Joseph D. Bishop Collection

Collection

Identifier: MS-071

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection includes Joseph Bishop's correspondence with his wife at home in Danbury (with a small number of letters from his wife) during his service in the Civil War. Bishop's regiment was assigned to Bank's Army of the Gulf, or 19th Corps. The letters cover from the fall of 1862 until the fall of 1863. All the letters are housed with their transcriptions. Included in the collection are peripheral materials related to Bishop's service compiled by his descendents. Some of these peripheral documents are original, others are facsimiles presumably printed from microfilm by Bishop's great grandson, Walter Reid Brockway. After Bishop's death, Sarah Bishop pursued securing her widow's pension and some of those materials are also present in the series, Related Materials. Also in Related Materials are photographic portraits of Sarah and Joseph Bishop. Of particular interest is Bishop's notebook containing music and a list of the other musicians presumably from the 23rd.

There are two publications of the letters, the most recent being: Noble Sentiments of the Soul: The Civil War Letters of Joseph Dobbs Bishop, Chief Musician, 23rd Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, 1862-1863 - It is available for reference in the CT Room.

Dates

Creation: 1862-2021

Creator

Bishop, Joseph D., 1825-1863 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Open to researchers without restriction. Materials may be offensive to some researchers.

Conditions Governing Use

Commercial use of the materials is through written permission of the WCSU Archives. Non-commercial use must clearly cite the materials used.

Biographical / Historical

Joseph Dobbs Bishop was born in Danbury, one of the 13 children of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Dobbs Bishop. His grandfather was Captain William Dobbs who served in the Revolutionary War. He worked as a painter in Danbury and lived with his wife Sarah and 4 children (one child had died in 1859) on Foster Street. Joseph Bishop enlisted for nine-months' service in late 1862 at the age of 37. He was assigned to Company B of 23rd Connecticut which became part of General Banks' Louisianan operations in cooperation with General Grant's investment and capture of Vicksburg to the north. Through the term of his enlistment, Bishop corresponded with his wife frequently and was quite frank regarding his regret over their separation and his physical desires for her. Bishop was the chief musician/drummer and endured the boredom and homesickness of his assignment together with the dangers it entailed. Through his letters, he has chronicled in some detail his geographic and social surroundings and he sheds some insight on the struggles his wife was enduring at home (i.e. his negative reaction to her taking on a male boarder). He, like many of his comrades, was not an abolitionist and he freely expressed views opposing the Emancipation Proclamation. There are instances where Bishop uses racial epithets to refer to enslaved persons. Apparently, based on Bishop's side of the correspondence, Sarah did not share the same opinion on emancipation.

Bishop was a witness to many of the peripheral operations (namely, the Battle of Bayou Teche, and the Battle of Lafourche Crossing at the end of June 1863) in support of the Port Hudson battles and siege which, after the capture of Vicksburg, achieved Federal control of the Mississippi river. Having fulfilled the terms of his enlistment, Bishop was on his way back to Danbury, but because of a case of dysentery, he was hospitalized in Bellefontaine, OH. After telegramming his wife to come to his side, he died in September of 1863, shortly after the death of their youngest child. Sarah remained in Danbury raising her three surviving children and working as a dressmaker. She died in 1918 and is buried next to Joseph Bishop in Wooster Cemetery in Danbury.

- much of this information is culled from the Franklin Brand Brockway Family Tree, Ancestry.com

- Regimental History of the 23rd CTVI- Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, pg 1015 (Google Books)

- Ancestry.com

- Brockway's notes in the Related Materials series

Extent

1 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The collection of Civil War letters of a Danburian, Joseph D. Bishop, in the 23rd Connecticut VI. Bishop was the chief musician in the regiment.

Arrangement

Arranged into two series. Correspondence and Related Materials. Correspondence is arranged chronologically and Related Materials by topic.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Materials were passed from Sarah Bishop to her daughter Catherine (Kate) Reid. She then passed them to her daughter, Annabell Brockway, who passed them to her son Walter who passed them to his daughter Carol Lieto who gifted them to WCSU in 2021.