SNIPPET: Irish fought both for the Union and for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Interestingly, the Shirley House of Vicksburg, Mississippi was built in the late 1830s by owner attorney Nicholas GRAY, an Irish immigrant. The house was originally named 'Wexford Lodge' after his native Wexford County in Ireland. By 1849 the property was sold to Ben JOHNSON. Sold again in 1851, it was home to Judge James and Adeline SHIRLEY during the American Civil War. Alice and her brothers kept their Union sympathies to themselves when the state seceded, although the family enjoyed a comfortable Southern lifestyle and owned several slaves. During the Siege of Vicksburg, the building was the most conspicuous structure on the battlefield and soldiers in blue and gray referred to it simply as "The White House". Federal troops later besieged their home, Wexford Lodge, which fell within the front lines. With their home riddled with shot and shell, the family was forced to seek refuge in a cave in a nearby ravine. They soon moved into an abandoned slave cabin behind Federal lines. The house was later converted by the Union army as a smallpox hospital. In 1864 it was abandoned altogether. The building was so badly damaged during the siege that the family never occupied its rooms again. Young Alice SHIRLEY left a first-hand account of some of her experiences, published in "Eyewitness To The Civil War, The Complete History From Secession To Reconstruction," Kagan & Hyslop (2006): "The Confederates, knowing that they must soon retreat behind their fortifications at Vicksburg, began their preparations by destroying what they could outside, and burned all the houses in the vicinity; but my mother's persistent refusal to go out of hers, and her determination to prevent its destruction, delayed its being set on fire until the Federals made their appearance on the hills to the east of us. The poor fellow who was appointed to do the work, while holding the ball of blazing cotton to the corner of the house, was struck by a bullet of the pursuing vanguard, and crept away under the shelter of some planks, where he died alone. His body was found the next day and was buried under the corner of the house. My mother and the old home were greeted with a shower of bullets and shell from the advancing army. One shot passed her as she stood in an open doorway. A piece of shell struck the top of a chimney and tore it away, and passing into an upper room, shattered a bedstead. She thought rapidly; the thing to be done was to hang out a flag of truce, and quickly she secured a sheet to a broom handle, and sending it by our carriage driver to the upper front porch where it might be seen from a distance, it was soon waving a truce to the bullets. Now all was confusion and excitement. The great hosts advanced rapidly, and the house, the grounds, the road, and the woods behind were soon alive with Union soldiers, and that same afternoon the fighting began. Bullets came thick and fast, shells hissed and screamed through the air, cannon roared, the dead and dying were brought into the old home. War, terrible war, had come to our very hearthstone, and there my mother and brother remained for three days. The two house servants stayed with them. Household treasures were soon destroyed under the ruthless hand of the soldier. Daguerreotypes prized so highly by the family, letters, valuable papers, etc., etc., quickly disappeared. A dinner set of beautiful china which had been packed away in a box for safe keeping, was taken out, piece by piece, and smashed ... Choice books were carried off, furniture was destroyed, but through the kindness of some officers our trunks and the best of our furniture were saved; among these were the piano and melodeon."