Born in Rivière-Ouelle, Lower Canada, the son Charles-Eusèbe Casgrain and Eliza Anne Baby, Casgrain studied at College of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière. In 1852, he enrolled in the Montreal School of Medicine and Surgery, but became a priest in 1856. He started teaching at the College of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière until he was forced to give up teaching because of ill health. In 1859, he was appointed curate of the parish of La Nativité-de-Notre-Dame at Beauport and was free to devote himself entirely to literary pursuits.^[1]

In 1877, he was awarded a doctorate of history from the Universite Laval, where he would remain as professor.

He wrote primarily on New France and its personalities, such as Samuel de Champlain, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm and his aide-de-camp Francis de Gaston, Chevalier de Levis.

From 1889 to 1890, he was the president of the Royal Society of Canada.

• Pélerinage au pays d'Évangéline (1855)
• Histoire de la Mère Marie de l'Incarnation (1864)
• Découverte du tombeau de Champlain (1866) with Laverdiere
• Histoire de l'Hôtel-Dieu de Québec (1878)
• Une paroisse canadienne au XVIIe siècle (1880)
• Histoire de l'asile du Bon-Pasteur de Québec (1890)
• Guerre du Canada: Montcalm et Lévis (1891, v.1)
• Guerre du Canada: Montcalm et Lévis (1891, v.2)
• Les français au Canada: Montcalm et Lévis
• Une seconde Acadie (1894)
• Les Sulpiciens et les prêtres des Missions étrangères en Acadie(1897)
• Éclaircissements sur la question acadienne
• Champlain : sa vie et son caractère (1898)

• Francis Parkman
• Montcalm and Wolfe

  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Henri-Raymond Casgrain". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

• Works by or about Henri-Raymond Casgrain at Internet Archive