Sometimes one finds an artifact that connects so much history. This letter composed by Captain James McKay Rorty to Colonel Mathew Murphy, is one such artifact. Both men were of Irish birth, and dedicated to the cause of Irish freedom. Sadly they would also share the same fate of being killed in battle during the American Civil War. Here are their stories…..

James McKay Rorty was one of the most active members of the Fenian Brotherhood in the Army of the Potomac.

He was born in Donegal town on 11 June 1837, but immigrated to New York in 1857′ settling in Brooklyn, where he worked as a book canvasser, and then later in dry goods. He was an enlisted man in the Phoenix Brigade, serving in ‘D’ Co, O’Mahony Guards, commanded by Captain Patrick Phelan. In April 1861, Rorty enlisted as a private in ‘G’ Co., 69th N.Y.S.M and was captured on 21 July 1861 at the first battle of Bull Run, his service record notes him as ‘wounded’.

Together with two Irish companions from the 69th, Rorty escaped from Richmond, Virginia, returning to Union lines, on 28 September 1861.

Back in New York City, Rorty accepted a lieutenant’s commission in the stillborn 5th Regiment, Irish Brigade. Trained as an artillery officer, Rorty became attached to the 2nd Battalion, New York Light Artillery, but was detached as a divisional staff officer in the Second Corps. He was shot in the arm at the battle of Fredericksburg, 13 December 1862, and his wound was treated by Surgeon Larry Reynolds, 63rd N.Y.

 Rorty was promoted to Acting Ordnance Officer and Ordnance Officer, Second Corps, Army of the Potomac. On the 24 June 1863 he was promoted to captain, 14th Independent Battery, N.Y. Light Artillery. On 3 July 1863 during Pickett’s Charge at the battle of Gettysburg, Rorty was KIA while commanding Battery ‘B’ First N.Y. Light Artillery (14th N.Y.1.B. attached), Second Corps Artillery Reserve. (Near the end of the Confederate barrage, Rorty was observed by men of the 19th Massachusetts, stripped of his hat and tunic, rammer in hand, operating a piece alone, with his gun crew all dead or disabled). (1)  

Later that day James McKay Rorty was buried just north of the place he was killed. With him were buried his Fenian dreams of someday marching through Dublin as a free Irishmen. (2)

Two weeks after the battle Richard Rorty, James’ brother, came to Gettysburg and returned his body to New York, where it was laid to rest among many other Irish heroes of the Civil War in Calvary Cemetery. (3)

The Irish Brigade monument at Gettysburg has a bronze relief dedicated to Rorty and his men it reads….

“14th New York Ind’pt Battery. In memory of Capt. James Mc.K. Rorty and four men who fell at the bloody angle July 3, 1863. The battery was mustered in December 9, 1861, as part of the Irish Brigade. it was detached therefrom and at Gettysburg was consolidated with Battery B, 1st N. Y. Artillery.”

Colonel Mathew Murphy was born in 1840 at Ballysodare, Co. Sligo, and arrived in New York with his parents while still an infant.

In civilian life he was a public school principal at P.S. 24, in New York City. He entered the First Regiment, Phoenix Brigade as a private. By 1860, he was captain, ‘A’ Co., Wolfe Tone Guards, Phoenix Brigade, and was promoted to major in 1860. In April 1861, Murphy enlisted as a private in the 69th N.Y.S.M. and served as a lieutenant in ‘G’ Co., 69th N.Y.S.M. at the first battle of Bull Run. During the organization of the Irish Brigade, Colonel Corcoran proposed Murphy as colonel of the 29th Massachusetts, but the unit was never completed. In 1862, during the formation of Corcoran’s Irish Legion, Murphy was elected colonel of the first regiment, later consolidated into the 182nd N.Y. Murphy was head center, Nansemond Circle, the military circle of Corcoran’s Irish Legion. In 1863 at the first national convention of the Fenian Brotherhood, Murphy was named to the central council of five. He was wounded in the arm at Spottslvania Courthouse, Va. and mortally wounded at the battle of Hatcher’s Run, Va. He died on 16 April 1864. (4)

Transcription of the letter,

New York Oct 12th ‘61

Col. Murphy.

