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== Background on Meagher ==

Thomas Francis Meagher was born on August 23, 1823 in Waterford, Ireland. At twenty years of age he joined the Young Ireland Movement and participated in the Rebellion of the Young Irelanders of 1848; an uprising and futile attempt at Irish independence. In July of that year, he was arrested and tried, where he was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment on Van Damien’s Land (present day Tasmania). Meagher made a bold escape in February 1852 and was rescued while floating at sea by an American whaler ship. He was transported to New Haven, Connecticut and from there migrated to New York City.

As he was deemed a fugitive from justice, he was unable to return to England to be with his wife as she died from Typhoid Fever. In 1856, he married the prominent Elizabeth Townsend and became a staunch supporter of the Union in the growing tensions of the Antebellum Era in the United States. Meagher felt a great deal of gratitude for his adopted country and worked to instill that same feeling among his fellow Irishmen. Although jobs were scarce, wages were low, and racism was rampant, the Irishmen who made it to America were alive. Perhaps due to his political fervor or life on Van Damien’s Land, Meagher was a staunch Unionist and without hesitation enlisted in company K of the 69th New York Volunteer Regiment.<ref>Cal McCarthy, ''Green, Blue, and Grey: The Irish in the American Civil War'' (Cork, Ireland: Collins Press, 2009), 45.</ref>The 69th engaged in combat at the First Battle of Bull Run. It was during this fight that the regiment lost its commander, Michael Corcoran, to an enemy prison camp after he suffered a wound to his leg.<ref>D.P. Conyngham, ''The Irish Brigade and Its Campaigns'', ed. Lawrence Frederick Kohl (1866; repr., New York: Fordham University Press, 1994), 41.</ref>After this significant Union loss and an even greater loss to the 69th, Meagher returned to New York to recruit what he hoped to be an all Irish brigade. The oratory skills for which he was renowned did not fail him as he fired American patriotism into Irish hearts and minds.

Catholics and immigrants were deemed “miscreants” by Wilbur Fisk Sanders and his Vigilante Committee. These men defined “good people” as Union-supporting, Protestant, and Republican. Although Meagher was the general who led arguably the most heroic brigade of the Civil War, he was an Irishman who wanted to populate the region with his fellow countrymen and establish Catholic Parochial schools.<ref>Angela Faye Thompson, "Death of Thomas Francis Meagher revisited" (1998).''Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers.'' Paper 1993. http://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd.</ref>In addition to his religion and ethnic background, Meagher angered the community leaders and politicians in the territory, most of whom belonged to the vigilante group, by combating dubious legal rulings. The most troublesome for Meagher came in February1866 when he granted a reprieve to an Irishman named James Daniels. This man was convicted of manslaughter by a biased jury and sentenced to three years in prison by Judge Lyman Munson. When Meagher reviewed the case, he concluded that Daniels acted in self-defense and ordered the sheriff of the capital city, Virginia City, to release Daniels as Meagher ordered his sentence was “‘reprieved….until the decision of the President of the United States is made known thereon.’”<ref>Daniels Pardon, February 22, 1866, Montana Historical Society, quoted in Wylie, 263.</ref>Daniels immediately started back to Helena, where he was tried, and was at once surrounded by vigilantes and was “‘hanged…with the pardon in his pocket.’”<ref>Lyman Munson, quoted in Wylie, 264.</ref>In August, Meagher was accosted by vigilantes and warned to leave the territory. This event was followed by Meagher receiving a written threat that he would be hanged accompanied by a drawing of a man hanging from a tree with the label, “General Meagher.”<ref>Wylie, 264.</ref>

== Murder Suspects ==

General Thomas Francis Meagher was a hero to both Ireland and the United States. He made many enemies over the years of his service to both countries, a fact that cannot be disputed. His enemies did not kill him. The war did not kill him. Meagher died as a result of his own addiction and the unforgiving nature of the Missouri River.