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<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> Griffin Internet Syndicate and FGF Books
[mailto:PR@griffnews.com] <BR><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, July 15, 2009 12:56
AM<BR><B>To:</B> Recipient List Suppressed<BR><B>Subject:</B> FGF: Three Great
Chaplains; The Confederate Lawyer by Charles Mills, 7/15/09<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV><IMG
src="http://blmc.enr-corp.com/logodir/releases/mc70252_8cb2e71c684b658.jpg"
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<DIV align=center><B>FGF E-PACKAGE</B></DIV>
<DIV align=center><B>THE CONFEDERATE LAWYER</B></DIV>
<DIV align=center><B>JULY 15, 2009</B></DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman Bold"
size=+3><B><BR></B></FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+2><B>Three
Great Chaplains</B></FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+2><B></B></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><B>by
Charles G. Mills</B></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1>GLEN COVE, NY -- The
Chaplains Corps of the Confederate Army was underfunded and underequipped by the
Confederate Congress, and yet it produced some extraordinary men. This is the
story of three of them.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><B><BR></B></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><B>Father John B.
Bannon, S. J.</B></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1><X-TAB> </X-TAB>Father John B.
Bannon was born and ordained in Ireland. His maternal grandfather was part of
the titled Irish aristocracy. He immigrated to Saint Louis and was appointed
pastor of Saint John the Apostle Parish in 1858. In 1860, he served for about a
month as chaplain to a militia unit protecting Missouri from an attack by
Kansas. In May, he was captured by Northern troops near his parish and was
released in a few days. He then preached sermons in Saint John's that included
statements such as the War was between "the cross and the crescent, for which
the last, the Yankee substitutes the dollar; a war between materialism and
infidelity of the North, and the remnants of Christian civilization yet dominant
in the South."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1><X-TAB> </X-TAB>The Northern
Army decided to arrest him, but he escaped through the back door of the church
before they could make the arrest and joined the First Missouri Confederate
Brigade as a chaplain. Father Bannon was known for going onto the battlefield
with his troops during the battle, in defiance of Confederate Army regulations.
There he administered Extreme Unction to dying Catholic soldiers and baptized
dying Protestant soldiers who had never been baptized but wanted to be. In 1863,
the entire brigade was captured. Father Bannon was released and went to
Richmond.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1><X-TAB> </X-TAB>Confederate
President Jefferson Davis asked him to undertake a double mission in Europe.
Father Bannon took a letter from President Davis to the Blessed Pius IX and had
several audiences with the Pope, resulting in the Pope's letter to President
Davis that infuriated the Lincoln government.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1><X-TAB> </X-TAB>He then went
to Ireland, where he handed out leaflets on the docks warning those about to
sail for America of the dangers of serving in the Northern Army; he also
prepared a poster that he distributed to every parish in Ireland. The poster
contained President Davis' letter to Pius IX, Pius IX's letter to President
Davis, and his own statement expressing his confidence "that no Catholic will
persevere in the advocacy of an aggression condemned by his Holiness." Although
historians disagree how much Irish recruitment by the Northern Army dropped,
they do agree that it was significant. He never returned to America. After the
War, he became a Jesuit and lived until 1913.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><B>Father Abram Joseph
Ryan, C. M.</B></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1><X-TAB> </X-TAB>Father Abram
Joseph Ryan (</FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#0000ff
size=+1><U>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abram_Joseph_Ryan</U></FONT><FONT
face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1>) was born in Virginia and grew up
in Saint Louis, where he went to a Christian Brother's school. He studied for
the priesthood at Niagara University in New York and was ordained as a
Vincentian in 1856. At the outbreak of the War, he was teaching at the seminary
in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1><X-TAB> </X-TAB>In 1862, he
joined the Confederate Army as a chaplain and served throughout the War. His
brother, a Confederate soldier, was killed in action. Father Ryan wrote two
poems about his brother's death. After the War, he served in a number of
parishes in Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. In 1866, he published a poem
about the Confederate flag called "The Conquered Banner" (</FONT><FONT
face="Times New Roman" color=#0000ff
size=+1><U>http://www.civilwarpoetry.org/confederate/postwar/banner.html),</U></FONT><FONT
face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1> which immediately became popular
throughout the South and was memorized by school children for generations. It
was prominently featured in volume I, issue 1, of<I> The Confederate Veteran</I>
