Father William Corby

Located on Hancock Avenue north of the Weickert Farm see map >

From the monument: "To the memory of Rev. Father William Corby, C.S.C. Chaplain 88th Regiment New York Infantry, 2nd Brigade 1st Division 2nd Corps, The Irish Brigade, July 2nd 1863."

From the marker: "Reverend William E. Corby, C.S.C. Congregation of Holy Cross. This memorial depicts Father Corby, a Chaplain of the Irish Brigade, giving general absolution and blessing before battle at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863. President, University of Notre Dame 1866-72 1877-81."

The statue was dedicated on October 29, 1910; a copy stands outside Corby Hall at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.

William E. Corby was born in Detroit on October 2, 1833, and attended Notre Dame, entering the novitiate in 1856 and taking his final vows in 1859.

With the coming of war in 1861 Notre Dame sent a number of priests to serve as chaplains with Union regiments. Father Corby left his professorship to become the first of these, assigned to the 88th New York in Brigadier General Thomas Meagher's legendary irish Brigade.

Although Father Corby accompanied his men on many battlefields, giving comfort to the wounded and absolution to the dying, perhaps his greatest moment came at Gettysburg. Little more than 500 men remained of the original 3,000 veterans of the brigade, but they were to be sent to the rescue of the crumbling Union flank in a vicious maelstrom that would become known to history as The Wheatfield.

Father Corby donned his stole and mounted a large rock as the men of the brigade knelt, Catholic and Protestant alike. He offered absolution to the whole brigade, reminding them of their duties and warning them not to waver and to uphold the flag. Their attack bought precious time for the Union defenses but cost them dearly, with over one third of the brigade becoming casualties.

After the war Father Corby became Vice President of Notre Dame, then after a five year term at Sacred Heart College in Wisconsin, returned to Notre Dame as President. He later became Provincial General and then Assistant General of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, as well as serving in several other posts.

In 1893 his veterans nominated Corby for the Medal of Honor, noting that "no spot was too dangerous or too much exposed to the fire of the enemy." Although he never received the medal, the veterans of the brigade presented him with a chalice that he would always cherish.

Father Corby died in 1897. In an unusual ceremony for a priest of the Holy Cross, his flag-draped casket was borne by civil war comrades and a rifle volley was fired as it was lowered into his grave.

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