David Power Conyngham (1825–1883) was a journalist, war correspondent, and novelist. His writing can generally be classified as either Irish historical fiction or works about the American Civil War.

Life

Conyngham was born about 1825 near

Killenaule Killenaule () is a small town and civil parish in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is part of the ecclesiastical parish of Killenaule and Moyglass, in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, and the barony of Slievardagh. It is east o ...

County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. The county is named afte ...

to well-to-do farmers John and Catherine Power Cunningham. He was a cousin of novelist

Charles Kickham Charles Joseph Kickham (9 May 1828 – 22 August 1882) was an Irish revolutionary, novelist, poet, journalist and one of the most prominent members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Early life Charles Kickham was born at Mullinahone, County ...

on his mother's side. He was a member of

Young Ireland Young Ireland ( ga, Éire Óg, ) was a political and cultural movement in the 1840s committed to an all-Ireland struggle for independence and democratic reform. Grouped around the Dublin weekly ''The Nation'', it took issue with the compromise ...

and after the Famine rebellion of 1848 he drops out of sight for a time. It is not clear whether he went to America. However, after a few years he was contributing articles to the ''Tipperary Free Press''.Fitzgerald, Michael. "From Ballingarry to Fredericksburg", Slieveardagh Cultural & Enterprise Centre
/ref> He arrived in the United States in April 1861 and joined the staff of the ''

New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the ''New York Herald Tribune''. Hist ...

'', and was a war correspondent with the Irish Brigade. By then he spelled his name "Conyngham". He returned to Ireland in December and married Anne Corcoran. By March 1863, he was back in the United States and a captain, serving as an aide-de-camp to fellow Young Irelander General

Thomas Francis Meagher Thomas Francis Meagher (; 3 August 18231 July 1867) was an Irish nationalist and leader of the Young Irelanders in the Rebellion of 1848. After being convicted of sedition, he was first sentenced to death, but received transportation for life ...

at Chancellorsville. He continued to file reports with the ''Herald''. His brother William served in the Confederacy. Conyngham was wounded in the

Battle of Resaca The Battle of Resaca, from May 13 to 15, 1864, formed part of the Atlanta Campaign during the American Civil War, when a Union force under William Tecumseh Sherman engaged the Confederate Army of Tennessee led by Joseph E. Johnston. The batt ...

and mentioned in dispatches for bravery. After the war, he became editor of the ''New York Tablet''. He died of pneumonia at his home on Vandam Street in Manhattan on April 1, 1883 and is buried in

Calvary Cemetery (Queens) Calvary Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery in Maspeth and Woodside, Queens, in New York City, New York, United States. With about three million burials, it has the largest number of interments of any cemetery in the United States. Established ...

Works

Conyngham's historical novels fed the growing Irish nationalism of the late 19th century."David Power Conyngham", Ricorso
/ref> * ''Sherman’s March through the South'' (1865) * ''The Irish Brigade and Its Campaigns'' (1867) * '' Sarsfield'' (1871) * ''The O'Mahony, Chief of the Comeraghs'' (1879) * ''Ireland past and present'' (1883)

''The Lives of the Irish Saints and Martyrs''

''The Lives of the Irish Saints and Martyrs'' was published in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

in 1870. It contains the lives of a number of Irish

saints In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Orth ...

, including Abban of Kill-Abban. Coningham's early sources include the ''

Martyrology of Tallaght The ''Martyrology of Tallaght'', which is closely related to the '' Félire Óengusso'' or ''Martyrology of Óengus the Culdee'', is an eighth- or ninth-century martyrology, a list of saints and their feast days assembled by Máel Ruain and/o ...

'' and the ''Martyrology of Gorman''.

''Soldiers of the Cross''

''Soldiers of the Cross'' is an account of chaplains and women religious who served as nurses during the American Civil War. As Conyngham tried to collect the histories of the sisters who served during the Civil War, more than one community declined to cooperate out of a sense of humility. Conyngham died before publishing ''Soldiers of the Cross''. A relative gave the manuscript to the University of Notre Dame, where it lay undiscovered in the archives for over 100 years. Newly edited, it was published in 2019.Shepherd, William John. "Review of 'Soldiers of the Cross, The Authoritative Text: The Heroism of Catholic Chaplains and Sisters in the American Civil War'", by David Power Conyngham. ''American Catholic Studies''
vol. 131 no. 1, 2020, p. 84-86. Project MUSE,

References

Sources

Holweck, F. G. Frederick George Holweck (born Friedrich Georg Holweck; 29 December 1856 – 15 February 1927) was a German-American Catholic parish priest and scholar, hagiographer and church historian. Monsignor Holweck contributed some articles to the ''Catho ...