Immortal Irishman, The : Timothy Egan

The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero | Paperback | History/United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877) The Irish American story, with all its twists and triumphs, is told through the improbable life of one man. A dashing young orator during the Great Famine of the 1840s, Thomas Francis Meagher led a failed uprising against British rule, for which he was banished to a Tasmanian prison colony. But six months later, he was "back from the dead" in New York, instantly the most famous Irishman in America. Meagher's rebirth in America included his leading the newly formed Irish Brigade from New York in many of the fiercest battles of the Civil War. Twice shot from his horse while leading charges, left for dead in the Virginia mud, Meagher dreamt that Irish American troops, seasoned by war, would return to Ireland and liberate their homeland from British rule.