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 , 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, , Tipperary and Waterford. Born in , 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.

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MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913)

Midleton is a small city in southeastern , 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 (later Sir Walter) lived near Midleton in nearby 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

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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 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 . 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, , 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. They were the workhorses of the Golden Age of Sail as they carried nearly as much as fully rigged ship but with smaller crews. In 1852, the ―Franklin King‖ was recorded as having carried passengers from Germany to New York City. Example of a mid-19th century bark

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MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913)

By 1855, the ―Franklin King‖ was carrying cotton to Europe and émigrés back to America ―on the Liverpool to New Orleans route.‖ She held about 350 passengers – a May 1856 report lists her has carrying 352 passengers. Not long after Michael‘s passage, Scottish immigrant Alexander Smith, wrote, ―I came from Liverpool in November 1855 -- no passport, no inspection of any kind [on] the good ship ‗Franklin King‘. [A] Cotton ship that took cotton to Liverpool and emigrants back. Saw negroes sold on block in New Orleans.‖ After Michael stepped off the ship, he probably found work immediately in the construction of the canals, levees, and docks which the city is still famous for. New Orleans was originally settled on natural levees or high ground along the Mississippi River. But as the city and population expanded, more and more land behind the levees was occupied. Since this land is located below sea level between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, man-made levees were built around it to keep the water out. In 1849, the city experienced the worst flooding in its history – save Hurricane Katrina in 2005 – when a levee was breached. This flood was known as Sauvé‘s Crevasse and left 12,000 people homeless. The need to build a larger and more improved protective system for the city took a new impetus over the next decade and the Irish émigrés arrived just in time to help. Canal Street in 1857 By 1840, New Orleans was the wealthiest and third-most populous city in the nation due to its role as a principal port during the antebellum era. It handled huge quantities of commodities for export from the interior and imported goods from other countries, which were warehoused and then transferred to smaller vessels and distributed the length and breadth of the vast Mississippi River watershed. The river in front of the city was filled with steamboats, flatboats, and sailing ships. Large numbers of German and Irish immigrants doubled the population of the city in the 1840s and 50s. The Mississippi was then – and still is – the major transportation artery and communications link in the Midwest, running from the timberlands of Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. Steamboat traffic began in 1811 and played a key role throughout the 19th century. 8

MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913)

A little more than five years after Michael‘s arrival, the ―Pelican State‖ of Louisiana seceded from the Union and joined the Confederate States of America (CSA) as its sixth member on 26 January 1861. Less than three months later, Confederate forces opened fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina on 12 April and the Civil War began. Michael was 22 years old. By the beginning of the Civil War, the Irish-born population in the Southern states was estimated to be between 85,000-175,000. The Encyclopedia of Louisiana states that: ―On the eve of the Civil War, New Orleans was a polyglot of Creoles, Anglo-Americans, free people of color (gens de couleur libres), slaves, and immigrants from all over the globe. In a population of 170,000 people, roughly 70,000 were immigrants, and foreign-born Irish and Germans alone made up a quarter of the population. While earlier Irish immigrants belonged to the urban professional class, the ‗famine Irish‘ of the late 1840s and 1850s—desperate and uneducated—served as an unskilled labor force on canals, levees, and docks…of the 20,000 troops who enlisted from New Orleans in the Confederate army and its environs, a third were of foreign birth.‖ A great number were Irish-born – more than half of the 6th Louisiana were Irish. Their brigade commander described them as, ―stout, hardy fellows, turbulent in camp and requiring a strong hand, but responding to kindness and justice, and ready to follow their officers to the death.‖ On his visit to New Orleans in May 1861, London Times correspondent William Howard Russell remarked, ―The streets are full of Turcos, Zoaves, Chasseurs; walls are covered with placards of volunteer companies; there are Pickwick rifles, La Fayette, Beauregard, MacMahon guards, Irish, German, Italian and Spanish and native volunteers.” Michael‘s obituary states that, ―He was in the southern states during the Civil War and enlisted in the Confederate army.‖ The lists 14 Michael Morrissey‘s as having served during the Civil War; ten with the Union and four with the Confederacy. The four Confederate Michael Morrissey‘s were members of: B Company, 13th Louisiana Regiment (B Company); A Company, 28th Tennessee Infantry Regiment (also known as the 2nd Tenn. Mountain Volunteers); and E and K Companies of the 10th Tenn. Infantry Regiment. 9

MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913)

