"Notre Dame and the Civil War" - St. Patrick's Day Rafflecopter Giveaway!

Let's celebrate St. Patrick's Day and the "Fighting Irish" with a Rafflecopter giveaway of TWO signed copies of Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory (The History Press)!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Notre Dame, the Civil War, and...The New York Times!

Just so happy that I made the New York Times today! Well, their website, anyway :-) My article on the University of Notre Dame's student-soldiers in the Civil War was featured on the Times' wonderful "Disunion" blog.  You can read the article here: 

And...if you are not already reading the New York Times' "Disunion" blog  then you need to start!

From the Disunion website:

One-hundred-and-fifty years ago, Americans went to war with themselves. Disunion revisits and reconsiders America's most perilous period -- using contemporary accounts, diaries, images and historical assessments to follow the Civil War as it unfolded.

The blog is just terrific, updated almost daily, and (mostly) chronological, it features great essays on many topics, from armchair historians to esteemed academics.

If you'd like to learn more, watch this short (13-minute) but very interesting interview with Disunion editor Clay Risen from my friends at The Civil War Monitor:



Mr. Risen was such a pleasure to work with...I hope to be making more contributions to Disunion over the next few years!

"Michigan Historical Review" Reviews "Notre Dame and the Civil War"!

I want to thank the Historical Society of Michigan for publishing a very kind review of my book, Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory (The History Press, 2010), in the most recent issue (Fall 2011) of their publication, Michigan Historical Review. Excerpts are below.

The review was written by Rev. Anthony J. Kuzniewski, S.J., Professor of History, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts.

Fr. Kuzniewski is the author of several publications, including Faith and Fatherland: The Polish Church War in Wisconsin, 1896-1918 (winner of the 1973 Kosciuszko Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Award), Thy Honored Name: A History of the College of the Holy Cross, 1843-1994, assistant editor of Waclaw Kruszka: A History of the Poles in America to 1908 (multivolume annotated translation of original work), articles in The Catholic Historical Review, Milwaukee History, Polish American Studies, American National Biography, Eerdmans' Handbook to Christianity in America, The Encyclopedia of American Catholic History, and in separate anthologies edited by Robert Trisco, Frank Mocha, Frank Renkiewicz, and Sally M. Miller. In 2002, Fr. Kusniewski received the Holy Cross Distinguished Teaching Award.

As you can imagine, it's an honor to receive such a kind review from a distinguished professor, historian, author, and man-of-the cloth.

Excerpts: "In telling the story of Notre Dame and its role in that conflict, Schmidt makes abundant use of archival materials belonging to the university, and of those deposited with the men’s and women’s branches of the Congregation of the Holy Cross...

"The story Schmidt relates is a dramatic one. More than one hundred students and alumni eventually participated in the Civil War...Notre Dame men were a part of virtually all of the major battles that involved the Army of the Potomac and Grant’s Army of the Tennessee...Father Edward Sorin, Notre Dame’s founder and president during the Civil War, was concerned about the large number of Irishmen and other Catholics in the Union armies and eventually supplied seven priest-chaplains...Finally, the CSC sisters, under the leadership of Mother Angela Gillespie, were staffing ten Union hospitals by the war’s end, serving heroically in challenging and often disheartening and dangerous conditions.

"Notre Dame and the Civil War is lavishly illustrated with fine portraits of participants in the war and of the monuments constructed to honor them after the conflict ended. The text abounds in quotes from primary documents, which are cited in the endnotes. They add color and life to Schmidt’s account...This useful account of Notre Dame’s participation in the Civil War will be of particular interest to alumni and supporters of the school. It will also be helpful to some future historian who may attempt to write a general account of the war’s impact on institutions of higher education."

Thank You Michigan Historical Review and Fr. Kusniewski!

Read other reviews of Notre Dame and the Civil War here:

America's Civil War Magazine (here)
Patrick McNamara's Blog (here)
Civil War News (here)
Civil War Librarian (Rea Andrew Redd) (here)
Almost Chosen People/The American Catholic (Don McClarey) (here)
Confederate Book Review (Robert Redd)(review and interview!) (here)
Irish in the American Civil War (Damian Shiels) (here)
South Bend Tribune Feature (here)

Meet Me in St. Louis! (at the St. Louis Civil War Round Table!)

