GEN. STEPHEN J. McGROARTY
Stephen J. McGroarty was born at Mount Charles, County of Donegal, Ireland, in 1830. When but three years of age, he came to Cincinnati with his parents, and, with the exception of the time he was absent from the city as a student and a soldier, he always resided in that city and vicinity. He was graduated at St. Xavier College, and after graduating, he went into the dry-goods establishments of Haughton & Co. and James Walker. He afterward became associated with his uncle, John Bonner, as a member of the firm of John Bonner & Co., remaining in the firm some five years. He then removed to Toledo, Ohio, where he commenced the study of the law, and was finally admitted to practice. After practicing his profession for a short time in Toledo, he returned to Cincinnati, and within a short time suceeded in establishing himself in a very handsome and remunerative practice.
Photograph from From Freeman's Ford To Bentonville: The 61st Ohio Volunteer Infantry, edited by Robert G. Carroon (Burd Street Press, 1998)
When the war broke out, in 1861, he left his business at once, and enlisting a company of his countrymen, served with them in the Tenth Ohio Infantry- General Lytle's regiment- during the three months' service, and re-organizing his company entered with it, in the same regiment, into the three years' service. As soon as re-organized, the Tenth Ohio was ordered to Western Virginia, and under General Rosecrans took a very important part in the battle of Carnifex Ferry. It was in that engagement that General McGroarty received his first wound -that of a gunshot- through the right lung. It was believed that his death was the remote result of this wound -with the others he received. After his severe wound at Carnifex Ferry, he was sent to his home to be properly attended to, and while there and while yet disabled, he received the appointment, through Governor Tod, of Colonel of the Fiftieth Ohio Infantry. This regiment was afterward consolidated with the Sixty-first and Fifty-second Ohio, and the consolidated regiment known as the Sixty-first, with General McGroarty as Colonel. With this regiment he remained until the war was over, frequently commanding the brigades in which his regiment was serving. It was at the head of his brigade that he rode with Sherman's hosts, when they made their triumphant march through Washington, serving from the opening of the three months' service until the close of the war. He had, in consideration of his gallant and distinguished services and many wounds, received the appointment of Brigadier General.
At the battle of Peach Tree Creek, July 20, 1864, his left arm was shattered at the elbow by a minie ball. This occurred in the early part of the engagement, and throughout the battle he refused to leave the field, but remained in and through the fight, his wounded arm hanging by his side, the bridle-rein in his mouth, and his sword in his right hand, and he by his presence and his voice encouraging his troops throughout the entire action. He was shortly afterward complimented in general orders for his distinguished personl bravery and daring.
But he could never feel that he was rid of his shattered arm. He was compelled to submit time and again to having amputation performed on his arm. Three times in all was he called on to have that terrible operation performed. And yet this was not all that he suffered by reason of this wound. He never could rid himself of the terrible sensation he experienced on the battlefield on that 20th of July, when he rode nearly half a day with his arm crushed at the elbow and dangling by his side, each splinter of shattered bone giving increased agony at every movement, and it followed him to the grave. It is related of General McGroarty that during his military career, he was struck by the shots of the enemy no less than twenty-three times, bearing the marks of that number of wounds upon his person.
After the war his friends in Cincinnati obtained the appointment, by President Johnson, for the General, of Collector of Internal Revenue of the Second District of Ohio, which position he held some two years. At the State election in October, 1869, he was elected Clerk of the Courts of Hamilton county, and would have, in about a month, had he lived, taken possession of that office and entered upon the discharge of the duties of the same.
He was a man of generous impulses, frank and enthusiastic, genial with and devoted to his friends, and as a soldier among the bravest of the brave. In battle, he gloried in spurring into the thickest of the fight, and in his daring often advanced further than even a chivalrous sense of duty would demand, and exposed himself to such exceptional hazards that it is wonderful he survived. Repeatedly and desperately wounded while in the army, at the close of the war he was in broken health, and only at rare intervals since was he exempted from severe suffering.
He removed with his family, some years ago, from the noise and bustle of the city of Cincinnati proper, to the most beautiful suburb of that city, College Hill, where lately he spent more and more of his time resting and trying to recover from the severe shocks his system had been subjected to during the war. But it had been overtaxed, and although apprehending nothing serious a very few hours before his death, still his family could see that he was suffering from great exhaustion, and that the sufferings he had gone through were telling with unerring effect upon him. He gave his best years of life and his heart's best blood for the cause of freedom and of his adopted country, and he gave them freely and willingly. His was a soldier's death, and for all he passed away quietly among loving friends and relatives, still the wounds received by him on the battle-field, shattered his system so that life lost its hold upon him years before the time he would, in all probability, have ceased to live, had he never entered the service.
(Originally published in Society of the Army of the Cumberland: Fourth Reunion, Cleveland, 1870,).
