GENERAL ST. CLAIR A. MULHOLLAND.
BY THE SECRETARY GENERAL.
General St. Clair A. Mulholland, one of the best known and most highly esteemed men in public life in Pennsylvania, and a life member of the American-Irish Historical Society, died on Thursday, February 17, 1910, after an illness of less than a week’s duration. Stricken on the 11th inst. in his office in the Federal Building, General Mulholland battled bravely to regain his health, but his advanced age—he was almost seventy-one years old—proved too great a handicap. Physicians ascribe his death to a general breakdown.
Brevet Major General St. Clair A. Mulholland, who at the close of the Civil War was one of the youngest of the major generals created during that struggle, was a native of the County Antrim, Ireland, where he was born in 1839. He came to this country with his parents when but eight years old. While still a very young man he became connected with the Pennsylvania militia, and when the Civil War broke out he entered the service. For a brief period he was a recruiting officer, but in 1862 he went to the front with the One Hundred and Sixteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers, which he helped to organize, as lieutenant colonel. This was in June, 1862, when he was only 23 years of age.
Subsequently he was promoted to the colonelcy. He took part in the fights at Charlestown and Ashby’s Gap, Va., in October and November, 1862. He commanded his regiment at Fredericksburg, in the famous charge of the Irish Brigade, of which the regiment formed a part, and was severely wounded in the gallant attempt to storm Marye’s Heights. On February 27, 1863, he was appointed major of battalion. In the battle of Chancellorsville, Va., May 2, 3 and 4, 1863, he led his regiment, and distinguished himself in saving the guns of the Fifth Maine Battery, which had been abandoned to the enemy. For this he was complimented in general orders. In this campaign he was selected by General Hancock to command the picket line of the Second Corps, and while performing this duty covered the retreat of the Army of the Potomac from Chancellorsville across the Rappahannock, for which service he was awarded a Congressional medal of honor.
He participated in the fight at Thoroughfare Gap, Va., June 25, 1863. In the battle of Gettysburg he again led his regiment, which was practically annihilated. He then took command and led into action the One Hundred and Fortieth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. He was engaged in the fight at Jones’ Cross Roads, July 10, 1863; at Falling Waters, July 14, and in the battle of the Wilderness, May 5, 1864, where he was again wounded. For his gallant conduct on this occasion he was made brevet brigadier general. He was in the fight at Tod’s Tavern, May 10, 1864, and in the battle of Po River, where he was a third time wounded.
Having been sent to the hospital at Washington, he remained only ten days, and then resumed his command. He was engaged in the fight at North Anna and on the Pamunkey River, May 28, 30 and 31, 1864. At the battle of Topotomy Creek he was dangerously wounded by a musket ball through the groin.
He commanded his brigade in all the actions around Petersburg until the end of the war. He particularly distinguished himself during this time by storming a rebel fort in front of his brigade, and for this he was brevetted major general October 27, 1864.
When, in 1868, Daniel M. Fox was elected Mayor he called to his aid as chief of police General Mulholland, and it was due to the discipline which the latter inculcated that the force, before that time in some disorder, was brought to a fine condition.
After the election of President Cleveland General Mulholland was appointed pension agent at Philadelphia, a position he held continuously since 1894.
The activities of General Mulholland covered a large field, and he was known all over the State. As a speaker at Grand Army celebrations and in educational institutions he was always welcomed, and his vivid descriptions of events in war times were listened to with interest.
For many years he was a member of the Board of Prison Inspectors, and it is said of him that he personally helped more unfortunates to start life anew than any other man in the State. He made the subject of prison discipline and its reform a study, and it was he who formed the committee that drafted the new parole law, as presented in the Legislature by Senator Ernst L. Tustin.