Sir,

Allow me to congratulate you upon the attainment of the very honorable and distinguished position you now hold, and which I know you to be so well qualified to fill with advantage to the National Cause and honor to the Irish race.

I am aware that in making this latter assertion, I am saying a great deal. I know that from an Irish Brigade much is expected. I know that to preserve the heritage of fame, unimpaired, left to our exiled race by one Irish Brigade – to preserve its laurels, unwithered – much less to add new fields of fame to the former, or fresh wreaths to the latter – is an onerous and trying task.

To hold the same position – to stand as it were in the shoes of the Dillons – the Bur__, the Mountcashels – the Lallys and all those war bred chieftains, who on every battle-field “from Dunkirk to Belgrade” proved that before the headlong valor of our race, the scimitar of the Saracen “the lances of gay bastele” and the stubborn courage of the English Cavalier, were alike helpless and impotent. To wear the crest and bear the banners of such predecessors is – I repeat, such an arduous position, so trying a test, that I fear our Irish Brigade will be forced to exclaim with the great Irish tragedian – Kean – when after having outstripped every living competitor in his delineation of Richard the Third, still being below his father in that difficult character, he remarked, “Oh what a misfortune to have a great man for a father.”

Still, without coming up to its illustrious namesake, the New Brigade, will have ample room to distinguish itself on the fields where Sullivan and Morgan, and Montgomery and Jackson found the paths to honor and glory.

But I have digressed somewhat, my Dear Colonel, from the main business of this letter, and I now come to the point. I wish to serve under your command. There are two reasons which induce me to give you the preference in choosing a leader. Firstly, I know you are fit to lead, secondly, you know whether I am fit and willing to follow in any path where duty calls.

I am not ignorant, nor do I pretend thru a false modesty to be ignorant, that when panic seized our ranks, brave as our men were, I felt none and joined in no stampede. I cannot help reminding you that when only a dozen of our men could be rallied by our colonel, before the enemy’s horse, I was one of them, though lightly wounded and deprived nearly of my left arm, for the time and I assure you honestly, Sir, that when I followed our colors to that painful scene, which I would gladly wipe out of my memory, I never dreamed of peacefully surrendering them, nor thought that anything but a desperate resistance – hopeless as it was, would end the affair. But men whose bravery is above suspicion decided otherwise, among them your friend Cap. McIvor. It was with some feelings of relief I saw our captors move us away without taking the green flag, which was within the house, and which they did not know to be there. I do not state these things in the spirit of boasting, but to let you, Sir, know I was captured trying to do my duty, not trying to escape.

The latter I tried successfully, when it was neither cowardly nor undutiful to do so. I escaped in disguise from Richmond and after traversing North Eastern Va., with two comrades at night, got aboard the Potomac fleet on the 29th inst, left Richmond on the 18th ult. I regret to say Cap. McIvor who intended to accompany us, was suspected and put in irons. He has since been taken to New Orleans.

Should you have any vacancy that you would entrust me with you will find me “semper et ubiqus fidelis.” I have the honor to be, Sir, your sincere friend and comrade,

James M. Rorty

PS Address 160, 3rd Ave N. York

1) Kane, Michael H. 2002. ‘American Soldiers in Ireland, 1865-67’ in The Irish Sword: The Journal of the Military History Society of Ireland, Vol. 23, No. 91, pp. 136-137

2) For Erin and America – James McKay Rorty AN IRISH HERO OF THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG, The Wild Geese, January 19, 2013 https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/for-erin-and-america-james-mckay-rorty

3) Ibid

4) Kane, Michael H. 2002. ‘American Soldiers in Ireland, 1865-67’ in The Irish Sword: The Journal of the Military History Society of Ireland, Vol. 23, No. 91, pp. 135-136