Meagher, Thomas Francis (1823-1867) Lawyer, Lecturer, Politician. Thomas Meagher’s association with Pfaff’s is uncertain; a questionable source mentions him in reference to a Bohemian Club which frequented “Pfaaf’s [sic],” but his supposed connection to Pfaff’s is based on little more than circumstantial evidence ("Our New York Letter" 64).  Another indication of some sort of connection with Pfaff's comes from Thomas Gunn's diary in which he notes that Meagher denied that he was cousins with well-known Pfaffian Fitz-James O'Brien (Gunn, vol. 10, 139).

Meagher fled to New York City after being tried and convicted on charges of treason in Ireland.  He was active in the Civil War, particularly in the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville.  In fact, Thomas Gunn wrote in his diary about Meagher at Bull Run (Gunn, vol. 17, 205).  He resigned his commission after losing most of his brigade in various battles and returned to New York as a hero.  After the war he was given the office of Territorial Secretary of Montana, and he also spent one year as Governor of that state.  

Meagher&rsquo;s publications include: <cite>Speeches on the Legislative Independence of Ireland</cite> and <cite>The Last Days of the 69th in Virginia</cite> (1861).  


References & Biographical Resources

Gunn, Thomas Butler. Diaries, Vol. 15. Missouri History Museum, 1861. 
Gunn says Meagher denied o'Brien being cousin to Smith: "Talking incidentally of O'Brien, young Mitchel volunteered some uncomplimentary information respecting him; how he, O'B. had pretended, on his arrival in this country, to be a first cousin to Smith O'Brien (which I could confirm, for I heard him say it ten years ago) until Meagher denied it, emphatically with contemptuous mention of the pretender."
 [pages:37]
Gunn, Thomas Butler. Diaries, Vol. 17. Missouri History Museum, 1861. 
Gunn talks of Meagher at Bull Run, "House and he were at Centreville during the retreat, to whom came the Irishman, Meagher (once of "the sword") demanding "a horse" to ride away upon, in, as Waud imitates an atrocious brogue. "They have whipped us handsome!" he ejaculated "and it's me opinion that the Southern Confederacy should be immejetly acknowledged!" This fellow is now receiving public dinners as a patriot.
 [pages:205]
Maverick, Augustus. Henry J. Raymond and the New York Press, for Thirty Years: Progress of American Journalism from 1840 to 1870. Hartford, CT: A.S. Hale, 1870. 
Tells the story of when Meagher challenged Raymond to a duel. Also quotes a December, 1850, issue of the New York Times reporting that Meagher had "recently made his escape from the penal imprisonment in Australia" (248). Mentions also in passing "Meagher's Irish News" (250).
 [pages:248-250]
Rhodes, CharlesDudley. "Thomas Francis Meagher." Dictionary of American Biography. Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale, 2006. http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC.
Stylus. "Our New York Letter." The Literary World: A Monthly Review of Current Literature. 20 Feb. 1886: 64-65. 
Mentioned in reference to the Bohemian Club, which may be a post-Pfaff's group of journalists, even though they are described here as frequenting "Pfaaf's" [sic]. See Thomas Dunn English's "That Club at Pfaaf's [sic]."
 [pages:64]
Wilson, James Grant and John Fiske, eds. Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume IV, Lodge-Pickens. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1888. 
[pages:283]