Patrick Henry Monaghan (November 19, 1843 – October 22, 1917) was a native of Ireland who fought for the federal government of the United States (Union Army) during the American Civil War as a member of Company F of the 48th Pennsylvania Infantry.Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5; Prepared in Compliance with Acts of the Legislature, Vol. I: “Forty-Eighth Regiment”, pp. 1191-1235. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869. He received America's highest award for valor, the U.S. Medal of Honor, for recapturing the regimental flag of the 7th New York Heavy Artillery on June 17, 1864 while fighting in the Siege of Petersburg, Virginia.”Monaghan, Patrick”, in “Recipients”. Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina: Congressional Medal of Honor Society.Rodenbough, Theophilus Francis. Uncle Sam’s Medal of Honor: Some of the Noble Deeds for Which the Medal Has Been Awarded, Described by Those Who Have Won It 1861–1886: “Three Thinking Bayonets”, pp. 113-117. New York, New York and London, England: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1886.Gould, Joseph. The Story of the Forty-eighth: A Record of the Campaigns of the Forty-eighth Regiment, Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry During the Four Eventful Years of Its Service in the War for the Preservation of the Union, pp. 6-7, 14, 27, 166, 199, 202, 282, 290. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Arnold M. Slocum Co., 1908.
Formative years Born on November 19, 1843, Patrick H. Monaghan was a native of Belmullet, County Mayo, Ireland.Zane, Jay. “Monaghan, Patrick” (biographical summary). Pottsville, Pennsylvania: Schuylkill County Historical Society, retrieved online October 4, 2018. In 1848, when he was five years old, Monaghan emigrated from Ireland and, after arriving in America, settled with his family in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Educated initially in the public school in Minersville, Monaghan then went on to graduate from the Normal School."Unveil Plaque at Girardville". Pottsville, Pennsylvania: Pottsville Republican, May 26, 1939, p. 13.”Monaghan, Patrick, Bridget, Mary B., Joseph P., Margaret M., Vincent D., Helen”, in U.S. Census (Girardville, West Mahanoy Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Civil War On August 12, 1861, Patrick H. Monaghan became one of the early responders to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's call for volunteers to defend Washington, D.C. following the mid-April 1861 fall of Fort Sumter to the Confederate States Army. After enrolling for military service in the American Civil War, Monaghan officially mustered in as a private with Company F of the 48th Pennsylvania Infantry.Rodenbough, Uncle Sam’s Medal of Honor: Some of the Noble Deeds for Which the Medal Has Been Awarded, Described by Those Who Have Won It 1861–1886: “Three Thinking Bayonets”, p. 113. Military records at the time described him as being an 18-year-old laborer and Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania resident who was 5’7” tall with light hair, blue eyes, and a light complexion.”Monaghan, Patrick (F-48 I)”, in “Civil War Veterans’ Card File, 1861-1866”. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
Armed with Harper's Ferry muskets, Monaghan and his fellow 48th Pennsylvania Volunteers were trained in basic light infantry tactics before being shipped on September 24 to Baltimore, Maryland via the Northern Central Railroad, where they transferred to the steamship, Georgia. Transported to Fortress Monroe, they disembarked there on September 26, and resumed their training. After departing Fortress Monroe on November 11 via the steamship, S.R. Spaulding, they arrived at Hatteras Island in North Carolina the next day. Encamped in wooden barracks at Fort Clarke, Monaghan and his regiment continued to hone their skills via drills and inspections. During the early winter of 1862, they received their first exposure to combat when they participated in the capture of Roanoke Island (February 7–8, 1862). Monaghan then remained behind at their Hatteras encampment with his fellow F Company members, as well as those from Companies E and K, when the bulk of the regiment participated in operations related to the Battle of New Bern (March 14). They then reconnected with the main body of their regiment on May 23, which had been reassigned, on April 11, to the 1st Brigade of the division commanded by Brigadier-General Jesse L. Reno. At this juncture, they were then issued Enfield rifles. Moved back to Fortress Monroe in early June, they were then ordered to Newport News, Virginia where, on August 2, they sailed for Aquia Creek, and were transported from there two days later by rail to Fredericksburg, where they supported Union Army operation for roughly a week before being assigned to the Northern Virginia Campaign, during which they fought in the Battle of Cedar Mountain (August 9), engaged in operations at Kelly's Ford, White Sulphur Springs, Warrenton, and Manassas Junctions, and fought against the Confederate forces led by Stonewall Jackson in the Second Battle of Bull Run (August 28–30). According to historian Samuel P. Bates, Monaghan and his fellow 48th Pennsylvanians reached the battlefield at Bull Run at 1 p.m. on August 29 after “the action already having begun”, and were quickly positioned on the Union Army's far right:Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5; Prepared in Compliance with Acts of the Legislature, Vol. I: “Forty-Eighth Regiment”, pp. 1191-1194.
