ANDERSONVILLE PRISON – Pictures: Courtesy of Danny Leavy (Harpers Weekly Collection)
THE SALE FAMILY WERE LANDOWNERS IN THE EDENDERRY AREA BEFORE EMIGRATING TO THE USA IN 1849.
THE FAMILY POSSIBLY LEFT IRELAND BECAUSE OF THREATS FROM A LOCAL “SECRET SOCIETY”.
THOMAS SALE JOINED THE UNION ARMY IN AUGUST 1862 AND WAS CAPTURED AT DANDRIDGE, TENNESSEE IN DECEMBER 1863.
The story of Thomas Sale is one we have been trying to fully unravel over the past 2 years and have spent many hours trying to connect his beginnings in Ireland to his demise in the USA. While it has been difficult to get exact information we hope to finally prove that connection here at last and add him to our list of Civil War soldiers.
Thomas Sale was born near Edenderry, Co. Offaly in 1843 to parents Joseph Thomas Sale and Eliza Smith. His family were large landowners in an area near the Offaly town known as Clonmeen which is close to Carrick Hill. Other branches of the extended Sale family owned large tracts of land on the other side of that hill at Coolcor, Carbury hugging the border of County Offaly and Kildare. While we have documentary evidence that the wider Sale family were members of the Church Of Ireland there are indications that some members of the Sale family had connections to the Quaker religion which were then a thriving community in the Edenderry area.
TODAYS LOCATION OF CLONMEEN HOUSE
COI Marriage of Joseph Sale to Eliza Smith 1833 – Parents of Thomas Sale
While Thomas’s life was a short and eventful one it also helps to reveal so many important aspects of the Irish emigration story during that volatile period. Not every family were forced to leave Ireland due to the terrible starvation and poverty that existed in the country. Some wealthier landowning families also chose to leave the country during this period albeit for different reasons. Some viewed Ireland as a cursed land that could never properly recover and become a prosperous place to live. A few left due to threats and pressure from local secret societies that had sprung up during this period. These societies became active due to the sheer desperation of the starving population and often engaged in violent acts to protect tenant rights. We have uncovered some evidence that the Sale Family were at the receiving end of threats from one of those societies, and while we cant be 100% sure, it could partially explain their decision to relocate to America. Rich or poor, many of the children of those families who left Ireland during this period, would later become the soldiers of the US Civil War and this would be the case for Thomas Sale.
OUTRAGE REPORT (JOSEPH SALE), CLONMEEN, CARRICK)
“persons unknown leathered 9 cocks of hay belonging to Mr. Jos Sale at Clonmeen, parish of Carrick & drove his cattle into his corn field”
Ireland, Outrage report | findmypast.ie – Joseph Sale, Clonmeen
The Sale Family arrived in the US in 1849 and settled in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This period saw a large increase in the Irish population in Philadelphia as it became a major rail hub and industrial center. There is some evidence that other extended members of the family already lived in the city and this could be yet another reason for their emigration at this this time. It is also worth noting that Philadelphia was then home to a large Quaker population adding another possible reason for the families relocation to this particular city.
The 1860 Census records an 18 years old Thomas Sale working as a Clerk in the city but living away from his family. His Mother, Eliza Smith Sale, had died in 1853 and the other members of his family, including his Father Joseph, Sisters Elizabeth & Mary, Brothers George & John were fully settled in Pennsylvania. We mention here specifically his sister Elizabeth as we can use her birth record in Ireland, which we have included earlier, to later help us prove the connection of the Sale family from the Edenderry area to the one that settled in Philadelphia. Elizabeth Sale would eventually marry Henry Wickham and when she died in 1932 her death record confirms her parents and birthplace in the Edenderry parish helping to verify her Irish and family connection to Thomas.
Elizabeth J Sale Wickham (1847–1932)– Sister of Thomas
Interestingly the Wickham family were originally from Kilcoursey, Clara, which is also in County Offaly, and were members of Church of Ireland religion within the Meath COI parish. They relocated to Pennsylvania around the same time period as the Sale’s and both families were likely friendly long before the marriage of Henry Wickham, and Elizabeth Sale. The brother of Henry Wickham was John Jervis Wickham, and he would later, during the Civil War, become a member of the same army regiment that Thomas Sale would join and likely would have known Thomas personally. After the war John Jervis Wickham would become a renowned and well respected Lawyer and later a Judge on the Pennsylvania Superior Court.
