American Catholicism and the Civil War

Many of what we would commonly refer to as basic freedoms in the present day were not always commonplace in the American experience. Despite constitutional provisions and the supposed notion of liberty and justice for all, nearly all ethnic and religious groups who arrived in America after the original colonists experienced some degree of discrimination ranging from seemingly insignificant banter to outright violence and hatred. Roman Catholics were certainly no exception to this rule. For many Catholics in the early American colonies, there was a desire for cautious assimilation which resulted in the easing of strict adherence to certain doctrines and rituals which were deemed archaic or downright obtuse.[1] It would be decades before Catholicism was deemed to be an acceptable form of worship in America, where citizens were ever-skeptical of a church whose leadership was centered in a foreign land. Ultimately it would be the work done by Catholics in academia and on the battlefields of America’s bloodiest war that would prove to be the launching pad for Catholic acceptance in the United States.

Anti-Catholicism was the norm in the American colonies due in large part to English animosity towards Catholic France and Spain; England had been warring with both countries for centuries and English colonists had little or no use for Papists.[2] Cecil Calvert, an English nobleman, lawyer and Catholic would become the governor of the Maryland colony and his colony would be a virtual safe haven for Catholics who arrived in the colonies. “While persecution was going on in the North and the South, with which Catholics had nothing to do with, their free banner waved over Maryland, where the rights of conscience were recognized.”[3] Even after the birth of the United States, Catholicism would remain a religion that was semi-tolerated but not necessarily accepted in the United States. The underlying fear held by many Anglo-Protestants—epitomized by movements such as the Know-Nothing Party—was of Catholic loyalty to papal Rome. Decades later, when the young nation found itself engaged in civil war, the mettle and patriotism of American Catholics would be put to the ultimate test.

Although most American Catholics resided in Northern states and cities where the percentage of German and Irish immigrants was at its highest, the South contained a small though relevant Catholic presence. “Southern and Border states had already assimilated a small gentry of French and English Catholics but would not see drastic ethnic and religious change.”[4] In attempting to gain foreign recognition of the Confederacy as a sovereign nation, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, an Episcopalian who was fully aware of the global significance of the Roman Holy See, wrote a letter to Pope Pius IX seeking his endorsement; the pope responded to Davis and addressed him as “Illustrious and Honorable President.”[5] But if it was recognition as a sovereign power that Davis was seeking, he did not receive it. Pius was brief in his response and his language was rather general and standard for a religious figure; he made it clear that peace was his only priority. “May it please God at the same time to make the other peoples of America and their rulers, reflecting seriously how terrible is civil war…listen to the inspirations of a calmer spirit, and adopt resolutely the part of peace.”[6] “As brother turned against brother, the Church tried to stay above the fray. The hierarchy encouraged priests to act as chaplains and nuns to work as nurses in order to minister to the needs of all the faithful.”[7] Southern General James Longstreet was widely revered as one of the top military minds in the Confederate army. Though not yet a practicing Catholic at the time of the Civil War, Longstreet would later reflect on his own experiences as a top field general through the eyes and wisdom of a devout Catholic convert. “God grant that the happy vision that delighted the soul of the sweet singer of Israel may rest like a benediction upon the North and the South, upon the Blue and the Gray.”[8]