Meet Me in St. Louis!

I'll have the great privilege and pleasure of giving a presentation about my book, Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory (The History Press, 2010), to the Civil War Round Table of St. Louis (MO) on Wednesday evening, October 26, 2011.

Come and join us!

You can learn more about the "who, what, when, where, etc." at their terrific website (here).

Meeting Fr. Corby's Family - Stories and Letters and Relatives

There are a great number of joys in being a writer, especially one who writes about history (and I can assure that the money, what little of it there is, is not one of them!).

Two of my favorites are: 1) what you might call "cross-pollination": learning and sharing information with others interested in the same subject, often in ways you'd never thought of; and 2) my favorite favorite: interactions with readers.

As you'll learn below, both of these joys were fulfilled this week and at the same time when I received a kind note from a reader, made all the more special because he has a very special connection to people I have been researcing and writing about for years now. They were also kind enough to share a letter - from 1892 - that is posted below.

Some background first:

Anyone who has read my book, Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory (The History Press, 2010), or is at all familiar with the school's role in the Civil War, knows that Fr. William Corby plays a large part in that story. He has been the subject of several posts on this blog (for example, here).

Just as interesting as Fr. Corby's own story is that of other members of his family, which are also closely connected with the University of Notre Dame, St. Mary's Academy, and the Congregation of the Holy Cross:

Fr. Corby was the son of Daniel Corby (1798-1875). A native of Ireland, Daniel arrived in North America at the age of 24. He first landed in Quebec and proceeded to Montreal where he met and married Miss Elizabeth Stapleton. Two years later he moved his young family to Detroit, where he became very successful in the real estate business. He was very notable in Catholic circles of Michigan and Detroit where he supported the construction of hospitals and churches.

A memorial article in The Michigan Catholic in 1886 declared that "there was not a charitable work commenced in his lifetime that he did not aid generously and continuously."

The Michigan Catholic article also noted some details of his family life:

"His life was not without affliction and trials. Five of his children were carried to the tomb in early years; his wife who shared his early struggles and who bore him a large family died in 1842. He remarried in 1844 Margaret, widow of John Walters, sister of General John McManman, now deceased. Of his children, two are in the religious state. His eldest daughter is Sister Mary Ambrose of the Convent of St. Mary's Academy, Notre Dame, Ind. His eldest son is a distinguished ecclesiastic, Rev. W. Corby, C.S.C., of Notre Dame University, of which institution he is an ex-President...Michael T. Corby, A.M., resident of Chicago; John and Thomas, his remaining sons, reside at Connor's Creek. His daughters, Teresa, wife of Cornelius Corbett, Supt. of the W. U. Telegraph Co., and Miss Minnie Corby, are residents of Detroit."

Daniel Corby was especially associated with two churches in Detroit: St. Mary's and St. Joseph's (a "daughter" church of St. Mary's). Indeed, Daniel was referred to in the Michigan catholic article as "the fiscal agent of St. Joseph, for he cashed the many drafts of this saint, so frequently appealed to, with a liberality unparalleled."

St. Joseph's parish in Detroit has a wonderful website (here), with an equally wonderful and interesting section (here), where I learned in the parish's "History Corner" that "Some of [Daniel Corby's] 12 children became parishioners then and some of his descendants are still members of St. Joseph Church today."

You can imagine how excited and honored I was that Mr. Patrick Degens - one of the descendants of Daniel Corby and author of the "History Corner" - sent me the following e-mail in the past few days:

"I had to buy your book when I saw the frontice page on "McNamara's Blog" (note; you can see Patrick McNamara's kind review of my book here) . My great grand uncle was Father William Corby."

WOW! Patrick goes on to relate some wonderful family stories and history related to Fr. Corby and his extended family:

"My father was the youngest of 16 children, He was born in 1895. One of his older sisters lived with us when I was growing up and she remembered Father Corby when he came to Detroit to visit the family when she was a very small girl. She said he asked her if she knew who he was and she answered that she did. When he said, 'Who am I?' She told me she said; 'God.' She added that she was very small."

