Information on the background of the Capston family can be found in the registers of All Saints (Church of Ireland) parish church.[i] The baptismal register reveals that the subject of this short article was baptised on 9 December 1832. He was the son of Matthew, a weaver, and his wife Sarah, and the family’s place of residence was recorded as the Grange of Muckamore. At this time Muckamore did not have an Anglican church of its own and members of the Church of Ireland belonged to the parish church in Antrim. Further searching through the records of All Saints revealed that Sarah’s maiden name was Logan. (In many American records Capston appears as James Logan Capston or James L. Capston.)

As the inscription on the headstone reveals, there were at least three other sons in this family. An earlier James was baptised on 6 February 1825 (the family’s address at this time was Oldstone); he obviously died young. The All Saints burial register has entries for Henry on 11 June 1839 (aged 20) and Alexander on 3 July 1841 (aged 26). The spelling of the family’s surname varies in the registers – Capston, Capstey, Capstie and Capsain.

St Jude’s Church, Muckamore, was built in the early 1840s and here James’s sister Ann married James McDonald in 1853. The record of this marriage states that the occupation of the bride’s father was sexton, possibly of the church in which she married. While there is no Matthew Capston among the householders listed in Griffith’s Valuation of c. 1860, there is a Matthew ‘Catson’ of Tirgracey in the Grange of Muckamore.

There is no evidence to support claims that James Capston was a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, though later records suggest that he probably received a reasonably sound education. On 8 January 1851 he joined the Irish Constabulary. Constabulary records show that James Capston was a 19-year-old Protestant from County Antrim who stood 5 feet, 8½ inches tall.[ii] The records also state that prior to joining the police he had been an engineman. The individual who recommended Capston for the force was G. Clarke JP – probably George Jackson Clarke of The Steeple, Antrim. Capston’s first posting was to Tipperary South and later he served in County Clare.

[i] PRONI, registers of All Saints Church of Ireland, Antrim (MIC/1/328).

[ii] Irish Constabulary (later Royal Irish Constabulary) records are held at the National Archives, Kew, though are available in PRONI on microfilm (MIC454) and can now be accessed on the Findmypast website.

He resigned from the Constabulary on 10 September 1857; he obviously departed on good terms for he was allowed a gratuity of £13 19s. 0d. He left Ireland almost immediately for on 30 October 1857 James ‘Capstan’, a 25-year-old passenger on the Ocean Monarch, arrived in New York from Liverpool. The Ocean Monarch had been built in New York and was described in press reports as ‘that magnificent specimen of naval architecture … the largest and fastest merchant ship in the world’. How James Capston spent the next number of years is not certain, but at some point no later than 1861 he moved to Richmond, Virginia.

The American Civil War began with the attack on the Federal-held fortification Fort Sumter, just off the coast of South Carolina, by Confederate forces on 12 April 1861. Five days later Virginia voted to secede from the Union and in May it was agreed that Richmond should be the capital of the Confederate States of America. On 9 June James Capston enlisted as a 1st Sergeant in what was to become the Virginia 10th Cavalry Regiment. He was promoted to Full 1st Lieutenant on 27 May 1862. On 28 November 1861, Capston married Catherine McKenny, two years his senior and also a native of Ireland.[i]

Catherine was possibly a widow for according to the 1870 US census the household headed by James Capston included three minors named McKenny: Maggie (aged 18), James (aged 16) and Richard (aged 11). Whether in his own right or through his wife, Capston was in possession of a number of slaves. In a letter of 22 May 1863 Catherine wrote to her husband telling him that she had slaves making lint and serving in the hospital.[ii]

[i] Virginia Marriages, 1785–1940, Salt Lake City, Utah (FamilySearch, 2013).

[ii] Virginia Historical Society, McKenny Family Papers, 1814–64 (Mss2M1997b).

