Abbott Hall Brisbane (December 4, 1804 – September 28, 1861) was a prominent South Carolinian whose accomplishments included an extensive military career, engineering work, a professorship, authorship of a major Roman Catholic inspirational novel, and eventually, in retirement, a slave-holding plantation owner before the U.S. Civil War.
Family
Abbott Hall Brisbane was born the son of John S. Brisbane on December 4, 1804. Although he is famed for his devotion to Roman Catholicism, "Abbott" was a traditional name in his family and not an ecclesiastical title.
On March 26, 1829, he married Adeline E. White, herself born in Charleston January 17, 1807, the "daughter of the distinguished painter John Blake White." They had one son together, who died in infancy, "and his loss nearly broke his father's heart." According to a family member, as a result of the comfort and counseling they received from Bishop John England after this tragedy, both John and Adeline converted to Roman Catholicism.
A researcher revisiting the issue over 170 years later attributes his conversion to his admiration of the Irish Catholics who served with him in the Seminole War. As anti-Catholicism was seriously on the rise in the 1830s and 1840s, this conversion -- to which they both remained faithful to the end of their lives -- was particularly remarkable.
Though he had no children of his own who survived to adulthood, Brisbane's niece, Mary Catharine Brisbane Hickox (1832–1913), wrote a brief reflection about his life. Her report of their married life reveals a very affectionate and balanced relationship, with Adeline "calm and self-reliant as a man" and having the good spirits to lift Brisbane from depression. "He always called her 'Wifie' and she called him Mr. Brisbane as did most of the wives at that time in Charleston. I don't know what the custom was elsewhere....Fortunately for him he died some years before she did, just after the opening of the civil war in 1861. I am sure he could never have lived without her protecting love." Hickox writes that Brisbane was about to engage in the "War of Secession" – the U.S. Civil War – at the time of his death.
After Brisbane died, his widow traveled first to Albany to settle family financial affairs. In 1870, Adeline moved back to South Carolina into the Ursuline Convent in Columbia. Although some sources reported that she became a nun, her niece stated that her aunt merely lived there without taking vows: "She contemplated taking the black veil, but I am not sure that she ever did. We heard afterwards that she did not do so." However, a diocesan archivist wrote in 2002 that she had uncovered records indicating that Adeline E. White Brisbane took vows with the Ursulines after her 1870 return, becoming "Sister Borgia" until her death in 1872.
Career
In 1821, Abbott Hall Brisbane applied to and was accepted by the U.S. Military Academy, now commonly known as West Point. In 1825, at the age of 21, he graduated. In the Third Regiment of Artillery of the South Carolina Volunteers, he was promoted: "Brevet Second Lieut. Abbott H. Brisbane, to be Second Lieut., 1 July 1825. He resigned from that service on January 1, 1828.
He was made a colonel of the South Carolina Volunteers on February 7, 1836. He then served in Florida in the Seminole Wars under General Scott. In the campaign of 1835-36, he was involved in a skirmish at Tomoka on March 10, 1836, which had a strong positive impact on his reputation. He was promoted to brigadier general when he returned to Charleston. He mustered out honorably on May 7, 1836.
He then spent four years as "Constructing Engineer" for the proposed Charleston & Cincinnati Railroad. In 1841, he traveled north to New York to hire Irish workers for the Flint & Ocmulgee Line in Savannah, Georgia, promising "good pay" of $2.25 per day. The workers were paid in scrip that could only be redeemed at company stores; to speed the project, Brisbane needed cash. To get it, he approached Bishops John Hughes (New York) and Ignatius A. Reynolds (Charleston) for loans, as well as support from the City of Savannah. Although some funds were forthcoming, the lack of progress by 1843 made Hughes retreat from his commitment. This left Brisbane with nothing to pay the workers who took him and his wife hostage in their own cabin until rescued by armed horsemen.
After that episode, the Brisbanes moved to Albany, becoming the first Catholic family there. They continued to try to raise money for the Flint & Ocmulgee Line, even from European investors, until returning to Charleston in 1847.