Letter Written 22 June 1887 by 1st Lieutenant Robert E. McCarthy 9th Mississippi Infantry, Company B (pictured above) Lieut. M. W. Shanahan A Brief History of his Military Record. Mr. W. C. Potter,$1$ $$ Dear Sir: Your letter of the 29th of May, announcing the death of M. W. Shanahan$2$ $$, has been received. You ask me to give the military record of the dead soldier. It would take an abler pen than mine to do anything like justice to the memory of one so brave, so faithful and so true. A man occupying the position of 2nd lieutenant$3$ $$ will have no great historian to sound his praise to the world: but his friends who stood around him like to repeat the story of his brave deeds and generous and self sacrificing acts. M. W. Shanahan joined the first company that was raised in Senatobia, Miss. and this Company formed part of the first Regiment raised in the State. (the 9th Miss.) The Regiment was immediately ordered to Pensacola, Fla. where it remained on duty until after the bombardment of the Navy Yard by Fort Pickens, when it was reorganized. On the reorganization M. W. Shanahan was appointed 3rd Sgt. of Co. B. by the newly elected Capt. T. H. Lynham$20$ $$. Soon after the Regiment was ordered to Corinth Mississippi where Albert Sidney Johnston$4$ $$ concentrating his forces for the attack of General Grant at Pittsburg Landing$5$ $$, which is now known to the world as the battle of Shiloh. It was in this great battle that the subject of this sketch first distinguished himself and attracted the attention, not only of his own company but of the entire regiment. In that terrible charge made by the Corps of General Braxton Bragg$6$ $$ late in the evening, when the shades of night were settling down over the bloody field, his brave example and cheering words served to inspire his company with confidence and hope that the last stronghold would soon surrender, and that the Confederate Flag would be planted in triumph on top of that hill. Soon after the battle, he was elected by unanimous voice of his company to 2nd Lieutenant and through all the long and bitter days until the end came he was looked upon with affection and pride by all those who knew him. With tender, generous and sympathetic nature, he had the heart of a lion. He participated in the following battles: Shiloh$5$ $$, Stone River$7$ $$, Chicamauga$8$ $$, Missionary Ridge$9$ $$, Dalton$10$ $$, Resaca$11$ $$, Lost Mountain$12$ $$, Jonesboro, GA.$13$ $$, Franklin, Tenn.$14$ $$, Atlanta, GA.$15$ $$, Nashville, Tenn.$16$ $$ and others. From the fall of Atlanta until the final surrender I cannot speak from personal observation$17$ $$ but I am informed, and believe, that he was true unto the end. He believed implicitly in the justice of the cause struggled for, and accepted the final result with resignation and without bitterness, going to work soon after his return. I have known him time and again to share his last crust with some hungry soldier, and give the last drop of water in his canteen to the wounded, be they friend or foe$18$ $$. Let the surviving soldiers of the old brigade that was commanded by Chalmers, Patten, Anderson, Tucker and Sharp, when they come in July$19$ $$, put flowers upon his grave until the sod that covers his faithful breast is entirely hidden. He will need no other monument. Thanking you for your kindness in writing me, I am very respectfully yours. R. E. Mc Carthy Late First Lieut. Company B 9th Mississippi Infantry Carytown, Missouri, June 4, 1887 Notes: $1$ $$William C. Potter, born 1854, son of Daniel Potter and Mary Rebecca Smith, brother-in-law to Michael William Shanahan. $2$ $$Michael William Shanahan, aged 46, died 26 May 1887, at his home near Coldwater Mississippi. Although no exact cause of death is mentioned, family members attributed his early death to hardships and sufferings and wounds received during the War. New Information has been uncovered with regard to Michael's cause of death. It comes from a newspaper article which was published June 6, 1887 in an unidentified newspaper, a copy of which was cut out and placed into the Boone Family Scrapbook. Scrapbook believed to originally have been the property of Hannah Catherine Potter Boone, sister-in-law to Michael W. Shanahan. This scrapbook currently in the possession of Frank E. Norman, Jr. of Lee County, Mississippi. This article states, "He died peacefully and quietly on the night of May 27th, without even a frown of pain or shudder of fear-of that dreaded disease, dropsy. Read this Article $3$ $$Promoted by Special Order #149 by Brig. General Chalmers. View Scan of Original Orders $4$ $$General Albert Sidney Johnston entrusted with the defense of that part of the Confederate States which lay west of the Alleghany Mountains, except the Gulf Coast on l0 Sept 1861; wounded and died at Shiloh. $5$ $$Battle of Pittsburg Landing (also known as Shiloh) took place April 6-7, 1862. $6$ $$Ordered to