magazine. By this time, he was the best known Confederate veteran
chaplain.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1><X-TAB> </X-TAB>Much of his
poetry for the rest of his life featured Confederate themes. He was immensely
popular and known as the "Poet-Priest of the Confederacy" and the "Poet Laureate
of the Confederacy." He died in 1886 in a Franciscan monastery. There is a
statue of him in Mobile and a stained glass window in New Orleans. A number of
memorial plaques in various locations recall his contributions.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><B>Father James Sheeran,
C. R.</B></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1><X-TAB> </X-TAB>James Sheeran
was born in Ireland and immigrated first to Canada and then to Michigan. He was
married and had two children. After the death of his wife, he pursued a
religious vocation and was ordained as a Redemptorist in 1858.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1><X-TAB> </X-TAB>He was
assigned to a New Orleans parish; when his Redemptorist provincial asked for
volunteers as Confederate chaplains, he enthusiastically joined and served with
the 14th Louisiana Regiment in the Army of Northern Virginia. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1><X-TAB> </X-TAB>He seems to
have been a man of extraordinary courage and determination in doing what he
thought was right and a man who rarely conformed to military
regulations.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1><X-TAB> </X-TAB>One night,
after ministering to the Confederate wounded in a military hospital, he went to
the nearby Northern military hospital and found that their wounded were
receiving no medical care. He indignantly stormed into the room where the
Northern military surgeons were and demanded to know why they were not treating
their wounded. They gave a number of excuses, of which the only possibly
persuasive one was that they had no bandages. He then went to a number of
leaderless Northern nurses and, with an air of authority, ordered them to go to
the battlefield and take the shirts, handkerchiefs, and everything else suitable
for bandaging from the packs of the dead. When they returned with a large
quantity of bandaging material, he ordered them to go to the surgeons and tell
them they had plenty of bandages. Within hours, the Northern wounded were
receiving medical treatment.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1><X-TAB> </X-TAB>He won a
number of confrontations with Confederate General Stonewall Jackson. In one of
his confrontations, he is supposed to have said, "General Jackson, I want you to
understand that as a priest of God I outrank every officer in your command. I
even outrank you." He even won an argument with Jackson over whether he should
have a tent, which no one else had.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1><X-TAB> </X-TAB>He also
emerged victorious in a confrontation with Confederate General Robert E. Lee,
who reluctantly gave him an indefinite pass allowing him to go anywhere he
wanted. He frequently crossed the lines and was arrested by in November
1964 by order of Northern General Philip Sheridan. He wrote indignant letters to
Sheridan and to Lincoln's Secretary of War and obtained his release. After he
was released, he had a face-to-face showdown with Sheridan over the restrictions
placed on him and again prevailed.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1><X-TAB> </X-TAB>After the War,
Father Sheeran was released from the Redemptorist Congregation and became a very
successful pastor in Morristown, New Jersey.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1><X-TAB> </X-TAB>Father Sheeran
died in 1881.<X-TAB> </X-TAB></FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1>###</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1>The Confederate Lawyer
is copyright (c) 2009 by Charles Mills and the Fitzgerald Griffin
Foundation,</FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#0000ff size=+1><U>
http://www.fgfbooks.com</U></FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1>. All rights reserved.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1><BR>Charles G. Mills is
the Judge Advocate or general counsel for the New York State American Legion. He
has 40 years of experience in many trial and appellate courts and has published
several articles about the law.</FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1>Read this
on-line at:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#0000ff
size=+1><U>http://www.fgfbooks.com/Mills-Charles/2009/Mills090714.html</U></FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=+1><X-TAB> </X-TAB></FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1>Charles
Mills biographical sketch:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#0000ff
size=+1><U>http://www.fgfbooks.com/Mills-Charles/Mills-bio.html</U></FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center><BR></DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1>Donate to
the Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation:</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
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<DIV align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=+1>Fitzgerald
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<DIV align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
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