Gen. J.R. O’Beirne

General James Rowan O’Beirne, who came to the U.S. as an Irish immigrant and ended his service to America as a diplomat stationed in the Boer Republic, made it to age 72 despite his exploits.

O’Beirne worked as a lawyer, a newspaper correspondent, supervisor of Ellis Island and soldier in the Civil War.

He was also the man who escorted Vice President Andrew Johnson up raucous and dangerous Tenth Street to visit the dying president on assassination night.

He won a Medal of Honor in the Civil War for his service at Chancellorsville, where he was a member of the Irish Rifles brigade. He was shot through the lungs, shot in the leg and hit by artillery shells on both sides of his head.