Happy St. Patrick's Day
In honor of today's holiday, here is an excerpt taken from The Southern Cross: a Civil War Devotional by Michael Aubrecht. Now available from the Patriot Press Gettysburg, PA.
The Fighting Irish: An essay of encouragement
According to the doctrine of the Catholic faith, one of the most important duties that a priest performs is administering the act of Last Rites. It is a form of absolution given to a dying person. In times of war, men would obviously fall on the battlefield without the benefit of having a priest nearby. In order to accommodate this unfortunate circumstance, Catholic chaplains performed a universal form of the ritual of Last Rites prior to the battle. Much like their Protestant peers, the Catholics gathered together on the eve of (or hours before) an anticipated engagement for a religious service. The ceremony included the administering of “Last Rites,” granting general absolution to all who were present, in the event that some of them were killed on the battlefield later.
This service was especially important to brigades that were composed of immigrants of Irish and German extraction. Perhaps the most famous of these was the “Irish Brigade,” who deployed with Father William Corby. The American Civil War Web site describes his invaluable service stating, “For many Civil War soldiers, both North and South, religion served to provide hope and meaning, given what they endured during this bloody, violent conflict. When possible, men of the church would take an active role in lending such to the troops both during times of idleness and of combat.”
They add, “The Reverend Father William Corby, chaplain to the Union’s ‘Irish Brigade’ among others, extended general absolution to all soldiers, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. He was also known to administer Last Rites to the dying on the field while under fire. Prior to the conflict in the Wheatfield on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, he offered general absolution to the Irish Brigade. Despite the loss of 506 of their men during that day’s battle, one soldier stated that, because of Father Corby, he felt as strong as a lion after that and felt no fear although his comrade was shot down beside him. Not the only example of heroism by people of the clergy, Chaplain William Hoge ignored the Union Blockade to bring Bibles to Southern soldiers.”
Father Corby was born in Detroit, Michigan, on October 2, 1833, to Daniel and Elizabeth Corby. Daniel was a native of King’s County, Ireland and Elizabeth was a citizen of Canada. Daniel became a prominent real estate dealer and one of the wealthiest landowners in the country. He also helped to found many parishes in Detroit and build many churches. His son William attended the common schools until he was sixteen and then joined his father’s business for four years. Daniel realized that William had a calling to the priesthood and a desire to go to college, so he sent him and his two younger brothers to the ten-year-old University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. The Congregation of the Holy Cross staffed the school then, as they continue to today.
After graduation, William Corby returned to the school and became a faculty member. During the Civil War, he volunteered his services as a chaplain in the Union Army at the request of Father Sorin, who was the superior-general of the Congregation of the Holy Cross. Corby resigned his professorship at Notre Dame and was assigned as chaplain to the 88th New York Volunteer Infantry in the famed “Irish Brigade” of Thomas Francis Meagher. It has been written that he boarded the train with a song on his lips—singing, “I’ll hang my harp on a willow tree. I’m off to the wars again: A peaceful home has no charm for me. The battlefield no pain.”
For the next three years, Father Corby ministered to the troops with great enthusiasm, making him popular with the men. According to the Catholic Cultural Society, “Chaplains, like officers, won the common soldiers’ respect with their bravery under fire. Father Corby’s willingness to share the hardships of the men with a light-hearted attitude and his calm heroism in bringing spiritual and physical comfort to men in the thick of the fighting won him the esteem and the friendship of the men he served. Frequently under fire, Corby moved among casualties on the field, giving assistance to the wounded and absolution to the dying. For days after the battles, he inhabited the field hospitals to bring comfort to men in pain.”
Known for their glorious (and disastrous) charge at Fredericksburg, the “Irish Brigade” also made a gallant stand at Gettysburg, where their priest has been forever memorialized in a modest statue that stands near the Pennsylvania Monument. The Catholic Cultural Society describes a defining moment for both the brigade and their chaplain by recalling, “Before the Brigade engaged the Confederate soldiers at a wheat field just south of Gettysburg, Father William Corby, in a singular event that lives in the history of the Civil War, addressed the troops. Placing his purple stole around his neck, Corby climbed atop a large boulder and offered absolution to the entire unit, a ceremony never before performed in America.
[L.F.] Kohl, editor of Corby’s memoirs, tells us that Father Corby sternly reminded the soldiers of their duties, warning that the Church would deny a proper Christian burial to any that wavered and did not uphold the flag. The members of the Brigade were admonished to confess their sins in the correct manner at their earliest opportunity.” At the end of the day, 198 of the men whom Father Corby had blessed had been killed.
After the war, in 1865, Father Corby returned to the university at Notre Dame where he was made vice president. Within a year, he was named president of the institution, and at the end of his term in 1872, Father Corby was sent to Sacred Heart College. He returned to Notre Dame as president in 1877 where he became known as the “Second Founder of Notre Dame” for his successful effort in rebuilding the campus following a devastating fire. Later he became assistant-general for the worldwide order.
Father Corby wrote a book of his recollections entitled “Memoirs of Chaplain Life.” He stated, “Oh, you of a younger generation, think of what it cost our forefathers to save our glorious inheritance of union and liberty! If you let it slip from your hands you will deserve to be branded as ungrateful cowards and undutiful sons. But, no! You will not fail to cherish the prize—it is too sacred a trust—too dearly purchased.”
He died in 1897 and as he was being buried, surviving veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic sang this song: “Answering the call of roll on high. Dropping from the ranks as they make reply. Filling up the army of the by and by.”