A major concern for the leaders of the Confederacy was the recruitment of recently arrived immigrants from Ireland into the Union army. Furthermore, there were claims that Federal agents were active in Ireland in seeking out recruits for the army of the Northern states.[i] On 3 July 1863 Capston was issued with his orders by Judah P. Benjamin, the Confederate Secretary of State.[ii] (Benjamin has been called the ‘brains of the Confederacy’; at the end of the Civil War he escaped to England where he became a successful barrister.)

These instructions make for interesting reading. Particularly intriguing is Benjamin’s opening sentence, ‘You have in accordance with your proposal made to this department’. This suggests that the initiative for Capston’s mission to Ireland came from the Antrim man himself. In many ways, his experiences as a policeman and the knowledge he had acquired during his period of service made him eminently suitable for this mission. Benjamin outlined the nature of Capston’s undertaking:

“The duty which is proposed to entrust to you is that of a private and confidential agent of this government, for the purpose of proceeding to Ireland, and there using all legitimate means to enlighten the population as to the true nature and character of the contest now waged in this continent, with the view of defeating the attempts made by the agents of the United States to obtain in Ireland recruits for their armies. It is understood that under the guise of assisting needy persons to emigrate, a regular organization has been formed of agents in Ireland who leave untried no method of deceiving the laboring population into emigrating for the ostensible purpose of seeking employment in the United States, but really for recruiting the Federal armies.”

It was made clear to Capston that his methods were ‘to be confined to such as are strictly legitimate, honorable, and proper. We rely on truth and justice alone.’ He was advised to get as close as he could to people where Federal agents were believed to be at work. Having done so, he was to ‘Inform them by every means you can devise, of the true purpose of those who seek to induce them to emigrate. Explain to them the nature of the warfare which is carried on here.’

Capston was urged to ‘Explain to them that they will be called on to meet Irishmen in battle, and thus to imbrue their hands in the blood of their own friends, and perhaps kinsmen, in a quarrel which does not concern them’. In particular, Capston was to tell people of the story of ‘Meagher’s Brigade’. Thomas Francis Meagher, a Young Irelander who had escaped to America in 1852, had formed an Irish brigade for the Union army. The brigade had suffered horrendous losses at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862.

Capston was directed by Benjamin to draw attention to the differences between North and South over their treatment of Irish immigrants, especially those of Catholic background. In the 1850s the Know-Nothing party had emerged as a political force which was particularly hostile to Catholicism and immigration and Benjamin pointed out to Capston that it was been successful in the North, but not the South. The Secretary of State also highlighted to Capston that ‘such has been the hatred of the New England Puritans to Irishmen and Catholics, that in several instances the chapels and places of worship of the Irish Catholics have been burnt or shamefully desecrated by the regiments of volunteers from New England.’

Capston was to bring these accounts to the attention of the people of Ireland. He was to do so ‘by any proper means you can devise; through the press, by mixing with the people themselves, and by disseminating the facts amongst persons who have influence with the people.’ Again Capston was warned to respect the laws of the land and act in a manner ‘as this government may fearlessly avow and openly justify, if your conduct should ever be called into question. On this point there must be no room whatever for doubt or cavil.’

He was to receive the same pay as he was entitled to in his current rank – £21 a month which was reckoned to be about equal to $100. The cost of his passage across the Atlantic would be covered and he was allowed additional sums for expenses connected with his activities, such as printing, though only if this was approved by the agent to whom he was answerable. Finally, he was instructed to provide reports on his activities at least once a month.

[i] Bernadette Whelan, American Government in Ireland, 1790–1913: A History of the US Consular Service (2010), pp 105-56.

[ii] The instructions to Capston are printed in Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, series ii, vol. 3 (1922), pp 828–9.

Capston set off on his mission on 6 July, sailing from Wilmington, North Carolina, to Liverpool. He arrived in London on 2 September and reported to Henry Hotze, the Swiss-born Confederate agent whose role was to promote the cause of the South in Britain. He impressed Hotze who wrote to Benjamin that Capston had ‘left the same evening for Ireland full of enthusiasm for his work, in which I trust he may be abundantly successful.’ While Hotze was unable to give him any specific instructions on this occasion, he advised him to confer with him regularly in addition to his official monthly reports.

