HEADSTONE
click on image to read headstone inscription
Captain John Lonergan (1838 - 1902)
American patriot, Medal of Honor recipient, Fenian and
participant in the Fenian raids on Canada
John
Lonergan was born in Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary on
April 7, 1838 to Thomas Lonergan and Mary Lonergan (nee
Nolan).
John
was the oldest of the six children. The three oldest were
born in Ireland, the others in the United States.
John's father, Thomas, was a cooper by trade who worked in or whose business was dependent on the local slate quarries.
There is no information readily available regarding Lonergan's early education. However, it would be reasonable to assume that he attended one of the local primary schools established in 1831 shortly after the easing of the Penal Laws.
In 1845, when John was six years old the first sign of blight appeared on the potato stalk. The tuber underneath was mushy - it had rotted away.
It was inconceivable, at that time, to contemplate the devastation and horror that would befall the people of Ireland during the subsequent five years. John Mitchel summed it up best in his book "The Last Conquest of Ireland" published in 1861 in which he accused England of "deliberate murder" for their actions during the "Famine" years of 1845 to 1850.(1)
In 1848 the Lonergan's emigrated to the Unites States. The famine, or more accurately the Great Hunger, was a contributing factor to their exile. It’s also possible that the Young Ireland Rising of 1848 may have contributed as Ballingarry, not far from Lonergan's hometown, was the locus for that abortive but, nonetheless, significant event in Irish history in that it demonstrated continued resistance to British rule in Ireland. The only clue that the failed Rising may have been a factor was that a John Nolan who lived on the same street as the Lonergan's was arrested for forging pikes. It’s possible that John Nolan was related to John's mother who maiden name was Nolan.
After all Tipperary, particularly south-east Tipperary, was the breeding ground for many of Ireland's greatest patriots. John, as he later demonstrated, followed in their footsteps by answering the call of freedom in Ireland and America.
The Lonergan's on arrival in The United States settled in Vermont. The reason they choose Vermont was due to the availability of work in the slate quarries concentrated in the Taconic Mountains region of Vermont and New York, known as the "Slate Valley". Another reason why they chose Vermont was to be with former friends or neighbors who had settled there earlier and who could assist them in finding shelter and work.
When John finished school he joined his father's coopering business.
In 1858, John O'Mahony, Michael Doheny and other escaped or exiled leaders of the Young Ireland Rising of 1848 met in New York to establish the Fenian Brotherhood, a sister organization to the secret Irish Republican Brotherhood simultaneously established in Ireland. Their purpose was twofold, firstly to raise money and secondly to train young Irishmen in military tactics for a future Rising in Ireland -- knowing that the lack of military training was one of the reasons the Young Ireland Rising of 1848 failed to take hold.
In furtherance of that aim members of the Fenian Brotherhood set about forming local militia companies in communities with large Irish populations. These militias were generally named after Irish heroes and martyrs. In some of the larger cities these local militias banded together to form entire regiments.
In Burlington Vermont, Lonergan recruited young Irishmen from the slate quarries, local farms and nearby communities to form a local militia unit. He named the unit the Emmet Guards. Local militias were regulated and trained by their respective State and used for different purposes. In the southern slave states they were used to control slaves, in some western states to fight native Americans and in other state to fight bandits and control mobs. Irrespective of their home State all militias were subject to mobilization by the Federal government in time of war.
Before the Civil War the United States peacetime army amounted to 16,000 men. When the Civil War broke out in April of 1861 both the Union and Confederate States depended on state militias to augment their standing armies.
As part of President Lincoln's call for 75,000 militia following the firing on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, Lonergan's Emmett Guards were mustered for service, though they were soon disbanded by Vermont authorities of the Know-Nothing political affiliation, suspicious of Irish Catholics and foreigners in general.
In August of 1862, President Lincoln's called for additional troops after the debacle of the Peninsula Campaign. In response the 13th.Vermont Infantry Regiment was formed. On August 12, 1862, Lonergan's Emmet Guards was one of the first militias to respond to the subsequent War Department's Order No. 12 that called all state militias into active service. By virtue of it being the first to respond, coupled with the fact that it was intact and well organized, it became Company A, the first of the 10 companies that made up the 13th. regiment. The regiment was mustered into the U. S. service for nine months on Oct. 3, 1862.
The regiment consisting of 953 men left for Washington D.C. on the 11th of October. On arrival there it was combined with other Vermont regiments to form the 2nd Vermont Brigade. From October 1862 through June of 1863 it was engaged in guard and picket duty in various locations in Virginia. The only action it was involved with was in repulsing Jeb Stuart's cavalry at Fairfax Court House on the 28th. of December.
