"Irish Green and Union Blue: The Civil War Letters of Peter Welsh", Lawrence Frederick Kohl, editor, with Margaret Cossé Richard, Fordham University Press, New York, 1986. This book is a collection of the letters Peter Welsh wrote from 14 September 1862 to 15 May 1864. Most are to his wife Margaret (nee Prendergast), who preserved them. They offer one of the few surviving contemporary accounts by immigrant Irish Catholic enlisted men. Peter was an articulate, thoughtful man, and the letters are an easy read, while Professor Kohl's notes help put them in perspective. Born in 1830 on Prince Edward Island to Irish parents, in 1862 Peter was a carpenter living in New York. While on a trip to Boston to find work, he got caught in the middle of a family squabble between his relatives living there. Upset with the way things were going, he went on a spree, spending every cent he had with him; once he sobered up, he was so ashamed of himself that, rather than go home, he enlisted in the 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment on 3 September 1862. Evidently, Peter soon made quite an impression on his superiors. He was promoted to corporal the following month, to acting quartermaster/commissary sergeant in November, and assigned to carry the regiment's green flag on 17 March 1863, an honor he took especial pride in. Once a vacancy occurred on 1 September 1863, his promotion to sergeant became official. Unfortunately, Margaret did not like the idea about her husband's being in the army at all, and one gets the sense from Peter's letters that she fretted about this constantly. Suffering from poor health to begin with, the worry probably aggravated it. His becoming a color bearer seems to have distressed her a great deal. Peter's response basically was that he was in no greater danger than before because "there is no such thing as taking shure (sic) aim in the battle field". Most of the letters are about Peter's day-to-day activities, his offering advice and encouragement to Margaret, finding out if money sent home got there and reporting if he'd received packages from her, and letting her know about friends/relatives who were also in the army. Although he talks about army movements, he does not dwell on battles very much. A very devout Catholic, he always gave thanks to God for seeing him safely through and for sustaining his health. There was a division among the Irish as to whether to support the War, and in a letter to Margaret's father, Peter expressed his reasons why he was fighting for the Union - a belief that the US was the best chance for Irish freedom and the maintenance of the Union was a black eye for John Bull. Sadly, Peter did not survive the war. Shot in the left arm at Spotsylvania on 12 May 1864, what started out diagnosed as only a flesh wound turned out to more serious - the bullet had struck bone- and blood poisoning set in. Margaret had gone to be with him at Carver Hospital in Washington, and tried to convince him to allow the surgeons to amputate, but he would not. Peter died on 28 May, and was buried in Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, Queens, New York. Interestingly, the reverse of his monument includes the following: Peter Welsh Color Sargeant Co K 28th Mass Vol's Irish Brigade So, what became of Margaret? The couple had no children and she did not remarry. In 1865, she returned to her family's home in Athy, Co Kildare. When her sister married and moved to NY, Margaret alternated between living with them and in Ireland. Somewhere along the way, somebody gave her a parrot, Polly, who "developed quite a vocabulary" (wonder what that means). She became very involved in the Church. She passed away in 1892 (age 52) and was buried next to her husband. Dennis mailto:fran@ees.eesc.com Sterling Heights Michigan USA