"“The Blacks Fought Like Hell”: Racism & ..." Topic

…Racist Violence in the Words & Actions of Two Union Irish Cavalrymen.

"This month is Black History Month in the United States. To mark that occasion, I wanted to once again explore an aspect of the often-fraught relationship between Irish-Americans and African-Americans during the Civil War era. It is a topic we return to regularly on the site (e.g. see here, here, here and here). The concept for this post arose from a recent discovery I made during my work on the letters of Irish soldiers contained within the Widows & Dependents Pension Files. Among the correspondence I identified was that of a Limerick man in the 10th Illinois Cavalry, which vividly demonstrate his views on African-Americans soldiers both before and after the 1863 Battle of Milliken's Bend, in which black troops participated. Any examination of the 10th Illinois Cavalry quickly highlights the racial-conflict that occurred during the unit's stationing at Milliken's Bend. One particularly unsavory violent rampage by a soldier of the regiment stands out in the historic analysis; it was perpetrated by another Irishman, John O'Brien from Co. Cork. In an effort to explore, and begin to assess, the potential origins of his aggressive attitude towards African-Americans, I decided to examine his background, his emigration and his ante-bellum experiences to see what questions it might raise about his subsequent actions. It should be noted that this post contains unfiltered contemporary quotations that contain extremely racist language and sentiments, which may cause offense to some readers…"
Full text here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Interesting read – thought provoking. Thanks!

A votre service mon ami!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Indeed.