A MEMBER OF THE 1ST SOUTH CAROLINA ARTILLERY FIRING ON FORT SUMTER IN APRIL 1861.
HE ENLISTED IN JANUARY 1861 AT SULLIVANS ISLAND, CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA WEEKS BEFORE THE FIRST SHOTS OF THE CIVIL WAR WERE FIRED.
HE HAD PREVIOUSLY BEEN A MEMBER OF THE REGULAR US ARMY FROM 1849-1854.
HIS STORY REVEALED AN AMAZING CONNECTION TO FELLOW BIRR MAN JOHN RENEHAN.
The story of John Holster is one that came to our attention when his 1849 enlistment record for the US army revealed his place of birth was the town of “Birr” in County Offaly, Ireland. John was 21 years of age when joining up in May of that year at New York and was assigned to the 1st Artillery Regiment of the regular US Army. The same record also shows that John later completed his agreed 5 year period of service in May of 1854 while stationed at Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. If we move forward almost seven years, to April 1861, that same John Holster would also be present at Fort Moultrie but this time on the side of the newly created Confederate Army as they prepared to fire on the nearby Fort Sumter, an act that would trigger the start of the US Civil War.
Ancestry.com – U.S., Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914
Enlistment Record – 1849 (John Holster)
After completing his service in the regular US army in 1854 John Holster remained on in Charleston, South Carolina where he settled down and married. By the time of the 1860 Census John and his wife Mary had 3 young children. Only a few months after that census was taken John chose to enlist into the Confederate army when joining the 1st South Carolina Artillery Regiment at Sullivans Island, Charleston. No doubt his earlier experience as an artillery soldier in the US army was much sought after at a time when the newly created Confederate government were building an army to defend the Southern states against any possible invasion from the North. John Holster was quickly promoted to the rank of Corporal and his artillery regiment were among the first manning guns at Fort Moultrie in Charleston harbor. Those guns were pointed across the bay at Fort Sumter and on the defending Union garrison which had spent those early months of 1861 under siege and surrounded as the crisis in the previously United States of America deepened.
Our research sometimes throws up truly amazing and often ironic pieces of previously unrecorded Offaly and Irish history and at Fort Sumter on the 12th April 1861 we have again discovered one of those fascinating twists. Some readers may recall we have previously documented another Offaly born soldier present at this most vital moment in US history. A fellow Birr man of John Holster, Sergeant John Renehan, was part of the defending Union garrison stationed within the walls of the besieged Fort Sumter during this fateful period. So did the two Birr men know each other ? Were they aware of each others presence as the cannons fired on Fort Sumter ?
Our research has revealed documented proof that not only did the two men know each other but that they were firm friends. The evidence comes in the shape of the marriage record for John Renehan, from Charleston Cathedral in May of 1854. Among the witnesses recorded on the marriage certificate is none other than John Holster! Added to this valuable information is the older enlistment records for both men proving they served together in the same 1st Artillery Regiment of the US army prior to the Civil War. Those enlistment records also show that the 2 men were born in Birr, Offaly only months apart in 1828.
Marriage Record of John Renehan May 1854 – St. Finbarrs Cathedral, Charleston
(Note Name of Witness is John Holster)
Cathedral of Saint John and Saint Finbarr, Charleston – Wikipedia
Destoyed in Charleston Great Fire of Dec’ 1861
At 4:30am on the morning of the 12th April 1861 the Confederate guns began firing on Sumter and, from what we now know, it seems likely that John Holster knew as he looked across Charleston Bay that his friend John Renehan was at the receiving end of the exploding shells. Following over 30 hour of almost constant bombardment the Union defenders at the fort were forced to surrender and, after terms were agreed, on the morning of the 14th September 1861 the Union garrison prepared to board a ship allowing them safe passage to New York. There was time for one more incident prior to the men of Sumter boarding for New York and it is one which again connects the outbreak of the US Civil War to Ireland.
