Michael Brennan of the 155th New York Infantry:

Pensioner of New York.

by Terry Foenander.


As of early August, 2008, it has been noted that Mr. Gray has removed his biography of this person, an obvious result of Gray's having noted all the evidence shown at this web site. However, the damage has already been done, since his numerous errors and inaccuracies (which are included on every single biography at his web site), have now spread all across the Internet.

Michael Brennan, the Civil War soldier who had enlisted at New York City, September 5, 1862, as a private in company B of the 155th New York Volunteer Infantry, was aged 26 at the time of his enlistment.   He was born in Ireland, and was a shoemaker by occupation, prior to enlistment.   He served with distinction, having been promoted to the rank of sergeant on November 8, 1862, and then commissioned as 1st lieutenant on November 21, 1864, with this rank retrospective to August 6th of that same year.   He was wounded in the leg at Spotsylvania, Virginia on May 18, 1864.   Promoted captain on June 29, 1865 (retrospective to 15, 1865), he was mustered out of service, with the rest of his company, near Washington, D.C., on July 15th, 1865.

From August 12, 1863, until April 22, 1864, Brennan was on detached service to Riker’s Island, New York, and, during this period, he penned a letter to his immediate commander, in which he requested that his (Brennan’s) watch chain, and a fifty cent piece, that was taken from him, while he was confined in Park Barracks, on Thursday, December 31, 1863, be given to his wife, Anne Brennan.   The letter was also later signed by his wife, Anne, indicating that she had received the items handed to her.   This and other pages relating to his military service are all included in his military file, but this particular letter is of some importance, in that it shows that he was married, and gives his wife’s name as Anne.


The letter that was sent to his immediate commander, while at Riker's Island, requesting certain items be handed to his wife, Anne.

A person of exactly the same name, and also a bootmaker later in life, resided in the Gobur-Alexandra-Yea region of country Victoria, and died December 28, 1916.   His obituary in the Alexandra Times of January 26, 1917, indicated that this Michael Brennan had also been a native of Ireland, and had served in the Union Army during the Civil War, but had sailed from America to Australia in 1864.   The death certificate of this Michael Brennan clearly indicated that he had only been married once, to Julia Maria Joyce, in Melbourne, Victoria, in about 1870.   He was buried at the Yea Cemetery.


Segment of the passenger list of the steamship GREAT BRITAIN, showing the name of Michael Brennan. The vessel left Liverpool, bound for Melbourne, on May 25, 1864, and arrived in Melbourne exactly two months later.

Left hand columns of the death certificate of Michael Brennan, who died at Gobur, Victoria, in 1916.

Right hand columns of Brennan's death certificate. Note the name of his wife, and also how long he is indicated to have lived in Victoria.

Obituary of the Michael Brennan who died at Yea, in Victoria, Australia, in December, 1916, and published in the Yea Chronicle of Thursday, February 1, 1917.

Original and thorough research, conducted by the late Mr. Roy Parker, as well as fellow researcher, Mr. Bob Simpson, in the early 1990’s had concluded that the Michael Brennan who served in the 155th New York Infantry, and the Michael Brennan, buried at Yea Cemetery, were two entirely different persons altogether.   However, a member of the American Civil War Round Table of Queensland, Mr. James Mason Gray, a resident of Loganholme, near the city of Brisbane, chose to reject all these original findings and come to his own conclusions.   Mr. Parker and Mr. Simpson were two of the very best researchers of the American Civil War veterans who are buried in Australia and New Zealand, and their research was no laughing matter.   To reject their findings altogether was to invite total disaster, but Mr. Gray seemed to be unwilling to accept this fact.   As is usual in Mr. Gray’s work, he refuses to conduct any thorough investigation of the facts, or to try and invest any amount in obtaining documentary evidence to prove a point, preferring to go instead, on his own assumptions and inaccurate conclusions, based, often, on oral data.

In a letter to this author, dated April 18, 1994, the late researcher, Roy Parker, had indicated that he had finally found evidence at the National Archives, showing that the Michael Brennan who had served in the 155th New York Infantry, had, in fact, died in New York in the early 1900's, and thus was a different person altogether.   Mr. Parker was prepared to go right to the very end to search for any evidence of Civil War service, and pension records, to prove or reject any assumptions, as were all the researchers of the veterans, in those early days.

In Mr. Gray’s online biography of Michael Brennan, he tries to indicate that there were two persons with the name Michael Brennan, who served in the 155th New York, but the regimental roster shows otherwise, indicating that there was only ever one person of that name in the unit.   As with all his biographies online, Mr. Gray makes numerous errors of assumption and fails to provide proper documentary evidence.   In the process, he accepts a person’s Civil War service without ever bothering to obtain documents that may show other conclusions or results.


A page of the roster of the 155th New York Infantry, listing persons with the surname Brennan. Note that there is only one person who served in the regiment, named Michael Brennan.

Michael Brennan, buried at Yea Cemetery, may have served in the Union Army, during the Civil War, as indicated in his obituary.   However this service was most definitely not in the ranks of the 155th New York Infantry.   With a common name like Michael Brennan, and so many of that name serving during the war, it would be almost impossible to confirm exactly which unit he served in, unless some concrete proof surfaces, in the future, through descendants or other documentary evidence.

Finally, it can also be revealed that the Michael Brennan who served in the 155th New York Infantry had continued to reside in New York, after the war, and received a United States government pension for his Civil War service, as did his widow, Anne, after his death.


Pension index record for Michael Brennan of the 155th New York Infantry, and his wife, Anne, both residents of New York.

Once again, as on numerous occasions, Mr. Gray has provided totally false or inaccurate data on persons claimed to be Civil War veterans, as well as misleading information in his biographies, and then passed all this spurious data on to individuals and organisations in the United States and elsewhere.   Most unfortunately, many of those who receive and accept his web sites as the work of a genuine researcher, such as the National Library of Australia, are totally unaware of his very poor reputation as a researcher amongst those who originally did all the research work, some twenty or so years before Mr. Gray ever came to Australia to settle.

 

Sources:

Original research conducted by the late Mr. Roy Parker, and Mr. Bob Simpson of Beechworth, Victoria.

Military records of Michael Brennan, of the 155th New York Infantry.

Pension index card of Michael Brennan, of the 155th New York Infantry, and his wife, Anne, residents of New York.

For more inaccurate biographies, see "A Litany of Errors."

Page Created, March, 2008 (Updated August, 2008).