THE MAJOR
By: Ellen Fitzgerald

Michael John Fitzgerald - From Immigrant to Officer in the Indian Fighting Army

The story of Michael Fitzgerald is the story of a nine-year-old Irish boy who traveled across the Atlantic without his parents to live in the slums of Baltimore. At the age of seventeen, young Michael enlisted in the Army at Fort McHenry and began a military life that would take him to key areas of America’s growth. He was a young Army private in the Artillery sloshing through the Florida Everglades in the Third Seminole War. He and his family were held prisoners by the rebellious mob in Charleston, South Carolina after Major Anderson fled with the folks at Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter. For his efforts as a field medic he became a hospital steward and helped care for the thousands of men wounded and killed at Antietam. For his actions in Frederick during this time he became a commissioned officer, serving on the West Coast and the Great Plains. During his career he married four wives, the first two in the frontier wilderness.

Michael Fitzgerald was a witness and participant in American History. This book follows Michael’s life and directs our attention to how and where his life intersected with the making of America.