What a wonderful story, and it undoubtedly warmed the heart of Fr. Corby, known widely for his geniality and humor.

Mr. Degens continued:

"My grandmother attended St. Marys Academy at South Bend when Father Corby's sister was the head mistress there, Mother Ambrose. I have a letter that she wrote to my grandmother that came with a large box of muslin she had sent to my grandmother for making sheets. She asked for prayers from all the children for herself. It was a very touching letter. My grandmother was invited to Notre Dame for the dedication of the statue there of Father Corby. She went by train and attended the ceremonies. I never knew any of my grandparents as they had all passed before I was born."

In a later e-mail, Patrick kindly shared the content of that letter from Sr. Mary Ambrose, with the following notes on his family:

"My grandmother was the daughter of Thomas McManman and Elizabeth Corby McManman (1826-1874). Elizabeth was the first born child of Daniel Corby (1798-1875) and Elizabeth Stapleton Corby (1808-1842), also Father William (1833-1897) Corby's parents. Their sister, Mary Agnes (b.1829) became a Holy Cross nun taking the name of Sister Mary Ambrose. The following is a letter she wrote to my grandmother Elizabeth McManman Degens (1854-1934). Note that in the letter below, Winnie was a half sister to Father William and Sister Ambrose"

And now for the letter:

St. Joseph Academy
South Bend - Ind
June 5, 1892

My Dear Libbie,

I have been promising myself the pleasure of answering Your letter - written after your visit - and will devote My free time this after noon in discharging this pleasant duty. Your visit was a real treat. Only too short. If I had you and Winnie back after you had gone I would not let you go until after Easter. I felt very lonely after you left. I was glad that you enjoyed your trip to Chicago and that yourself and Michael had the pleasure of meeting. Michael enjoyed the visit very much and so did Father.

I received your postal. Was sorry to hear that you had been ill, but hope that you are better. Were the things I sent of any use to you did you make the sheets and pillow covers? How is Winnie, did she leave the Wayace - I would like to know her address as I wish to write her. You Detroit people are not very generous about letters we have to be satisfied with one in a year in some cases three and five years.

The school year is fast drawing to a close, in less than three weeks we will be free and be assured that I am very glad. We will close the house and all go to St. Marys for the vacation. Our retreat will take place the 2d of July and the Priests retreat on the 9th. We will depend on your good prayers for us during that time. I have great faith in the prayers of Children. Have your little Children say a Hail Mary every day from the 2d to the 14th of July. What consolation our holy Religion gives us. We can ever be united in God by means of prayer and obtaining from each other the countless blessings. The month of Our Blessed Mother is over. The Devotion was observed in all the churches. The May processions were very fine.

I was at St. Mary's for the Dedication of St. Angela's Hall and the Closing of the Month of May. There were eight Priests from Notre Dame. Father Corby preached, the procession was grand Two hundred Pupils and about two hundred and fifty Sisters.

Has there been any rain in Michigan. There has been constant rain here for five weeks. It is clear today and be assured we enjoy the sunshine. I am anxious to hear from you and to know how Winnie is. Love also to the Children from me.

Remember in your prayers
Your Affectionate
Sister M Ambrose

Thank you, Mr. Degens; it was an honor and a privilege to hear from you!

As if that wasn't enough: in another twist, Patrick also shared:

"My cousin John Carey, also a Corby descendant, writes the History Column for the Washington Times and he also represents Father Corby at the annual gathering at Gettysburg. He is retired from a career in the Navy. His grandfather was Father Corby's brother, Tom. Actually his half brother. Another kindred spirit in the world of history."

Kindred spirits, indeed!

As it turns out, not knowing that Patrick and John were related, John Carey had corresponded with me earlier this spring and summer. John is graduate of Notre Dame (1976) and a Commander, United States Navy (Ret.). You can find some of his past Washington Times history pieces as well as other writing at his "Civil War Stories of Inspiration" blog here.

Is it any wonder that this is my FAVORITE part of writing?

