The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-03-23

| q lAuSAAllScnI Olt JdluIiIlS VI LHC UO-
loved poet-priest. 1t is admired by all
the guests; and even northern tourists
each year stand with uncovered head
before this portrait of one whose fame
is indissolubly associated with The
Conquered Banner
| ITO know what Father Ryan
thought of his illustrious chief, one
needs only to read his poem entitled
1.-TWO famous Confederate war
songs, Ashes of Glory by Augustus
j. Requier, and Somebody's Darling,
by Marie LaVoste, were both written
| by Catholics.
WAS not Theodore O'Hara, who
wrote The Bivouac of the Dead a
member of the Church of Rome? He
was a Confederate soldier, but his re-
nowned elegy, inspired by an episode
of the Mexican war. is today found in
all the federal cemeteries of the land,
engraved upon tablets of iron. 1t is
the only American poem to which the
United States government has ever
given official recognition.
1T l am not mistaken, General Pat
rick Cleburne was of the Catholic
faith. He fell at Franklin. Tenn,
while leading his command. An uncle
of mine, who fought under him, has
told me a thousand times that no
drawer man ever faced the white
smoke of battle than General Gle
burne. If / am mistaken in re-
gard to his religion l hope some one
will put me right.
THE present chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of the United States
is a Catholic. For this reason, even
though a private soldier in Lees army,
he would be debarred from address
ing Confederate veterans.
Raphael Semmes is the one man
of whom every one instinctively
, thinks when the Confederate navy is
mentioned. He commanded the re-
nowned Alabama vessel whose
fame filed all the seas-from the
equatorial waters to the northern
lights. He made the Confederate flag
an object of respect in every part of
the civilized world. There is nothing
in the annals of the war to surpass
the unvarnished story of his exploits.
Even to this day, we read with a
thrill of how the Alabama went to
her grave in the English channel.
There in what DR.. Tichnor has called
the tiltyard of the sea- in a field of
water which witnessed the exploits
of the renowned Sir Francis Drake,
lies all that is mortal of the ill-starred
Confederate crusier; and there, too,
lies the jeweled blade of the great
commander. In this connection let
me refer the Macon, veterans to a
poem written by DIR. Tichnor on this
tragic episode, entitled The Sword
of Raphael Semmes.' When the gal
liant commander was filling all Chris
tendon with the renown of his vic
tories, when the newspapers of the
day were teeming with tributes to
his prowess, and when scarcely a
week passed without adding to his
long list of troubles, no one then
thought to belittle his rich prizes of
war on the ground that he was only
Catholic.
'But / forbear These are only
few names recalled at random. To
enumerate. all would be an endless
task. Enough has been cited to illus
trate my contention. 1t only remains
for me to ask these questions: Would
the Macon veterans refuse to hear an
address from Raphael Semmes?
Would they prescribe Father Ryan?
Would they protest against an invi-
tation to Patrick Cleburne? Would
they decline to listen to Chief Justice
White? If not, then they certainly
have no right to refuse an audience to
Bishop Kelley.
Il am blue-stocking Presbyterian.
My ancestors, on both sides of the
house, have all been Protestants, from
time immemorial. Some were English
dissenters, some were French Hugue-
nots and some were Scotch Covenant
ers. But | cannot quarrel with any
man on the score of his religion, who
touched elbows with my father on the
fields of the Confederacy, and who
stood in the trenches when the south
land was invaded Even on religious
feast days | must confess that find
myself wholly without bitterness to-
ward the old Mother Church, which
all through the dark ages, testified to
the true faith and kept the lamps of
learning aglow in the monasteries of
Christendom.
THE 18th day of April is a day sa-
cred to the memories of the Conquer
ed Banner. 1t commentaries a cause
for which Catholics and Protestants
alike suffered. In doing honor to
heroes dead, let US not commit an act
OF injustice to heroes living. With re-
spect to Confederate soldier, let us
not ask to what creed he subscribed;
but, on this Sabbath of the year,
whether Protestant or Catholic, let
us kneel at the altar of a common
patriotism, and let us be content to
know that he followed the plume of
the great Lee in Dixie's hour of need
The prayer of the Master was that
His people might be one in faith; but
/ if we cannot clasp hands as Chris