The First Days of the Civil War at Notre Dame - Part II - A Spirit of Fire

As mentioned in Part I of this post (here), the first days of the Civil War were full of excitement at the University of Notre Dame.

While Fr. Neal Gillespie declared that some students "did not “exhibit a very bellicose spirit nor vapormuch about ‘blood and thunder’ and the ‘cannon roar’ and such like," the additional excerpt below from Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory (The History Press, 2010) indicates that some of the students were indeed "on fire":

One student with a decided “bellicose spirit” was William F. Lynch, commander of Notre Dame’s "Continental Cadets." The citizens ofnearby South Bend met at the St. Joseph County Courthouse on the evening of April 15, 1861, to determine their course of action. With party loyalties set aside, the citizenry stood shoulder to shoulder in the packed courtroom, but Lynch—who was in the hall—grew impatient with the speeches and platitudes. He then gave a speech “full of a fiery patriotism that carried the audience with his enthusiasm,” one historian declared. Years later, the Notre Dame Scholastic recalled the thrilling scene:

"He stood up, tall, soldierly; his Irish eyes were glittering, his face pale. The vibrant ring of the first sentence he rattled out above the heads of the good citizens made them catch their breath. In five minutes they were frantic; and when the boy told them he was going to the front to shed the last drop of his blood if needed for the Union, the audience leaped to its feet; cheer after cheer rang out wildly."

Lynch then returned to Notre Dame, where as one report stated, he “set his own cadets afire, or rather…let the blaze out—they were afire already. To a boy they wanted to go to the front by the next train and put down the uprising of the South at once.” Lynch left for Indianapolis to offer Notre Dame’s military company to the state, but Governor Oliver P.Morton was already overwhelmed with like petitions, and he told Lynch to go home and wait. In the meantime, Father Sorin—aware of the fiery patriotism in his student body—praised the cadets for their good spirit but declared that he had no authority to allow boys under twenty-one to enlist without their parents’ permission.

Sources:

Timothy E. Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana, vol. 2 (Chicago, IL: Lewis Publishing Co., 1907), p. 716; Notre Dame Scholastic, November 18, 1899, pp. 176-77.

William F. Lynch - perhaps Notre Dame's most illustrious student-soldier - will soon be featured in his "own" post...it's interesting to consider what might have happened if the governor of Indiana had accepted an entire company of Notre Dame men into one of the state's regiments...as it was, the dozens of young men from the school who enlisted straight away were scattered among regiments from Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and other states.

The First Days of the Civil War at Notre Dame - Part I - "Blood and Thunder"

This week marked the 150th anniversary of the bombardment of Fort Sumter. Within days, President Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers to put down the rebellion.

It was a week of great excitement at the University of Notre Dame as it was in homes, towns, and other campuses around the country.

One of Notre Dame's very first graduates - Neal Gillespie (Class of 1849) - stayed on at the school to study for the priesthood. He was also brother to Eliza Marie Gillespie, who would become Mother Angela (you can read about her in a previous post here).

On April 19, 1861, Fr. Gillespie wrote his mother of the atmosphere on campus in the days following Fort Sumter. An excerpt of the letter appears in Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory (The History Press, 2010):

“Here all are well except those who are taken violently with the war fever, which epidemic rages in these northern climes in spite of the gloomy weather as fiercely as in the sunny south,” wrote Father Neal Gillespie to his mother from Notre Dame on April 19, 1861, just days after the surrender of Fort Sumter and President Abraham Lincoln’s first call for troops. “Some of the students perhaps will go to fight the battles of their country,” he added but guessed that “the number will…be very small.” He reported, with chagrin, that “the excitement has sadly interfered with the lessons of some of the hotheaded ones” but wrote with admiration of two young boys—family friends—who “[took] the matter coolly, as sensible young men” and did not “exhibit a very bellicose spirit nor vapor much about ‘blood and thunder’ and the ‘cannon roar’ and such like.”

Source: Letter, Neal Gillespie to mother, April 19, 1861, Thomas EwingManuscripts (CEWI), Box 3, University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA).]