Our Michael Morrissey was probably the one who served with the 13th Louisiana for two reasons: 1. He was already in New Orleans when the war broke out. Louisiana began organizing troops to defend the newly created Confederacy and the 13th Louisiana was formed in the city. Thomas Rodgers wrote that, ―In the 13th Louisiana Infantry Regiment, which also served with the Army of Tennessee, the predominant Irish companies were the Southern Celts (Co[mpany] A) from New Orleans, and the St. Mary Volunteers from St. Mary Parish. The whole regiment was about 25 percent Irish.‖ 2. The 10th and 28th Tenn. were organized in the Appalachian Mountains of east Tennessee. The men who came from this area were the descendants of the Scotch-Irish who had emigrated many years before during the Jacobite Risings between 1688 and 1746. The likelihood of a recent Irish immigrant who lived in Louisiana finding himself in the hills of Tennessee is slim to none. The arguments made in behalf of the Southern cause could be very compelling. After studying the correspondence of the Confederate Government, Historian Emory Thomas wrote that the Confederate States of America (CSA) had multiple self images: ―The Southern nation was by turns a guileless people attacked by a voracious neighbor, an 'established' nation in some temporary difficulty, a collection of bucolic aristocrats making a romantic stand against the banalities of industrial democracy, a cabal of commercial farmers seeking to make a pawn of King Cotton, an apotheosis of nineteenth-century nationalism and revolutionary liberalism, or the ultimate statement of social and economic reaction." Many Americans – on both sides of the issue – got caught up in the fevered pitch and the march to war. Southern Irish-Americans, including their Catholic bishops and priests, sympathized with the defense of the South against Northern aggression. ―The Bonnie Blue Flag‖ was written by Irish-American minstrel Harry McCarthy, later a held at Johnson‘s Island, Ohio. ―Dixie‖ was written by Irish-American 10

MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913) entertainer Daniel Decatur Emmett, born in Mount Vernon, Ohio. It has been estimated that between 40,000-60,000 Irish-Americans fought for the Confederacy. General Robert E. Lee said of the Irish soldier that he ‗fought with a chivalrous devotion to the cause he espouses‘. In fact, in a number of battles the American Irish fought each other face to face in the field. The 13th Louisiana Infantry, later also known as the ―Bloody 13th‖, was formed by combining six companies of the Governor Guards' Battalion ("Avegno's Zouaves") with four independent companies of volunteers. The 13th was organized at Camp Moore during August 1861 and mustered into Confederate service on 9 September. Two days later, Michael enlisted with the regiment at Camp Moore ―for the period of the war.‖ He was paid a bounty of $60 for his enlistement. Camp Moore was the largest Confederate training camp in Louisiana, about 78 miles north of New Orleans alongside the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad (currently the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad). At Camp Moore, companies were brought to full strength (a minimum of 64 privates and 8 NCO's would become the standard), the men elected their officers and then formed into groups of ten companies willing to serve together and thus became a Regiment. Groups forming into less than ten companies became Battalions. The men elected their own officers, both at the company level and the regimental level, thus there was much campaigning and politicking happening at Camp Moore. Once a regiment was formed and the Colonel, Lt. Colonel and Major elected, the men were all sworn into Unidentified Irish soldiers in Louisiana wearing gray State (of Louisiana) service. The “battle shirts” – a common item for volunteers at start of State then allowed the men to be war – and gray pants with dark stripes. They are holding dark blue forage caps (Chicago History Museum)

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MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913) mustered into Confederate service. Most regiments left Camp Moore for the "seat of war" within a couple of days after being mustered into Confederate service. While six regiments went to serve with the Army of Northern Virginia, eleven – including the 13th – served in the western campaigns. Letters from soldiers and visitors to the Camp describe it as being about one half mile above Tangipahoa Station and being bounded on the west by the railroad, on the south by Beaver Creek, and on the east by the Tangipahoa River. General Tracy's headquarters was near Beaver Creek. There was a large Commissary and Quartermaster stores house located along the railroad. There was a coffee house, a grocery, sutlers, soda and refreshment shops, various kinds of shanty restaurants, a butcher's shop and a

Lithograph by Adrian Persac, 1861 – only known image of Camp photographer's salon Moore during the war located along the western end of Beaver Creek. Just north of the creek was the main camping ground for companies of soldiers. The men cleared a large parade ground where they drilled and performed reviews for the generals just north of the main camp. Soon, a second camping site was laid out north of the Parade ground and this was unofficially known as Camp Tracy. There was also a burial ground at the northern edge of the Camp where soldiers were buried that died there of disease or accident. From Camp Moore, the regiment of 830 men was moved to Camp Chalmette, nearer New Orleans. Several months later, the regiment sailed

