James R. O'Neill (correspondent)

James R. O'Neill (born February 13, 1833, Ireland; died October 6, 1863, Baxter Springs, Kansas) was a war artist and correspondent for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper during the American Civil War. He covered the Battle of Honey Springs in July 1863, and his sketch of the action was published to a nationwide audience. Less than three months later, however, O'Neill was killed in the Battle of Baxter Springs. He is believed to be the only newsman to be killed in action during the American Civil War.

Born in an unknown location in Ireland, James Richard O'Neill emigrated across the Atlantic with his family in infancy. The Irish family at first lived in Quebec, but in 1843 emigrated again to Kenosha, Wisconsin. O'Neill spent his older childhood and early adulthood in Wisconsin, possibly helping out his father Charles O'Neill in the older man's duties as the Kenosha lighthouse keeper. In 1854 young O'Neill joined the Madison, Wisconsin-based Langrishe & Atwater company of traveling theatrical players. With naïve art skills, he worked at first as the company's stage crewman, designing and building sets and scenery. The company later expanded his role and he became a comic actor, specializing in Irish-dialect songs, dances, and stand-up comedy recitals.

In Madison in the late 1850s, O'Neill became a leading figure among his fellow young professionals. Local press accounts show him as the informal leader of a mock-fraternal organization, known officially as the 'K.O.T.F.N.' [possibly standing for "Knights of the Fraternal No-names"] but whose members usually called themselves just "The Club." The club won its longest press clippings on July 4, 1859, when they produced a street shivaree that poked satirical fun at the earnest Fourth of July Madison celebrations of the time. Club members dressed up in phony military uniforms, banged on pots and pans, and hauled out a fake cannon to fire mock salutes. Indignant letters to the editor followed.

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