I will post more this week about how the students of Notre Dame reacted to the news of Fort Sumter!

Notre Dame's Civil War Roll of Honor - Cassius M. Brelsford : A Promising Life, Cut Short

As I have mentioned in previous posts and in the Preface of my book, Notre Dame in the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory (The History Press, 2010), I have a long-term goal of cataloging and researching Notre Dame's Civil War student-soldiers.

You can find an initial list here

My previous student-soldier profiles are listed below:

John C. Lonergan - 58th Illinois Infantry (here)
Timothy E. Howard - 12th Michigan Infantry (here)
Frank Baldwin - 44th Indiana Infantry (here and here)
Felix Zeringue - 30th Louisiana Infantry (CSA) (here)
Michael Quinlan - 27th Virginia Infantry (CSA) (here and here)
Thomas E. Lonergan - 90th Illinois Infantry (here)
Orville T. Chamberlain - 74th Indiana Infantry (here and here)

There are many more profiles to come!

Today's post introduces readers to another Notre Dame Civil War student-soldier - Pvt. Cassius M. Brelsford, Co. F., 113th Illinois Infantry.

As it turns out, it's the story of a most promising young man who died too young to fulfill that promise.

A biography and selected images from his compiled military service record are below. In addition to my own research, my search was aided immensely by the kind folks at the Archives of the University of Notre Dame (UNDA) (as always!), the great folks at CivilWarDocs.com -esp. Jay Odom - who retrieved the Compiled Service Military Record, and the Iroquois County Genealogical Society, who provided a copy of his obituary.

As with other attempts to identify Notre Dame's student-soldiers, my strategy is thus:

1) Look at the Notre Dame catalogs just before and during the war
2) Identify students whose studies ended upon the start - or shortly thereafter - of the war
3) Confirm whether they might have been a soldier using the National Park Service Civil War Soldier and Sailor System
4) Find other confirmation (state muster rolls, etc.) to match muster-in hometown with Notre Dame catalog information
5) Verify further with any other biographical information to connect the soldier to Notre Dame
6) Final confirmation (if needed) by securing pension, military record, and enrollment details

So here goes...

1) Using the UNDA's excellent Student Index (1849-1912), I was drawn to the following student: Cassius M. Brelsford (what a GREAT name, right?!)...his enrollment ended in 1862, during the war years, which made him a candidate for a student-soldier.













2) Cassius Brelsford also appears in the 1861-62 Notre Dame Catalog (full text available on Google Books here). By all accounts, he was one of the top students at the University, taking many of the top honors at the 1862 commencement, including:




























3) A "Cassius M. Brelsford" does appear in the NPS's Civil War Soldier and Sailor System and in the http://www.ilsos.gov/genealogy/, and his listed UND hometown of "Middleport, IL" is in Iroquois County, IL.


















4) Here is a summary of the 113th Illinois Infantry from the NPS:

Organized at Camp Hancock, near Chicago, Ill., and mustered in October 1, 1862. Ordered to Memphis, Tenn., November 6, 1862. Attached to 1st Brigade, District of Memphis, Tenn., Right Wing 13th Army Corps (Old), Department of the Tennessee, November, 1862. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, District of Memphis, 13th Army Corps, to December, 1862. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, Sherman's Yazoo Expedition to January, 1863. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, 15th Army Corps, Army of the Tennessee, to August, 1863. 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, 16th Army Corps, to November, 1863. Post of Corinth, Miss., 2nd Division, 16th Army Corps, to January, 1864. 2nd Brigade, District of Memphis, Tenn., 16th Army Corps, to June, 1864. 2nd Brigade, Sturgis' Expedition, June, 1864. 1st Brigade, Post of Memphis, District of West Tennessee, to February, 1865. Unatta ched, Post of Memphis, District of West Tennessee, to June, 1865.