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MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913) upriver via steam-powered paddleboats. Rodgers continues their story: ―The 13th Louisiana arrived in Columbus, Kentucky, in November 1861 without uniforms; the troops were to have new uniforms sent to them from New Orleans, possibly light-colored kepis with darker trim and gray shell jackets with standing collars, shoulder straps, and a single row of brass front buttons. An early-war image of John W. Labouisse, an officer in Co A, shows a zouave-type gray jacket fastened by 11 small ball buttons, with light-colored trim on the pointed cuffs, rank bars sewn on the down-turned collar, and full-cut gray pants with a dark stripe. This uniform could have been inspired by the six- company Avegno Zouaves (or Battalion of Governor‘s Guards) that formed part of the 13th Louisiana; the Avegno Zouaves wore dark blue jackets and red pants. The 13th Louisiana carried Austrian and Enfield rifles.‖ Forty years after the war, a Lieutenant from the regiment, John McGrath of the Avegno Zouaves, wrote a series of articles for the New Orleans Picayune newspaper. In one, he mentions a ―Michael Morrisy‖ which may – or may not be – our Michael: “…above the hum of conversation and crying of women a bugle was heard sounding the assembly, followed by the short, sharp commands of „Fall in! Fall in!‟ With a great cheer the men fell into their respective places, were brought to „Attention.‟ „Take arms,‟ „Carry arms,‟ „Right face,‟ „Forward march,‟ quickly followed, the band struck up „The Girl I Left Behind Me,‟ and the regiment marched gayly to the river, followed by the multitude of civilians, men and women, waving handkerchiefs and wishing Godspeed to those about to enter actively upon a war of four years duration, and which left only poverty, desolation and misery in its wake. “Weep, mothers, weep; weep, heartbroken wife; weep, gentle sister, for you are perhaps parting forever from your loved ones. Were you gifted with prophetic vision whereby you could penetrate the dark war-clouds of the future, you might see 13

MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913)

many of the dear ones now marching so bravely and proudly aboard the majestic steamer, lying stark and cold in death, on bloody shot-torn fields, or dying in fever- infected hospitals, with nothing but strangers to wipe the death-damp from their brows, or to utter a prayer for their soul's repose. Soldiers, take a last lingering look at your Crescent City, while the mighty engines throb and pulsate, impatient of restraint, for the years will pass before those of you who survive the bloody conflict will tread its streets again. “‟I wish I had a gurl to cry for me; but the devil a wun cares whether I go or stay,‟ said a brawny young Irishman, as he looked on at the parting of other soldiers from those they held dearest in life. “„A gurl to cry for ye, do you? Maybe ye'd like to have a wife and two childer, like McMahon, over there, to be clinging to ye and begging ye not to lave 'em. Be me soul, I'm glad I've no wun. If I get kilt me people will never know what became of me, and the only monument I'll get will be an entry on the Company books – Killed in battle, Mike Morrisy – and that's not me thrue name, at that.‟” Arthur Bergeron continued their story in his book, ―Guide to Louisiana Confederate Military Units 1861-1865‖; ―From Columbus, the men went to Corinth, Mississippi. On April 6 and 7, 1862, the regiment fought in the battle of Shiloh and suffered severe casualties.‖ Interestingly, another member of the Mulholland-Langone family, Corporal Franklin Spencer Loomis (1844-1922), was serving with the 15th Illinois on the Union side and was wounded at the same battle. In fact, the two units, the 15th Illinois and the 13th Louisiana, were both involved in the same area of the battlefield later immortalized as the ―Hornet‘s Nest‖ – the two soldiers could very well have faced one another across the

