Notre Dame at Vicksburg (and...Vicksburg at Notre Dame)! Part I

The 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg has justly received significant attention this week but it may have taken a bot of the air out of another important anniversary: the 150th anniversary of the surrender of Confederate forces at Vicksburg, Mississippi, to the Union army under Ulysses S. Grant, after a nearly 50-day siege.

In 1995, I had the great pleasure of traveling to Vicksburg National Military Park with a group that included my best friend, Curtis Fears.  It was a memorable trip - seeing the battlefield, the monuments, the cemetery, the USS Cairo, and staying the night in a historic home.

The siege and surrender of Vicksburg was also memorable for Fr. Joseph C. carrier, a priest fromthe University of Notre Dame that was serving as a chaplain with the Union army.

You can read some introductory material about Fr. Carrier in a previous post here.

Below is an excerpt about Fr. Carrier's experiences at Vicksburg from my book, Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory (The History Press, 2010):

The Chaplain and the Beleaguered City

An Excerpt from

Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory

by James M. Schmidt

Fr. Joseph C. Carrier

Ellen Sherman, wife of William T. Sherman, asked Father Sorin to send one of his priests to her husband’s army. Her brothers, General Hugh Boyle Ewing and Captain Charles Ewing (the general’s foster brother and brother-in-law, respectively), were also in the army at Vicksburg. As devout as their sister, they had both expressed a wish to have a priest assigned to Grant’s army, which was without a Catholic chaplain in all its ranks. Father Sorin sent Father Joseph C. Carrier immediately to oblige her fervent hope that the chaplain would “get down there in time to prepare many a poor soul for the last dread journey.”(1)

The general had explained in his letter from Vicksburg to his son, Willy, at Notre dame, that a costly battle with the Confederates could be avoided if “their provisions will give out, for no person can get out or in Vicksburg without our consent, and if they have nothing to eat, they will starve or give up.” Only days later, the Confederate army at Vicksburg did surrender, after a forty-seven-day siege. Father Carrier got a firsthand look at the conquered city the day after the surrender. He secured a souvenir—the last issue of the city’s newspaper, printed on wallpaper—which he sent to Father Sorin as “a memento of a beleaguered but now fallen stronghold…[to] show all future generations to what extremities the Confederates were reduced.”(2)

"Dugouts" in Vicksburg

Of the city, Father Carrier wrote to Father Sorin that “there is not one single house in the whole city which has not been more or less damaged,” adding that “[it] really saddens one to see so many ruins.” He located the Catholic church in Vicksburg, which he happily reported “was but slightly injured.” Indeed, one Vicksburg citizen remembered that while the “soaring light spire and gold cross” of the church was one of the most prominent features of the town, it was “never defaced by the fire of the enemy,” though he was not sure “whether this was chance or intention.” (Surely General Sherman did not have such “control” over cannonballs; it’s equally sure that he would not risk the ire of his devout wife or his zealous but genial chaplain by purposely aiming at the church tower!) Father Carrier met Father Henzi, the weary but friendly assistant pastor—a fellow Frenchman—who “had lived for fifteen days in his cellar…for fear of the shells.”(3)

Upon returning to camp, Father Carrier learned that the army was departing right away. “It really had been painful for me to pull down my tents and leave my nice cozy quarters! I had become strongly attached to the place,” Father Carrier recalled. The days-long march in the hot and humid Mississippi clime was debilitating. Absent their wagons, “we had neither tent nor beds but we had the canopy of heaven…and the bare ground,” Father Carrier wrote Father Sorin. Food was also scarce—“not a cracker to crack,” he wrote—but Father Carrier took it all with good cheer. “Bah! This is for a follower of the Holy Cross a mere bagatelle [trifle],” he wrote Father Sorin, adding, “We…resumed our march, strictly fasting, although it was neither Lent, nor ember day, nor vigil.” The Union army chased remnants of the Confederate army out of Vicksburg and then encamped on the Big Black River.(4)

References:

(1) Letter, Ellen Sherman to William T. Sherman, June 8, 1863, William T. Sherman Family Papers (hereafter CSHR), 2/107, University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA).
(2) Letter, William T. Sherman to William T. Sherman Jr., June 21, 1863, CSHR 2/170, UNDA; David P. Conyngham, “Soldiers of the Cross,” David Power Conyngham Papers (CCON), 1/08 (un-paginated typescript), UNDA
(3) Conyngham, “Soldiers of the Cross.”
(4)Ibid.

Next: A very special letter written by Gen. William T. Sherman  to his son Willy, who was then a student at Notre Dame in the minim (elementary) program!

Holy Cross History in N'Awlins!

Earlier this month I had the great pleasure of attending the 32nd Annual Conference on the History of the Congregations of Holy Cross, sponsored by the Holy Cross History Association, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

I've written about the great resources of the Association previously (here).

The conference was great on many levels: I met some really nice people, heard some really interesting lectures, got to give one of my own, and got to experience New Orleans for the first time.

I've provided a synopsis of the lectures below.  

As I have explained before, one of the great resources of  the Association is that the papers given at the conferences are available for a nominal cost ($1.00).  I encourage you to browse through the list here (through 2011).  You may find something that intersects with you own historical interests!

This years papers included:

"Effects of Katrina on Marianites' Property and Ministries" - Sr. Clarita Bourque, MSC

"Edmundus" - Br. John Doran, CSC

Holy Cross in Acadia: What You Can Do With Eight Dollars" - Fr. Paul LeBlanc, CSC

"Holy Cross and Catholicism in the North" - Sr. Cecile Charette, CSC

"They Did Their Duty Well: Notre Dame Student-Soldiers in the Civil War" - James M. Schmidt (me!)

"Brother Theodolus: Reluctant Martyr of New Orleans" - Br. George Klawitter, CSC (all the lectures were terrific, but I have to say this was my favorite...it had an exceptional connection to our city of New Orleans and to the yellow fever epidemics of the 19th century, which is a special interest of mine)

"St. Agnes School: The Jewel of Jefferson, Louisiana" - Sr. Rosemary Wessel, MSC (A story about a former speakeasy/dance hall/gambling hall turned into a church and school?!?! What's not to like?!?!)

"Holy Cross in Central Texas and Northern Mexico" - Fr. Peter Logsdon, CSC

"Holy Cross Religious Survive Katrina" - Br Walter Gluhm, CSC

Next year's conference is in Notre Dame, Indiana - keep an eye here on the blog for details!

"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?