Now here are my questions:
1). How soon after immigrating to America would a male Irish immigrant be drafted? I've seen it dramatized in Gangs of New York, where they were drafting them right off the boat. But I doubt that is the case.
2). Michael O'Riordan the character in question was from a rural part of Ireland uneducated and quite superstitious. He sees Bathsheba above him before she feeds on him. However this is the 1860s would he think that she is a Banshee
Now I’ve looked up Banshees and Irish in the Civil War on wikipedia but I didn’t find much, that would be useful.