By Kelley O’Rourke

Richard Ryan of Saint-Colomban, Lower Canada, represents one of the many forgotten connections between Quebec and the American Civil War. Born on March 4, 1838, to Irish immigrant parents John Ryan and Johanna Bourke (Burke) from County Tipperary, Richard grew up within the early Irish Catholic farming community established in Saint-Colomban during the 1820s.

For many years, local memory preserved only that Richard had died in the “American War.” However, a notice published in the Montreal Gazette on July 7, 1862, provides an important historical clue:

“Killed in battle of Corinth, on the 28th of May, Mr. Richard Ryan, son of John Ryan, Esq., Parish of St. Columban, County of Two Mountains, Canada East.”

The notice connects Richard Ryan to the Siege of Corinth in Mississippi, a major American Civil War campaign fought from April 29 to May 30, 1862. Corinth was one of the South’s most strategic railroad centers, and the month-long siege became an important Union victory in the western theater of the war.

Although Richard Ryan’s military regiment has not yet been identified, the timing and location of his death place him within the Corinth campaign. He died at only twenty-three years of age, far from home.

Today, his memory survives through a monument in Saint-Colomban Cemetery, which reads:

“Though not here in body is here in spirit.”

His story serves as a reminder that the American Civil War also touched communities in what is now Quebec.

Sources

Montreal Gazette, July 7, 1862, obituary notice for Richard Ryan.

The Canadian Encyclopedia – “American Civil War.”

Find a Grave – Richard Ryan Memorial, Saint-Colomban Cemetery.

National Park Service – Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center.

Richard Ryan Headstone (Photo Credit: Kelley O’Rourke)