Great Grandfather of William F. Daly
Joseph Daly was born in New York City about 1843. The names of his parents are unknown. He was a Sergeant in the First United States Artillery Regiment stationed at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn at the time of Joseph’s birth. Very little is known about Joseph’s upbringing and it is presumed that he had a basic elementary education.
Joseph enlisted at Fort Totten, Queens County, New York on September 19, 1861, and was mustered in on October 19th; he was assigned to Captain McMahon’s Battery C of the “Irish Brigade Batteries” during the organization of the Irish Brigade in the fall of 1861. The Batteries were soon separated to become batteries of the Second Battalion and McMahon’s became Battery B of the Battalion, New York Light Artillery.
After initially serving in the defenses of Washington, the Battalion fought in the Shenandoah. Later in 1862 the Battalion served in the Fredericksburg area and then at Second Manassas. Following a transfer to the Middle Department the Battalion served at several locations in Maryland, principally the critical railway and canal sites. The battery was redesignated as the 15th Independent Battery, New York Light Artillery in October 1862.
In January 1863, the battery was assigned to the Artillery Reserve, Army of the Potomac (AoP). There it served in all of the battles of 1863 and 1864 including Chancellorsville, Mine Run and the Wilderness. During Mine Run battle, when subordinate to the 6th Corps, the reserve artillery was positioned north of the Turnpike near Locust Grove.
At the Wilderness, after being moved to the reserve artillery, they were staged near the Wilderness Tavern. Because of the heavy second and third growth underbrush, the deployment of the guns was nullified for the most part.
On February 4th 1865 the 15th Independent Battery was merged with the 32nd Light Artillery; Pvt Daly made the transfer as well. During that period, he furloughed home and married his wife Catherine McDermott at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church.
He was mustered out on July 12th, 1865 and returned home to New York. His muster records show that he was wounded at Gettysburg in July 1863 and at Globe Tavern in August 1864.
Joseph died in New York prior to 1910.