SERVICE.-Grant's Central Mississippi Campaign. "Tallahatchie March," November 26-December 12, 1862. Sherman's Yazoo Expedition December 20, 1862-January 2, 1863. Chickasaw Bayou December 26-28. Chickasaw Bluff December 29. Expedition to Arkansas Post, Ark., January 3-10. Assault and capture of Fort Hindman, Arkansas Post, January 10-11. (Cos. "C," "D," "F," "I" and "K" guard prisoners North after Arkansas Post, and retained in Illinois on guard duty till October, 1864, when rejoined Regiment at Memphis, Tenn.) Moved to Young's Point, La., January 17-22, and duty there till March. Expedition to Rolling Fork, Miss., via Muddy, Steele's and Black Bayous and Deer Creek March 14-27. Near Deer Creek March 22. Demonstration on Haines' and Drumgould's Bluffs April 29-May 2. Movement to Jackson, Miss., via Grand Gulf, May 2-14. Jackson May 14. Champion's Hill May 16. Siege of Vick sburg, Miss., May 18-July 4. Assaults on Vicksburg May 19 and 22. Surrender of Vicksburg July 4. Advance on Jackson, Miss., July 4-10. Siege of Jackson July 10-17. Ordered to Memphis, Tenn.; thence to Corinth, Miss., and Post duty there till January, 1864. At Memphis, Tenn., till June, 1865. Sturgis' Expedition into Mississippi June 1-13, 1864. Near Colliersville, Tenn., June 10. Brice's (or Tishamingo) Creek, near Guntown, Miss., June 10. Ripley June 11. Repulse of Forrest's attack on Memphis August 21, 1864. Eastport, Miss., October 10, 1864. Mustered out June 20, 1865.

Regiment lost during service 1 Officer and 25 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 4 Officers and 273 Enlisted men by disease. Total 303.

5) His Compiled Military Service Record was very rich (and believe me: sometimes they just aren't), even though - by the time he joined in lat e 1863 - he had missed most of the action, it still includes some wonderful biographical material. It appears that Brelsford spent a good deal of time away from his regiment while on detached duty as a clerk at Headquarters:

6) My favorite piece of correspondence in his service record is this letter written by Brelsford himself; notice the appeal to his "collegiate education" and also his willingness to serve his additional year, even though unfit for regular duty.

































7) This disability/discharge certificate may provide some clues as to why Brelsford served as a clerk instead of as a soldier in the ranks. He developed a lung complication which the surgeon attributed to Brelsford's service. Note that "incipient phthisis" was a mid-19th century clinical term for "consumption" or "tuberculosis."






























8) Cassius M. Brelsford left the service and embarked on a promising career, first as a druggist and general store manager at home in Illinois, and then in New York, working his way up to an officer of the "American Literary Bureau," one of the leading speaking and literary agencies of the day. In one interesting - and as yet unexplained - "twist of fate," famed actress Laura Keene - made even more famous by her appearance in "Our American Cousin" on the night of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination - once sued Brelsford for $15,000 for libel in his capacity as an officer with the Bureau.
























9) However - as mentioned above - a promising young man's life was cut short by the disease that he contracted in the service. Brelsford died in 1873, only eight years after the war. His obituary was carried in the New York papers, his hometown Iroquois Times and Onarga Review, and also copied in the Notre Dame Scholastic:

DIED - At the Grand Central Hotel, New York City, December 18, 1873, CASSIUS M. BRELSFORD, of pulmonary disease. Aged 28 years.

Cassius M. Brelsford was born at Decatur, Indiana. Was educated at Notre Dame University. Removed to Illinois a few years before the war, and in 1862 enlisted in Capt. Bridge's company (F.) of the 113 Illinois Infantry. Of rather a delicate constitution, camp-life did not agree with him, and he was detailed as a clerk at Gen. Geo. H. Thomas's headquarters at Nashville, Tenn., where he served until mustered out; the general and his subordinate officers giving him letters of the highest recommendation, and his office associates presenting him with many tokens of esteem.

Returning to the North, he associated himself with his father, Dr. Joseph Brelsford, in the druf business, afterword, in company with with Mr. V. W. Dashiell, embarking in the nook and stationery business, the form starting the first news depot in Onarga. His interest in this establishment was purchased by Mr. Dashiell, and Mr. Brelsford moved to Wilmington, Will county, where he started a drug and stationery store.

