At the invitation of one of your members, I solicit your help in completing a major research project on the lives of Irish officers in the United States Army. I have been gathering information for this project for several years and have been successful in gathering military documents (like pension files and ACP files) that concentrates primarily on the service lives of these officers. My focus in this project is commissioned officers that served between 1865 and 1898. There were just over 200 Irish officers in this group and almost all were veterans of the Civil War. A fair number of these officers were born in Kerry and I am anxious to collect additional information of a cultural or biographical nature regarding their lives for my manuscript.

The list below contains only the names of those who I know came from Kerry. There are probably five or six more officers who were born in Kerry but never indicated this fact on official military records. So if you know of any additional names of Kerry men who gained a commissioned in the regular army and continued serving after the Civil War please let me know of their names and any other details you might possess. I thank everyone in advance for their patience as I solicit this information and hope that if anyone can share additional information with me they will contact me via E-mail or at one of the addresses listed below.

Thank you,

Kevin Stanton
Campus Box 234
University of Colorado, Boulder
Boulder, CO 80309

stanton@Colorado.EDU
Phone 303 786-0879
fax: 303 492-1868

Kerry men who served as officers in the US Army:

Callinan, Daniel Fitzgerald born in Kerry 7/24/1839 died 2/21/1916 Private Corporal Sergeant and First Sergeant E company First Infantry 5 September 1860 to 2 October 1863 Second Lt. First Infantry 10 August 1863 First Lt. 28 July 1866 Captain 1 July 1879 Retired 22 Oct 1891

Connor, Patrick Edward born in Killarney, 3/17/1821 died 12/17/1891 First Lt. Independent Company Texas Volunteers 7 July 1856 Honorably Mustered out 4 Aug 1846 First Lt. Independent Company Texas Volunteers 1 September 1846 Captain 12 February 1847 Resigned 24 May 1847 Colonel Third California Infantry 4 September 1861 Brigadier General Volunteers 30 March 1863 Brevet Major General Volunteers 13 March 1865 for gallant and meritorious service wife Johanna

De Courcy, Ferdinand Edwin born 12/24/1836 in Ballylongford Kerry; died 3/28/1912 Private Corporal and Sergeant K company Second Infantry 22 December 1857 to 22 June 1861 Second Lt. 13 Infantry 14 May 1861 First Lt24 Oct 1861 Regimental Adjutant 1 Oct 1862 to 12 Nov 1864 Captain 21 November 1865 Retired with rank of Major 24 Feb 1891

Driscoll, John born 1837 in Kerry entered Army as a drummer boy at age 12 in 1849 died ? Private corporal Sergeant and First Sergeant A company First Artillery 12 June 1855 to 28 June 1864 Second Lt. Second Infantry 7 June 1864 transferred to First Artillery 22 August 1864 first Lt. 1 December 1865 Mustered out 5 December 1870

McDonald, John born at Dingle 5/24/1837 died 1/31/1917 Private Corporal Sergeant and First Sergeant K company First Dragoons 18 Aug 1857 to 1 Oct 1862 Second Lt. First Cavalry 17 July 1862 First Lt. 29 December 1863 Captain 1 July 1868 Retired 1 July 1868 served as congressman in MD in 1870s fist wife Mary died, later married Rosa.

O'Shea, John born ? in Sneem, Kerry died? Private F company 15 Infantry Hospital corps and Private and Corporal I company First Artillery 13 December 1884 to 1 August 1891 Second Lt. Seventh Cavalry 31 July 1891 First Lt. Forth Cavalry 5 July 1898 Captain 2 Feb 1901