Because of the shortness of his time in London Capston did not get to meet James M. Mason, the Confederate Commissioner to Great Britain and France, who had just returned from visiting Ireland. On 4 September Mason wrote to Benjamin expressing his regret at not seeing Capston, but hoping that his mission would ‘be of value in obtaining information as to the manner in which emigrants are induced to go to the United States’. On the other hand, Mason doubted whether Capston ‘could make much impression upon the emigrating class in endeavors to enlighten them as to the true character of the war. Such seems the ignorant and destitute condition of most of that class that the temptation of a little ready money and promise of good wages would lead them to go anywhere.’[i]

Capston threw himself enthusiastically into his work. His activities included the scripting of a series of articles in support of the Confederacy for the Irish Times, Freeman’s Journal, Morning News and Catholic Telegraph.[ii] He also travelled through the Irish countryside, visiting Galway, Limerick and Cork. He received a sympathetic hearing from Catholic priests, already concerned about the impact of emigration on their congregations.

Exploiting reports of the treatment of Catholics in the Northern states, he produced and distributed a poster which declared in large typeface, ‘Overthrown!’, ‘The Blessed Host Scattered on the Ground!’, ‘Benediction Veil Made a Horse Cover of!’, All the Sacred Vessels Carried Off!’, and ‘The Priest Imprisoned and Afterwards Exposed on an Island to Alligators and Snakes!’[iii] Copies were distributed around boarding houses and lodgings where emigrants were staying prior to their departure for the New World.

One controversial incident in which Capston was involved arose from the arrival in Queenstown (now Cobh) in early November of the USS Kearsage. There were allegations that the Kearsage had stopped in Queenstown, a major port of embarkation for emigrants and where Capston was now based, to enlist men for the Union army. The Dublin Evening Express of 9 December 1863 named Capston as one of the Confederate representatives who were investigating the matter.[iv]

Capston’s name appears in the press in the following month on a different matter. The Dublin-based newspaper Freeman’s Journal reported on 12 January 1864 that an important despatch addressed to Capston, described as the ‘Confederate agent at Queenstown’, had been delivered to a Federal official and by him ‘unwittingly opened’. The despatch was then forwarded to Capston with the assurance that its contents had not been read. Capston, however, was determined to pursue the matter further, but Hotze was not in favour of this, or at least was not in favour of committing any funds towards a prosecution.

In general, Capston was concerned about the expenditure limits within which he had to operate. On 3 February 1864 he wrote to Hotze to complain about his financial situation, warning that without additional funds ‘nothing can be done’ and he would be ‘reduced to a nonentity’. Hotze replied to say that he had ‘no power in the matter except what I derive from your instructions, which authorize me to allow such contingent expenses as may be necessary for the proper performance of your duty’, which no doubt disappointed Capston.

By this time Capston was not the only Confederate agent working in Ireland for Fr John Bannon – known as the ‘Confederacy’s fighting chaplain’ – who was from Rooskey, County Roscommon, was sent to Ireland in September 1863; Secretary of State Benjamin issued him with a copy of the same instructions given to Capston.[v] In April 1864, an additional Confederate agent, Captain James F. Lalor, arrived in Ireland.

Capston continued his work, liaising with the other agents on various schemes, and in April 1864 he claimed that if given enough time he could secure the signatures of half a million people in Ireland on a peace petition. His efforts were appreciated by Hotze who acknowledged his ‘zealous services’. By this time, however, questions were being asked about the effectiveness of the mission to Ireland.

The actions of these agents, fervent though they may have been, had very obviously failed to stem the flow of emigrants to the Northern states and their effectiveness in persuading recently arrived Irishmen to avoid enlisting in the Union army was difficult to gauge. In a letter of 22 April 1864 Benjamin wrote to Hotze that ‘I apprehend that Lieutenant Capston can scarcely be of much further service and you can intimate to him that the Department considers it now time that he should return to his duties here, unless you think that his continuance abroad will be of advantage.’

