Fordham Grad Leads Hunt for Lincoln Assassin

Tomorrow marks the death of General James Rowan O’Beirne (1844-1917), Civil War general and public official. Born in Roscommon, he emigrated to America as a child and graduated from St. John’s College (now Fordham University) before the war. During the war he served in the Eastern Theater, winning the Medal of Honor for bravey at the Battle of Fair Oaks in 1862. Severe wounds at Chancellorsville the following years effectively ended his fighting days, and he was made Provost Marshal of Washington, D.C. When President Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865, it was Major O’Beirne who was in charge of pursuing John Wilkes Booth. For his wartime services he was awarded the honorary rank (called a brevet) of Brigadier General. O’Beirne sometimes joked that he missed being in the famous picture of Lincoln’s passing, because he was off looking for Vice President Andrew Johnson. After the war he worked for the federal government and was a newspaper editor. A popular speaker on Catholic participation in the Civil War, he died at his home on West 117th Street in Harlem and was buried out of St. Thomas the Apostle Church.