John Cooney : Short Biography

John Cooney was born in 1822 somewhere in Ireland, and was described in his US Army enlistment papers as being six feet in height with a fair complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. He came to America with his brother, Michael, probably during the potato famine, although there is no direct documentation of their arrival date or place. Grace (Cooney) Jackson, a granddaughter of his brother, Mike, noted that their emigration took place about the same time as the potato famine.

"Sometime in the mid 1800’s two young men left Cork, Ireland, and set out for the United States, land of their dreams. They were brothers, Mike and John Cooney. They settled in New Ulm, Minnesota. ... There Mike met Catherine Murnan who also came from Ireland with her parents. They were married and had a son they named William John.
Their first years in this country I don’t recall hearing much about. Mike was my grandfather and when I first remember hearing about him he had joined the army and was stationed somewhere in the south. He became an officer in the US army and fought in the Indian wars. ... He was ordered north to be stationed in New Ulm, Minnesota...."

Although Michael Cooney can be located in the 1860 census in Minnesota, the whereabouts of John Cooney at this time are unknown. Grace (Cooney) Jackson, a granddaughter of Michael Cooney, related the following story about John Cooney’s fate during the New Ulm Massacre:
    
'They were in the New Ulm Massacre by the Indians. Katherine carried her youngest in her arms to the safety of the fort. John was killed in the battle. It was a time of great unrest because of the Indians. There were many alarms and people were warned to go to the fort. They became so used to these warnings that they sometimes ignored them. However, when the great massacre at New Ulm occurred, many people became so alarmed they fled to the protection of the fort. Catherine with her baby in her arms was among them. He was then two years old. His uncle, who had tarried to take care of his stock, was a victim of the slaughter that followed, as were many others."

Military records obtained from the National Archives tell a slightly different story for John Cooney, although it is still very likiely that he was killed at some point during the uprising. When the Sioux struck the white settlements, many of the settlers made it to the nearby town of St. Peters, and it was here that a 40 year old individual named John Cooney signed up with the US Army for a three year enlistment in Company K of the 6th Minnesota Infantry on 21 August 1862. The uprising took place between the 17th and the 24th of August 1862, so it is quite clear that John was not killed in the early phases of this engagement as the family story suggests. However, Sioux attacks on New Ulm and Fort Ridgely continued for several days after John enlisted, so it is quite possible that he returned to protect his property (wherever that was), and was killed by roving bands of hostile Sioux, who were, in fact, roaming the countryside, pillaging and plundering. He failed to show up for the first muster of this newly formed unit at Fort Ridgely on 8 September 1862, and was, therefore, classified as a deserter. If the speculation of his return to the area is true, then his failure to appear at muster was not an intentional desertion. In all likelihood he had been killed. Knowing the Sioux were still attacking the area; that his brother was probably trapped in the fort with his family, and that his property was not secure, John probably returned to the area after enlisting on the 21st in St. Peters, and had the misfortune of encountering a Sioux war party. If he was killed at a location far from his actual property, there is a good chance that his body was never properly identified, and that he ended up merely as a statistical fatality of the massacre.