About three years ago he entered the service of theAmerican Literary Bureau, accepting a subordinate position. His business qualifications soon attracted the attention of the managers, and he was promoted to the position of General Manager, with headquarters in New York. He held that position for about a year, when he was elected President, filling the office until death relieved him of his earthly cares. His associate officers in the Bureau seemed to have no envy upon his promotion over them, each and everyone of them recognizing his ability to fill the position with which he was honored. His directorship received the highest encomiums from all sides, the lecturers, particularly, bestowing praise upon his admirable management of their business with the public.

When the disease assumed a serious aspect telegrams were daily received from such men as Wendell Phillips, Bret Harte, and other eminent literary men, all showing great interest in his condition.

During his illness, the families of his brother officers vied with each other in contributing to his comfort, and the best medical skill was employed. The disease, however, had taken too strong a hold upon him, and he died, as stated above on the 18th of December, cutting off a life of great promise.

The remains were brought to Onarga by the bereaved father, and were interred in the cemetery on Tuesday, the 23d. The funeral took place in the Episcopal Church and was attended by a large concourse of our citizens, who deeply symapthized with the sorrowing relatives.

Cassius M. Brelsford, University of Notre Dame, 113th Illinois Infantry, 1845-1873, Rest in Peace.

(To be continued: Cassius Brelsford's brother, Horace, was also a Notre Dame student and also a Union soldier in the 9th Illinois Cavalry...he will be profiled in the future).

The Perfect Gift for Civil War Catholic Sister-Nurses: Two Big Guns! What?!

Lift the great guns from the snows that enfold them,
Heat the great furnace,—War’s echoes must cease;
Swift in the might flames melt them and mould them
Into one image—Our Lady of Peace

Testaments to the epic story of Notre Dame in the Civil War can be found from the country’s capital city to an Indiana town to the battlefield at Gettysburg to the campus itself. Indeed, I have written before about the Baldwin monument in Elkhart, IN (here) and the Fr. Corby monument at Gettysburg (here and here).

Perhaps the most unusual (and earliest) of the memorials to the Notre Dame community's service in the Civil War were the twin captured Confederate cannons—named “Lady Polk” and “Lady Davis”—that found a home on the campus of St. Mary’s. The guns were large experimental rifled cannon, each more than ten feet long, weighing more than seven tons and designed to fire solid shot that weighed more than one hundred pounds. The guns were placed in Rebel forts on the Mississippi River but fell into the hands of the Union navy in early 1862. Later in the year, Commodore W.H. Davis, commanding the Western Flotilla, wrote the
following order:

"I wish you to stop at Island No. 10 and take on board the fragments
of a gun known as the Lady Davis, which burst in the hands of the
rebels. I wish you to stop again at Columbus and to take on board
the fragments of a gun known as the Lady Polk, which also burst
in the hands of the rebels…they are to be placed at the disposal of
Sister Angela, superior of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, who are the
principal nurses in our military hospitals, and that they are to be recast into a statue of peace for one of the religious establishments of which Sister Angela is the superior. " (1)

The cannons were delivered to Cairo, Illinois, in the care of Captain A.W. Pennock, who wrote to Mother Angela that he would “be very happy to keep here the guns…subject to any directions or orders which you may think proper to give me.” The cannons were then transferred to the naval yard in Mound City, Illinois, where they remained for some time before finally finding their intended home at St. Mary’s. They sat on the grounds under the flagpole flying the Stars and Stripes, and students often had their photos taken sitting on the “Ladies.” (2)

Mother Angela’s original plans never came to pass: instead of being crafted into a monument of peace, the cannons actually went to war again. In September 1942, the sisters offered the guns to the government as salvage ore. Mr. L.J. Harwood—
chairman of the Salvage Committee, Civilian Defense Council, St. Joseph County, Indiana—wrote to thank the sisters and St. Mary’s Academy for their thoughtfulness:

