The Civil War Book Review will sponsor a lecture on April 10, 2017, at 11 a.m. in Hill Memorial Library. Dr. Patrick Hayes will deliver a lecture about his most recent publication, The Civil War Diary of Rev. James Sheeran, C.S.s.R.

"Hayes's work on Rev. James Sheeran usefully highlights religion within the Confederate army, an understudied topic," notes Civil War Book Review editor Tom Barber.

Irish-born Rev. James Sheeran, C.Ss.R. (1817-1881), was chaplain to the 14th Louisiana Regiment of the Confederacy, one of only a few dozen Catholic chaplains commissioned for the Confederacy and one of only two who kept a journal. Highlighting his exploits from August 1, 1862 through April 24, 1865, the journal tells of all the major events of his life in abundant detail. Hayes will discuss Sheeran’s life, his chaplaincy, travels, and his imprisonment, and will conclude with editorial aspects of his work with the journal.

Hayes, Archivist at the Redemptorist Archives of the Baltimore Province, is author or editor of several scholarly books and has taught at Fordham University, St. John’s University in New York, and at the University of Makeni in Sierra Leone, West Africa.

Civil War Book Review, published by the LSU Libraries, is the journal of record for new and newly reprinted books about the Antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction eras.