In this follow-up volume to For Church and Confederacy: The Lynches of South Carolina, Robert Emmett Curran extends his corpus of work on the history of Catholicism in the South through the eyes of the Lynch family of South Carolina. An Irish American family who sympathized with the Confederacy, the Lynches rose to prominence economically and in religious leadership during the late 1800s. Currans latest volume features a collection of personal correspondence from Lynch family members, telling the story of a family struggling to recover from the physical, financial, and emotional wreckage that the Civil War had left, while coping with the new order Reconstruction imposed upon the South.
With thirty-one chronological chapters spanning 1866 to 1882, this book of firsthand accounts fills a void in literature that treats the challenges and realities facing Irish Americans in the postCivil War South. Each chapter begins with an orienting and engaging introduction, and a helpful family genealogy provides valuable context for readers. Offering a unique perspective on the Reconstruction, Redemption, and Gilded Age eras, The Lynch Family of South Carolina is an insightful and engaging resource for scholars of the postCivil War era as well as those with an interest in Southern and religious history.