"I frequently have occasion to observe people who possess a tremendous
amount of negative patriotism. That is, they are patriotic enough to give away some of their holdings if a large amount of pressure is put upon them. This gesture of yours, however, is quite different from this. I believe that you recognize that patriotism does not end until the object needed is finally secured. In this case the cannon are of no avail until they are melted, and if it had not been for your noble gesture, they probably would have remained on your campus until after the duration." (3)

In her 1881 collection, Crowned with Stars, poet Eleanor C. Donnelly paid tribute to the sisters’ wartime service and to their unique monument in “The Cannon in the Convent Grounds":

See, where they lie 'mid the frosts of the Winter,
Just as they lay 'mid the grasses and flowers
All these long Summers,— a War-breathing cen ter.
Mocking the calm of these woodlands of ours.

Nearly two decades of peace have been numbered
By Time (the old clerk) on his chaplet of years.
Since first in this sylvan seclusion they slumbered.
Sprinkled with blood-drops and shining with tears.

O'er the cold metal, now rusted and rimy.
Year after year the green mosses have crept;
Silvery sweet, thro' yon tubes, dark and grimy,
The bells of St. Mary's their echoes have swept.

Oft on those arches the robin sat singing
The song of the Spring to the mate on its nest;
Athwart the black nozzles, the Summer wind winging,
Breathed perfume and balm from the groves of the West,

Gently the dead leaves have fallen upon them
With delicate whispers of rest and release;
And even the snow-flakes, thick-fluttering on them.
Have swelled, in their turn, the soft chorus of Peace!

Come, put your ear to these lips, black and hoary.
List to this voice, breathing ruin no more;
The harsh tones grow sweet as they tell of the story
Of Mercy's blest part in the pageant of War;

Tell of the nuns of historic St. Mary's,
Binding the camp and the hospital bloom
With Heaven's own glory : like minist'ring fairies,
Shedding God's sunlight thro' suffering's gloom.

Floating, sweet saints, on the dark winding waters.
Alone with the wounded, the dying, the dead,
Christ of the Holy Cross ! bless Thy dear daughters,
Brave help of our heroes who battled and bled!

Lift the great guns from the snows which enfold them.
Heat the vast furnace,—War's echoes must cease;
Swift in the mighty flames melt them and mould them
Into one image — Our Lady of Peace !

Tranquil and tender from out the dark iron,
Soon the dear face on her children shall shine;
Grandeur and grace not of earth shall environ
The form of our Mother, the sinless, divine!

Trophies of Death in Life's' image dissolving,
Beautiful Peace veiling visions of gore,
Praise to our God! while the years are revolving,
Madonna of Peace ! thou shalt leave us no more! (4)

You can see photos and read more about this and other Notre Dame Civil War monuments in Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory (The History Press, 2010).

Notes:

(1) Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Volume 23, 364–65; an excellent essay on the genesis of the guns, the misnomer of “Lady Davis” and their disposition can be found at John Ross, “Columbus, KY: Gibraltar of the West,” http://rosswar.blogspot.com.
(2) Anna S. McAllister, Flame in the Wilderness: Life and Letters of Mother Angela Gillespie, C.S.C., 1824–1887 (Paterson, NJ: St. Anthony Guild Press, 1944), 201.
(3) Ibid, 341.
(4) Eleanor C. Donnelly, Crowned With Stars (Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University, 1881), 129–31.

Mother Angela - A VERY Rare and Exceptional Woman

"[Mother Angela is] a woman of rare charm of manner, unusual ability, and exceptional executive talents.” - General Ulysses S. Grant

I have written on this blog about several aspects of Notre Dame's contributions and experiences during the Civil War, including the Holy Cross priests that served as chaplains, the students who served as soldiers, and life on campus.

Another interesting and essential part of the story is that of the Holy Cross sisters from Notre Dame and its sister-school, St. Mary's Academy, who served as nurses.

Just as Father Sorin proved to be a steady and inspiring influence to the students and Holy Cross priests and brothers at Notre Dame, so too did the Holy Cross sisters and St. Mary’s have an equally influential figure in Mother Angela Gillespie. Born in 1824 in Pennsylvania, Eliza Marie Gillespie was the daughter of a wealthy and prominent family. Her kin included brother Neal (Notre Dame’s first graduate) and the politically connected Ewing family of Ohio.

