Michael Corcoran (September 21, 1827 – December 22, 1863) was an Irish-American general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and a close confidant of President Abraham Lincoln.

[2] In 1846, at the age of 18, he took an appointment to the Revenue Police, enforcing the laws and searching for illicit stills and distilling activities in Creeslough, County Donegal.

[10] On August 30, 1849, he emigrated from Sligo Bay to the U.S. and settled in New York City[10] where he found work as a clerk in the tavern, Hibernian House, at 42 Prince Street in Manhattan owned by John Heaney, whose niece, Elizabeth, he married in 1854.

[citation needed] On October 11, 1860, Colonel Corcoran refused to march the regiment on parade for the 19-year-old Prince of Wales, who was visiting New York City at the time, to protest against British rule in Ireland.

[12][13] With the outbreak of war, the court martial was dropped and Corcoran was restored to his command because he had been instrumental in bringing other Irish immigrants to the Union cause.

The inscription around the top of the monument reads "Michael Corcoran 1827–1863" Around the base is inscribed "New York Ballymote Creeslough Bull Run".

Underneath the monument is a piece of steel from the World Trade Center, donated by the family of Michael Lynch, who died in the tower on September 11, 2001.