It wasn't long after the Civil War began that Lincoln knew he was in for a fight. For the North to prevail, it would need the efforts of its immigrants. The Irish Brigade was the brainchild of a charismatic revolutionary, Thomas Francis Meagher, who years ago in Ireland was sentenced to death by the English and later exiled to Australia. Embraced by Irish Americans as a rebel, Meagher rallied his people and they flocked to the Union banner. For the first 18 months of the Civil War, they fought with remarkable courage in battle after battle.