Corcoran Legion  "An Irish Brigade"

Irish immigrant and Union soldier Col. Michael Corcoran was captured at the July 21, 1861, Battle of Bull Run and confined in a Confederate prison in Richmond, VA, for more than a year. When he was finally exchanged, he was hailed as a hero in the North and commissioned a brigadier general. To secure a command suitable to his new rank, Corcoran went to New York City and recruited four regiments- the 155th, 164th, 170th, and 184th New York- all made up almost entirely of Irish immigrants.

Though not technically a legion, the new Union brigade was named the "Corcoran Legion" and was sent to Suffolk, VA. In the spring of 1863, they successfully defended that important Union post against a siege by Confederate Gen. James Longstreet's command. From July 1863 to May 1864 the legion served in the forts surrounding Washington, DC, where they had an easy life with no enemy to battle. During that time, in December 1863, Corcoran died in a riding accident and was replaced by Gen. Robert O. Tyler.

With the opening of the spring 1864 offensive, the Corcoran Legion was assigned to the Army of the Potomac and placed in Gen. Winfield S. Hancock's II Corps. During Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's drive toward Richmond, many Union units were butchered by Gen. Robert E. Lee's soldiers in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, but few commands were so decimated as was the Corcoran Legion. On June 3, 1864, the Legion's survivors of the Battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House made a dawn attack against Lee's entrenched Rebels at Cold Harbor. They bravely went forward into a destructive fire poured on them from the front and both flanks, and they were slaughtered.

The Corcoran Legion was practically destroyed at Cold Harbor, but the survivors retained the name to the end of the war and were mustered out of service with the rest of the II Corps in June 1865.

Fascinating Fact:  In the Battle of Cold Harbor, one of the Legion's colonels managed to ,make his way to the Rebel earthworks and plant his regiment's flag, but his body was immediately riddled with Confederate bullets.


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