Judge John Jervis Wickham (1844-1898) – Find a Grave Memorial
The year of 1860, and in particular the election of Abraham Lincoln, would bring the beginnings of the tensions that would lead to the eventual outbreak of the US Civil War in April 1861. Thomas Sale enlisted at Carlisle Barracks in August of 1862 joining Company G of the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry regiment who were also often referred to as the Anderson Troop, he was only 19 years of age. The regiment were initially raised for headquarters and escort duty under the command of Captain William Jackson Palmer. Palmer was a member of the Quaker religion and recruited a number of men of this faith to serve, hand-picking each one, and expecting every man to take an oath to abstain from consumption of liquor for the duration of the war. This would indicate that possibly Thomas Sale had by this time fully embraced the Quaker religion in Philadelphia having already, as mentioned earlier, possible connections to that faith in Ireland.
Carlisle Barracks, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, artist’s impression, | House Divided
Thomas was transferred to Company M of the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry just as they transitioned from performing escort duty to becoming a group of “elite scouts”. Their role now being to act as the “eyes and ears” of their commanders operating in small specialized groups, often behind enemy lines, gathering intelligence and disrupting the enemies communications. It would be while conducting this exact type of operation at Dandridge, Tennessee in December 1863 that Thomas Sale would become a prisoner of the Confederate Army. We luckily have discovered the exact circumstances of Thomas’s capture from an account give in the “History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania” which was published well after the war.
After his capture at Dandridge the story of Thomas Sale and his fate becomes much harder to clarify as available records can sometimes be contradictory. Adding to the confusion is the fact that we have two other soldiers from Pennsylvania regiments with the same name. Combining the information to hand with the process of elimination and a smattering of luck we hopefully will successfully complete the story of Thomas Sale and finally prove what happened to the man born near Edenderry, County Offaly. That first piece of luck comes in the form of a newspaper clipping we have uncovered from September 1864. The Sale family placed an ad in several newspapers countrywide pleading for any information as to the fate of Thomas and it is here we learn Thomas was initially sent to Belle Island prison camp before later being transferred to Andersonville Prison in Georgia.
The detail within the article fully corresponds with the actual documented history of Belle Island. In February of 1864 the Confederate authorities were forced to evacuate the prison camp due mainly to overcrowding and the horrible conditions that had developed there. Prisoners were then transferred to other camps in Danville, Salisbury, and the dreaded Andersonville. Thomas was unfortunately one of those prisoners sent to Andersonville which, even at this time, had a reputation as a place where any soldier would be lucky to leave alive. The wording of the newspaper ad we have uncovered indicates the Sale family were aware of the likelihood that Thomas might in fact have died prior to their plea for information. Those fears were sadly correct as Thomas had actually succumbed to disease in Andersonville a month prior to the publication of their advert. Thomas Sale died from “Scorbutus“ (Scurvy) and chronic malnutrition on the 2nd August 1864 only a few days before his 21st Birthday.
There are several documents that record the death of Edenderry’s Thomas Sale and each one of those confirm that he was a member of the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment. This is important information as it eliminates the aforementioned similarly named soldiers who served in other Pennsylvania regiments. We also can track these other 2 soldiers, also named Thomas Sale, and confirm one died on June 8th 1862 during a skirmish at White Oaks, Virginia and the other passed away in 1916 at the age of 77. While within some of the available documentation there are some slight differences in dates and even spellings the overwhelming evidence is that the Thomas Sale who was born in Edenderry in 1843 and enlisted into the Union army at 19 years of age was indeed the soldier who died at Andersonville in August of 1864.
Thomas Sale is buried in grave number 4566 at Andersonville National Cemetery in Macon, Georgia. We have worked on this particular story for several months and now hopefully after more than 160 years the story of Thomas, his connection to Ireland, and his eventual fate has been revealed. We are glad to add him to the other soldiers on our list of Americasoffalyheroes.
Kevin Guing
27th Febuary 2026
For more on this soldier visit his page: – Thomas Sale – Americasoffalyheroes
Other sources:
Pennsylvania’s Past History Collection – Penn State University Libraries’ Digital Collections
Captive Histories: Andersonville – AHA
US, Civil War Service Index (CMSR) – Union – Pennsylvania, 1861-1865 – Fold3
Birth Genealogy Records Ireland – Irish Family History Foundation
15th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment – Wikipedia
Andersonville Pictures Courtesy of Danny Leavy (Harpers Weekly Collection)
For more on Andersonville and the Irish Connection please visit the following great source created by Damian Shiels and his team.
Andersonville Irish Project – Irish in the American Civil War