It cannot be disputed, however that the predominant Catholic presence was in the North. “All Catholics realized that the war gave them the opportunity to show their appreciation of, loyalty to, and solidarity with their adopted nation. From scores of Northern pulpits, priests called upon the faithful to don blue uniforms because, ‘The Union must and shall be preserved.’”[9] But the war was not always popular among Northerners. At times the situation became dire, even to the point of violence, as young immigrants grew increasingly irate at the fact that they were being targeted for conscription while the wealthy were given exemptions. Young Irish immigrants were finding themselves being exploited for the draft and as a result, began to arm themselves and organize in order to resist conscription.[10] Despite these relatively rare occasions of unrest, “the overwhelming majority of Catholics in the north supported the Union war effort, if for no other reason than to prove the loyalty of their Church and ethnicity to their adopted homeland.”[11] What would ultimately bring the role of the Catholic Church to the forefront of American consciousness would be the actions performed by Catholic religious figures, and one priest in particular, at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Fr. William Corby, a professor at what was then known as the College of Notre Dame [now the University of Notre Dame] served as a Union army chaplain during the Civil War. The son of an Irish immigrant, Fr. Corby took great pride in serving as a mentor and spiritual leader to the men of the famed Irish Brigade. On July 2, 1863, the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Fr. Corby would unknowingly attain legendary status by standing in the midst of heavy Confederate fire and offering the rite of absolution of sins before the Irish Brigade marched into the fighting. Years later, Corby would go on to say, “that general absolution was intended for all—in quantum possum—not only for our brigade, but for all, North or South, who were susceptible of it and who were about to appear before their Judge.” [12] Corby’s courage under fire not only didn’t go unnoticed, but became widely spoken about on both sides of the fighting and it wasn’t just his courage that some took notice of. “About a week after the battle, while on the march, a captain, a non-Catholic, rode up to me and said, “Chaplain, I would like to know more about your religion. I was present on that awful day, July 2, when you ‘made a prayer’ and…I never witnessed one so powerful…with one hundred twenty guns blazing at us.”[13] Corby embodied the essential Catholic message of social justice, a message that is so often misunderstood. While many people in our modern day misconstrue social justice as mere activism for political or social causes, Fr. Corby understood the very crux of social justice for what it truly is: living without fear of earthly loss or pain in order to “be Christ” to others and it wasn’t just Fr. Corby who behaved in this manner.

Nuns from Fr. Corby’s Order of the Holy Cross as well as the Order of the Sisters of Charity played crucial roles as battlefield nurses and spiritual aides at Gettysburg and other battles. “Many a soldier now looks down from on high with complacency on the worthy Sisters who were instrumental in saving the soul when the life could not be saved.”[14] In many instances throughout the war, there either weren’t enough chaplains to make the rounds or in some cases, none at all, but “the Irish Brigade had very many advantages…as it was at no time during the war without a chaplain; but I was the only one…”[15] Considering the sheer number of casualties at Gettysburg, it is hard to fathom how many men would not have had spiritual comfort in their hours of death if it were not for the sister nurses who so fearlessly aided Fr. Corby. “Sr. Marie Louise Caulfield wrote that she saw “the rain had filled the roads with water, and here it was red with blood. Our carriage wheels rolling through blood!”[16] The carnage that the Sisters arrived to see was nothing short of apocalyptic. It is difficult to imagine what the sight of 50,000 dead, dying and wounded must look like, but one Sister said, “all the country was hospital, save space for cemetery.”[17] Neither the nuns nor Fr. Corby cared whether the men they were tending to were Catholic or non-Catholic, Union or Confederate; they were human beings and therefore they contained inherent sanctity. “Catholic sisters were praised for their assistance to all soldiers, North and South, Catholic or Protestant. A Protestant doctor remarked to a Catholic bishop that ‘there must be some wonderful unity in Catholicity which nothing can destroy, not even the passions of war.’ It was this unity of the Catholic Church which proved unique among American Christianity.”[18]

It must be noted that despite the disunity that was so prevalent across the American landscape, the Roman Catholic Church remained one, united Church regardless of whether the individual churches were in the North or the South. “While Protestant denominations split over theological and sectional lines, the Catholic Church stood as the only major church which remained united during the war, even if its congregants fought on opposite sides.”[19] That isn’t to say that Catholics who fought on opposite sides were always civil towards one another. In one instance, a Confederate chaplain by the name of Fr. John Bannon wrote of attempting to convince a mortally wounded Confederate soldier to confess before he died. The soldier’s head was split open and yet he was too preoccupied with the wounded Yankee lying next to him to confess his sins.[20] It must also be mentioned that while the Church, both hierarchy and laity overwhelmingly supported the Union cause, the issue of abolition was not exactly at the forefront of the Catholic mindset. The Church’s view of the issue of slavery during the Civil War can only be described as having been somewhat confusing. While New York Archbishop John Hughes spoke openly about slavery as an evil institution, “Catholics did not believe that the Bible condemned slavery and accepted it as part of man’s fallen nature.”[21] In a rather curious contradiction to the aforementioned collective desire to assimilate into American society, on the issue of slavery the Church “viewed emancipation as a dangerously utopian idea” precisely because the act of emancipation was to be granted by a secular power rather than by the Church itself. [22]