northern Mississippi in early 1862, Braxton Bragg briefly commanded the forces gathering there for the attack on Grant at Shiloh. During the battle itself he directed a corps and was later rewarded with promotion to full general. $7$ $$Stone River, Murfreesboro, TN, Dec 31, 1862-Jan 2, 1863 $8$ $$Chicamauga, GA, September 18 - 20, 1863 $9$ $$Missionary Ridge, Chattanooga, TN, Nov 23 - 25, 1863 $10$ $$Dalton, GA, Feb 22 - 27, 1864 and Aug 14 - 15, 1864. Unknown if he participated in both. $11$ $$Resaca, GA, May 13 - 15, 1864 $12$ $$Lost Mountain, Marietta, GA, June 9 - July 3, 1864 $13$ $$Jonesboro, GA, Aug 31 - Sept 1, 1864 $14$ $$Franklin, TN, Nov 30, 1864 $15$ $$Atlanta, Campaign and Seige, May - Sept 1864. Seige, July - Sept 1, 1864. View Scan of a fragment of the shirt Michael wore at the battle of Atlanta $16$ $$Nashville, Dec 15 - 16, 1864 $17$ $$Unknown if or why Robert E. Mc Carthy was not at the battle of Atlanta. We hope to learn this when we receive his Confederate Army Records. Confederate Army records received from NARA indicate that the reason that McCarthy was not with Michael through the remainder of the war was that he was captured on July 4, 1864 and sent to Johnson's Island POW Camp in Sandusky, Ohio where he arrived on July 15, 1864. Robert was incarcerated there until he agreed to swear the Oath of Allegiance to the United States on June 15, 1865 and was subsequently released. $18$ $$Michael was probably no stranger to hunger. Having been born in 1841 in Limerick, Ireland he lived through the Great Famine, which was probably responsible for the death of his parents. $19$ $$Must be referring to the scheduled date of an upcoming Confederate Reunion. Among the artifacts left behind by Michael is a ribbon for a reunion held in Vicksburg; however, it is not known if Michael actually attended the event or if it occured shortly after his death in May 1887 and only his widow and children attended. Note: In the handwritten transcription of this letter done by Beulah "Billie" Pearl Shanahan, the month of the reunion is given as August, not July as in the transcription done by "The Heritage of Tate County Mississippi". No further information has yet been obtained regarding this reunion in Vicksburg; it must have been one of the very earliest as it was held even before the United Confederate Veterans Organization was formed in New Orleans on June 10, 1889 by Col. J. F. Shipp. The UCV (forerunner of the present day Sons of Confederate Veterans) was modeled after the Union Organization known as the Grand Army of the Republic or GAR. At the time the UCV was formed it is known that a few state reunion organizations existed (in TN and VA) but no mention is made of any state reunion organizations already having been formed in MS, although it is apparent from this letter that such reunion organizations did exist in 1887. View Scan of Reunion Ribbon and other Civil War Artifacts $20$ $$According to Dunbar Rowland, L.L.D. in his book entitled "The Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi 1908", before the reorganization took place Thomas H. Lynam (note spelling) was the 2nd Lt. of Company H (the Lafayette Guards) 9th MS Infantry; after the reorganization took place, T. H. Lynam was promoted to the Captain of Company A, not Company B as this letter suggests. Captain T. H. Lynam of Company A later was later promoted to Lt. Col. and it is the transcriptionist's belief that the spelling here of "L-y-n-h-a-m" was either an error on the part of the Newspaper when it originally published the article, or in subsequent transcriptions. The only surviving copy which is known to exist is torn/missing where the word was, so comparison with the original is not possible. Also, in contrast to the letter above, Mr. Rowland lists the Captain of Company B as J. P. Hollohan, with his 1st Lt. as R. E. McCarthy and his 2nd Lt. as M. W. Shanahan (page 584). Further evidence that the Captain of Company B was actually J. P. Hollohan is found in the letter written by Nora Mildred Shanahan Phillips to Beulah "Billie" Pearl Shanahan Murrie, in which she says "Thereafter throughout the war, he (Michael Shanahan) belonged to the 9th Miss. Infantry Co. B under Capt. J. P. Holihan (note spelling)". Transcribed 26 March 2000 by K. L. Rhodes. Original Source: Article published in "The Coldwater Herald", Coldwater, MS, on Wednesday, June 22, 1887 (Vol 2, No 8, Cullen Johnson, Prop.) and republished in "The Heritage of Tate County Mississippi" by the Tate County Genealogical & Historical Society. Portions of the original newspaper article were torn/words missing. The missing words have been supplied from a handwritten transcription done on 23 Jan 1988 by Beulah "Billie" Pearl Shanahan Murrie FROM THE ORIGINAL LETTER which Billie states was 101 years old at the time she did the transcription and in very fragile condition. Return to Shanahan Family Genealogy Home Page