The bronze general riding in front of the Montana State Capitol, sword raised, is Thomas Francis Meagher, and his life story is stranger than most statues suggest.
Meagher was born in Waterford, Ireland, in 1823. As a young man he joined the Young Irelanders, a nationalist movement, and took part in the failed 1848 uprising against British rule. He was sentenced to death, then had the sentence changed to exile in Van Diemen’s Land, now Tasmania. In 1852 he escaped and made his way to New York, where he became a lawyer, newspaper publisher and hero to Irish Americans.
The Irish Brigade
During the Civil War, Meagher raised and commanded the Irish Brigade in the Union Army. The brigade fought at Antietam and Fredericksburg and took terrible losses. Meagher was made a brigadier general.
In 1865 President Andrew Johnson appointed him secretary of Montana Territory. Because the governor was often away, Meagher served as acting governor, and his time in the job was turbulent: he clashed with territorial legislators and the federal government over who controlled the territory.
On the night of July 1, 1867, Meagher fell from a steamboat docked at Fort Benton and disappeared into the Missouri River. His body was never found. Theories about drunkenness, accident or murder have circulated ever since.
The statue
The equestrian statue was dedicated in 1905, paid for largely by Irish Americans in Montana, many of them miners in Butte. It is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Helena. Meagher County, home to White Sulphur Springs, is named for him.