Captain John Mitchel (1838-1864) was the eldest son of the Young Irelander John Mitchel and his wife Jenny Verner. He was only nine years old when his father was sentenced to penal servitude in Bermuda, the junior John published a poem in The Irish Felon some months later sharing in his father’s Irish republicanism. John, along with his mother, brothers and sisters, would reunite with his father in America. The younger John would take up arms for the Confederates in the Civil War, and was ultimately killed in action at Fort Sumter on 20th July 1864 only a year after the death of his brother William, his final words, reminiscent of Patrick Sarsfield’s, were said to have been “I willingly give my life for South Carolina; oh that I could have died for Ireland!” A brief biographical account of his life was published in the Shan Van Vocht by Michael Cavanagh.
Writings
A Song For The Future (1848)