Charles Underwood O'Connell (1840-1902)
Fenian Organizer, Member of the
99th NY State Militia, Veteran of the 1867 Fenian Rising,
'A Felon of our Land"
New York City Courts clerk
Charles
Underwood
O’Connell
was
born
in
Co.
Cork,
Ireland
in
1840.
As
the
middle
name
of
this
little-celebrated,
though
famous
Fenian
suggests,
his
middle
name
‘Underwood’
reflects
the
origin
of
his
mother
in
a
northern
county.
The
New
York
Irish
press
of
the
period
mentioned
that
his
paternal
ancestors
were
distantly
related
to
Daniel
O’Connell,
but
no
evidence
has
been
forthcoming.
According
to
the
Irish
American newspaper,
O’Connell
was
“a
near
relative
of
Thomas
Neilson
Underwood,
the
associate
of Issac
Butt
in
the
great
Tenant
Right
movement,
who
for
so
many
years
kept
the
National
flag
aloft
in
the
north.”
At
age
18,
in
the
early
months
following
the
creation
of
the
Fenian
Brotherhood
he
was
selected
by
its
leader
in
Ireland,
James
Stephens,
to
organize
the
Fenians,
said
to
be
7,000
strong,
in
the
Cork
City,
Blarney,
Queenstown
and
Monkstown
region.
Like
many
others
of
his
time
he
witnessed
the
devastation
and
squalor
caused
by
the
contrived
Famine
of
the
1840’s. In a letter to John O'Mahony in May of 1862 he described what happened to his family in the following excerpt;
'O'Mahony will be sorry to hear of the 'calamity that has befallen my father and family, who have been completely smashed to pieces;' as a result of almost total crop failure he was unable to meet the demands of his landlord and another party, who unmercifully refused to give him any quarter. All he asked for was a little time, yet nothing would do them but to reduce him to ruin and throw a large helpless family in the world.'
O'Connell
arrived in the United States in 1863
to
seek
a
measure
of
military
experience.
With
the
approval
of
John
O'Mahony,
the
legendary
Gaelic
scholar,
and
leader
of
the
Fenian
movement
in
the
U.S.,
O'Connell
organized
a
company
of
about
100
men
to
be
included
in
Colonel
O'Mahony's
fast-growing
network
known
as
the
Phoenix
Brigade.
Though
the
brigade
was
not
sanctioned
as
a
State
of
New
York
military
force,
O'Connell's
unit
was
incorporated
into
a
formal
State
of
New
York
militia
force,
designated
as
the
99th
NY
State
Militia
--
in
effect,
an
Irish
Republican
military
unit
sponsored
by
a
sovereign
state
and
which
would
shortly
be
activated
by
a
federal
government
order
to
defend
the
Union
against
the
insurgent
Confederacy.
Among
O'Connell's
comrades
in
the
99th
were
two
who
would
later
become
widely
known
as
Fenian
activists
--
Captain
William
Mackey
(AKA Lomasney)
who
was
killed
in
the
London
Bridge
explosion,
and
John Finerty
of
Chicago,
organizer
of
Fenians
in
Ohio
and
Indiana
and
later
U.S.
Member
of
Congress
from
Chicago.
The
99th
Regiment
served
at
least
one
three-month
period
under
federal
government
control,
including
an
emergency
deployment
in
July
1863
at
the
time
of
the
invasion
of
the
North
by
the
Confederate
army
that
culminated
at
Gettysburg,
PA.
O'Connell
was
among
the
several
hundred
Fenians
who
went
to
Ireland
soon
after
the
American
Civil
War
to
participate
in
the
uprising
of
1867
planned
by
James
Stephens
and
the
Fenian
Brotherhood.
The
uprising
was
betrayed
by
informers,
and
as
a
consequence
the
British
were
on
the
watch
for
arriving
Fenians
from
America.
O'Connell
was
amongst
those
captured.
He
was
put
on
trial
for
treason
and
sentenced
to
ten
years
penal
servitude,
notwithstanding
the
fact
that
he
was
an
American
citizen.
After
serving
five
years
of
his
sentence in
both
the
infamous
Pentonville
Prison, where Roger
Casement
was
executed
in
1916,
and
Chatham
prison,
O'Connell
was
amongst
the
Fenian
prisoners
released
in
the
British
government's
general
amnesty
of
1870.
Behind
the
"generosity"
of
the
English
was
heavy
pressure
by
the
U.S.
government
to
free
the
scores
of
former
U.S.
Army
(and
several
Confederate
Army)
personnel,
including
generals
and
colonels.
The
U.S.
government
intervention
was
the
result
of
Fenian
instigated
pressure,
primarily
in
letters
from
John
Savage
to
president
Ulysses
S.
Grant.
The prisoners released were required to leave the country and not return until the term of their sentence had expired. Some of them went to Australia, but O'Connell together with John McClure, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa,
John Devoy, and Henry Mulleda who had
been
imprisoned
together,
came
to
America.
The
'Cuba
Five',
so-called
after
the
vessel
they
sailed
on,
arrived
in
New
York
in
January
of
1871 to a hero's welcome.
Shortly after their arrival the United States passed a resolution welcoming the
'Cuba Five' and their fellow Fenian prisoners to the nations capital. They were also received at the White House by President Ulysses S. Grant in a gesture of gratitude for the many Irish, including senior Fenians, who had served in his victorious Union Army.
After his return to the United Stated in 1871 he remained involved with the Fenian movement, and together with the other returning prisoners, was credited with keeping anti-British feeling alive in the United States. He also joined Tammany Hall politics and
for
the
next
20
years
was
employed
in
New
York
by
two
divisions
of
the
city's
Court
of
Common
Pleas
(including
its
Naturalization
Bureau)
and
later
at
the
city
Comptroller's
office.
In 1998 he was sent to Ireland as the United States representative to the Convention of the Irish Race.
Charles Underwood
O'Connell
died
a
tragic
death
on
February
22,
1902,
in
a
multi-victim
disaster
at
the
Park
Avenue
Hotel
fire
in
Manhattan
where
he
had
become
a
long-time
resident.
Contributed by Tomás Ó Coısdealbha
cemetery
AND
grave
location
Name:
Calvary
Cemetery
ADDRESS:
49-02
Laurel
Hill
Blvd
Flushing,
NY
11377
GRAVE
LOCATION:
Section
9,
Row
54,
HEADSTONE
HEADSTONE INSCRIPTION
