barryqwalsh
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- Sep 30, 2014
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Charles Reilly was one of approximately 200,000 Irish-born men who fought in the American Civil War. His son Anthony was one of the tens of thousands more who were just as much a part of the Irish-American story, those born in the United States to Irish parents. The Reilly’s first cross the pages of history in the Ireland of the 1840s, when Charles and his wife Marcella decided to take the emigrant boat.
No doubt hoping for a better life, they eventually settled in the city of Auburn, New York, where Charles got work as a labourer. By 1861, the year the American Civil War broke out, the couple had settled in the city’s First Ward, along with their five children; Anthony, then 16, 13-year-old Mary, 7-year-old Ann, 5-year-old Charles, and newborn baby James.
Column Remembering the American Civil War through one Irish family 8217 s story
No doubt hoping for a better life, they eventually settled in the city of Auburn, New York, where Charles got work as a labourer. By 1861, the year the American Civil War broke out, the couple had settled in the city’s First Ward, along with their five children; Anthony, then 16, 13-year-old Mary, 7-year-old Ann, 5-year-old Charles, and newborn baby James.
Column Remembering the American Civil War through one Irish family 8217 s story