At three it formed in line of battle, with the Second Maryland on the right, the Sixth New Hampshire on the left, and the Forty-eighth in rear of the latter, and moved a cleared field toward the dense wood occupied by the enemy. The wood was skirted by a fence, which had scarcely been passed, when his infantry opened with a brisk fire upon the advancing column. The Forty-eighth marched with the steadfastness of regulars, and when the battalions in front, obliquing to right and left, permitted to advance and occupy the intervening space, it promptly opened with telling effect, and with fixed bayonets advanced a quarter of a mile, driving him from two ditches, from one of which, an old railroad cut, a brigade had previously failed to dislodge him. Receiving a volley of musketry from the rear … Colonel Sigfried ordered it back to the nearest ditch. The fire on the Sixth New Hampshire, and Forty-eighth Pennsylvania, from front, left, and rear was most terrific. The colors were raised and spread out to the view of the supposed friends, but hotter and more deadly grew the fire. At last rebel regiments made their appearance, and when discovered were greeted with a volley from the left companies of the Forty-eighth, but their strong force, and raking cross fire compelled it to retire in front of the Excelsior Brigade, and the forces of General Kearny, which quickly advanced to the fight. The regiment lost seven killed, sixty-one wounded [including Patrick H. Monaghan], ten prisoners, and seventy-four missing, an aggregate of one hundred and fifty-two.
Re-engaging with the enemy the next day (August 30), the 48th Pennsylvanians experienced more intense combat during the Battle of Chantilly (September 1), during which the 48th Pennsylvania was again positioned at the far right of the Union Army. Ordered to Alexandria after the battle's conclusion, the regiment was reassigned to the Maryland Campaign (September 4–20). After fighting again near Fox's Pass in the Battle of South Mountain (September 14), Monaghan and the 48th Pennsylvania persevered through the brutality of the Battle of Antietam (September 17). Having engaged the enemy that morning at Burnside's Bridge, they then led the 1st Brigade in its pursuit of CSA troops through Sharpsburg and its surrounding bluffs while under heavy enemy artillery and rifle fire. Continuing to march and skirmish periodically with the enemy that fall, they then fought again in the Battle of Fredericksburg (December 11–15).Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5; Prepared in Compliance with Acts of the Legislature, Vol. I: “Forty-Eighth Regiment”, pp. 1194-1195.
Still serving with the U.S. Army's 9th Corps during the opening months of 1863, Monaghan and the 48th Pennsylvania Infantry were transferred with their corps to duties in the west. Transported on March 26 from Newport News to Cincinnati, by way of Baltimore, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, they spent less than 24 hours in the city on March 30 before moving on to their assigned provost duties in Lexington, Kentucky. A corporal by this point in his military career, he was subsequently attached to Battery M of the 3rd U.S. Artillery from September to December 1863, during which time he fought with the Army of the Potomac in the East Tennessee Campaign (also known as the Knoxville Campaign), including the Battle of Campbell's Station (November 16) and Siege of Knoxville.Rodenbough, Uncle Sam’s Medal of Honor: Some of the Noble Deeds for Which the Medal Has Been Awarded, Described by Those Who Have Won It 1861–1886: “Three Thinking Bayonets”, p. 113.Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5; Prepared in Compliance with Acts of the Legislature, Vol. I: “Forty-Eighth Regiment”, pp. 1195-1197.
On New Year's Day in 1864, Monaghan re-enlisted with the 48th Pennsylvania at Cincinnati, mustered in with Company F at the rank of sergeant, and was awarded a 30-day veteran's furlough.”Monaghan, Patrick (F-48 I)”, in “Civil War Veterans’ Card File, 1861-1866”.”Monaghan, Patrick”, in “Registers of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-1865 (48th Regiment, Company F)”, in “Records of the Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs”. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
Having returned to service with his regiment in February 1864, Monaghan joined his fellow 48th Pennsylvania Volunteers in their next phase of service. Attached to the 1st Brigade of the 2nd Division of the U.S. Army's 9th Corps, they were then assigned to the Overland Campaign led by Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant. While re-engaging the enemy in the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5–7), Monaghan was wounded again. The 48th Pennsylvania was then even more heavily battered by the enemy during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House (May 8–21), a fight in which the 48th “steadily maintained its position under a destructive fire of musketry and artillery, and captured two hundred prisoners” that morning, according to Bates, and charged the enemy that afternoon “under a galling fire” that felled multiple members of the regiment. After charging the enemy again on the 18th, they then skirmished off and on with Confederate troops in the vicinities of the North Anna and Pamunkey rivers and Totopotomoy Creek before fully re-engaging with the enemy during the Battle of Cold Harbor (June 3–12).Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5; Prepared in Compliance with Acts of the Legislature, Vol. I: “Forty-Eighth Regiment”, pp. 1197-1198.
It was during his regiment's next phase of duty that Monaghan performed the act of valor for which he would later be awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor.Beyer F. Walter and Oscar F. Keydel. Deeds of Valor: How American Heroes Won the Medal of Honor: A History of Our Country's Recent Wars in Personal Reminiscences and Records of Officers and Enlisted Men Who Were Rewarded by Congress for Most Conspicuous Acts of Bravery on the Battlefield, on the High Seas and in Arctic Explorations, Vol. I: "Recaptured Colors and Took Two Prisoners", p. 365. Detroit, Michigan: The Perrien-Keydel Company, 1905. In recalling the events later for author Theophilus F. Rodenbough, Monaghan said:Rodenbough, Uncle Sam’s Medal of Honor: Some of the Noble Deeds for Which the Medal Has Been Awarded, Described by Those Who Have Won It 1861–1886: “Three Thinking Bayonets”, p. 113.