Niall ODowd - George Washington and the Irish: Incredible Stories of the Irish Spies, Soldiers, and Workers Who Helped Free America

Copyright 2022 by Niall ODowd

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Kai Texel

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-6939-7

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-6940-3

Printed in the United States of America

This Book is Dedicated to All Those Who Fight for Freedom

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book became an obvious undertaking after the very successful Lincoln and the Irish: The Untold Story of How the Irish Helped Abraham Lincoln Save the Union, which was published in March 2018.

Researching the Irish and Washington was a fascinating undertaking. I learned so much about the close ties that bound him to his Irish followers.

Washington and Lincoln stand apart in American history, yet the role the Irish played in their success has been massively ignored.

One does not have to exaggerate or overplay the Irish role in either case; we can let their words and deeds speak for themselves. It is also a fact that the Irish story and their part in the American Revolution needs to be told.

My sincere thanks to Tony Lyons, president and publisher at Skyhorse Publishing, for his support in launching this Washington book, and to his excellent editor and advisor Caroline Russomanno for her insights and support.

A special thanks to Darina Molloy, who did such a fine editing job on the original manuscript and correcting my strange reluctance to admit that commas do exist.

Finally to my wife Debbie, a great journalist who advised and supported at every turn, and also to my daughter Alana for her heartfelt support and encouragement.

Thank you all.

Go N-Eiri Libh. Success to all.

Niall ODowd
October 2021

America was lost by Irish emigrants... I am assured from the best authority, the major part of the American Army was composed of Irish and that the Irish language was as commonly spoken in the American ranks as English, I am also informed it was their valor that determined the contest...

Lord Mountjoy, British Parliament, April 2, 1784

INTRODUCTION

Freedoms Sons and DaughtersThe Story of the Irish and George Washington

T here is no doubt that Irelands sons and daughters played a major role in the battle for American independence from the British Crown.

As leading Revolutionary War historian Thomas Fleming has noted, the Irish responded en masse to the call for resistance to England. With more than 300,000 of them in the colonies, they had a major impact on the war.

You would be hard-pressed to find an account of the full Irish commitment. Historians have mainly ignored or rarely referenced their role. This is an opportunity to set the record straight.

As Philip Thomas Tucker, PhD, a prolific historian of the Revolutionary War writes: For more than two centuries, what has been most forgotten about Americas stirring creation story were the crucial and disproportionate contributions that the Irish people played in the winning of the American Revolution.

What this book shows is that the impact of the Irish was not confined to war: it was the loving care given by Irish nurses to wounded soldiers; it was the cooking, cleaning, and laundry work done by Irish camp followers that kept an army marching; it was the fearless advocacy for freedom from successful immigrant politicians and business leaders; it was the secret intelligence and spy work that resulted in great victories and disasters avoided. And yes, of course, there was the bravery of the men who fought at Bunker Hill, Princeton, Trenton, Yorktown, and all the great battle sites.

There is the closeness of Washington to the Irish, rarely revealed.

We will also see the social Washingtona beloved and frequent guest at the Friendly Sons of Saint Patricks dinners or visiting with his favorite Irish bartender in a Delaware Irish pub. We will see him during formal occasionsdancing minuets and waltzes at the home of his great Irish friend General Henry Knox or wining and dining his Irish neighbors at Mount Vernon.

Of course, there was the famous Saint Patricks Day celebration in 1780 after a winter of discontent at Valley Forge, but there is also the story of how the Irish and German soldiers almost came to blows as Washington tried to intervene. The following year, Washington used Saint Patricks Day as the only day off of the year to uplift his men after a cruel winter.

It was an almost mystical bond between Washington and the Irish: the fierce commitment when they realized Washington was not anti-Irish Catholic like so many and was ready to die for his ideals; and the fact that he hated the common enemy, the British, as much as they did.

Indeed, in one case, we find Washington marveling at the ornate statuary at a Catholic mass he attended and wondering why he wasnt more drawn to the religion.

Battlefield generals and ordinary soldiers fought with rare fury for him. The obscure tailor Hercules Mulligan became a master spy, one so good that CIA Chief William Casey once wondered if he wasnt the greatest American spy of all. Mary Travers, a beloved nurse, became an angel of the camps. Elizabeth Thompson became Washingtons housekeeper at the age of seventy-two, and he was devoted to her.

There is also the story of men like Washingtons Chief Aide John Fitzgerald whose riveting account of crossing the Delaware with Washington provided an incredible eyewitness account of perhaps the most important moment in Americas history.

George Washington and the Irish will show the bravery of the Irishmen who knew they could be signing their death warrants when they printed and signed the Declaration of Independence. For many, it was revenge for what the British had done to them in their own country.

We will also highlight the story of James Hoban, the unknown Irish architect who had a chance encounter with Washington and ended up designing the White House.

This book, then, is the largely untold story of how the Irish played a decisive part in helping George Washington defeat the British in perhaps the most significant war in historya war where democracy was first forged and the divine right of kings to rule was forever ended. It also dispels the myths that few Irish Catholics fought. There were ten thousand Irish names on the Continental Army muster rolls at the beginning of the war and many more joined.

There were also, of course, thousands of Scots Irish Presbyterians, themselves forced to leave Ireland because of the draconian Penal Laws that forbid any religion but Anglican, also known as the Church of England. Among those who fought were the teenage son of Irish immigrants, Andrew Jackson, and Kate Barry, daughter of Irish immigrants, who became a legendary figure.