Meagher

Meagher, Thomas Francis (Meagher of the Sword), was born in 1823 at Waterford, Ireland. Joining the Young Ireland party in 1845, he denounced O'Connell's pacific policy, and attached himself to Smith O'Brien and John Mitchel, the founder of the United Irishman. All three were arrested, tried for seditious writing and speaking, and acquitted. Mitchel, however, was subsequently transported under a special Act, and his two friends openly took up arms with their supporters, "the Confederates." Then followed the absurd affair at Ballingarry (1848), soon after which Meagher was caught, convicted, .sentenced to death, and ultimately sent to Van Diemen's Land. He escaped in 1852, and went to New York. In the civil war he sided with the North, raised the Irish Brigade, fought at Bull's Run and Fair Oaks, and received several good posts. From 1865 to 1867 he acted as Governor of Montana, in spite of Republican opposition. He was accidentally drowned in the Missouri at Fort Benton.