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Show HISTORICAL j I DEPARTMENT. I r--g------------- HEROES OF CELTIC BLOOD. Irish. Names That Figured on Our Frontiers Before the Civil "War. "Old-Timer," in the Chicago Citizen, has been curious to learn something of those military heroes with Irish names that figured on our frontiers before the davs of the great civil war. Those were the Kearnys, Rileys and Harneys. There were two Kearnys uncle and nephew Stephen Watts was the uncle and Philip the nephew. Stephen Watts was the son of an Irish father and Scotch mother. He was born in Newark, New-ark, N. J.. Aug. SO, 1794. and died at St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 31, 184S. He was a brigadier general in the army and military governor of California prior to its admission to the Union, and soon before his death. He bore a conspicuous conspicu-ous part in the Mexican war. and commanded com-manded a division known as the "Army of the West' and was the conqueror of New Mexico. He was defeated, however, in a battle with the Mexicans at San Pascal, Cal., in December, 1846, but he had only a portion of his force with him at the time. A disagreement having arisen over too many American Ameri-can chiefs at the conquest of California Cali-fornia ( Kearny, Fremont and Commodore Commo-dore Stockton). Fremont was placed under arrest by order of the secretary of war, and was escorted to St. Louis by General Kearny as his prisoner, for unwarranted assumntion of authority. I have been informed by immigrants who met both generals on the way that Fremont was several days behind Kearny on the homeward journey overland. over-land. Philip Kearny was the nephew , of General Stephen Watts Kearny. He was born in New York, June 2, 1S15, and died at Chantilly, Ya., in battle. Sept. 1, 1S62. He had in his veins Irish, Scotch, English, French and Knickerbocker Knicker-bocker blood, as he was related to the Watts, Morrises, DeLanceys, Van Cortland Cort-land ts and Schuylers. He doubtless inherited in-herited his .impulsive, roving and daring dar-ing disposition from tne Kearnys, who came originally from Ireland, although Michael. Kearny, the founder of the American family of the name, married a daughter of the erratic Lewis Morris, Mor-ris, who was of English blood and the first governor of New Jersey and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Inde-pendence. Although the inheritor of a fortune of over $1,000,000, the love of daring and the promptings of ambition ambi-tion induced him to abandon the ease and luxuries of life and enter into the I conflict of the war with Mexico as a volunteer. After participating in that and gaining all the glory he sought, he joined the French army and entered on a campaign of active service in Algiers, in which he carried the tri-I tri-I color through the "Gates of Iron" and lover the Atlas mountains into the stronghold of Abd-el-Kader. Again, he saw service in Italy against the Aus-trians, Aus-trians, and in the Crimea against Russia. Rus-sia. One of his most famous exploits was leading 100 American horsemen through the Mexican army up to, if not into, the San Antonio gate of the City of Mexico. He was pronounced by General Scott, as well as the whole American army, as "the bravest of the brave." He lost an arm in Mexico, and was recognized by the enemy as "the one-armed devil." He also received re-ceived from the people the other name of "Fighting Phil." He fell at Chantilly, Chan-tilly, Va in the war of the rebellion, just at the moment his name was under un-der consideration for the post of commander-in-chief, and the news caused mourning and lamentation throughout the land. His remains lie interred in old Trinity churchyard, New York, along with those of General Richard Montgomery. Thomas Addis Emmet, Arthur O'Connor and Dr. McNevin, of Irish revolutionary fame. It is a little singular that the two greatest cavalry leaders the United States have ever had should be named Philip Pnilip Kearny and Philip Sheridan one of Irish descent and the other of Irish parentage. One would have been head of the army' had ne lived; the other was head of the army before he died. i $ Bennet Riley was a brevet major general of the Mexican war. He was born at Baltimore, Md., in the year 1786. and died in Buffalo, N. Y., in 1S52. He saw a good deal, of frontier service and Indian fighting, besides his experience in the Mexican war. After him was named Fort Riley. 300 miles west of Fort Leavenworth, Kan. It is a beautifully situated post at the head of the Kaw river, with comfortable comfort-able buildings. Fort Kearny was named after General Stephen Kearny. Riley was for a short time, like Kearny, Kear-ny, military governor of California, before be-fore a constitution was adopted or the state admitted to the Union. i s. $, Brigadier General W. S. Harney was born in Lousiana in 179S. His services ! dated from Feb. 13, ISIS. He was several sev-eral times promoted for gallantry in the Florida and Mexican wars and service on the frontiers, and, finally, after retirement, re-tirement, was made a brevet major general March .13. 1S65. for long and faithful service. He died at his home in Louisiana May 9, 1889. A recent writer in the National Tribune, who ; served under him, said; "I think old . Harney was the most abusive and profane pro-fane officer in his ordinary conversation conversa-tion that I met in the army. . . . The soldiers used to sing a song about him to the tune of "Kate Kearny," one verse of which I remember ran: ' "Did you ever go out to Fort Kearny? O, yes, I went there with old Harney We'd nothing to eat But buffalo meat From Kearny clear up to Laramie.' I "But with all his ill-nature and roughness, old Harney was a first-class Indian fighters, and this, in the estimation estima-tion of the soldier, covers a multitude of faults: they can pardon almost anything any-thing in an officer if. he is gritty." |