The evidence, however, suggests that Capston remained in Ireland for another year. It would appear that at some point he was promoted to Captain – his rank according to the inscription on the headstone to his family in Antrim. Furthermore, he would have been in Ireland for the death and burial of his father, though whether he was present at either of these events is not clear. (It is interesting to note that in a list of grave owners in All Saints churchyard, drawn up c. 1876, Captain James Capston appears as the owner of plot no. 79 and claiming two graves.) Capston kept in touch with events in America and the progress of the war and in one of his letters described the commander of the Union forces, Ulysses S. Grant, as ‘the Great Butcher Lying in Front of Petersburg’, on account of the heavy losses sustained by his army in the attempt to capture Petersburg, Virginia.

By the spring of 1865, however, it was clear that the Confederacy was facing defeat. On 6 April 1865 – three days before the surrender of Robert E. Lee to Grant at Appomattox Court House, which effectively ended the Civil War – Hotze wrote to Benjamin suggesting that the work in Ireland should be brought to an end or at least that Lalor and Capston should be recalled (Bannon had already left Ireland). Hotze described Capston as ‘probably the more useful or less useless’, a comment open to various interpretations.[vi] By this time Captain Capston had become a member of the Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland and it was reported in early May 1865 that he had contributed £1 1s. towards the club’s regatta fund.[vii]

[i] Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, series ii, vol. 3 (1922), pp 890–91.

[ii] Thomas E. Sebrell II, Persuading John Bull: Union and Confederate Propaganda in Britain, 1860–65 (2014), p. 164.

[iii] Ella Lonn, Foreigners in the Confederacy (2002), p. 77.

[iv] The Capston Papers in the Eleanor S. Brockenbrough Library, Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia, include various items deriving from Capston’s mission to Ireland, including documents relating to the Kearsarge incident.

[v] William Barnaby Faherty, Exile in Erin: A Confederate Chaplain’s Story: The Life of Father John B. Bannon (2002).

[vi] Charles L. Dufour, Nine Men in Gray (1993), p. 292.

[vii] Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier, 6 May 1865.

It seems likely that Capston arrived back in Richmond in May or June 1865. In the post war period Capston pursued a number of activities. In Richmond’s Daily State Journal of 21 April 1873 Capston announced that he had received the agency of the Pioneer Coal Company, Kanawha, and was now ready to employ about 25 ‘good hands’. Miners were preferred and those with families would be provided with homes; however, able-bodied men willing to learn could also find employment. In Chataigne’s Directory of Richmond, VA for 1883–4 he was listed as a gauger for the US government.

It is also fascinating to note that at this time he was the president of the Richmond branch of the Irish National Land League. Clearly, he maintained an interest in the land of his birth. James and Catherine Capston had only one child – a daughter named Madeleine who was born on 19 March 1864 when her father was still in Ireland. She died as a young woman on 28 May 1887.[i] Catherine Capston died in September 1891. Captain James Capston died almost two years later on 14 August 1893 and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, a burial ground with very strong connections to the Civil War.[ii]

[i] https://www.findagrave.com/mem....

[ii] https://www.findagrave.com/mem....

Interestingly, the Capston headstone in All Saints churchyard is not the only memorial in Antrim with a connection to the American Civil War. Lying flat on the ground outside the former Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church is a memorial of the Fleming family which records the death on 8 August 1863 of Captain James Fleming of the 16th New York Volunteer Cavalry ‘by a gang of Guerillas’ at the age of 32 years. In this encounter Fleming and a Captain John McMenamin of the 15th New York Volunteer Cavalry had halted for a few hours at St Mary’s Church in Fairfax, Virginia. It was a chance for their troops to rest and eat and also feed and water their horses.

The church had been built a few years before this by Catholic immigrants from Ireland. Shortly after 5pm word was received that a troop of Confederate cavalry was approaching. The Union troops formed a battle line, but when charged by the Confederates fled in disarray. When the skirmish was over five of the Union troops were dead, including Captain Fleming, eight were wounded and 20 were captured. Fleming was buried in an unmarked grave at Falls Church Cemetery.