This commentary is by William L. McKone of South Burlington. He is president of the Fenian Historical Society, and author of “Vermont’s Irish Rebel: Captain John Lonergan.” He is a former Cold War intelligence analyst who resigned from the National Security Agency in 1983 in protest against President Reagan’s security policies.
In St. Joseph’s Cemetery on Archibald Street in Burlington, the graves in a family plot in the Irish section, set off from the French and Syrian-Lebanese groupings, have only humble markers, except for an impressive monument to Capt. John Lonergan. Born in County Tipperary, he raised a company of Irishmen, Vermont’s only ethnic unit, that served in the Union forces for nine months in the Civil War.
Their only battle was at Gettysburg, where Lonergan’s gallantry was recognized with a Medal of Honor. He led his company as the spearhead of the two Vermont regiments ordered to attack the Confederate flank on July 3, 1863, at the crucial moment that helped turn back the final rebel assault on Cemetery Ridge.
Many of Lonergan’s men were Irish-born immigrants who, like his own family, fled as refugees when the disastrous failure of the potato crop called the Great Hunger drove them from Ireland. Out of a population of 8 million, a million died of hunger and disease while another million escaped into exile. Large numbers of Irish came to America, often by way of British North America (later called Canada) since travel there was less costly from British ports.
Reacting to this influx of immigrants — often illiterate and speaking little English, Catholic, and many ill and impoverished — Burlington in 1849 prohibited all steamships from dropping any Irish off in the port without medical inspection. Concern for disease was the only check on immigration at this time and the Lonergan family settled in the town that year. Lonergan’s father was a skilled craftsman, a cooper who opened his own shop making barrels; each of his sons learned this trade, much in demand at the port.
John Lonergan joined the Vermont militia in Brandon as a private in 1860, but the next year he organized his own militia company of Irishmen, the Emmet Guards, in Burlington. When war broke out in April of 1861, he was ready to muster for the initial 90-day federalization by Lincoln.
Not chosen at the time, his Irish company was selected for duty in the 3-year call-up in May when the 2nd Vermont Regiment assembled in Burlington. However, Gov. Fairbanks found fault with his company and disbanded it, partly because of his prejudice against the Irish. Lonergan persisted, raising another company the next year under a new governor, and served to preserve the Union that had sheltered so many immigrants in their time of need.
Even if born in the country, some of the soldiers might not have been considered citizens because the 14th Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing birthright citizenship was not ratified until 1868 and many of those foreign born had not undergone naturalization. At this time, the British did not recognize the right of persons born in the United Kingdom to renounce their citizenship.
After the war, Lonergan did become a naturalized citizen, taking the oath of allegiance in 1867. Possibly he was encouraged to do so by his employment as a seasonal U.S. Customs inspector under his former brigade commander at Gettysburg, Gen. Stannard. Lonergan was at this time also the head of the Vermont branch of the Fenian Brotherhood, the militant Irish nationalists fighting the British empire to restore the independence of Ireland.
He explained later that his loyalty was strong for both the United States and his birthplace, “When an Irishman takes a wife, as he is sometimes liable to, is he likely to forget his mother? American is the Irishman’s wife, but he does not forget his mother Ireland.”
When the new U.S. Citizenship Office in Colchester opened under President Biden in June of 2022, it was dedicated to Capt. John Lonergan as a Medal of Honor recipient and a naturalized citizen. Since I had published his biography, “Vermont’s Irish Rebel,” in 2014, I was honored to speak at the impressive dedication ceremony.
This included the naturalization of 14 new citizens (a nod to Vermont’s role as the 14th state), who solemnly swore to “support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” They qualified to be naturalized only after passing an examination that many of our native-born citizens might find challenging; the oath is similar to that sworn by the military and other government officials.
On April 14, 2025, Mohsen Mahdawi, a student holding a green card for 10 years, was summoned to this Colchester facility as a final step in his naturalization process. But this was a change in the schedule that made him suspicious, so he notified our three Vermont congressional representatives.
As he feared, he was detained at the facility by masked agents who transported him away in an unmarked vehicle. Sens. Sanders and Welch, along with Rep. Balint, objected to this action calling it “immoral, inhumane, and illegal,” and Mahdawi was released by a federal judge on May 30.
After his life of fighting against injustice and oppression, Lonergan might well have turned over in his grave on Archibald Street had he known that his name was associated with such a violation.
