The Harp And The Eagle

On the eve of the Civil War, the Irish were one of America's largest ethnic groups, and approximately 150,000 fought for the Union. Analyzing letters and diaries written by soldiers and civilians; military, church, and diplomatic records; and community newspapers, Susannah Ural Bruce significantly expands the story of Irish-American Catholics in the Civil War, and reveals a complex picture of those who fought for the Union. While the population was diverse, many Irish Americans had dual loyalties to the U.S. and Ireland, which influenced their decisions to volunteer, fight, or end their military service. When the Union cause supported their interests in Ireland and America, large numbers of Irish Americans enlisted. However, as the war progressed, the Emancipation Proclamation, federal draft, and sharp rise in casualties caused Irish Americans to question—and sometimes abandon—the war effort because they viewed such changes as detrimental to their families and futures in America and Ireland. By recognizing these competing and often fluid loyalties, The Harp and the Eagle sheds new light on the relationship between Irish-American volunteers and the Union Army, and how the Irish made sense of both the Civil War and their loyalty to the United States.

An updated, step-by-step method for playing the harp. This book can be used alone or with a teacher. the easy-to-follow method produces results for musicians of all levels, and even if you have no prior experience, and varying levels of difficulty are presented in arrangements of familiar musical pieces. All basic techniques and tunes are clearly and thoroughly explained. Specific topics include: how to use this book, how to sit with your harp, how to tune your harp, how to use your hands, plucking the strings, finger placement, basic structural concepts of music and 14 tunes.

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) rose from humble beginnings to become a leading spiritual and philosophical thinker. His works continue to influence thousands of people around the world; Joseph Campbell, Alan Watts, Eckhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra have all been indebted to him. And yet he belonged to no religion, sect or country. Nor did he subscribe to any school of political or ideological thought. On the contrary, Krishnamurti maintained that these are the very factors that divide human beings and bring about conflict and war – an approach that makes his teachings particularly appealing in our own times. The Flight of the Eagle is regarded as one of Krishnamurti’s key works, grappling with themes such as freedom, change, peace, violence and – finally – the transcendental and the unknown.

The first book in Bernard Cornwell's epic Sharpe series, which completely transports the reader to an unforgettable time and place in history. At Talavera in July of 1809, Captain Richard Sharpe, bold, professional, and ruthless, prepares to lead his men against the armies of Napoleon into what will be the bloodiest battle of the war. Sharpe has earned his captaincy, but there are others, such as the foppish Lieutenant Gibbons and his uncle, Colonel Henry Simmerson, who have bought their commissions despite their incompetence. After their cowardly loss of the regiment's colors, their resentment toward the upstart Sharpe turns to treachery, and Sharpe must battle his way through sword fights and bloody warfare to redeem the honor of his regiment by capturing the most valued prize in the French Army—a golden Imperial Eagle, the standard touched by the hand of Napoleon himself.

The book, musician, entertainer, teacher, and recording artist Carol Stober provides melody lines, lyrics, chord symbols, and melody tablature for 35 tunes she learned in Appalachia. the stories woven through the music portray a mixture of life situations that were ever-present in the difficult struggle for survival of our ancestors. the lyrics of many of these songs, although sometimes harsh, give insight into the values of the Appalachian people. the autoharp tablature provides detailed indications for different types of thumb and finger strokes, plucking, and string pinching.

Challenges conventional narratives of the Civil War era that emphasize Irish Americans’ unceasing opposition to Black freedom Embracing Emancipation tackles a perennial question in scholarship on the Civil War era: Why did Irish Americans, who claimed to have been oppressed in Ireland, so vehemently opposed the antislavery movement in the United States? Challenging conventional answers to this question that focus on the cultural, political, and economic circumstances of the Irish in America, Embracing Emancipation locates the origins of Irish American opposition to antislavery in famine-era Ireland. There, a distinctively Irish critique of abolitionism emerged during the 1840s, one that was adopted and adapted by Irish Americans during the sectional crisis. The Irish critique of abolitionism meshed with Irish Americans’ belief that the American Union would uplift Irish people on both sides of the Atlantic—if only it could be saved from the forces of disunion. Whereas conventional accounts of the Civil War itself emphasize Irish immigrants’ involvement in the New York City draft riots as a brutal coda to their unflinching opposition to emancipation, Delahanty uncovers a history of Irish Americans who embraced emancipation. Irish American soldiers realized that aiding Black southerners’ attempts at self-liberation would help to subdue the Confederate rebellion. Wartime developments in the United States and Ireland affirmed Irish American Unionists’ belief that the perpetuity of their adopted country was vital to the economic and political prospects of current and future immigrants and to their hopes for Ireland’s independence. Even as some Irish immigrants evinced their disdain for emancipation by lashing out against Union authorities and African Americans in northern cities, many others argued that their transatlantic interests in restoring the Union now aligned with slavery’s demise. While myriad Irish Americans ultimately abandoned their hostility to antislavery, their backgrounds in and continuously renewed connections with Ireland remained consistent influences on how the Irish in America took part in debate over the future of American slavery.