Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/McGroarty, Stephen Joseph

McGROARTY, Stephen Joseph, soldier, b. in Mount Charles county, Donegal, Ireland, in 1830; d. in College Hill, Ohio, 2 Jan., 1870. He was brought to the United States when three years of age. His parents settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was educated in St. Francis Xavier College. After graduation he engaged in the dry-goods business in partnership with an uncle, but left it at the end of five years to study law. He was admitted to the bar and began practice at Toledo, but subsequently returned to Cincinnati, where he achieved a reputation as a criminal lawyer. When the civil war began he raised a company of Irish-Americans for three months, with which he re-enlisted for three years. At Carnifax Ferry he received a gunshot wound through the right lung. As soon as he recovered he returned to the field as colonel of the 50th Ohio infantry, which was afterward merged in the 61st, and he commanded the latter till the end of the war. At Peach Tree Creek his left arm was shattered at the elbow in the beginning of the engagement, yet he remained with his men through the fight. He was accustomed to expose his life with the utmost hardihood, and during the war received twenty-three wounds. He was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers on May 1, 1865. He was for two years collector of internal revenue, and just before his death, which resulted from injuries received in battle, was elected clerk of the Hamilton county courts.