Patrick Edward Connor, Union General, Is Born in Co. Kerry

Patrick Edward Connor (March 17, 1820 – December 17, 1891) was an Irish American soldier who served as a Union general during the American Civil War. He is most notorious for his massacres against Native Americans during the Indian Wars in the American Old West.

Patrick Edward Connor was born in Ballyferriter, County Kerry, Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day, 1820.[1] He emigrated to the United States at 12 or 16 years old and enlisted, as “Patrick Edward O’Connor”, in the United States Army on November 28, 1839.

In addition to service in the Seminole Wars, he served as a dragoon at Fort Leavenworth, Fort Atkinson, Fort Sandford, and at the second Fort Des Moines. He was honorably discharged as a private on November 28, 1844, and after two years in New York, he moved to Texas.

On April 5, 1845, he became a naturalized citizen.