Notre Dame Chaplain Profiles #5 and #6 - Frs. Bourget and Leveque

I'm pleased to add another installment introducing the Holy Cross priests from the University of Notre Dame who served as chaplains in the Civil War.

See these posts for previous profiles:

#1 = Fr. Paul E. Gillen, CSC (here)
#2 = Fr. Peter P. Cooney, CSC (here)
#3 = Fr. Joseph C. Carrier, CSC (here)
#4 = Fr. James M. Dillon (here)

Recall that Fr. James Dillon died shortly after the Civil War, in no small part from the privations of serving as a chaplain...Below is an excerpt from my book, Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory (The History Press, 2010) describing some of the life and ministry of Fr. Zepherin Joseph Leveque and Fr. Julian Prosper Bourget, as a chaplain in the Union army. Unfortunately, we do not know as much as Frs. Leveque and Bourget as the other chaplains, but they still deserve to be remembered.

Unlike the other Notre Dame priests who served as chaplains, Frs. Leveque and Bourget were assigned to hospital duty and not to a particular regiment...sadly, both men died during the Civil War while serving as chaplains. May they rest in peace.


In 1861, Father Sorin kept good his promise to send another priest to minister to the Catholic troops; that priest was Father Zepherin Joseph Lévêque, a Canadian by birth. While as zealous as the other Holy Cross priests from Notre Dame, Father Lévêque was also sickly and did not serve for long. On February 13, 1862—just a few months after arriving—he fell ill and died while visiting a fellow priest in New Jersey. Father Lévêque did not seem to have a commission with a particular regiment, although an obituary in the New York Herald stated that “the members of Company K, Twelfth Regiment, New York State Militia” were invited to attend the funeral. (1)

Another priest, Father Julian Prosper Bourget, had come to Notre Dame from the Holy Cross Mother House in France in early 1862. At Father Sorin’s suggestion, Father Bourget left for the military hospital at Mound City, Illinois, where he cared for many wounded and dying soldiers. Unfortunately, his stay—like Father Lévêque’s—was not long. Father Bourget contracted malaria and died at the hospital on June 12, 1862.

Note:

(1) “Obituary of Rev. J.M.Z. Leveque,” New York Herald clipping, February14, 1862, Lévêque File, Indiana Province Archives Center, Congregation of the HolyCross, Notre Dame, Indiana (IPAC)

College Life in the 1860s - Part II

One of the challenges of being a Civil War "enthusiast" is that, well...there's a lot about which to be "enthused" because the subject crosses so many areas of interest.

In doing background research for my most recent book, Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory (The History Press, 2010), I did some background reading on the history of other colleges in the Civil War and it has become an abiding interest.

One of my favorite books during that research was Willis Rudy's The Campus and a Nation in Crisis: From the American Revolution to Vietnam (Madison, NJ: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996).

I've also posted on a few other colleges that are taking advantage of the Civil War Sesquicentennial to commemorate their contributions during the Civil War:

Hobart College (Geneva, NY) (here)
University of Pennsylvania (here)

Of course there are many more...if you are aware of other good websites describing the experiences of institutions of higher education during the Civil War, let me know, and I'll happily post about them here!

Adding to that body of knowledge is a terrific new (April 2011) softcover (unillustrated) re-issue of a 2004 hardcover (illustrated) by Robert F. Pace, Ph.D.:

HALLS OF HONOR: COLLEGE MEN IN THE OLD SOUTH

I want to thank the kind folks at the Louisiana State University Press for sending me a review copy!

I recently finished the book and I can give it an unabashed A+!

From the publisher's website:

A powerful confluence of youthful energies and entrenched codes of honor enlivens Robert F. Pace's look at the world of male student college life in the antebellum South. Through extensive research into records, letters, and diaries of students and faculty from more than twenty institutions, Pace creates a vivid portrait of adolescent rebelliousness struggling with the ethic to cultivate a public face of industry, respect, and honesty. These future leaders confronted authority figures, made friends, studied, courted, frolicked, drank, gambled, cheated, and dueled–all within the established traditions of their southern culture.

