Thomas William Sweeny

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Thomas William Sweeny
December 25, 1820 – 1890

Place of birth	Cork, Ireland
Allegiance	United States of America
Years of service	1846–70
Rank	Brigadier General
Battles/wars	Mexican-American War American Civil War - Battle of Shiloh - Atlanta Campaign Fenian raids

Thomas William Sweeny ("Fightin' Tom") (December 25, 1820 – 1892) was an American soldier who served in the Mexican-American War and then was a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Sweeny was born at Cork, Ireland, on Christmas Day, 1820. He immigrated to the United States in 1832. In 1846, he enlisted as a second lieutenant in Burnett's New York Volunteers, and fought under General Winfield Scott in Mexico.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Sweeny was in command of the arsenal at St. Louis, Missouri In reply to efforts of Confederate sympathizers to induce him to surrender that important post, he declared that before he would do so, he would blow it up. As second in command, he participated in the capture of Camp Jackson in May 1861 and later assisted in organizing the Home Guards. He was chosen as the brigadier general of that organization.

Sweeny commanded the Fifty-second Illinois at Fort Donelson. At Shiloh, he successfully defended a gap in the Union line. He commanded the Second Division of the Sixteenth Army Corps in the Atlanta campaign.

In 1866, he commanded the ill-fated Fenian invasion of Canada, after which he was arrested for breaking neutrality laws between the United States and Britain, but was soon released. He retired from the Regular Army in 1870 as a brigadier general.

Sweeny retired to Astoria on Long Island, New York. He died there on April 10, 1892, and is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.