The Boys from Ireland: An Irish Immigrant Family's involvement in America's Civil War

This is a story of love and great passion in a time of war, of government corruption, poverty, starvation, and mass migration of millions of Irish immigrants. Two hundred Irish citizens dispossessed of their farms, businesses, and homes by a corrupt government (including several former prisoners from Kilmainham Prison in Dublin) sailed from Ireland to North America aboard the British Merchant ship the Isle of Jersey. Passengers included an assemblage of families from the South of Ireland and it was their misfortune to arrive in New York City during the Anti Draft Riots of 1863.

When the ship docked, the passengers got caught-up in the middle of this chaos and were soon to learn that America's Civil War still raged across the land. Many of the young men on board following in the footsteps of over 200,000 others from Ireland ended up in the United States Army. Among them was James McCaffrey along with his cousins and fellow prisoners from Kilmainham Prison, Kevin and Donald Malone, Patrick Kennedy, and Michael Ryan. Unfortunately, not all of them would survive the war that now raged across America.