After the war, Fr. Corby returned to South Bend, IN to become vice-president and then president of the University of Notre Dame. It is believed that Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish moniker was coined by Fr. Corby as homage to the brave men of the Irish Brigade. What is certain is that his nearly twenty year reign as president of the university would transform it into one of the most prestigious universities in the nation. Notre Dame would become, “a rousing American Catholic success story.”[23] It would also become known as the proverbial nerve center of American Catholicism. In 1924, nearly sixty years after the Civil War had ended and nearly thirty years after Fr. Corby had passed away, the example that he had instilled in the overall makeup of the University and its students and faculty would be tested by a visit from the newly resurgent Ku Klux Klan. Already a bastion of academic excellence, Notre Dame was also becoming a powerhouse in the world of collegiate football and as a result, the school was receiving national attention. Notre Dame was now “the official football team of all American Catholics.”[24] The Klan saw South Bend as a prime target to rekindle the fires of the anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant movement that they were propagating. What they hadn’t expected was dozens of Notre Dame students waiting for them at the train station and pummeling them as they attempted to get off the train.[25] What ensued was a weekend of violence which saw the students perpetually on the offensive. It would take Knute Rockne, the iconic football coach to finally convince the Notre Dame faithful to end the violence. They complied and the Klansmen departed. In one otherwise insignificant weekend in a small town in Indiana, the tide of anti-Catholicism in America was turned by a group of Catholic students, many of them immigrants or the children of immigrants, who simply weren’t going to stand for being discriminated against any longer. The Fighting Irish had followed the example set decades earlier by Fr. Corby to stand courageous in the face of danger.

The Catholic Church draws upon 2,000+ years of intellectual achievement and moral philosophy in order to remain in a position of leadership throughout the world. But it is the work of individual Catholics—those who literally are the Church—that enables Catholicism to continue to thrive and evolve. Without the living examples of individuals, such as Fr. Corby and the Sisters of Charity, who under the most unthinkable circumstances were able to embody the very essence of the person of Christ for those who were most in need, the Church would be little more than an out-of-touch and stagnant institution. Furthermore, it was their work on such a grand and bloody stage that showed Americans of all stripes that Catholics were not merely some kind of “other” but instead, rather loyal and quite typical members of American society. When an attempt was made to resurrect the ignoble intentions of the Confederate-past, it was a group of Catholic students who drew from the examples of their predecessors and held their ground in the face of oppression and intimidation. Today, Catholicism is a mainstream religion in the United States; the single largest Christian denomination in America. Catholics still find themselves fighting new battles against attempts at discrimination and oppression on behalf of others and many are still advocates for social justice, remaining undeterred in the face of evil. “Like the nuns at Gettysburg, may we finally learn to unleash the most powerful weapon of all: unconditional love.”[26]

Borowski, Dave Catholics and the U.S. Civil War CatholicHerald.com June 2011 http://www.catholicherald.com/stories/Catholics-and-the-US-Civil-War,15911

Corby, Rev. William. Memoirs of Chaplain Life. Chicago: La Monte, O’Donnell and Co. 1893

Horvat, Marian T. Let None Dare Call It Liberty: The Catholic Church in Colonial America http://www.traditioninaction.org/History/B_001_Colonies.html

Hughes, Rev. John. The Complete Works of the Most Rev. John Hughes, Archbishop of New York New York: Lawrence Kehoe 1866

Longstreet, Gen. James. From Manassas to Appomatox Philadelphia: 1904

Magliano, Tony. Nuns Unleashed Battle of Gettysburg’s Most Powerful Weapon, National Catholic Reporter Jul. 8, 2013. ncronline.org/blogs/making-difference/nuns-unleashed-battle-gettysburgs-most-powerful-weapon