Before abandoning Sumter, and in keeping with the military protocol of the time, a 100 gun artillery salute was allowed to honor the Union garrison’s lowering of the US flag. As the guns began pounding out the salute, stationed as the 47th gun along the line preparing to fire, was Private Daniel Hough who was born in Borrisokane in County Tipperary. Alongside him was fellow Irish man, Edward Galloway, born in Skibbereen, County Cork . While Daniel Hough was loading the gun, a premature spark caused their cannon to explode without warning. The explosion blew off Hough’s right arm and killed him almost instantly. Galloway was severely wounded by the explosion, and died 5 days later. These 2 Irish born soldiers are the first to die in the US Civil War. Both these men were in the the same regiment as John Renehan and had been former colleagues of John Holster. The 100 gun salute was halted at 50 shots and the likely exhausted men left Sumter on the ships bound for New York.
John Renehan was among those men arriving in New York harbor to what was a very warm welcome as the “Men Of Sumter” were greeted as heroes by the Northern public. Meanwhile his fellow Offaly man, John Holster, was among some of the first Confederate soldiers moving into Fort Sumter as similar celebrations of victory were taking place in Charlestown, South Carolina. Neither side had any comprehension of the bloodshed that lay ahead for the now divided United States. While it is impossible to know exactly the circumstances that led these 2 friends from the same small town of Birr in County Offaly Ireland to choose opposite sides of a conflict in their adapted country, it does highlight the division that the US Civil War caused among not only the general population but also within the ranks of its previously united army.
Union Square, New York bearing the flag of Fort Sumter on April 20 1861
Library of Congress
The Great Sumter Rally in Union Square – The New York Times
Before completing the history of John Holster’s involvement at Fort Sumter there is another interesting side story we discovered within his army records. It revolves around 2 of his commanding officers and their behavior during the bombardment of the Fort. Captain William Ransom Calhoun is one of those names appearing on John Holster’s records as his enlistment officer in January 1861. Calhoun would later be appointed as Colonel and overall commanding officer of John’s artillery regiment. The other name of interest mentioned is second in command, Lieutenant Alfred Moore Rhett. Calhoun and Rhett, had developed an intense dislike for each other which led to some unsavory exchange of words between the 2 during the bombardment of Fort Sumter. As a result of this and, after more clashes, William Calhoun challenged Alfred Rhett to a duel with pistols. On the 5th September 1862 the two Confederate officers met at a secret location in Charleston and in the ensuing quick exchange Alfred Rhett killed his commanding officer William Calhoun with a shot to the stomach. Unbelievably Alfred Moore Rhett was then appointed Colonel and overall commanding officer of the regiment. In his own words he had been;
“promoted to the office which his own good right hand had made vacant.” – Alfred Moore Rhett
Note Names – Captain Calhoun and Lt. Rhett
South Carolina in the American Civil War – 1st SC Artillery (Regulars)
Alfred Moore Rhett
John Holster remained stationed with his regiment at Fort Sumter in Charleston for the rest of 1861 and into the early part of 1862. In March of that year he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant but never fulfilled that role as the records of his service from that period onwards begin to refer to him as being “sick in hospital” in Charleston. This pattern continues up until the 18th June of 1863 when we find a document recording him as being unfit for duty and also his official discharge from the Confederate army. This record also gives us what had caused John to be absent for duty for such a long period. The Army Doctor involved records John as having spent over 6 months suffering from the effects of “Pulmonalis Phthisis” or what we would today refer to as Tuberculosis. The disease would prove to be a huge problem for both armies during the Civil War as crowded, unsanitary, and often poorly ventilated army camps assisted in its spread to such an extent that it would become one of the leading causes of medical discharge from service. John Holster had now become another victim of what was then a deadly disease.
John Holster finally succumbed to the effects of Tuberculosis in December of 1866. He had lived to see the end of the Civil War and the Confederates eventual defeat at the hands of the Northern states and a stronger Union army. That he had witnessed the beginning of a bloody war at Fort Sumter was likely something he still pondered as he spent his last few months in the place where it all began, the now ruined port city of Charleston, South Carolina.
But what of his old friend from Birr, John Renehan ? After his return to New York in 1861 he continued his service in the Union army based at Fort Schuyler. He remained stationed here for the rest of the conflict but just like John Holster shortly after the end of the civil war he also succumbed to effects of disease. John Renehan died in hospital at Fort Schuyler on January 16th 1866. The final piece of coincidence and irony in this story of two former friends John Holster and John Renehan born in the same town in Ireland in the same year of 1828, is that both men died in the same year of 1866.
Kevin Guing
11th June 2026
For further reading please visit the following :
John Holster – Americasoffalyheroes
John Renehan – Americasoffalyheroes
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