For the sons of southern gentry, college life presented a variety of challenges, including engaging with northern professors and adjusting to living away from home and family. The young men extended the usual view of higher education as a bridge between childhood and adulthood, innovatively creating their own world of honor that prepared them for living in the larger southern society. Failure to obtain a good education was a grievous breach of honor for them, and Pace skillfully weaves together stories of student antics, trials, and triumphs within the broader male ethos of the Old South. When the Civil War erupted, many students left campus to become soldiers, defend their families, and preserve a way of life. By war's end, the code of honor had waned, changing the culture of southern colleges and universities forever.

Halls of Honor represents a significant update of E. Merton Coulter's 1928 classic work, College Life in the Old South, which focused on the University of Georgia. Pace's lively study will widen the discussion of antebellum southern college life for decades to come.

There is a LOT to recommend this book to readers:

1) It's relatively short (117 pages of main text; 27 pages of Notes/Bibliography; index) and that's a good thing! As one of my favorite historians and writers, Jason Emerson, has declared: "the publication of short books and monographs has lessened extensively in recent years...the page count of a work should have no impact on its overall historical, literary, or pedagogical value." Indeed! Dr. Pace packs a lot of information into this short book and yet is supported by an impressive amount of scholarship. (You can learn more about Mr. Emerson in another post, here).

2) Dr. Pace mined nearly a hundred collections of letters, papers, and diaries at several institutions...readers will be impressed - and perhaps surprised - at how much extant primary material there is representing first-hand accounts of antebellum college life in the South...graduates of the following institutions will be especially gratified at how much attention they get in the book, among more than twenty colleges that are mentioned throughout: University of North Carolina, University of Virginia, University of Alabama, and Hampden-Sidney College.

3) In the first chapter, Dr. Pace discusses academic life at the institutions, including faculty, curriculum, cheating, and commencement. This included the choice of whether or not to even attend college: it wasn't necessary for most professions, but Dr. Pace argues that for Southern adolescents and families it was a matter of honor...this honor and distinction also applied to what college the young man attended, so that attending a "second-rate" school could bring shame on a family. One of the more interesting discussions in the book is on cheating...as it turns out, it was more important to cheat and pass and graduate, than to skip cheating but fail.

4) In the second chapter, the author describes campus life, including accommodations, noise, clothing, fire, pests, heating, illness, and dining. One of the most interesting discussions in this chapter was a description of the institution of slavery on college campuses in the antebellum South, including the use of servants as part of tuition as well as brutality against the slaves.

5) In the third chapter - easily the most entertaining - Dr. Pace describes "Sowing Oats and Growing Up" including amusements, entertainment and relationships. Dr. Pace describes the prevalence of drinking alcohol among the young men - or "getting tight" as it was called back in the day. Social fraternities - especially literary societies - were also very popular and intense rivalries grew amongst competing societies on several campuses. The most interesting part of this chapter was Dr. Pace's description of the pursuit and courting of females by male college students in the Old South.

6) In the fourth chapter, Dr. Pace discusses "Honor and Violence" including rules, pranks, riots, guns, and duels. Dr. Pace describes how college administrators struggled with student conduct, some of it whimsical and some of it deadly, either purposefully or accidentally.

7) In the fifth and final chapter, Dr. Pace discusses "College Life and the Civil War." This includes secessionist and (most interesting!) Unionist sentiment among students and faculty, on-campus militia units, enlistments among the student body, financial challenges faced by the colleges during the war and - finally - how the war changed Southern college life forever.

8) The MOST IMPRESSIVE aspect of this book is the extensive use of first-hand accounts of students throughout, based on his use of period letters and diaries.

If I have any criticisms, they are few:

A) Some academic works can be flawed in that an sometimes artificial "meme" is forced on the book...in this case, Dr. Pace sometimes spends words in "forcing" a theme of a Southern "Code of Honor" to describe the students' behaviors and expectations. Rarely did the students' own words bear this out, though.

B) Somewhat related: I've done enough reading of college life in the North during this same era to wonder whether Dr. Pace was successfully able to describe a distinctly Southern "way" of college life as there are just so many similarities.

These are minor quibbles, however, and they do not detract from this EXCELLENT book!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Thank You, LSU Press!