Eliza finished her early schooling in Washington, D.C. Beautiful,vivacious and energetic, she might have become politically connected and powerful herself through marriage, but instead she pursued a religious vocation and joined the Sisters of the Holy Cross in 1853, taking the name Sister Angela. In addition to her piety and charity, Sister Angela also had considerable business and executive talents, having managed her stepfather’s farm. Father Sorin thought her the ideal candidate to be superior of St. Mary’s Academy, a position that she assumed in 1855.

The call for the Holy Cross sisters to serve as nurses came on the eveningof October 21, 1861, when a horseman galloped to the campus of Notre Dame carrying an urgent request for Father Sorin. Sorin read the message to himself and then, by the light of his lantern, walked over to St. Mary’s Academy. Once there, he asked for Mother Angela and read her the message. Within hours, she and five companions were bound bytrain for southern Illinois.

Mother Angela and her “little army” arrived in Cairo, Illinois, where they reported to General Ulysses S. Grant, who had his headquarters in the city. One of the sisters remembered meeting the famous general:

"[He] shook hands most heartily with each Sister. Over the hand of Mother Angela he bent with the chivalry of a soldier worthy of leading a host to victory. Looking at his visitor with a kindly smile, he said:“Mother Angela, I am very glad indeed to have you and your Sisters with us.”…[T]he general asked Mother Angela if she and her companion nurses could be ready to report for duty that night at the military hospital in Paducah [Kentucky]…[She replied] that he had but to express a wish and it would be obeyed at once."

The sisters left right away and arrived in Paducah that evening, where they met General Lew Wallace (whose request for sister-nurses had prompted the governor’s message to Father Sorin), who commanded a brigade and its three hospitals in the area. The surgeons were characteristically dubious of having women in their wards, but they were soon impressed with Mother Angela. She reorganized the wards “with almost military precision,” and the sisters scrubbed the floors free of blood, put fresh linen on the beds, bathed the sick and prepared an appetizing and nutritious diet in the kitchen.

In mid-December 1861, Mother Angela returned to St. Mary’s to gather another group of sisters.

One of the sisters remembered Mother Angela assisting a surgeon at the Mound City hospital:

"Mother Angela was assisting Doctor Franklin with a difficult operation, the precise accuracy of which would determine the life or death of a soldier. A little chloroform had to suffice to dull the agony of the probing. Both surgeon and assistant leaned intently over the patient. Suddenly a red drop fell on Mother Angela’s white coif. Another and still another fell until a small stream was seeping through the ceiling. But true to her Celtic ancestry Mother Angela remained motionless, with thoughts concentrated on the delicate surgery. At last the final stitch was taken; two heads rose simultaneously. Not until then did the doctor realize that a crimson rivulet from the floor above had fallen steadily upon our Mother’s devoted head, bathing coif, face, and shoulders in blood."

Over the course of the war, Mother Angela might be found scrubbing floors or assisting in surgery as desribed above, but even behind the scenes Mother Angela was exercising her considerable influence and executive abilities by placing trusted subordinates in charge of other hospitals and writing friends, strangers, officers and politicians for supplies. Perhaps, though, it was her example of confidence and humility that did the most good:

“There are some people who can inspire others to do what ordinarily speaking is impossible; Mother Angela was one of these,” one sister wrote. “Her faith and courage never recognized limitations; hence the nature, the magnitude of her achievements and those of her Sisters.”

You can read more about Mother Angela and the other Holy Cross sister-nurses in Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory (The History Press, 2010).

The Holy Cross History Association: An Excellent Resource

At the heart of the story of the University of Notre Dame is the story of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, the founding Order of the university and the Order to which her brave Civil War chaplains and sister-nurses belonged, as told in my book, Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory (The History Press, 2010).

One of the great resources at my disposal while researching and writing the book was the Holy Cross History Association.

