The Carr Family

(Crest No. 12. Plate 69.)

THE Carr family is of Norman descent, and after their arrival in Ireland settled in the County of Waterford. Branches of the name held lands also at a subsequent period in the present Counties of Cork and Limerick in the south, and Monaghan and Down in the north.

They were a highly respectable family in the different counties where they settled, and almost from their first arrival in Ireland became in every way identified with the Irish people and Irish interests. The name is still numerous in Ireland, especially in the localities above mentioned, and in the United States and Canada, where many of them hold honorable positions.

A distinguished representative of this family was the late General Joseph B. Carr, of Albany, N. Y. He was born in that city of Irish parents in 1828, and received a good common school education. When the war broke out in 1861 he offered his services to the Government, and his regiment was the first to encamp on Virginian soil. He served as acting brigadier-general through McClellan’s peninsular campaign, participating in the engagements of Orchards, Glendale, and Malvern Hill, for which he was promoted to the rank of brigadier. He distinguished himself at the battles of Bristow Station, Chantilly, and Fredericksburg, and at Chancellorsville, commanding a division.

At Gettysburg, where he was severely hurt, his horse having been killed under him, and two-thirds of his command being killed and wounded, he refused to leave the field. He signalized himself in many other actions of the war, and for a time was in charge of the defenses of the James River. He was elected Secretary of State for New York, 1879, and re-elected in 1881 and 1883.

Another worthy representative of this name is Mr. Arthur Carr, of Brooklyn, N. Y., who possesses all the honorable characteristics of this family.