Civil War Veterans in Australia

Murtha Doyle was born on June 4, 1836 in the town of Gorey, County Wexford, Ireland. Nothing has been uncovered relating to his migration to the United States or his life after arriving, but it is assumed he arrived like many others immigrants, at New York, and made his home there. It was at Buffalo, New York that he joined the U.S. Army, on November 2, 1857. He served as a private in Company A, 8th U.S. Infantry for five years until his discharge at Berlin, Maryland on November 2, 1862. On his Regimental Roster, however, he was listed as “Martha”, instead of Murtha.

The Eighth Regiment of Infantry was organized under the supervision of Colonel William J. Worth who established the first regimental headquarters at West Troy, New York in July, 1838. The reorganization of the regiment began on May 1, 1861, at Fort. Wood, New York Harbor. The only movements of the different companies in the early part of the year 1861, in the far southwest territories, were made in compliance with an order issued by General Twiggs, the Department commander, for the troops to leave the area by way of the coast. The attempt to comply with that order resulted in the capture of all the regiment by the newly organized military forces of the Confederate States. The regimental colors were not captured, and the manner in which they were saved is narrated by Corporal John C. Hesse, Company A, as follows:

"A few days subsequent to the surrender, upon going to the former office of the regimental headquarters, the building being then in possession and under the control of the rebels, I met there Lieutenant Hartz, the regimental adjutant, and Sergeant-Major Joseph K. Wilson, 8th Infantry. Our regimental colors being in the office, Lieutenant Hartz proposed to us to take the colors from the staffs, conceal them beneath our clothing and try to carry them off. We did so. I took the torn color which the regiment had carried through the Mexican War, put it around my body under my shirt and blouse, and passed out of the building, which was strongly guarded by rebels. Fortunately the rebels did not suspect what a precious load we concealed with us, for if they had our lives would not have been worth much. We put the colors in one of Lieutenant Hartz's trunks, and next day left San Antonio for the North. On the route we guarded the colors with our lives, always fearing that the rebels might find out what we had taken away and come after us; but they did not, and we arrived safe with our colors on the 26th of May, 1861, in Washington City, and turned them over to the regiment."

Companies A and D were captured at Indianola, April 24, 1861. The opening of the Civil War thus found the Eighth Infantry with its officers and men either prisoners of war, or debarred by their paroles from serving against the enemy; and it was not until October, 1863, that a body which can be considered fairly representative of the regiment could again be assembled.

Three weeks after his discharge he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps at New York and served aboard the U.S.S. “Union”, a supply ship in the Gulf of Mexico. The third USS “Union” was a screw steamer built at Mystic, Connecticut, chartered by the Navy on April 24, 1861 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She had been decommissioned in 1862 and was re-commissioned on January 20, 1863 and detailed to the Gulf of Mexico, where she was used as a supply and dispatch vessel. She spent the remainder of the war operating between New York, Hampton Roads Port Royal, South Carolina and points scattered along the Florida coast and the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

The “Union” compiled an impressive list of captures during that time, including the blockade-running British schooner “Linnet”, captured on May 21, 1863 west of Charlotte Harbor, Florida and the English steamer, “Spaulding”, taken off St. Andrew's Sound, Georgia in October. On January 14, 1864, the “Union” seized the steamer “Mayflower” and her cargo of cotton near Tampa Bay, Florida and on April 26^th she captured the schooner “O.K.” south of Tampa Bay. The supply vessel's final prize was the sloop “Caroline”, captured at Jupiter Inlet, Florida on June 10, 1864.

On November 26, 1864 Doyle transferred to a Marine barracks at Boston, Massachusetts. He remained there until February 18, 1865 when he transferred to yet another Marine barracks at Portsmouth, New Hampshire; then transferred to the U.S. Receiving Ship “Vandalia” in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The first “Vandalia”, the one on which Doyle was assigned, was an 18-gun sloop-of-war launched in 1828, assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. The sloop was one of a squadron sent to take Port Royal in the fall of 1861. After the capture of Port Royal, the Vandalia was sent to the New York Navy Yard on February 4, 1863, where she was decommissioned and then sailed for Portsmouth, New Hampshire on October 17^th; for use as a receiving and guard ship. She remained at Portsmouth until broken up there sometime between 1870 and 1872.

From the “Vandalia” Doyle transferred back to the Marine barracks at Portsmouth and was honorably discharged at Portsmouth, New Hampshire on November 29, 1866; at the expiration of his enlistment period.

Doyle then returned to Ireland, where he married Susan Cassidy in the town of Tommacork, in County Wicklow, on November 27, l87l and remained in the area for a number of years; a resident of Coleshill. Murtha and Susan had five children; John born in Nov. 1872, Mary in March 1874, Winifred in May 1878, Murtha on October 27, 1881 and Thomas on October 20, 1882. Sailing aboard the ship “Opawa”, a one funnel, two masts, twin screw ship built by the New Zealand Shipping Company that sailed between England and New Zealand with frozen produce, with accommodations for 6-1st class passengers, they arrived in Lyttleton, New Zealand in December 1878. Once settled in they lived on a farm in the community of Stafford, on the west coast of South Island and in 1884 records show that Murtha worked as a baker.

Later they relocated to Oamaru, where Murtha left the family and departed for Australia by himself. Susan remained in New Zealand until her death in 1913.

On December 12, 1895 at age 60, Doyle testified before the U.S. Consul General in Melbourne that he was unable to support himself due to general debility and the loss of his eyesight. Mr. Edward Woods, a missionary with the Church of England’s Seaman’s Mission, also testified that he was unable to work and that the mission had been assisting him the previous year. On November 30, 1909 he again appeared before the Consul General in Sydney, at age 73, and won his claim; number 925895J, which was recorded in the Army and Navy Division on February 1, 1910. His pension was certified to on May 28, 1913, to be paid at a rate of $30 a month beginning on the previous October 13, 1912. His final years were spent in Sydney, New South Wales, where he died on October 10, 1913, and was buried in the St. Luke’s “Pioneer Memorial Cemetery” Liverpool, New South Wales.