History of The Irish in Indianapolis - War Years

War Years

See also: Indianapolis in the American Civil War and Fenian raids

At the start of the War, the Irish in Indianapolis mostly resided at Irish Hill, which gained a reputation as the toughest part of town, and Fountain Square. These areas tended to be next to railroad and streetcar lines, which relied on Irish workers. Other major employers of the Irish were construction and pork-packing.

At the start of the War, the Indianapolis Irish formed the 35th Regiment, also called the 1st Irish Regiment, recruited at the parish school of St. John's. They would later be combined with the 61st Regiment/2nd Irish Regiment. Some of the Irish, particularly those that belonged to the Irish Republican Brotherhood (Fenians) thought the War would be good practice for eventually fighting Great Britain. Two rival chapters of the Fenians in Indianapolis recruited 150 Irish veterans to invade Canada from Buffalo, New York, in hopes of severing Canada from Great Britain in May 1866. All Fenians who attempted this, including the 150 from Indianapolis, were arrested under orders of President Andrew Johnson on June 6, 1866.

Read more about this topic:  History Of The Irish In Indianapolis

Famous quotes containing the words war and/or years:

    “It takes twenty years or more of peace to make a man; it takes only twenty seconds of war to destroy him.”
    —Baudouin I (b. 1930)

    “After the planet becomes theirs, many millions of years will have to pass before a beetle particularly loved by God, at the end of its calculations will find written on a sheet of paper in letters of fire that energy is equal to the mass multiplied by the square of the velocity of light. The new kings of the world will live tranquilly for a long time, confining themselves to devouring each other and being parasites among each other on a cottage industry scale.”
    —Primo Levi (1919–1987)