Maher, Sister Mary Denis. To Bind Up The Wounds: Catholic Sister Nurses in the U.S. Civil War. Baton Rouge: LSU Press 1989

Marlin, George J. Catholics and the Civil War. TheCatholicThing.org April 2011 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/catholics-and-the-civil-war.html

Perman, Michael [Martin Ryerson Reports How Workers Are Reacting to the Draft, July 1863] Major Problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction Houghton Mifflin (1998) p 192

Rable, George C. God’s Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011

Summers, Mark Onward Catholic Soldiers: The Catholic Church During the American Civil War ActonInstitute.org http://www.acton.org/pub/religion-liberty/volume-21-number-4/onward-catholic-soldiers-catholic-church-during-am

Tucker, Todd. Notre Dame Vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan. Chicago: Loyola Press 2004

University of Notre Dame Archives; Rev. William Corby at Gettysburg. http://www.archives.nd.edu/about/news/index.php/2013/corby-gettysburg/#.UunpKY45iaI

Pope Pius IX Response Letter to Jefferson Davis, December 3, 1863 http://edwardkranz.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/response-letter-from-pope-pius-ix-to-jefferson-davis-december-3-1863/

Rev. William Corby at Gettysburg. Ancient Order of Hibernians, State of Florida. http://www.aohflorida.org/rev-william-corby-at-gettysburg

The Irish Echo 78 Years Ago, Notre Dame Battles the KKK http://irishecho.com/2011/02/78-years-ago-notre-dame-battles-the-kkk-3/

[1] Marian T. Horvat Ph.D Let None Dare Call It Liberty: The Catholic Church in Colonial America http://www.traditioninaction.org/History/B_001_Colonies.html

[2] Ibid

[3] Rev. John Hughes The Complete Works of the Most Rev. John Hughes, Archbishop of New York New York: Lawrence Kehoe 1866

[4] Mark Summers Onward Catholic Soldiers: The Catholic Church During the American Civil War ActonInstitute.org http://www.acton.org/pub/religion-liberty/volume-21-number-4/onward-catholic-soldiers-catholic-church-during-am

[5] Pope Pius IX Response Letter to Jefferson Davis, December 3, 1863 http://edwardkranz.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/response-letter-from-pope-pius-ix-to-jefferson-davis-december-3-1863/

[6] Pope Pius IX

[7] George J. Marlin Catholics and the Civil War. TheCatholicThing.org April 2011 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/catholics-and-the-civil-war.html

[8] General James Longstreet. From Manassas to Appomatox Philadelphia: 1904 p VI

[9] George J. Marlin

[10] Michael Perman [Martin Ryerson Reports How Workers Are Reacting to the Draft, July 1863] Major Problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction Houghton Mifflin (1998) p 192

[11] Mark Summers

[12] Rev. William Corby at Gettysburg. Ancient Order of Hibernians, State of Florida. http://www.aohflorida.org/rev-william-corby-at-gettysburg

[13] Rev. William Corby Memoirs of Chaplain Life. Chicago: La Monte, O’Donnell and Co. 1893, p 185

[14] Ibid, p 275

[15] Ibid, p 185

[16] Tony Magliano Nuns Unleashed Battle of Gettysburg’s Most Powerful Weapon, National Catholic Reporter Jul. 8, 2013. ncronline.org/blogs/making-difference/nuns-unleashed-battle-gettysburgs-most-powerful-weapon

[17] Sister Mary Denis Maher To Bind Up The Wounds: Catholic Sister Nurses in the U.S. Civil War. Baton Rouge: LSU Press 1989

[18] Mark Summers

[19] Ibid

[20] Dave Borowski. Catholics and the U.S. Civil War CatholicHerald.com June 2011 http://www.catholicherald.com/stories/Catholics-and-the-US-Civil-War,15911

[21] George C. Rable God’s Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011

[22] Ibid

[23] Todd Tucker. Notre Dame Vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan. Chicago: Loyola Press 2004, p 21

[24] Ibid, p 79

[25] The Irish Echo 78 Years Ago, Notre Dame Battles the KKK http://irishecho.com/2011/02/78-years-ago-notre-dame-battles-the-kkk-3/

[26] Magliano