Charles G. Halpine

Miles O'Reilly) (20 November 1829 – 3 August 1868) was an Irish journalist, author and soldier during the American Civil War.

He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, until 1846, was originally intended for the medical profession, but he preferred the law, and in his leisure wrote for the press.

[1] At the beginning of the American Civil War in April 1861, he enlisted in the 69th New York infantry, in which he was soon elected a lieutenant, and served during the three months for which he had volunteered.

He accompanied General Hunter to Hilton Head, and while there wrote a series of burlesque poems in the assumed character of an Irish private.

Collected, revised, and edited, with the requisite corrections of punctuation, spelling, and grammar, by an Ex-Colonel of the Adjutant-General's Department, with whom the Private formerly served as Lance-Corporal of Orderlies, 1866.

On his return to New York he resigned his commission in consequence of his bad eyesight, receiving the brevet of brigadier-general of volunteers.