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United States. The Medal of Honor to Participant in the Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth, James Rowan O'Beirne

Item: M0250-1

United States. The Medal of Honor to Participant in the Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth, James Rowan O'Beirne

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United States. The Medal of Honor to Participant in the Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth, James Rowan O'Beirne

United States. Army Congressional Medal of Honor Group, to Veteran of the Battle of Fair Oaks, Virginia and Active Participant in the Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth following the Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, Captain (later Major and Brevet Brigadier General of Volunteers) James Rowan O'Beirne, Company C, 37th New York Infantry, United States Army

Army Congressional Medal of Honor, Type 1 (in red bronze, engraver marked "Paquet F." on the obverse, engraved "The Congress to James R. Beirne, Brevet Brig. Genl. of Vols, for gallant conduct at the Battle of Fair Oaks, Va.", measuring 53 mm (w) x 69.3 mm (h) inclusive of its eagle above crossed cannons and cannonballs suspension, spotting and contact marks evident on the reverse, variation of the American flag in the original ribbon, with only the striped part remaining, missing the blue part its ribbon and its bronze pinback hanger with U.S. shield); Army Enlisted Man's Cap Badge (two-piece construction, in bronze, measuring 36.7 mm in diameter, screwpost bent back and housing a screwback, surface wear); and Austrian Franz Joseph Commemorative Jubilee Cross 1848-1898 (in bronze, measuring 36 mm (w) x 36 mm (h), ring suspension, spotting, residue in the recessed areas from cleaning). Very fine.

Footnote: James Rowan O'Beirne was born on September 25, 1839 in Cappagh, County Roscommon, Ireland, the son of Michael Haran O’Beirne and Eliza Rowan on September 25, 1839. James spent his formative days at a family home in the town of Cappagh, near Kilrooskey, close to a place locally known as "Beirne’s Cross". County Roscommon in those days was particularly ravaged by the Great Potato Famine, so the O’Beirne family immigrated to the United States, with young James who was only 9 months old at the time. His father, Michael O'Beirne, had numerous family connections in the United States, the family settling in New York City. After attending St. John's College (now Fordham University), he worked briefly as an Attorney. When the Civil War broke out in April 1861, he originally enlisted as a Private in Company I of the 7th New York Militia at the age of 41 but was mustered out two months later. In July 1861, he re-enlisted in Company C of the 37th New York Volunteer Infantry (Irish Rifles) and was given a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant, advancing to the rank of Captain that November. Captain O'Beirne was in action at the Battle of Seven Pines, also known as the Battle of Fair Oaks or Fair Oaks Station, which took place on May 31 and June 1, 1862, in Henrico County, Virginia, as part of the Peninsula Campaign of the Civil War. It was the culmination of an offensive up the Virginia Peninsula by Union Major General George B. McClellan, in which the Army of the Potomac reached the outskirts of Richmond. On May 31st, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston attempted to overwhelm two Federal corps that appeared isolated south of the Chickahominy River. The Confederate assaults, although not well co-ordinated, succeeded in driving back the IV Corps and inflicting heavy casualties. Reinforcements arrived, and both sides fed more and more troops into the action. Supported by the III Corps and Major General John Sedgwick's division of Major General Edwin V. Sumner's II Corps, which had crossed the rain-swollen river on Grapevine Bridge, the Federal position was finally stabilized. General Johnston was seriously wounded during the action, and command of the Confederate army devolved temporarily to Major General G.W. Smith. On June 1st, the Confederates renewed their assaults against the Federals, who had brought up more reinforcements, but made little headway. Both sides claimed victory. Although the battle was tactically inconclusive, it was the largest battle in the Eastern Theater up to that time, the battle second only to Shiloh in terms of casualties thus far, about 11,000 total. General Johnston's injury would have a profound influence on the war, leading to the appointment of Robert E. Lee as Confederate commander.

