The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1906-02-10
HEROIC PRIEST.
Tho Story Of Father BlemilI, Whose
Head Was Shot of in Battle.

T10ao was 0n0e UT III 63CSlos
In the little burying ground at the
monastery of Gethsemane, in Nelson
county. KY, is a narrow green mound
headed by q simple cross that marks
each grave within the enclosure, says
the Nelson, KY, Standard. On the
cross is a name and a date-nothing
more. Yet a hero sleeps under one
of those mounds, and the heart that
is now beneath the sod once beat t.
the measure of martial music and
knew not the meaning Of fear, albeit it
held a tenderness like that of woman
Father Blemill was chaplain of the
Fourth Kentucky Regiment-the IA
nous orphan brigade Of the Civil War
and will be remembered by his sur
vivors as a hero and martyr. His
interest in and devotion to the men in
his command were unflagging, and
endeared him to Protestant and Cath
olic alike. In every engagement his
tall figure in its priestly garb could be
seen where the fight was hottest, lift
ing the helpless, succoring the wound
ed above the roar Of the musketry for
some spirit departing in the midst of
battle. He was the regiments idol,
and his faithfulness to his calling and
the cause which he espoused won the
reverence and veneration of the sturdy
soldiers, until there was not one who
would not gladly have laid down his
life for the warrior priest.
It was in the storm of battle that
death came to him, faithful unto the
end. 1t was during the bloody battle
Of Jonesboro, Ca, August 81, 1864. The
assaulting column had found it i'm
possible to move the federal position,
and the order had been given to re-
treat. Gen. Lewis was riding back in
the midst of his broken and disordered
regiment, seeking shelter from the
was still kept up. AS he passed along
he saw Father Blemill kneel beside the
PROSTATE body of Captain Oracle, of a
South Carolina regiment, and lift his
hands in prayer for the dying officer
His experienced eye had probably seen
that the man was wounded unto death
apd. friend of stranger, his tender
heart went out to him and he stopped
to offer supplication to heaven fol-
the departing soul. At that instant 8
cannon ball from the enemy's ranks
struck off the head of the heroic priest
and his limp body fell beside the one
he would have prayed for. He died az
he would have wished-his consecratet
spirit seeking its Master straight from
the field of battle and in the dis.
charge of his duties as soldier O.
the cross.
They carried him to the rear, ant
after the storm of shot and shell hat
subsidized they tenderly wrapped bat
tle-torn Confederate flag around tn
worn priestly dress, and, with stream
ing eyes, reverently buried him in ;
grave hundred yards or more soutl
of the little station at Jonesboro. Man,
years afterwards, when a branch of tn
Confederate Memorial Association wa
formed there, they exhumed the bod
of the hero priest and reinterred it Il
the Pat Cleburne Cemetery.
Here it rested between Capt. Oracle
} for whom he had stopped to pra
when killed, and a soldier named Ig
) natius Blocks until 1890, when tn
Benedictine Fathers, to whose orde
Father Blemill belonged. brought hi
remains to Nelson county.
Here, under the little white cross i
the silent burying ground at Gethse
name, all that is mortal of this heroi
soul has found it's last resting plac,
Truly it can be said of him that h
fought the good fight, that he ker
J the faith and that love Of him sti
CLOVIS in the hearts of all that ar
{ left of the famous Kentucky Orpha
Brigade.
Il TWO IRISH cENTENARIANs.