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MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913) battle lines. In 1929, Michael‘s grand-nephew, Patrick Edward Mulholland (1902-1951), would marry Frank‘s grand-daughter, Pauline John Crandall (1909-1991), and the two veterans‘ families were linked forever. The two-day battle of Shiloh, the costliest in American history up to that time, resulted in the defeat of the Confederate army and allowed the joining of the two Union armies in Tennessee. Union casualties were 13,047 (1,754 killed, 8,408 wounded, and 2,885 missing); Confederate casualties were 10,699 (1,728 killed, 8,012 wounded, and 959 missing or captured). The dead included the Confederate army's commander, Albert Sidney Johnston. Both sides were shocked at the carnage. None suspected that three more years of such bloodshed remained in the war and that eight larger and bloodier battles were yet to come Following the battle, the Union armies advanced on the vital rail center of Corinth, Mississippi. It took them a month to travel the 22 miles between Shiloh and Corinth but they were cautious after their staggering losses at Shiloh and embarked on a tedious campaign of offensive entrenchment, stopping to fortify after each advance. The Confederates waiting in Corinth were well aware of Halleck's slow, but constant, advance. In May, a Confederate soldier wrote: ―I can sit now in my tent and hear the drums & voices in the enemy lines, which cannot be more than two miles distant. We have…killed and wounded every day…The Yanks are evidently making heavy preparation for the attack which cannot, I think, be postponed many days longer…Everything betokens an early engagement so make it be, for I am more than anxious that it shall come without further delay.‖

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MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913)

By 25 May 1862, the Union forces were entrenched on high ground within a few thousand yards of the Confederate fortifications. From that range, their guns shelled the Confederate defensive earthworks, and the supply base and railroad facilities in Corinth. The Southerners were outnumbered two to one. The water was bad and typhoid and dysentery felled thousands of men. At a council of war, the Confederate officers concluded that they could not hold the railroad crossover so General P.G.T. Beauregard evacuated his forces using a hoax. Some of the men were given three days' rations and ordered to prepare for an attack. As expected, one or two went over to the Union with that news. During the night of May 29, the Confederate army moved out using the Mobile & Ohio Railroad to carry the sick and wounded, the heavy artillery, and tons of supplies. When a train arrived, the troops cheered as though reinforcements were arriving. They set up dummy ("Quaker") guns along the defensive earthworks. Camp fires were kept burning, and buglers and drummers played. The rest of the men slipped away undetected. When Union patrols entered Corinth on the morning of May 30, they found the Confederates gone. Corinth, Mississippi, 1862 Most historians believe that the Union seizure of the strategic railroad crossover at Corinth led directly to the fall of Fort Pillow on the Mississippi, the loss of much of Middle and West Tennessee, the surrender of Memphis, and the opening of the lower Mississippi River to Federal

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MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913) gunboats as far south as Vicksburg. And no Confederate train ever again carried men and supplies from Chattanooga to Memphis. Continuing from Bergeron‘s book: ―The men participated in the Battle of Farmington, May 9, and received praise for an attack on the enemy. After the evacuation of Corinth, the regiment camped for a time at Tupelo.‖ However, Michael was unlucky and, according to military records, was taken prisoner near Corinth on 1 June 1862. He was then sent to Pittsburgh Landing, where the Union forces had come ashore near Shiloh along the west bank of the Tennessee River. The Battle of Shiloh is also referred to as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing. From there, Michael was sent to St. Louis, Missouri by riverboat, probably the Gratiot Street Prison in St. Louis, located on the northwest corner of Eighth and Gratiot. He was then transferred across the Mississippi River to the Alton Military Prison in Alton, Illinois. The Federal prison at Alton was one of the largest military prisons in the St. Louis area. Over 11,764 Confederate prisoners would pass through the gates of the prison which was housed in the abandoned Illinois State Penitentiary built in 1831. It was a long, low fortress that stood near the river, measuring nearly 100 yards on a side and its 30 foot high stone walls were broken only by occasional narrow, pane less windows. Initially the prison held 24 cells. Although torn down after the war, archaeologists have determined that the size of these cells was only 4 feet by 7-1/2 feet and reports indicate that three men were housed in each. An average of 1,261 prisoners were housed there in any given month. Conditions in the prison were harsh and the mortality rate was above average for a Union prison. Hot, humid summers and cold Midwestern winters took a heavy toll on prisoners already weakened by poor nourishment and inadequate clothing. The prison was overcrowded much of the time and sanitary facilities were inadequate. Pneumonia and dysentery were common killers but contagious diseases such as 17

MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913) smallpox and rubella were the most feared. Hunger, scurvy, and anemia were the lot of all the prisoners. However, Alton had no food shortage. The rich farmlands of surrounding regions had already made the city as important a produce and livestock center as St. Louis. A young officer from Kentucky, pleading for repatriation, wrote to a member of the Confederate Senate a impassioned account of his imprisonment: "I was captured on the 13th of July [1862, six weeks after Michael], heavily ironed with log chain and ball, transported to this prison, thrown into a cell 6x3 feet with my iron fetters on, kicked, cuffed, taunted, jeered and maltreated in every conceivable form. I remained the inmate of this living tomb until my life despaired of. I was then removed to the hospital where I have remained ever since, denied the privilege of a common culprit, denied a parole, denied to exchange; I have had to run the gauntlet of every disease which human flesh is heir to -- smallpox, measles, mumps, pneumonia; in a word, all the ills of Pandora. Oh! The horrors of this place, the cruelty of my persecutors, tongue cannot tell, neither hath it entered into the hearts of man to conceive. I have seen hundreds of my companions in arms consigned to a premature and untimely grave here by the cruelty and injustice of my enemies, murdered in cold blood in this laser house of disease and death." On July 25, 1862, not long after Michael‘s arrival in the prison, 35 civilian-clothed Confederate prisoners, led by Col. Ebenezer Magoffin, whose brother was governor of Kentucky, climbed out of a tunnel under the prison wall and scattered into the surrounding neighborhood. All but two of the escapees made it back to the South. Throughout 1861 and early 1862, opposing generals would occasionally meet and exchange prisoners. Eventually, the governments of the Union and the Confederacy agreed to a more formal system of exchanges and formed a commission in July 1862. On the 22nd, this commission came to an agreement whereby all prisoners were to be delivered in the East at Aiken's Landing on the James River and in the West at Vicksburg. The Confederacy was eager to escape the care of prisoners since they had difficulty feeding and housing them. Almost immediately, difficulties began to arise when President Jeff Davis of the CSA objected to recent orders given to Union forces that he perceived as allowing "the military authorities of the United States to take the private property of our people for the convenience and use of their armies without compensation." Luckily for Michael, the exchanges continued, and the prisons were practically empty for a time. By May of 1863, however, all prisoner exchanges 18

MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913) halted and prisoners remained behind bars until the end of the war. On 23 September 1863, Michael was taken out of Alton Prison and placed aboard another steamboat. He was shipped downriver to Vicksburg, Mississippi where he was exchanged for a Union soldier. He was then detached for a period of time due to sickness. But he was lucky. Shortly after his departure from Alton, a Confederate prisoner from Missouri was brought to the prison on 15 October 1862 with the dreaded disease of smallpox. A smallpox epidemic broke out in the prison and culminated in one of the worst such epidemics to ever to occur in southern Illinois. The disease raged for weeks uncontrolled for want of prison doctors and six to ten prisoners died daily. By the time the war ended between 1534 and 2218 inmates and some 287 civilians, Federal soldiers, and others died of the disease in Alton. During his sick leave, the 13th Louisiana participated in the invasion of Kentucky and the Battle of Perryville. When Michael finally returned to the unit, they were in winter quarters at Tullahoma in central Tennessee and undergoing a reorganization. Continuing from Bergeron‘s book: ―On November 30, 1862, General Braxton Bragg ordered the consolidation of the regiment into five companies. These companies joined five companies of the 20th Louisiana Regiment to form the ‗13th and 20th Louisiana Consolidated Regiment‘.‖ On 1 January 1863, Michael was paid the grand total of $22 for the period of November- December 1862. On 5 June 1863 he was admitted to St. Mary‘s Hospital in Dalton, Georgia and remained there until he returned to duty on 19 July. Dalton lies in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northwest Georgia and many Confederate soldiers were admitted at one time or Scene from a Confederate hospital another to St. Mary‘s during the war. The US government recently declared Dalton and Whitfield County to have more intact Civil War artifacts than any other place in the country.

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MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913)

Before he left the hospital, he was issued a set of replacement clothing for the third quarter of 1863. He signed for his clothing with an ―X‖. After rejoining the 13th/20th Louisiana, he was thrown in to the fray of the Battle of Chickamauga, 19-20 September, near the juncture of the states of Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia. The goal of both armies was to control Chattanooga, Tennessee, known as the ―Gateway to the Deep South.‖ The battle was the most significant Union defeat in the Western Theater and involved the second highest number of casualties in the war following the Battle of Gettysburg. It was named for West Chickamauga Creek, which meanders near the battle area in northwest Georgia and ultimately flows into the Tennessee River about 3.5 miles northeast of downtown Chattanooga. Initially victorious, the Confederates eventually lost control of the city a few months later in November. During the battle, the 13th/20th Louisiana lost more than forty percent of its 289 soldiers – by December, it could only muster 191 men and 71 arms. Michael was recorded as having been issued another set of clothing on 21 September, the day after the battle was over, again signing with an ―X‖. Michael‘s service record states that he was absent from the unit between January and August of 1864 although he was noted as having been ―detached Provost Guard Atlanta‖ on 1 June 1864 ―with Capt. Charles W. Peden [by] Order of General Braxton Bragg.‖ He was later noted as having received a clothing for the second quarter of 1864 as a ―Train

