In the war between the states Americans of Irish birth or descent stood for the right as they saw it, and fought for their principles and their convictions with a patriotic fortitude and heroic valor never surpassed in ancient or modern times. From the shot at Sumter that was heard around the world until the Confederate banner was furled forever in imperishable glory at Appomattox, the Irish and the Irish-Americans of the North and of the South participated in and confronted each other in battle array. They fought in the mightiest contest of all the ages, for their principles and for their altars and their firesides. I cannot undertake to give in detail the history of the Irish and the Irish-Americans in South Carolina. It would fill a volume. The Irish immigration into South Carolina began long since. Of South Carolina history, they embrace a large part. I find the following in a reprint of the _Maryland Journal_ of August 20, 1773, for which I am indebted to Gen. Felix Agnus, proprietor of the _Baltimore American_, which is the successor of the former: “PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 11, 1773. “Since our last, arrived here the ship Alexander, Captain Hunter, with five hundred passengers, and the ship Hannah, Captain Mitchel, with five hundred and fifty, both from Londonderry. “The ship Walworth, Captain McCausland, sailed from Londonderry for South Carolina, about the first of June, with three hundred passengers and servants, who were obliged to leave their native country, not for their misbehavior, but on account of the great distress among the middle and lower class of people.” Hon. M. P. O’Connor, upon assuming the presidency of the Hibernian Society of Charleston many years ago, delivered an address in which he stated that the Hibernian Society of Charleston, S. C., was organized in 1799. “Its first president was the serene and scholarly Rev. Father Gallagher, who was worthily followed by O’Brien Smith, Simon Magwood, Samuel Patterson, William A. Caldwell, Thomas Stephens, Henry W. Conner, the father of Gen. James Conner; James E. Robinson, William Gilliland, Judge Burke, Governor A. G. Magrath, Bernard O’Neill and M. P. O’Connor. These men give dignity and character and purpose to the organization.