Bridgeport

[jonnynonos]

I read the vast majority of Irish were actually out of Bridgeport by the 40s.

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

Mine too - they had been here for well over 100 years, though.

Irish in the U.S. in 1760? They were clearly the exception, then. Most came during the famine a couple decades earlier, had few marketable skills, and even if they did people didn't want to hire them, anyway. If either side was willing to give them a gun, food, and a paycheck to help support their families, they weren't in much of a position to refuse. It's not unlike the situation with many who fight our current wars for us, in that regard.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

Irish in the U.S. in 1760? They were clearly the exception, then. Most came during the famine a couple decades earlier, had few marketable skills, and even if they did people didn't want to hire them, anyway. If either side was willing to give them a gun, food, and a paycheck to help support their families, they weren't in much of a position to refuse. It's not unlike the situation with many who fight our current wars for us, in that regard.

1710, actually. Apparently we lost our land on the very early side.

You're right on the poverty aspect, but it's a bit more complicated than that in terms of how it played out in the North, a lot of people *did* refuse to serve, money or no - that's why there was a draft.

My great-great grandfather's regiment actually got sent to NYC to keep order after Gettysburg & the draft riots.

Civil War

Although the war was controversial in Chicago, support for the Union ran strong. Cook County sent 22,436 men to fight, approximately two-thirds of them from Chicago. Surrounding counties together sent 13,516 men, more than half of them from Kane and Will counties. The draft was little used in Chicago because of enthusiastic enlistment rallies and generous bounties. Chicago music publisher George Frederick Root produced many of the most popular Union war songs for use at city rallies, including “Battle-Cry of Freedom” and “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp.”


The first Irish here were definitely just hired as brute labor to dig the canals & lay railroad track. I think the Chinese contributed to that effort as well.