TITLE PAGE
DEDICATION & PREFACE

Copyright, 1903,
by MICHAEL P. COEN, Naugatuck, Ct.,
for the Ninth Regiment Veteran Association, Connecticut Volunteers.

Seal of the State Of Connecticut.

COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION OF THIS VOLUME.

Michael P. Coen, Naugatuck.
John G. Healy, New Haven.
Richard Fitz Gibbon, Bridgeport.
Lawrence O'Brien, New Haven.
Rollin McNeil, M.D., New Haven.

"It is hardly necessary for me to say that the conduct of your men meets my cordial approval, and I am proud of both officers and their command."

Governor Buckingham, of Connecticut,
to Colonel Cahill, after Biloxi and Pass Christian, 1862.

"* * * Connecticut, represented by the sons of the ever green shamrock, * * *"

Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, in 1862,
General Orders, Department of the Gulf.

"The Ninth, Col. Thomas W. Cahill, is still attached to the Department of the Gulf. In the part taken by this regiment in the several engagements in which it has par­ticipated, it has fully sustained the character for gallantry and energy which it possessed at the close of my last report."

Adjutant-General, State of Connecticut, 1862-3.

To The

Officers And Men, Living And Dead,

of The

Ninth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry,

Whose Services In The

Great Civil War Contributed So Much To The

Preservation of The Union,

This Volume Is

Cordially Dedicated.

ENGAGEMENTS.

Off Mississippi City, Miss., April 4, 1862

Pass Christian, Miss., April 4, 1862.

New Orleans, La., April, 1862.

Baton Rouge, La., August 5, 1862.

La Fourche Crossing, La., June, 1863.

Chattahoola Station, La., June, 1863.

Pass Manchac, La., March, 1864.

Bayou des Allemands, La., 1864.

Deep Bottom, Va., July, 1864.

Winchester, Va., September 19, 1864.

Fisher's Hill, Va., September 22, 1864.

NINTH BATTALION.

Cedar Creek, Va., October 19, 1864.

BY WAY OF PREFACE.

THE volume here presented aims to narrate, in a clear and concise manner, the record of a splen­did regiment. The Ninth Connecticut rendered great service to the cause of the Union. No regiment in the Nineteenth Corps, or in any corps, possessed braver hearts or a firmer spirit of loyalty to the Republic.

More than forty years have passed since the Ninth was mustered in, and the ranks of the survivors are growing thinner year by year. Hardly more than 100 officers and men of the command, out of the total enlist­ment, are now known to be alive. But of those who are still with us, the greater part are as erect in body and as clear in mind as they were the day they enlisted. The years have dealt kindly with them.

To perpetuate a remembrance of the valiant deeds of these survivors of the Civil War, and their departed comrades of the Ninth, is the object of the present vol­ume.

The author is indebted for material to many sources. The work has been published under the auspices of the Ninth Regiment Veteran Association,—survivors of the command—and a committee on publication has had gen­eral direction of the undertaking. The plan, arrange­ment and execution of the volume, however, were mat­ters left altogether to the author's taste, judgment and experience.

Of the committee on publication, Richard Fitz Gibbon was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Ninth, and was, for a con­siderable period, in command of the regiment; John G. Healy, a captain in the regiment, became Lieutenant-Colonel of the Ninth Battalion, organized late in 1864, and composed of re-enlisted veterans; Lawrence O'Brien,

a captain in the regiment, was at one time during the war, provost marshal and judge of the Parish of Saint James, La. Michael P. Coen was a corporal in Com­pany F, of the regiment. His father and brother both lost their lives in the service. Rollin McNeil, M.D., New Haven, of the committee, was an assistant surgeon in the Regiment, and was later Surgeon of the Ninth Bat­talion, C. V.

In addition to material received from the committee valuable data has been furnished by Major Patrick Maher, a veteran of the Twenty-Fourth regiment, C. V. Major Maher was one of the founders, in 1849, of the Washington-Erina Guards, of New Haven, and was later an officer of the Emmet Guard of that place. As an authority on Irish military organizations in Connecti­cut he stands unexcelled.

The author is also indebted to the Hon. John F. Hur­ley, recently mayor of Salem, Mass., who served in the Fourth Massachusetts Light Battery during the war. This battery was encamped at Camp Chase, Lowell, Mass., with the Ninth Regiment, C. V., and accompanied it on the Constitution to Ship Island. Mr. Hurley has furnished the writer a statement of many interesting facts, and has otherwise expressed his interest in this work.

To the Hon. James P. Bree, New Haven, State Auditor of Connecticut, acknowledgment is likewise made for valuable assistance rendered, and also to Gen. Thomas McManus, of Hartford. This latter gentleman was a major in the Twenty-Fifth Regiment, C. V., during the Civil War, having also been adjutant of the regiment. From Jan., 1883, to Jan., 1885, he was Quartermaster-General of Connecticut, with the rank of Brigadier-Gen­eral. Thanks for data received are also extended Thomas M. Cahill, M.D., of New Haven, a son of Colonel Cahill, and to Dr. Patrick Cassidy, of Norwich. Dr. Cassidy was Surgeon-General on the staff of Governor Luzon B.

Morris of Connecticut, ranking also as Brigadier-General.

Much information has been obtained, too, from files of Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport and other Connecticut journals published during the war. Official publications issued by the State and National governments have been consulted. Collections of letters written home from the front have been placed at the author's disposal and from this source, too, many interesting facts have been gleaned. Access has also been had to regimental and company papers, thus greatly facilitating the work of the author.

The interest displayed by the public in the preparation of the present volume has been most gratifying. The author has received hearty co-operation on every hand. The kindliest sentiments have been expressed, and the most cordial inquiries made, from time to time, regard­ ing the progress of the work.

T. H. M.

New Haven, Ct., August, 1903.