According to their website (here), the mission of the Association is to:

"...promote and stimulate historical study of and research on those religious communities which trace their origins to the Rev. Basil Moreau of LeMans, France; to discover, collect and preserve historical manuscripts; to print, publish and cause to be distributed, papers, books, writings, reports, articles and data bearing on or in any way relating to the Congregations of Holy Cross."

The Association accomplishes the goal by publishing a newsletter and sponsoring annual conferences (information about the 2011 conference can be found here).

Among their very best resources is the availability of the presentations given at the annual conferences at a very nominal cost (only $1 plus postage!).

A list of the papers is here and members also receive an excellent guide to the papers by person, place, or subject.

Just a few of the papers I found helpful were:

"Holy Cross Communities in the Civil War" by Rev. James T. Connelly, CSC, 16pp. (1993)
"Grace under Pressure: Sisters of the Holy Cross, 1861-1865" by Ms. Barbra Wall (2000)
"Holy Cross Military Chaplains in World War II" by Rev. Joseph A. Kehoe, CSC, 19pp (1995)

and others

Even if you are not writing about the Holy Cross order, Notre Dame, or specific personalities (priests, brothers, sisters, etc.) per se, do consider browsing the available papers because they might enrich other research you are doing, including regional studies, as the mission of the Congregation has since extended well beyond the campus of Notre Dame to include cities and institutions all across the country over the past almost 170 years.

Other resources on the website include an excellent Bibliography (PDF here) of over 100 pages and many hundreds of citations.

Membership is only $5 (here) and I have happily been a member for the past couple of years and will continue to support the Association as a member.

Many thanks to them for all that they do!

Patrick McNamara Reviews "Notre Dame and the Civil War"!

I want to thank Patrick McNamara for posting a very kind review (here) of Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory (The History Press, 2010) on his popular "Musings of a Catholic Church Historian from Queens, New York" blog this week, just in time for St. Patrick's Day!

As I've mentioned before, one thing I was aiming for in this book was to craft a story (backed by good scholarship) that would appeal to multiple audiences: Civil War enthusiasts, Notre Dame almuni ("bona fide" and "subway), folks interested in the history of the Irish and Catholics in America, and more. As it turns out, Patrick can count himself among several of those intended audiences, and I am so pleased, honored, and humbled that he found merit in the book!

If you have a history blog yourself, check out his blog (here) and consider adding it to your blog roll (I did at my Civil War Medicine blog!)...it's TERRIFIC!

Indeed, Patrick brings some impressive bona fides to his blogging on the history of the Irish and Catholics in American History; from his biography at Patheos.com

Pat received his Ph.D. from Catholic University of American in Washington, D.C. A native of Queens, New York, Dr. Pat McNamara has attended Catholic schools from grammar through grad school and has taught Church History at St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie, and at Immaculate Conception Seminary, Huntington. His books include A Catholic Cold War: Edmund A. Walsh, S.J., and the Politics of American Anticommunism (2005); The Tablet: The First Hundred Years (2008); and Diocese of Immigrants: The Brooklyn Catholic Experience, 1853-2003 (2004). Pat has appeared in numerous publications, writing on American Catholic history. Pat was an archivist for the Brooklyn Diocese for ten years, and in 2008 was a consultant for the Museum of the City of New York's exhibit Catholics in New York.

You can read the entire review (here). Excerpts are below:

In his wonderful new book Notre Dame and the Civil War, James M. Schmidt tells the whole story of the university’s involvement in the Civil War, and it’s a great story. It covers the priest who served as army chaplains, the Sisters who served as nurses, and the students who fought in the field...

This book is concise and well written. The research is top-notch, and the photos and drawings are wonderful. I learned much I didn’t know...As the first detailed study of American Catholics and the Civil War, this is an important book.

But, perhaps more importantly, it’s an enjoyable book. Anyone with an interest in the Civil War, Irish American history, and the story of Catholics in America is going to love it. Notre Dame alumni will be especially interested. The arrival of St. Patrick’s Day, and with the Civil War sesquicentennial only a month away, makes this the perfect opportunity to purchase this great book, either for others or yourself.

Thanks, Patrick!

Read more reviews of Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory:

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 (Howard Dukes) (here)