Patrick Henry O'Rourke - US Civil War Hero - Cornafean Online, Co. Cavan

Colonel Patrick Henry O'Rourke

Patrick O'Rorke in

uniform at West Point

Photo courtesy U.S. Military Academy

Patrick Henry O'Rorke, a hero for the Union forces at the Battle of Gettysburg, was born in Drumbess, Cornafean on March 25, 1837. He became a highly decorated soldier of the Union Army in the American Civil War. In his infancy, his parents emigrated to America and settled in the upstate New York city of Rochester. Their house, at 19 Emmitt St. was located in an Irish section of the city called 'Dublin'. Patrick excelled in his education, and graduated from Rochester's public schools in the mid-1850s, and was universally acclaimed as the city's finest student.

He was offered a scholarship to the University of Rochester, but instead accepted an apprenticeship as a marble cutter and mason at the Hibbard Marble Works. He soon was regarded as the best mason in Rochester but he abandoned this career at the age of 20, when he was accepted as a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point. He was the only member of his class born outside of the United States.

In June 1861, he graduated first in his class. Interestingly, General George A. Custer, later remembered for his role in the Battle of the Little Big Horn, was one of O’Rorke’s classmates. On his graduation, O’Rorke was assigned to the elite Corps of Engineers, and became immediately involved in the Civil War. He was a staff officer at the first battle of the war, Bull Run, where the horse he was riding was killed.

He then took part in several key assignments, designing and building the defenses for several cities, and was selected to accept the Confederate surrender at Fort Pulaski, Georgia in April 1862. That summer, he took leave and returned to Rochester to marry his childhood sweetheart on July 9th. Shortly after his wedding, he was promoted to Colonel and given command of the newly formed 140th N.Y. Infantry Regiment.

He led the 140th at the Battle of Fredericksburg and the later Battle of Chancellorsville, he was in charge of the brigade in which the 140th served. O'Rorke was temporarily promoted to brigade command from Jan. 1863 to June 1863. However, his life was to end tragically on July 2, 1863 at the famed Battle of Gettysburg. In an effort to defend the strategic Little Round Top, which if lost would had jeopardized the entire battle, O'Rorke led his 500 men in a charge over the crest of the hill and was killed after sustaining a bullet wound in the neck. He was 27 years old.

O'Rorke's Grave in Rochester

Ironically, his forces were successful in defending the position, without which the Union forces would have been defeated in that important battle. The United Stated Military War Collage has rated that day's action on Little Round Top as the single most significant small unit action of the entire Civil War.

Colonel O'Rorke was posthumously given another promotion, to brevet colonel, and cited by the U.S. Army for "gallant and meritous service, at all of the battles he was engaged in. was given a full military funeral and buried in the Catholic cemetery on Pinnacle Hill. When that cemetery closed, he was moved to Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Rochester. His wife Clara was devastated by his death and later entered the Sisterhood of the Sacred Heart.

A full-length biography of O'Rorke, “The Beau Ideal of A Soldier and a Gentleman; The Life of Col. Patrick Henry O'Rorke, From Ireland to Gettysburg”, written by Brian A. Bennett, was published in 1996. It examines O'Rorke's childhood days, his tenure at West Point, his service as an army engineer along the South Carolina/Georgia coast, as well as his tenure in the Army. Among the author’s earlier works was “Sons of Old Monroe: A Regimental History of Patrick O'Rorke's 140th New York Volunteer Infantry”. For ordering information, contact Triphammer Publishing at P.O. Box 45, Scottsville NY 14546-0045, or the author at bennettb@geneseo.edu The book is also available from www.amazon.com "Sons of Old Monroe" is available through Morningside Press, at
http://www.morningsidebooks.com/

The O’Rorke Memorial & Bridge Project

The O'Rorke Memorial Society was set up in Rochester in order to raise the public awareness of O'Rorke's achievements and sacrifice. Among its members is his biographer, Brian A. Bennett. The Society commissioned a larger-than-life bronze bust of O'Rorke, which now stands at the Visitors Center at High Falls, an urban museum located in the downtown Rochester Browns Race Historical District. In the near future, it is hoped to move the exhibit to a downtown location in Rochester City Library.

The planned O'Rorke Bridge

In April 2000, it was announced that a new bridge in Rochester is to be named after O’Rorke. The new Colonel Patrick O’Rorke Bridge will span the Genesee River and will cost $66 million. Construction is scheduled for completion in Autumn of 2002. The announcement of this news was greeted enthusiastically by both the local Irish-American community in Rochester and by historians in the locality. The O'Rorke Society is also serving in a liason role with the bridge architects and engineers, to serve as consultants for the planned sculpture and/or artwork to be placed on or near the bridge.

The fact that a project of this scale is being named after O'Rorke is a clear sign of the esteem in which his memory is held in the USA. We in Cornafean can truly be proud of the achievements of one of our most honoured sons.