Thomas Francis Meagher

Born in Waterford, County Waterford, Ireland, Meagher was educated at Jesuit boarding schools in Ireland and England. While at school, Thomas Francis gained a broad and deep education and also came into his own as a speaker, although he developed what one Irishman called "a Saxon accent", becoming the youngest medalist of the Clowgowes Wood Debating Society at age 15. After graduating from Stonyhurst, Meagher left Ireland for a tour of the continent where he became imbued with the spirit of revolution then alive in Germany and France.
Meagher returned to Waterford in 1843, where he also first heard Daniel O'Connell speak. As a result of O'Connell's speech, he joined the campaign for the Repeal of the Act of Union with Great Britain of 1801.
In 1845, he became a founding member of the Young Ireland group, among them William Smith O'Brien, which favoured more aggressive action for home rule than O'Connell was willing to support, causing its split from O'Connell's Repeal party. It was a fiery speech by Meagher supporting armed insurrection as a means of Irish independence that finalized the split with Repeal and earned Meagher the sobriquet "Meagher of the Sword".
Following the incident known as the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848 or "Battle of Ballingarry" in August 1848, Meagher, Terence MacManus, Smith O'Brien, and Patrick O'Donoghue were arrested, tried and convicted for sedition, which, due to a newly passed ex post facto law, meant that Meagher and his colleagues were sentenced to be "hanged, drawn and quartered". But it was after his trial Meagher delivered his famous Speech From the Dock – second only to Robert Emmet's pre-execution speech in the pantheon of Irish political rhetoric.
Meagher's death sentence was commuted to transportation to "the other side of the world," and in 1849 he was transported to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania, Australia). He accepted the "ticket-of-leave" in Tasmania, giving his word not to attempt to escape without first notifying the authorities, in return for comparative liberty on the island, and in January 1852 Meagher abruptly surrendered his "ticket-of-leave" and escaped to America.
Meagher arrived in New York City in May 1852. When the question of "honour" was later raised, Meagher agreed to subject himself to a "trial" of American notables and agreed to return to Van Diemen's Land if they held against him. The "jury" (of unknown ethnic extraction) found for Meagher.
At the start of the Civil War, Meagher joined the Union Army. As acting Major he led Company K of the 69th Regiment (which would be known as the "Fighting 69th") of the New York State Militia at Bull Run. He returned to New York to form the Irish Brigade and led it at as Brigadier-General in the Peninsula Campaign at Fair Oaks, Mechanicsville, Gaines' Mill, Peach Orchard, Malvern Hill, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and at Chancellorsville. He resigned in May 1863 over the army's refusal to let him return to New York to raise reinforcements for his battered brigade: 4,000 strong in mid-May 1862, by late May 1863 the brigade had only approximately 500 combat-ready men left.
After the death of another leading Irish political figure, General Michael Corcoran, Meagher's resignation was rescinded and he was assigned to duty with the western armies, serving under General William Tecumseh Sherman. Sherman considered Meagher a foreign rabble-rouser and assigned him to non-combat duties outside of the theater of operations, in which capacity he finished out the war.
After the war, Meagher was appointed Secretary of the new Territory of Montana, and soon after arriving in the territory was designated the Acting Governor. As acting governor, Meagher attempted to create a working relationship between the territory's Republican executive and judicial branches and the Democratic legislative branch. He failed, making enemies in both camps.
Meagher died in the summer of 1867 under mysterious circumstances. It was reported that he had thrown himself off of a steamboat while ill and deranged, but later, two men confessed that they had been involved in a plot to murder him. The truth of the matter never was resolved as to whether his death was suicide or murder, and remains a mystery to this day... ..
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