Towards the end of June 1863 the regiment met with the other regiments of the 2nd Vermont Brigade at Union Mills in Maryland for the march north in pursuit of General Lee Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Their pursuit took them to Gettysburg; arriving at the Battlefield on the afternoon of July 1st. The Brigade was deployed on Cemetery Ridge.
In the afternoon of July 2nd. Lonergan's and his company of 63 men were tasked with the recapture of four artillery guns that a Unit of the Regular Army had lost in battle. They not only recaptured the four guns they also captured two enemy guns. On their way back to their own lines they came under heavy fire from the Rogers farmhouse located west of Emmitsburg Road. They managed to surround the house and capture a confederate company of 83 men and their commanding officer. For his gallantry Captain Lonergan was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor (2) .
On July 3rd the 13 Regiment was positioned on Cemetery Ridge. Together with the Vermont 16th regiment they attacked the right flank of Pickets Division blunting the charge and capturing 243 enemy officers and men
After the battle the 13th regiment participated in the pursuit of the Lee army across the Catoctin mountains to Middletown in Maryland. On July the 8th the regiment was ordered home as their term of enlistment was about to expire. The regiment arrived back in Vermont on July 13th and was mustered out on July 21st. 1863.
In 1865, Lonergan served as sergeant of Company M of the frontier cavalry. The cavalry was raised to guard the frontier with Canada after a disgruntled band of Confederates soldiers who had fled to Canada crossed the border on October 19, 1864 and proceeded to rob banks, steal horses, set homes on fire in St. Albans before crossing back to Canada. U.S. Canadian relations soured after a Canadian court set the raiders free on a technicality.
After the war ended Lonergan and other Irish veterans of the Union army joined the Burlington Fenians, one of the thirteen circles formed in Vermont during the war years. In order to avoid problems with the Know-Nothing State politicians the circles or clubs were set up as social organizations to promote Irish culture. One such social event Lonergan helped organize was the first St. Patrick's Day event in Vermont that would include an appearance by Thomas Francis Meagher. the organizer and first commander of the famed Irish Brigade. Due to unforeseen problems Meagher could not attend the event but did pay a two-day visit a few weeks later.
In December of 1865 Lonergan was listed as the Head of the Vermont State Centre that included six circles in a Fenian Senate financial report.
In June of 1866, Lonergan took part in the Pigeon Hill Raid led by Samuel Spears. After occupying of a number of sites across the border including Pigeon Hill, Flemingsburg, and St. Armand, the Fenians, who were low on arms and supplies, were forced to retreat when confronted with a well-armed Canadian force.
In May of 1870, Lonergan once again took part in the Battle of Eccles Hill led by John O'Neill and Samuel Spears. O'Neill was arrested by U. S authorities before he could cross into Canada. Spears managed to cross the border and engage militia forces at Eccles Hill. The Fenians met the same fate as they did four years earlier at Pigeon Hill.
A number of factors contributed to their defeat. The most important of these was that the raids that took place in 1866 were ignored, if not condoned, by the Unites States government because of Britain's support the Confederates during the Civil War. By 1870 that had changed as the U.S. government had received compensation from the British and ceased to support the Fenians. Another factor that contributed to their poor showing was their betrayal by Thomas Miller Beach, an informer within their ranks.
Ironically Lonergan spent the last sixteen years of his life in Montreal working with the US Customs Office as an inspector on the Grand Trunk Railway line.
Upon his death at Montreal in 1902 his body was brought back
to his hometown of Burlington Vermont where he was buried
with full military honors.
Contributed by; Tomás Ó Coısdealbha.
Notes:
1. Excerpts from the book reads as follows.
"A million and a half of men, women and children, were carefully, prudently, and peacefully slain by the English government. They died of hunger in the midst of abundance, which their own hands created; and it is quite immaterial to distinguish those who perish in the agonies of famine itself from those who died of typhus fever, which in Ireland is always caused by famine". "The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the Famine."
2. On the 28th of October 1893 Lonergan was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions on July 2nd.
The
President of the United States of America, in the name of
Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to
Captain (Infantry) John Lonergan, United States Army, for
extraordinary heroism on 2 July 1863, while serving with
Company A, 13th Vermont Infantry, in action at Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, for gallantry in the recapture of four guns
and the capture of two additional guns from the enemy; also
the capture of a number of prisoners.
General Orders:
Date of Issue: October 28, 1893
Action Date: July 2, 1863
Service: Army
Rank: Captain
Company: Company A
Division: 13th Vermont Infantry
cemetery AND grave location
Name: Saint Joseph Cemetery
ADDRESS: Burlington, Chittenden County, Vermont, USA
LOCATION: Plot: Section F, Lot 85