The more aggressive Lee initiated the Seven Days Battles, leading to a Union retreat in late June. Seven Pines therefore marked the closest Union forces came to Richmond in this offensive. Captain (Brevet Brigadier General of Volunteers) James Rowan O'Beirne, Company C, 37th New York Infantry, United States Army was issued his Army Congressional Medal of Honor on January 20, 1891 by General Orders, for actions during the Battle of Fair Oaks (AKA The Battle of Seven Pines), Virginia, his citation stating: "The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Captain James Rowan O'Beirne, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on May 31 & 1 June 1862, while serving with Company C, 37th New York Infantry, in action at Fair Oaks, Virginia. Captain O'Beirne gallantly maintained the line of battle until ordered to fall back." O'Beirne was in action at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, in early May 1863. The campaign pitted Union Army Major General Joseph Hooker's Army of the Potomac against an army less than half its size, General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Chancellorsville is known as Lee's "perfect battle" because his risky decision to divide his army in the presence of a much larger enemy force resulted in a significant Confederate victory. O'Beirne was seriously wounded during the conflict, sustaining sniper fire to the chest, head and right leg, the battle itself proving to be the second bloodiest day of the war. A little over a year later, O'Beirne mustered out and was commissioned as a Captain in the United States Veteran Reserve Corps in July 1863. He was promoted to the rank of Major in July 1864 and received Brevet promotions to the ranks Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel. In April 1865, he was serving as Provost Marshall of Washington, D.C. and was active in the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth and his associate conspirators following the assassination of United States President Abraham Lincoln. Having landed the gunshot that would eventually kill Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth leaped over the railing and fell from the presidential balcony of the Ford Theater in Washington, knowing that he was a wanted man. What he didn’t know was that Major James Rowan O’Beirne was to lead that hunt. After Booth had bolted on horseback from the Washington theater on that Good Friday night, April 14, 1865, Lincoln was rushed to a boarding house across the street, where he lay dying. O’Beirne escorted vice-president Andrew Johnston to the president’s bedside, after the second-in-command had himself avoided a similar fate when his would-be-killer, George Atzerodt, lost his nerve at the crucial moment. Secretary of State William Seward wasn’t so lucky, after a simultaneous attack saw him receive multiple stab wounds at the hands of Lewis Powell. Merely days after Republican forces had restored the Union to end the Civil War, its top-brass had now received a damaging blow by Confederate sympathizers who, however late in the day, were intent on extracting their own pound of flesh. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton circled the wagons in the back room of the infamous boarding house and issued O’Beirne with orders that he was "relieved from all other duty at this time, and directed to employ yourself and your detective force in the detection and arrest of the murderers of the President, and the assassins who attempted to murder Mr. Seward". Acting on Stanton’s instructions, Major O’Beirne made his way through the capital’s streets in the small hours of April 15th. He barged through the front doors of Kirkwood House, where Atzerodt had failed to go through with his orders.

There O’Beirne discovered the room where the conspirator had been holed-up, and subsequently fled from. A loaded revolver was found under Atzerodt’s bed pillow and a Bowie knife was also seized. These discoveries led directly to Atzerodt’s arrest five days later at his cousin’s house in Germantown, Maryland. O’Beirne’s main quarry, though, was Booth. An actor by trade and an idealist, he was far from any villainous stereotype. The fugitive was noted at the time for being "impossibly vain, preening, emotionally flamboyant, and possessed of raw talent and splendid élan". With the help of a map of the upper Potomac that was picked up at Atzerodt’s quarters, a goose chase ensued along its banks that lasted for twelve days, with Booth sheltering in a thicket of pine. When Booth crossed state boundaries into Virginia, O’Beirne pinpointed him to the Garrett farm, a residence near the town of Bowling Green. The Major telegrammed war secretary Stanton, waiting for his cue to make a decisive move. Here, by all accounts, office politics took over and Stanton pulled O'Beirne from the case. Much of the lucrative reward on offer was to go to a personal favorite of Stanton’s, Lafayette C. Baker. Along with his agents, Baker finished the job Major O’Beirne had begun, smoking Booth out of a barn before he succumbed to gunfire. If O’Beirne’s monetary reward of $2,500 was paltry when compared with the hand he played at a crucial time in American history, his achievements thereafter are notable only in their magnitude. On September 26, 1865, he was Brevetted to the rank of Brigadier General with the United States Volunteer Corps for "gallant, distinguished and meritorious service" while serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, and confirmed in this rank on February 16, 1869. He was discharged from military duty on January 30, 1866. Far from resting on his laurels, and despite his war wounds, the now General O’Beirne made an exit from the battle ground, going on to become a journalist and reporter for several newspapers, most notably the Washington Sunday Gazette, as well as Washington correspondent for the New York Herald. On one particular assignment for the Herald, he was said to have rode alongside the legendary General Custer during the Indian wars. In February 1880, O’Beirne was amongst the welcoming party for the arrival of Charles Stewart Parnell on his stateside trip, a visit where the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party addressed Congress. As only the fourth foreign leader to address the House, Parnell was the first Irishman to do so.

James O’Beirne is credited by The New York Times as having been the key component in bringing that about. He also served as second-in-command of immigration on Ellis Island in New York during the 1890s. One of the more interesting honors bestowed on O’Beirne was a decoration by the Venezuelan government, after he had ensured the securing and safe passage of a United States gunboat for the country’s former president, General Jose Antonio Paez, who died in exile in New York. James Rowan O'Beirne died on February 17, 1917 at his residence, 352 West 117th Street in New York, New York County (Manhattan), New York, at the age of 77. His wife, Martha S. Brennan, had pre-deceased him, as had five of his children, and he was survived by his only remaining daughter, Gertrude Marie, who herself remained childless and as a result, O'Beirne has no direct descendants. He is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, Queens County, New York, Plot: Section 7, Range 9, Plot II, Grave 14, his grave marker inscribed "James Rowan O'Beirne Native of Ballagh, Co. Roscommon, Ireland / Brevet Brigadier General / Major, 22nd Veteran Reserve Corps / Capt. Co. C 37th Reg't. N.Y.S.V. / "The Irish Rifles" / Pvt., C. E, 7th Reg't. N.Y.S.M. / Medal of Honor / "Most Distinguished Gallantry at the Battle of Fair Oaks, Va. May 31 and June 1, 1862 where he maintained the line of battle until ordered to fall back" / His Beloved Wife, Martha Brennan / Their Dear Children Hayman, Geraldine, Mary Elizabeth, James Rowan Jr., Olivia, who all died young and Gertrude Marie / As Provost Marshal of the District of Columbia, he employed his Detective force in the successful pursuit of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln".