trunks and furniture, while their house was on fire beside them…I wish it were over.”

After capturing Lexington, Hunter then proceeded to Lynchburg to capture it too. On the afternoon of June 17th, the Union Army reached Lynchburg’s city limits. Union forces broke through the first line of enemy defenses afterwards encamping on the outskirts of the city. General Hunter commandeered the nearby home of retired Army officer, George C. Hutter for use as his headquarters. Halpine recounted their stay at Hutter’s home, called “Sandusky” in his book, “Baked Meets of the Funeral,” he wrote,

“Our headquarters that night were at the beautiful residence of an aged gentleman named Hutter, formerly a major and paymaster in the United states army.”

He goes on to mention Hutter’s daughter, Ada who lived at the home along with her parents during the war:

“This Major Hutter ‘had one only daughter, the divine’- but her name escaped us. For the inexpressible sweetness of her pure silvery voice and exquisite repose of manner, however, the lady’s image is yet a thing of vivid force in our faithful memory- her eyes shedding no tear as she saw in that hour of the gloaming, all the refined surroundings of a costly and luxurious home swept into ruin; and her cheek blanching no shade of its clear olive-pink, though aware that with the earliest dawn the heretofore splendid and happy home for her childhood-the shrine to which, we have no doubt, proud wooers must have come from far and near to court the sunshine of her smile-would in all human probability become the central position for which two infuriate armies must contend. “Oh, how I pray for peace,” she exclaimed, as we opened a blind in the drawing room.

Halpine’s entry for this day closes on Ada’s sorrowful words:

“Oh, we have given up everything for the cause, save the barest necessities of life; and I cannot believe that God would allow a people to suffer so much as we have done, if not intending to reward us with final victory.”

Although final victory was not granted to the Confederacy, Ada unknowingly foreshadowed a smaller victory to come the following day.

The following morning opened with skirmishes starting around 7 a.m. He makes a personal note of the brief success of Ohio’s 116th Infantry saying that he saw a “part of one Ohio regiment getting over their works…[possibly] from pride in their achievement, [they were] unable to fight their way out again.” That night, after failing to capture the city, General Hunter ordered a massive retreat for the Union army during the early hours of June 19, 1864. The arduous journey back to the safety of West Virginia with little to no food may have weighed on Halpine’s health significantly as he was granted a discharge due to disability on July 31, 1864.

Reuniting with his family once more, Halpine returned to the newspaper business, assuming his former position at the Citizen in New York. At the same time Halpine found time to write and publish two books on his experiences during the War, “Miles O’Reilly His Book” (1864) and “Baked Meats of the Funeral” (1866), a collection of war tales and various essays.

On March 13, 1865 Charles Halpine had the honor of being breveted (a nominal promotion without any official authority or pay) to the rank of Brigadier General for "meritorious services during the War.”

After the war Halpine was plagued by insomnia and excessive drinking, a habit he picked up while serving in the army. On Sunday August 2, 1868, suffering from acute alcohol withdrawals, Halpine checked himself into the Astor House, New York’s first luxury hotel. A physician prescribed him chloroform to induce sleep. However he took too much which led to his death at the young age of 38.

A week later, at his funeral procession in New York City, General David Hunter served as one of Charles’ pallbearers. Charles Halpine was buried in Cypress Hill Cemetery in New York City with the engraving of his poem “Song of the Soldier” engraved upon his tombstone. It reads,

“Comrades, known in marches many,

Comrades, tried in dangers many,

Comrades, bound by memories many,

Brothers let us be.”

References

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 22 February 2021), memorial page for Charles Graham Halpine (23 Nov 1825–3 Aug 1868), Find a Grave Memorial no. 13245258, citing Cypress Hills Cemetery, Brooklyn, Kings County (Brooklyn), New York, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave.

Halpine, C. G. (1866). Baked meats of the funeral: A collection of essays, poems, speeches, histories, and banquets. In Baked meats of the funeral: A collection of essays, poems, speeches, histories, and banquets (pp. 344-347). New York City, NY: Carleton.

Hanchett, W. (1970). Irish: Charles G. Halpine in Civil War America. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.

Mark Meigs, « Photographic Histories of the Civil War and the First World War and Rebirth », European journal of American studies [Online], 7-2 | 2012, document 5, Online since 29 March 2012, connection on 08 February 2021. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ejas/9515 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.9515