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MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913)

Guard on the Westpoint Railroad‖ for the period of 1 November 1864 to 28 February 1865. The Montgomery and West Point Railroad (M&WP) was an early 19th century railroad in Alabama and Georgia. It played an important role during the war as a supply and transportation route for the Confederate Army, and, as such, was the target of a large raid by Union cavalry in the summer of 1864 – which is why Michael found himself guarding it during the fall and winter of 1864-65. During the July 1864 raid, 2,500 Union cavalry troops managed to take or burn a large number of supplies and destroy 30 miles of track as well as burning railroad stations and warehouses at West Point and Montgomery. Bergeron continued with the 13th/20th Louisiana history: ―In February, 1865, this consolidated regiment was broken up. The remnants of the 13th Louisiana Regiment were then merged with the 4th and 30th Louisiana regiments and the 14th Louisiana Battalion Sharpshooters. This new unit fought in the Siege of Spanish Fort east of Mobile, Alabama, March 27-April 8, 1865. After the evacuation of Mobile, the men of the 13th Louisiana were placed in a new consolidated unit called the Chalmette Regiment, which surrendered at Gainesville on May 8, 1865. One source says the 13th Louisiana had only 22 men remaining on duty at the surrender." The National Park Service notes on their website that: ―The regiment fought with the army from Murfreesboro to Atlanta, endured Hood's winter campaign in Tennessee, and ended the war defending Mobile… The 13th contained 77 effectives in November, 1864, and surrendered with the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana.‖ At some point before the war was ended, Michael‘s service record notes that he was ―Absent – Post Duty (disabled – date unknown)‖. On 12 April 1865, General Robert E. Lee, general-in- chief of the Confederate forces, surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court

House in Virginia and the war was officially over. ―When peace was declared,‖ stated the "The Irish Standard" in 1913, Michael ―came north, settling in Iowa, where he purchased a large tract of land, and was married in Churchville, that state, about 40 years ago [1873] to Miss Mary Ryan.‖ Mary was about 15 years younger than he, having been born in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1854.

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MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913)

Churchville was established by John Churchman in 1854 and is really nothing more than a road intersection with a few homes in Warren County, about 12 miles south-southwest of Des Moines. The Church of the Assumption, the oldest in the county, was constructed in 1859 and destroyed by a fire in 1933. Michael was listed in the 1879 Directory of Warren County as a ―farmer‖ living on ―Sec. 8; P.O. Lothrop‖ in Jefferson Township. He and his family were also listed in the 1885 Iowa State Census. During their marriage, Michael and Mary had eleven children: James (1876-1904), Margaret (1878-1949), Roger Fredrick (1879-1972), John (1881-1897), Michael Jr. (1882-1951), Patrick Edmund (1884-1964), Thomas Matthew (1886- 1946), Edward Joseph (1888-1976), Katheryne (1891-1982), Honora ―Nora‖ (1892-1993), and Mary Alice (1895-1975). About 1898, Michael and Mary had a falling out and separated after 22 years of marriage. According to family members, they were never legally divorced and she went back to using her maiden name, Ryan. The 1900 US Census, however, lists them both as ―divorced‖ and her as ―Mary Morrissey‖. Their relationship may have suffered with the death of their 15 year old son, James, on 25 April 1897 when he drowned trying to save one of his brothers who had fallen out of a Michael‟s son, Patrick Edmund Morrissey (1884-1964), photo about 1900-1910 boat. The ―Winterset Madisonian‖ newspaper of

27 April described the event: ―Drowning Near Bevington – Our Crawford township correspondent sends us an account of the drowning of a young man by the name of Morrissey, about seventeen years of age, about two miles east of Bevington last Sunday. Morrissey, along with some other boys, went in a boat into a slough that was filled with back water from Middle River. Someone rocked the boat in order to frighten one of the party, when Morrissey fell out and was drowned before help could reach him, though his companions are said to have made every effort in their power to save him. Deceased was a son of Michael Morrissey. The funeral 22

MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913) takes place today, the burial being the Churchville cemetery. Another account, purporting to come from one who assisted in recovering and caring for the body, says that the rocking of the boat was done to frighten a boy named Nugent, who was in the boat, making a feint of ‗ducking‘ him in the water. One Morrissey boy fell out, and his brother jumped in to try to save him. The first one to fall was rescued, but the brother who went to his relief was drowned." On 28 February 1898, Mary purchased the Stemom farm in Union Township, Madison County, Iowa about ten miles west of Churchville and moved off of the family farm. Madison County is famous for its covered bridges which were featured in a book and a movie, ―The Bridges of Madison County.‖ The county is also famous for being the birthplace of actor John Wayne. The children were divided between the parents. In 1900, Michael has his daughter Margaret (age 22) and sons Thomas (14) and Edward (12) living with him while Mary has Roger (21), Michael ―Mike‖ (18), Patrick (16), Catherine (9), Honora ―Nora‖ (8), and Alice (5) with her. Their oldest son, James (24), had probably moved to Arizona for medical reasons (tuberculosis?) He is recorded as having married a Teresa Murray in Phoenix and having a baby girl, Marie, in 1903. It is not surprising that their son, Roger, decided to live with his mother. According to family stories, Michael was an ―old country Irishman‖ who believed in the old wives‘ tale that left-handedness was a sign of mental retardation – and Roger was left-handed. Michael ―worked him to death‖ as a youngster and beat him mercilessly after which Roger would run away to the home of his grandfather Ryan. 23

MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913)

Roger‘s daughter, Mary, ―had several stories that she had collected from some of the relatives, but some of them would never talk about certain things.‖ Mary Ryan/Morrissey lived on her farm until her death on 28 August 1904 at the young age of 50. Earlier that same year, she had buried her oldest son, James, who had died of tuberculosis in Globe, Arizona on 4 January at the age of 27. From the newspaper ―Winterset Reporter‖ of 14 January 1904: ―The sad news came last week that James Morrissey, son of Mrs. Morrissey, of this township, had died in Arizona and [his brother] Roger left immediately to bring the body back for burial. They are expected to arrive today. The body will be taken off the train at Churchville where the funeral will be held. The family has the sympathy of the entire community." From the newspaper ―Madisonian‖ of 14 January 1904: ―Jas. Morrisey, formerly of Union township, died at Globe, Arizona on January 4th. The remains were brought home and interred in the Churchville cemetery yesterday. Mrs. Morrisey, her mother, Mrs. Murray, and a brother, Michael Morrisey, of Dawson, Alaska, were in attendance at the funeral." After her death, Mary Ryan was buried with her parents in St. Patrick's Cemetery north of Bevington, mid-way between Union and Churchville. The ―Winterset Reporter‖ of 1 September 1904 carried her obituary: ―Mrs. Morrissey, an aged lady of this neighborhood died Saturday night after a lingering illness. She was brought home some two or three weeks ago from Mercy Hospital with little hopes of recovery. The funeral was held from St. Patrick's church Tuesday.‖ Sometime after 1900, Michael moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota and officially retired from farming. His new home at 1507 Adams Street was just a few doors down from his sister, Catherine O‘Brien, at 1118 Adams. His oldest sister‘s daughter, Katy (Welch), had lived several blocks away at 716 Adams Street with her husband, Daniel Mulholland, and their first three children during the 1890s. By 1900, Katy and Dan were living in a new home across the Mississippi River and Michael‘s oldest sister, Nora, whose husband, Michael Welch (b.1810) died on 6 February 1900, Nora

Honora Morrissey Welch 24

MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913) moved off the farm and in with her daughter‘s family. On 3 February 1913, Michael passed away at the age of 74, the last family member of his generation; his sisters, Catherine O‘Brien and Nora Welch, had died in 1906 and 1909, respectively. Two days later, he was buried in the cemetery of St. Joseph‘s Catholic Church in Prescott, Wisconsin in his brother-in-law‘s family plot, the O‘Brien‘s. John O‘Brien (1816-1889) had been the editor of ―The Irish Standard‖, the Catherine Morrissey O‟Brien first Catholic newspaper in Minnesota. An obituary in "The Irish Standard", of Saturday, February 8, 1913, on page 5 stated that: "Death of Michael Morrissey - 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 St. Joseph‟s Catholic Church, Prescott, Wisconsin [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. When peace was declared he came north, settling in Iowa, where he purchased a large tract of land, and was married in Churchville, that state, about 40 years ago to Miss Mary Ryan. His wife died some eight years since. Eight children survive him, namely: Margaret, Roger, Michael, Patrick, Thomas and Edward Morrissey and Mrs. Catherine Zethmaier, Nora and Alice Morrissey. On Wednesday morning his remains were conveyed over the Burlington road to Prescott, Wis., the funeral services being conducted by Rev. Father Baur in St. Joseph's church, internment following thereafter in St. Joseph's cemetery, that city. Of his brothers and sisters none are now living. He was the last of his generation. May his soul rest in peace." References 25

MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913)

1. Notes about research on the Morrissey family during the 1950s by Leo William Cavanaugh 2. E-mails from Pat Hochstetler, great-granddaughter-in-law of Michael Morrissey, February 2012 3. Christine Kinealy, ―This Great Calamity” (Gill & Macmillan, 1994) 4. Stories about the emigrations of the 1840's/50's [ist.uwaterloo.ca/~marj/genealogy/thevoyage.html] 5. Robert Whyte, ―The Ocean Plague: The Diary of a Cabin Passenger‖ (1848) [www.aepizeta.org/~codine/famine/diary1.html] 6. ―Famine, A Postcolonial Study of Tom Murphy's Play‖ [www4.cord.edu/projects/murphy/Famine/RelatedTopics/Coffin%20Ships.htm] 7. Steve McKinley, ―Out of Ireland‖ (Saint John Times Globe; 9 Jun-25 Jul 1997) [personal.nbnet.nb.ca/rmcusack/Story-32.html] 8. ―The History Place; Irish Potato Famine and Coffin Ships‖ [www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/coffin.htm] 9. Mark Roth, ―Slave ships were death ships for crew and captives‖ (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; 1 Oct 2007) [www.post-gazette.com/pg/07274/821986-85.stm] 10. Thomaston Historical Society [http://www.thomastonhistoricalsociety.com/ShipBuilding.html] 11. Liverpool Connections [http://liverpolitan.im/main/ships/ships_f.htm] 12. Thurston County Historical Association, a note by Henry Alexander [http://content.statelib.wa.gov/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/pioneers&CISOPTR=2 69&CISOBOX=1&REC=3] 13. Dennis Keating, ―The Irish In the Civil War‖ (The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable; 2008) [http://clevelandcivilwarroundtable.com/articles/society/irish.htm 14. Seamus P. Metress, Ph.D, ―The American Irish and the ‖ (Paper delivered to the Toledo Civil War Roundtable; October 9, 2003) [www.irishfreedom.net/Fenian%20graves/Reference%20Material/IA%20in%20Civil%20Wa r.htm] 15. Thomas Rodgers and Richard Hook (illustrator), ―Irish-American Units in the Civil War‖ (Osprey Publishing, Oxford, England; August 19, 2008) 16. National Park Service list of Civil War soldiers [www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/soldiers.cfm] 26

MICHAEL MORRISSEY (1838-1913)

17. ―Siege of Corinth‖ [www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/113corinth/113facts1.htm] 18. Corinth Historical Website [www.corinthcivilwar.com/history.htm] 19. ―Alton in the Civil War‖ [www.altonweb.com/history/civilwar/confed] 20. ―Alton Civil War Prison‖ [www.censusdiggins.com/prison_alton.html] 21. Wheeler Family Pages, ―Infamous Alton Military Prison‖, [ www.wheeler- roots.org/showmedia.php?medaID=31] 22. ―The Battle of Chickamauga: An Alabama Infantry Regiment's Perspective‖ [www.19thalabama.org/battles/chickamauga/index.html] 23. Richard A. Byrd, ―The Battle of Chickamauga‖ [www.militaryhistoryonline.com/civilwar/chickamauga/default.aspx] 24. Randy Golden and Col. Samuel Taylor, ―Chickamauga - An Introduction‖ [http://ourgeorgiahistory.com/wars/Civil_War/Chickamauga/index.html] 25. ―The Battle of Chickamauga, September 18-20, 1863 in Chickamauga, Georgia‖ [www.civilwar.n2genealogy.com/battles/630918.html] 26. Iowa Census finder [www.censusfinder.com/iowa.htm] 27. 1879 Directory of Warren County, Iowa [iagenweb.org/warren/directories/1879- history/1879index_lz.html] 28. Michael Morrissey‘s obituary; "The Irish Standard", Saturday, February 8, 1913, page 5 29. 1885 Iowa State Census, Warren County [iagenweb.org/warren/census/alpha1885index/m_1885index.html]

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