| * The first Captain of the company was an actor from Boston.
* On enlistment the youngest age was 18 and the oldest was 42.
* The sister company the 29th Massachusetts were made up mostly from Yankee volunteers from other states even though it had been raised in Framingham Mass.
* It was almost a year into the war from when the first engagement took place for the 28th Massachusetts.
* They came from all walks of life; Sailors , Shoemakers, Labourers , Farmers, Blacksmiths, Clerks, Tinsmith, Butchers, Bookbinders, Carriage makers, Watchmakers, Boilermakers, cooks, carpenters, Spinners, Actors, Machinist, Teamsters, Moulders.
* By mid war most Irish joined up for the pay and bounty only a few Irish wanted to free the slaves, as they would only compete for the low wages that were paid to them. |
* A $100 Bounty were to be paid when the campaign was over.
*The Irish Brigade was made up of the 63rd, 69th, 88th New York, 116th Pennsylvania and the 28th Massachusetts.
*May 1861; The 28th were garrisoned on Governors Island NY.
*For their first deployment the 28th were embarked on ‘The Steam Ship Ericsson’ which was specially built by John Ericsson for his experiment in the embodiment of using hot air instead of steam to propel a ship, though it turned out to be one of the great failures of his career.
*The ship was eventually converted to steam and run for the Collins line, as a transport ship in the Civil War and which the 28th embarked to the South.
*John Ericsson went on to invent many things but his biggest triumph came with the Iron Clad USS Monitor. |