He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Loyal Legion, life member of the American-Irish Historical Society, Medal of Honor Legion and Friendly Sons of St. Patrick (of which he was president from 1892 to 1894). He was chairman of the committee of the Friendly Sons which had charge of the erection of the Barry monument in Independence Square, and at the time of his death chairman of the commission appointed by Governor Stuart to provide for the erection of the monument to the Pennsylvania soldiers participating in the battle of Gettysburg. He was a former president of the Catholic Alumni Sodality, and at the time of his death, as chairman of a committee of the sodality, was working to raise funds for the erection of a monument to Rev. William Corby, chaplain of the Irish Brigade, showing Father Corby in the act of administering absolution to the soldiers about to enter into battle at Gettysburg.
Himself an artist in water colors, General Mulholland during his trips abroad gathered many valuable paintings, which form a collection of worth at his home.
General Mulholland was twice married. His first wife was Mary Dooner, sister of the late Peter S. Dooner. His second wife was Mary Heenan, daughter of Colonel Heenan and sister of Dr. Thomas E. Heenan, now United States Consul at Warsaw, Russia. The daughters of the deceased are: Mrs. Ludwig E. Faber, Mrs. Joseph I. Comber, Miss Mary Mulholland, Miss Genevieve Mulholland, Miss Claire Mulholland.
General Mulholland was a brother of the late Rev. James E. Mulholland, rector of St. Patrick’s Church, who died suddenly in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1886.
The following Sunday the general’s old comrades in arms and members of the Loyal Legion, Grand Army of the Republic and delegations from other organizations visited the residence and held memorial exercises. About one hundred members of the parish Holy Name Society, of which the deceased was a member, accompanied by the rector, Rev. M. J. Crane, and the spiritual director, Rev. Thomas J. Hanney, recited the Office for the Dead at the house, as did also the Alumni Sodality, which had forty members present.
The funeral took place Monday morning, from the late residence of the deceased, 4202 Chester Avenue. Solemn Requiem Mass was sung in St. Francis de Sales’ Church by the rector, Rev. M. J. Crane. Rev. Joseph A. Whittaker was deacon; Rev. Thomas J. Hanney, sub-deacon, and Rev. Alfred C. Welsh, of Kennett Square, master of ceremonies.
The absolution of the body was performed by Right Rev. Monsignor William Kieran, D. D., rector of St. Patrick’s. In compliance with the wishes of the deceased, there was no sermon, but Monsignor Kieran, who read the funeral service in English as well as in Latin, made a brief address, alluding to the virtues and patriotism of this great man. The interment was in Old Cathedral Cemetery.
One of the leading journals of Philadelphia states editorially:
“After seventy-three years of life’s battling, General St. Clair A. Mulholland lies in a soldier’s grave. ‘After life’s fitful fever, he sleeps well.’ Those who live well and die well surely sleep well. And truly may it be said of the great and gallant Irishman who has laid down his sword and gone to rest in his soldier’s cloak that he did all a soldier could to live well and die well for the country of his adoption, since he could not offer it for that of his nativity. It was not his lot to fall on the field of his fame, but to rise from the blood-soaked soil more than once to take up the task of the soldier-saint, Louis of France, and reveal the tender heart of the woman beating beneath the cuirass of the soldier. To visit the prisons and to bear the message of solace to the despairing victims of a cruel fate was the task which he marked out for himself, and carried out to the very last healthful day of his official career. Many a stout and steadfast heart has ‘the black North,’ as his native Ulster is erroneously called, brought to the defense and glorification of the American Union, but none surpassing in beautiful qualities that of the quiet and unassuming soldier who now lies in a friendly grave in the land he served, but far from the hills of his native Ulster, the land of the O’Neills and the O’Donnells, and all the representatives of the modern chivalry of ‘the Red Branch’—saints like Columbkille and martyrs like Archbishop Plunkett.
“It is a unique glory that the flag of the American Union owns. She has lured the bravest and the most unselfish from all lands to defend her cause, and she lays the proud tribute of her gratitude and her sorrow on their biers with a hand that knows no discrimination as to nationality. The soldier from Antrim who gave his strong right arm, as well as his unselfish heart, to her service was worthy of her, and she of him. And so may it ever be as between America and Ireland. ‘Quis separabit?’”