Searching for James Kinsella
Irish Yankee

James Kinsella
came to America with his family from
County Wicklow Ireland
in 1850, as a boy of 11,

He was wounded at the Battle of Antietam, returned to duty and fought in the Battle of Gettysburg where he was taken prisoner at the Angle on Cemetery Ridge, "the high watermark of the Confederacy,"on July 3, 1863.

Taken under guard to Richmond, he was held four months in Belle Isle prison camp in Richmond, Va., until sent to the hospital and then to Camp Parole, Md., where he remained until returning to his regiment in June 1864.

He received an honorable discharge on
October 26, 1864, and became a naturalized citizen on November 8, 1864.

Kinsella became a police officer in Baltimore City and spent the last years of his life at the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers at Elizabeth City, Va. Discharged from the home on March 19, 1920, he returned to his family in Baltimore, where he died on March 27th.

James Kinsella was interred at the National Cemetery in Baltimore on March 29, 1920.

This site reflects the results of research by Margaret Ingram, his great-granddaughter, and her children, Bruce Ingram and Susan Ingram.

Although his discharge and naturalization papers were subsequently found in a family bible, the only clues handed down in the family were that he came from Ireland with his parents at the age of "11;" he had "walked from Philadelphia to Baltimore;" he had been "wounded at Gettysburg;" he had "a lovely Irish lilt;" and his name was engraved on the Pennsylvania State Monument.

We searched for James Kinsella among the names of the 34,530 men who participated in the battle and found it!

With the information about his regiment and company, we were able to request the pension records from the
National Archives Trust Fund Board
Washington, DC 20408.

During our research, we discovered the possible answers to some questions: