Granting Absolution To The Irish Brigade

The Reverend William Corby, the religious leader of the Irish Brigade was born on October 2nd 1833.

William Corby the son of Daniel and Elizabeth Corby was born October 2nd 1833 in Detroit Michigan. He was educated in local Detroit schools, until at the age of sixteen he joined his father’s real estate business. Corby started feeling a desire to go to college and recieving a calling to the priesthood was sent in 1853 to the University of Notre Dame in South Bend Indiana. By 1859 the then Father William Corby was the “Prefect of Discipline” at Notre Dame.

The Catholic Church had no official view on the Civil War. At Notre Dame there was a prohibition from discussion views of either the Union or Confederate cause. Father Corby in 1861 resigned his professorship at Notre Dame and joined the Chaplains’ Corp. He was assigned to the 88th New York’s famed Irish Brigade. He ministered to needs of Catholic soldiers three years, finding himself often under fire as he moved among the casualties and spent days in the field hospitals offering comfort and absolution.

On July 2nd 1863 the Irish Brigade was called to restore the line on the Wheat Field at Gettysburg. It was here that Father William Corby spoke to the men from a rock in the field, before they entered the battle, offering them absolution. He was said to have spoke to them about duties, telling the men that the Church would not offer a Christin burial to any who wavered on the field. The men were told to confess their sins correctly at their earliest opportunity. The Irish Brigade then went into battle, 198 of the men who had received Father Corby’s blessing would be dead by the end of the day. A bronze statue of Father Corby was dedicated on the Gettysburg battlefield October 29th 1910, the only such memorial to a chaplain.

Following the war Father Corby went back to Notre Dame, where he became Vice President, and a year latter the University President. In 1877 as President of the college he oversaw the rebuilding of the school after it was nearly destroyed by fire. In 1888 the Father was invited to the 25th reunion of the Irish Brigade at Gettysburg. The veterans of the 88th campaigned to have Father Corby awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. The medal was never granted.

On December 28th 1897 Father William Corby died of pneumonia. His casket was not carried as was the custom by fellow priest, but by Civil War veterans. His coffin draped in the flag of his regiment a rifle volley fired as he was lowered into the ground.

Gunboats Found Only Silent Guns

Confederate Brigadier General John Finegan’s battery was threatened on October 1st 1862 near Jacksonville, Florida on ST John’s Bluff.

To stop Union ships from moving up the ST Johns River, Confederate Brigadier General John Finegan placed a battery on the ST Johns Bluff near Jacksonville, Florida. Union Brigadier General John M Brannan, with about 1500 troops aboard 4 ships left from Hilton Head, South Carolina on September 30th 1862, and arrived at the mouth of the ST Johns the next day where they were joined by gunboats. In the early afternoon of October 1st 1862 Brannan began sending part of his troops ashore at Mayport Mills, and another force at Mount Pleasant Creek which was five miles behind the Confederate battery.

Finding themselves outmaneuvered the Confederates abandoned the position in the dark. When the Union gunboats arrived at the buffs on October 3rd 1862, they found the guns silent, and the Rebel gone.

The Loving Story

Oliver Loving, one of the great cattle men of Texas and a suplier of beef to the Confederacy, died on September 25th 1867.

Oliver Loving was born in Hopkins County Kentucky December 4th 1812 the son of Joseph and Susannah Mary (Bourland) Loving , he married in 1833 to Susan Doggett Morgan. He moved his family to Texas in 1843, where he farmed and worked at a teamster. By 1857 he was living in Palo Pinto County Texas and owned 1000 acres of land. Besides land he also had a large herd of cattle, which he quickly found were profitable if driven north. In 1860 Loving drove a herd of 1500 cattle north to Denver Colorado, where miners were in need of meat.

After selling the beef in Denver Loving was ready to return to Texas, however by that time the Civil War had started and he was detained by the Union Army. It was only through the efforts of Colonel Kit Carson and the wealthy Lucien Maxwell, that Loving was set free to return home. Upon getting back to Texas Loving contracted with the Confederate Army to supply them with beef for their troops. When the war ended Loving was still owed about two hundred thousand dollars, for diliverys to the Confederate Army.

After the war Loving met another Texas cattle rancher, Charles Goodnight. The two became close friends and business partners. Selling cattle to the US Army, their trail through New Mexico and Colorado became known as the Goodnight - Loving Trail. In 1867 on a drive north, Loving with a scout Bill Wilson, traveled ahead of the herd to secure government contracts. They ran into a party of Comanche Indians, and in the skirmish Loving was wounded. Loving sent Wilson back for help from Goodnight. Loving managed to evade the Indians for three day, before he flagged down a wagon and was taken into Fort Sumner New Mexico. Loving died from gangrene September 25th 1867. He got a promise from his friend Goodnight to take him back to Texas where he was buried in the Greenwood Cemetery in Weatherford Texas.

