BYRNE
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BYRNE
his works. In his last will and testament he prays
"that he may live and dye a true and perfect mem-
ber of the Holy Catholike Churche withoute which
I beleeve there is noe salvacon for me".
The Music Story Series: English Music, 1604 to 1904 (Lon- don and New York. 1906); Kittkr, Music in England (New York, 1S33); Grove, Dictionary oj Music.
Joseph Otten.
Byrne, Andrew, Bishop of Little Rock, Arkansas, T". S. A., b. at Navan, Co. Meath, Ireland, 5 Decem- ber, ISO-'; d. at Helena. Arkansas. ID June, 1862. He was an ecclesiastical student when, in 1820, Bishop England sought volunteers for the mission of the newly created Diocese of Charleston (South Carolina), and he accompanied the bishop to the United States. He was ordained at Charleston,
II November, 1827, and after active missionary work in South and North Carolina was for several years vicar-general of the diocese. In 1836 he re- moved to New York City, where he served at St. Patrick's, St. James's and the church of the Nativity, and finally altered, in 1S43. the famous Carroll Hall, which might be termed the cradle of the public school system of New York, into St. Andrew's church. While pastor there in 1844, the new Diocese of Little Rock, comprising the State of Arkansas ami all of the Indian rerritory, was created, and Father Byrne w.i- named its first bishop. He'was consecrated in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York City. It) .March, 184 1. at the same time that the Rev. John Mct'loskey (afterwards Cardinal) was consecrated coadjutor of New York, and the Rev. William Quarter, Bishop of Chicago. There were then in Arkansas only about 700 Catholics, with one priest and two churches. Shortly before Bishop Bryne died, he claimed that the Dumber of Catholics had increased largely, with nine or more priests, eleven churches, thirty stations. and twelve schools and academies. He visited Ireland several times to obtain colabourers and
ints in the cause of religion and education. He introduced the Sisters of Mercy from Dublin and at the time of his death had almost completed arrangements for the starting of a college at Fort Smith by the Christian Brothers. He was one of the prelates attending the Sixth Provincial Council of Baltimore in May, 1846, and the First Provincial Council of New Orleans in 1856. At the Second Bal- timore Council, in 1833, he acted as Bishop England's theologian.
Catholic Almanac (Baltimore. 18641; SnEA, The Catholic Church m S. Y. fit,, (New York. 1878); Clarke. Lives of the Deceased Bishops (New York. 1872); Baylet. Brief Sketch of the Early History of the Catholic Church on the island of \eu lor* (New York, 1870).
Thomas F. Mef.han.
Byrne, Richard, brevet brigadier general, United State-; Army, b. in Co. Cavan, Ireland, 1832; d. at Washington, 10 June, 1S64. He emigrated from his native land to New York in 1844 and live years later enlisted in the regular army of the United States, joining the Second Cavalry, a regiment then inded by Colonel E. V. Sumner. In this regiment young Byrne distinguished himself in the Indian campaigns in Florida and Oregon, At the breaking out of the Civil War he was, on the recom- mendation of his old commander, Colonel Sumner, commissioned First Lieutenant in the Fifth Cavalry, one of the new regiments authorized by Congress. During the campaigns of L861 and 1862 he remained with the regiment of regulars and was then appointed
by Governor Andrew. Colonel of the Twenty-Eighth Massachusetts Volunteers, an Irish regiment of which he took command, l80ctober, 1862, In the Novem- ber following, this regiment was attached to the famous Meagher's Irish Brigade and with it partici- pated with special gallantry in all the fierce conflicts in which the Army of the Potomac was subsequently engaged. At its head Colonel Byrne charged up the
fatal slope of Maryo's Heights at Fredericksburg, and
after it, like the other regiments of the brigade, had
been almost wiped out in the sanguinary conflicts at
Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, he was sent back to
Massachusetts to recruit its ranks during the winter
and spring of 1863 and 1S64. When the campaign
reopened in May he returned to the front and as the
senior officer took command of the Irish Brigade.
Two weeks after assuming command, on 3 June,
1864, he fell, mortally wounded, while leading the
brigade at the attack on the entrenchments at Cold
Harbor, Virginia. He lived long enough to be con-
veyed to Washington, where his wife reached him
before he died. His commission as brigadier general
had just been made out by President Lincoln, but he
was dead before it could be officially presented to
him. His remains were sent to New York and
buried in Calvary Cemetery.
Conyngham, The Irish Brigade and its Campaigns (Boston, 1869); The Emerald, files (New York. 8 January, 1870).
Thomas P. Meehan.
Byrne, William, missionary and educator, b. in County Wicklow, Ireland, in 17S0; d. at Bardstown, Kentucky, U. S. A., 5 June, 1833. He was one of a large family for whom he was obliged by the death of his father to become breadwinner. He desired to be a priest, but circumstances denied him more than a common elementary education, imparted to him by a pious uncle. Many of his near relatives were among the ill-starred patriots of the Rebellion of 1798, and the cruel and bloody scenes of that year enacted near his home made a vivid impression on his youthful mind. In his twenty-fifth year came the opportunity to emigrate to the United States, where, shortly after his arrival, he went to (ieorgetown College and ap- plied for admission into the Society of Jesus. His advanced age and lack of classical education, how- ever, convinced him, after some months' stay there, that he could not reasonably hope to attain in the Society, for many years at least, his ambition for ordination to the priesthood. He therefore left Georgetown, and by advice of Archbishop Carroll went to Mount St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg. Here the Rev. John Dubois, the president, received him with sympathy, pointed out a course of study, and, finding him an excellent disciplinarian, made him prefect of the institution. He was neatly t hirty years of age when he began to study Latin, but his zeal and perseverance conquered all obstacles.
In order to advance more rapidly in his studies, he entered St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, but the sur- roundings were not congenial, and he remained there only a short time. He had been ordained a sub- deacon, and Bishop Flaget accepted his offer of serv- ice for the Diocese of Bard-town. Kentucky. He made further studies at St. Thomas's Seminary there, and was then ordained priest by Bishop David, 18 September, 1810, with his friend George A. M. Elder, whom he had met at Emmitsburg. They were the first priests ordained at Bardstown, and by Bishop David, who was consecrated IS August, LSI'.). Shortly after his ordination Father Byrne was ap pointed to the care of St. Mary's and St. Charles's missions, visiting also the small congregation of Louisville, sixty miles distant, ami labouring at all times with most indefatigable industry. The igno- rance of the people and the necessity of establishing some institution for elementary instruction appealed to him strongly, and in the spring of 1821 he opened St. Mary's College, near Bardstown, in an old stone building that stood on a farm he had purchased with money begged from those who sympathized with his project. He had about fifty boys to begin with, one of them being Martin John Spalding, later t he fatuous Archbishop of Baltimore, who even then was so precocious in the display of his abilities that at the age of fifteen he was appointed to teach mathe-
