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Private MICHAEL MORRISSEY C.S.A. (1838-1913) Battleflag carried by the 13th Louisiana Infantry Regiment By Chris Mulholland Revised 27 February 2012 MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913) The ―Irish Standard‖ of Minneapolis, Minnesota carried the following intriguing obituary on Saturday, 8 February 1913: ―Michael Morrissey, a resident of Minneapolis for the past fifteen years, died at the home of Edward O'Brien, 1507 Adams street northeast, Monday morning, February 3rd, after a long illness. Deceased was born near Middleton [sic], County Cork, Ireland, in September, 1838, and came to America in 1855. He was in the southern states during the Civil War and enlisted in the Confederate army." Michael Morrissey is the only member of the Mulholland-Langone family who is known to have County Cork Coat of Arms served with the Confederate Army during the Civil War of 1861-1865. The name Morrissey may be an anglicized version of the Irish name O'Muirgheasa. Other variants are Morris, Morrison and various spellings of Morrissey. It may also be an anglicized version of MacMuirgheasa or deMarisco (the Norman version). The name Morrissey is common in the Province of Munster, one of the four ancient Kingdoms of Ireland. The province‘s name comes from Mumba and it contains the Counties of Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford. Born in Midleton, Ireland on 3 October 1838, Michael was the sixth child (and fourth son) of James Morrissey and Margaret Colens (Collins). His siblings were Honora ―Nora‖ (1821-1909), Patrick, John, Catherine (1830-1906), and Roger. Honora was born in Ballyhimikin, a small village 6 miles southeast of Midleton. 3 MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913) Midleton is a small city in southeastern County Cork, just 10 miles east of the port of Cork itself. In the 1180s advancing Normans led by Barry Fitz Gerald established an abbey at a weir (a small overflow dam) on the river to be populated by Cistercian Monks from Burgundy. The abbey became known as ―Chore Abbey‖ and ―Castrum Chor‖, taking its name from the Irish word ‗cora‟ (weir), although some say that ―Chor‖ comes from ―Choir‖ or ―Choral‖. The abbey is commemorated in the Irish name for Midleton, ‗Mainistir na Corann‟, or ―Monastery at the Weir‖, and of the local river Owenacurra or ‗Abhainn na Cora‟ meaning "River of the Weirs". St John the Baptist's Church, belonging to the Church of Ireland was erected in 1825 on the site of the abbey. Captain Walter Raleigh (later Sir Walter) lived near Midleton in nearby Youghal between 1585 and 1602. His presence came about due to a distribution of land as a reward for helping suppress the Second Desmond Rebellion of 1579-1583. Raleigh is credited with planting the first potatoes in Europe, also at Youghal. The town gained the name Midleton or ―Middle Town‖ as the main midway town between Cork and Youghal. It was incorporated as a market town and postal depot in 1670, receiving its charter from Charles II, as the ―borough and town of Midleton‖. The town is the site of Cork Distilleries, formed in 1825, merged into Irish Distillers in 1967, and currently owned by French spirits group Pernod Ricard. The Old Midleton Distillery boasts the world‘s largest pot still – a copper vessel with a capacity of 140,000 liters – which has been restored as a visitor-center and 4 MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913) hosts a number of attractions, including Ireland‘s largest working water-wheel (7m diameter). Paddy Whiskey, produced in the town, takes its name from Patrick J Flaherty, a salesman for Cork Distilleries in the 1920s. World-famous Jameson Whiskey is produced in Midleton. County Cork, on the south coast of Ireland, is the island‘s largest county by area and has the second longest coastline (1,094 km). It has both mountainous and flat landscapes with many beaches and sea cliffs along the coast. Cork is colloquially referred to as "The Rebel County". This name has 15th century origins, however since the 20th century the name has been more commonly attributed to the prominent role Cork played during the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921). Much of what is now county Cork was once part of the Kingdom of ‗Deas Mumhan‘ (South Munster), anglicized as ―Desmon‘, ruled by the MacCarthy Mor dynasty. Dunlough Castle, standing just north of Mizen Head, is one of the oldest castles in Ireland (A.D. 1207). In 1491 Cork played a part in the English War of the Roses when a pretender to the English throne, landed in the city and tried to recruit support for a plot to overthrow Henry VII of England. In 1601 the decisive Battle of Kinsale took place in County Cork, which was to lead to English domination of Ireland for centuries. Kinsale had been the scene of a landing of Spanish