David Power Conyngham

Conyngham was born about 1825 near Killenaule, County Tipperary to well-to-do farmers John and Catherine Power Cunningham.

[2] He arrived in the United States in April 1861 and joined the staff of the New York Herald, and was a war correspondent with the Irish Brigade.

By March 1863, he was back in the United States and a captain, serving as an aide-de-camp to fellow Young Irelander General Thomas Francis Meagher at Chancellorsville.

Soldiers of the Cross is an account of chaplains and women religious who served as nurses during the American Civil War.

[4] As Conyngham tried to collect the histories of the sisters who served during the Civil War, more than one community declined to cooperate out of a sense of humility.