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Gerald Ellis
Cronin, Executive Committee Medal of Honour Legion, writes as
follows in the "Irish American" of the 17th instant.
A cable
despatch from Cork, Ireland, dated September 7th announced the death
there of Brigadier-General Michael Emmet Urell, who for many years
was Colonel of the Second Regiment Infantry of the National Guard of
the District of Columbia.
General Urell
was born in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, Ireland, in 1844, and came to
this country when ten years of age. His parents settled in New York
in the lower East Side. On April 17, 1861, he enlisted in
Company E, Second New York State Militia.
The regiment,
which later became the Eighty-Second New York Volunteers, arrived in
Washington on May 21, 1861. On July 1 following, the regiment
crossed over to Arlington, Virginia, and was assigned. to Shenk's
Brigade of Tyler's Division. It afterwards took part in the firt
part of the Bull Run and later
assigned to the First Brigade, Second Division, Second Army Corps,
with which it remained without change until its term of service
expired.
General Urell
took part in the following battles with the regiment:
Bull Run
(1861 and 1862), Ball's Bluff, Yorktown, Fair Oaks,
Peach Orchard, Whit
Oak Swamp, Savage Station, Malvern
Hill, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Bristow Station,
Wilderness and many skirmishes. At Antietam the Eighty-Second
lost 128 men out of
339, and its Division under General
Sedgwick sustained one of the largest losses encountered by any
Division in any one battle of the war. At Gettysburg the regiment
lost more
than six per cent, among them its
gallant Colonel James Huston, than whom no braver Irishman
ever lived. The General served through all the grades from private
to captain and brevet major. He was brevetted captain for gallant
and meritorious service in the battle of Fair Oaks, and major U.S.
Volunteer for gallant service at Wilderness.
At the Battle
of Bristow Station, Virginia, October 14, 1863, he was severely
wounded and left
on the field for dead. For his
conspicuous gallantry in this
engagement he received the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was
honourably discharged on May 24, 1864, on account of wounds received
in action.
After the war
General Urell entered the District of Columbia National
Guard, and in 1898, when he was
commissioned major of the First Battalion District
of Columbia Infantry, U.S.
Volunteers, and served with gallantry with his command during the
siege of Santiago, under General Shafter. Colonel Urell' s "boys"
were devoted to him, and his Civil War experience was of great
success to his men. When the egiment reached Washington from Montank
Point in the fall of 1898 Urell marched to the White House where
they were received by President McKinley.
After the
Spanish War he became Colonel
of the Second Regiment, a
position which he held until
shortly before his death. He was a Past Commander-in-Chief,
National Army, Spanish War Veterans and subsequently became
Commander of the Medal of Honour Legion. He was also Past Commander
of the Department of the
Potomac G.A.R.,
and at the time of his death was
National Senior Vice
Commander
of the Military and Naval Order of
the Spanish-American War. He was a man of very striking appearance
and a fine type of the Irish-American soldier.
It was the
writer’s good fortune to be associated with the late General during
many of the deliberations of the Medal of Honour Legion, and the
writer always found him to be ready and willing to advise and assist
his younger colleagues.
The following
incident of General Urell's
incumbency of the
commandership
of the Spanish War
Veterans occurred at their convention
at Detroit in 1902. Colonel
(then President) Roosevelt was present.
As
Miss Clara Barton entered the
convention hall, Commander Urell said: "Comrade Roosevelt, I
command you to escort Miss Clara
Barton to the chair, and
"Comrade" Roosevelt
did so amid deafening cheers. The
General’s friends used to say that “Urell” was the only man who ever
commanded the President of the United States. In the death of
General Urell the veterans of '61 and ‘98 have lost one of their
brightest figures, one who was
always a good soldier, a true
comrade, and a brave Irish-American fighter. -
("Nenagh News and Tipperary
Vindicator", October 1, 1910).
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