Matthew O'Brien was born in County Limerick, Ireland, in 1837. He moved to the United States as a child, settling in New Orleans after five years in Alabama. As a young man, he worked in the machine trades and was commissioned as a Third Assistant Engineer in the Confederate States Navy in May 1861. He served under Commander Raphael Semmes in CSS Sumter in 1861-62 and in CSS Alabama in 1862-64, also under Captain Semmes. In October 1864, O'Brien was assigned to CSS Shenandoah, with the rank of Acting Chief Engineer, serving in her during the long cruise into the Pacific that lasted beyond the end of the Civil War. Following the conflict, he returned to the United States, where he was employed as a steamship engineer and later as a United States supervising inspector of steam-vessels in Louisiana.
This page features our only image of Acting Chief Engineer Matthew O'Brien, CSN.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the "Online Library's" digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the "Online Library's" digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 24 July 2000
Link added 11 February 2001