Sailor Received the Medal of Honor Not Once, But Twice: Patrick Mullen

From the June 2022 U.S. Department of Defense Medal of Honor Monday.

Navy Boatswain's Mate  Patrick Mullen is one of only 19 Medal of Honor recipients who earned the highest military honor not once, but twice.  While his actions that led to the awards occurred within six weeks of each other, he only received one during the actual war.  The other one came afterwards.

Mullen was born in Ireland on May  6, 1844;  however, his family immigrated to the U.S. when he was a young boy, and they settled in Baltimore.  His last name was originally spelled Mullin, but he changed it to Mullen when he joined the Navy.

By the end of the war he was a  boatswain's mate on the USS Wyandank, a steamer used by the Navy as a storeship and barracks  for the Potomac Squadron.

He earned his first Medal of Honor on March 17, 1865, --  St. Patrick's Day -- while the ship was in the area of  Mattox Creek, Virginia.

--Old B-Runner

Bartlett Laffey, USN, Medal of Honor Recipient-- Part 1: Born In Ireand

From Wikipedia.

Yesterday, in my Tattooed On Your Soul World War II blog, I wrote about a movie "Destroyer" that will be made about the USS Laffey, a ship that survived a huge kamikaze attack and was given the name "The Ship That Wouldn't Die."

The USS Laffey was named after Bartlett Laffey and a previous destroyer named Laffey that was sunk at the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942.

1841-March 22, 1901.

An Irish-born U.S. Navy sailor and recipient of the Medal of Honor.

Born in County Galway, Ireland, and enlisted in the U.S. Navy from Massachusetts on March 17, 1862 and assigned to the stern wheel gunboat USS Marmora.

--Old B-Runner

"Gallway's Streets Are Full of Confederates"

From the October 6, 2016, Gallway Advertiser (Ireland).

The Gallway Line from 1858 to 1864 made 55 round trips to Boston and New York City.

William Boxwell West, U.S. Vice Consul, said, "Gallway's streets were full of Confederates."  he inspected the clipper ship Hiawatha and noted that there was "no mode of ventilation" if it was to be a passenger ship as advertised.

The Hiawatha's owner, John B. Purdon intended it to be a blockade runner.

It sailed to new York City, disembarked 132 emigrants and a load of scrap iron.  It then sailed to Nassau where it was chartered as a blockade runner under the command of John Ballantyne and made a number of successful runs through the blockade, even more remarkable considering it was a sailing ship.

Vice Consul West also kept tabs on the mysterious ship that ended up being the CSS Alabama during its construction.

--Old B-R'er

Union Sailor Gets Grave Headstone-- Part 1

From the June 7, 2014, Staten Island Live site "Staten Island Civil War Veteran lies in unmarked grave no longer" by Virginia M. Sherry.

JoAnne Nolemi and her extended family were at St. Mary's Cemetery to commemorate her maternal great-great grandfather, John Timlin Sr. who lived in Rosebank in Staten Island.

He was buried in an unmarked grave for almost a century  beside his wife Ann Dayly, five infant children and his son John Timlin Jr..

Nolemi, a Rosebank resident drove past the cemetery many times without knowing that her family history was there.  John Timlin Sr. was born in Ireland in 1947 in County Menth and arrived in New Tork City with his parents in 1851.  The family settled in Rosebank.

During the Civil War, he served on the USS Union.  (Unfortunately, that is all the article had to say about his Civil War  service.)

--Old B-Runner