Some other interesting web sites about this subject
The Real Lonesome Dove

The Story of Oliver Loving and the Goodnight-Loving Trail

End Of The Sioux Uprising

The Battle of Wood Lake in Minnesota on September 23rd 1862 was the beginning of the end of the Minnesota Sioux uprising.

Colonel Henry Hastings Sibley set out on September 19th 1862 with about 1,400 volunteers; among them 300 members of the 3rd Minnesota who were on parole after being captured by the Confederates at Murfreesboro. They left from Fort Ridgely to put down the Santee Sioux who were raiding in Minnesota. The soliders were nearly ambushed by 700 Indians under Chief Little Crow on September 23rd 1862 as the force approached Wood Lake. Sibley’s men were saved from ambush by some of the soldiers from the 3rd Minnesota Regiment who were looking for food. The Sioux shot at them, they returned the fire, and the sound of battle brought the rest of Sibley’s troops into the fray. The fight went on for two hours. US forces inflicted heavy casualties on the Sioux, winning the day.

Sibley was promoted to Brigadier General for his actions during this command. The battle led to the release of white captives held by the Sioux, who had been taken during the Sioux uprising.

An Acoustical Shadow

The Confederate Army of the West found themselves in the Battle of Iuka on September 19th 1862.

Confederate Major General Sterling Price’s main column arrived in Iuka, Mississippi on September 14th 1862. He had been ordered by his commander General Braxton Bragg to keep the Union army in Mississippi from moving into Tennessee.

Union General William Rosecrans began his march to Iuka, Mississippi at 4:30 am on September 19th 1862. Price had planned to rendezvous with General Earl Van Dorn, but saw that he could not evacuate Iuka at that time. As Rosecrans’s men advanced they fought an action with the Confederates along the route. At about 4pm the Union column halted on the top of a hill, because the Confederates were in the ravine below which was filled with trees and underbrush. The Confederate troops embarked on an attack up the hill, where they took an Ohio battery. The fighting went on until dark. Although by all accounts the fighting was heated, an acoustical shadow kept all sound from the battle from being heard just two miles away where other Union troops were located. Rosecrans’ men camped behind the ridge and Price redeployed his troops across their front.

Following the 19th’s battle Price planned to reengage the enemy, but his subordinates convinced him to join his army up with Van Dorn. The Union army occupied Iuka, before making a pursuit on September 20th 1862. The Confederate rearguard and a heavily overgrown terrain prevented the chase from amounting to much. The Union saw casualties of about 800 killed, wounded or missing. The Confederate side saw about 1500 casualties from the battle.

The Newest Slave Act

The Fugitive Slave Act was passed by Congress September 18th 1850.

Passed by mostly southern congressmen as part of the Compromise of 1850, The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, was meant to deter slaves from escape and other American citizens from helping those escapees. The law stipulated that no American citizen could assist an escaped slave. More than this it stated that if an escaped slave was sighted he should be captured and turned over to the authorities for return to their rightful owner.

In 1842 the US Supreme Court ruled in Prigg vs. Pennsylvania that states; under current law, did not have to return runaway slaves. In order to pacify the south the law was tightened up in 1850. It included the rights of slave owners to organize posses to go anywhere in the United States to recapture escaped slaves. The act stated that any federal marshal who didn’t arrest an escaped slave could be fined $1,000. Should any one provide a runway with food or shelter or aid of any kind they could be jailed for up to six months and fined $1,000.

A Horse Shoe Caused The Explosion

On September 17th 1862 the Allegheny Arsenal, an important manufacturing and supply depot for the Union Army blew up.

At about 2pm on Wednesday September 17th 1862 the Allegheny Arsenal in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, which is located about 5 miles from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania exploded. Colonel John Symington the commander of the arsenal rushed from his quarters when he heard the sound of the explosion. As he approached the arsenal there were two more explosions. A volunteer fire company from Pittsburgh came to assisted in fighting the fire, using a bucket brigade of water to put out the flames.

By the times the flames were out, the Arsenal had been reduced to rubble. There were 78 deaths at the lab, all workers who were mostly women. Fifty-four of the bodies were never identified and were buried in a mass grave at the Allegheny Cemetery. The explosion is thought to have been caused when a metal horse shoe made a spark in the roadway near the arsenal and set off several barrels of gunpowder. A Coroner’s Jury held Colonel Symington responsible for the explosion, as he and his subordinate had allowed loose black powder to accumulate in the roadway and around the arsenal. The military inquiry into the explosion found Symington innocent of any wrong doing.

The explosion of the Allegheny Arsenal was superseded by the news of the Battle of Antietam which took place the same day in Sharpsburg Maryland.