troops to help Irish rebels in the Nine Years War (1594–1603). When this force was defeated, the rebel hopes for victory in the war were all but ended. One of the biggest attractions in Cork is Blarney Castle with its famed Blarney Stone. In 1847, Michael‘s sister, Catherine (1831-1906), left Ireland for the US. She was followed two years later by their older sister, Honora (1821-1909), who married a Michael Welch (1810-1900) before leaving. There were probably other family members as well who fled Ireland in order to escape the crushing poverty, forcible evictions, starvation, and harsh living conditions which followed the potato famine of 1845-51. It appears that Michael remained behind and took a later ship because his 5 MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913) sisters landed in New York and he arrived in New Orleans on 4 June 1855. His brother Patrick never left Ireland. When the potato blight first hit the Irish crops in 1845, Catholics made up 80 percent of the population of Ireland, the bulk of whom lived in conditions of poverty and insecurity. In February 1845, the Earl of Devon reported that, "It would be impossible adequately to describe the privations which they [Irish laborer and his family] habitually and silently endure... in many districts their only food is the potato, their only beverage water... their cabins are seldom a protection against the weather... a bed or a blanket is a rare luxury... and nearly in all their pig and a manure heap constitute their only property." Later that year, a widespread blight hit the potato crop and, within the following five years, the population of Ireland fell from seven million to an estimated three million through starvation, sickness, and emigration. Cecil Woodham-Smith, an authority on the Irish Famine, wrote in ―The Great Hunger; Ireland 1845–1849” that no issue has provoked so much anger and embittered relations between England and Ireland as, "the indisputable fact that huge quantities of food were exported from Ireland to England throughout the period when the people of Ireland were dying of starvation." In fact, Ireland remained a net exporter of food throughout most of the five-year famine. John Mitchel, one of the leaders of the Young Ireland Movement, wrote in 1860, ―I have called it an artificial famine: that is to say, it was a famine which desolated a rich and fertile island that produced every year abundance and superabundance to sustain all her people and many more. The English, indeed, call the famine a 'dispensation of Providence;' and ascribe it entirely to the blight on potatoes. But potatoes failed in like manner all over Europe; yet there was no famine save in Ireland. The British account of the matter, then, is first, a fraud; second, a blasphemy. The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the Famine.‖ The harsh measures undertaken by the British government during the famine such as evictions, confiscations, jailings, and forced commitments into ―work-houses‖ – where a man 6 MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913) went in, and a pauper came out – fell largely on the Catholic population. It was the result of these conditions that drove the Morrissey‘s to try their luck elsewhere and embark aboard one of the hundreds of sailing vessels headed for North America. During a single decade (1845-55) approximately 1.5 million Irish, mostly Catholic, came to the United States. By 1850, Irish refugees made up a quarter of the population in the major east coast cities of Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore. According to the obituary of Michael‘s younger sister, Catherine, she first lived in Massachusetts – possibly near Springfield, then successively in Corning, New York; Chicago, Illinois, and finally Prescott, Wisconsin. Her obituary notes that she came to the US when she was 16. Their older sister, Honora ‗Nora‘ Welch, first moved to New York City, then Tarrytown, New York; Amherst, Massachusetts (not far from Springfield); Chicago, Illinois; Prescott, Wisconsin; and stopped in Ellsworth, just 15 miles east of Prescott. According to research conducted by one of Michael‘s granddaughters-in-law, he arrived aboard the ―Franklin King at the age of 16 on June 4, 1855…listed on the ships register as passenger #38. The list is signed off by the master of the Steam ship Lahowlea at the Port of Havana, Cuba in June 1855 by what appears to be the signature of a R.W. Shiefeld.‖ The ―Franklin King‖ was a sailing-vessel, probably a barque (bark), built in Thomaston, Maine during the early part of the nineteenth century. In the 1840 US Census, Thomaston boasted three of the seven millionaires in the country, all of whom were both sea captains and boat builders. A barque (bark) is a sailing-ship with at least three masts and a broad-stern that carries no ornamental figure on the stem or prow.