Father Peter Whelan, A
Chaplain of the Confederacy
by
J.C. Sullivan
To describe the life and times of one immigrant to the
American South could be also be aptly titled "Holy Men in Modern
Times." One chapter would describe Wexford-born Peter Whelan. Oh, he was
human, to be sure, but his devotion to God and his fellow man is evident in the
way he chose to live his life. He was also a Confederate Chaplain to
Irish-Americans in the Montgomery Guards, part of the 1st Georgia Volunteers.
Peter Whelan was born in 1802 in County
Wexford, Ireland. He attended Birchfield College in Kilkenny for two years,
where he received classical and mathematical education. He may have been
influenced by the desperate appeal of John England, the bishop of the new
diocese of Charleston, South Carolina. Priests were sorely needed, particularly
in the South. He was ordained a priest of the Benedictine Order in Charleston
on November 21, 1830. He offered his first Mass in the state of Georgia in 1835
in the home of Robert Semmes. In 1854 a yellow fever epidemic claimed the life
of Savannah's first Bishop, Frances Gartland. Father Whelan was
summoned to Savannah and was stationed there for the remainder of his life.
In September 1861
Bishop Augustine Verot was named the third Bishop of the Savannah Diocese,
which was formed in 1850. Arriving at his new post from Florida, he was asked
to send a chaplain to Fort Pulaski. The Fort, on the Savannah River, guarded the approaches to the city. It was thought to be impregnable as no artillery shells could be directed at it from any nearby land. Part of the garrison there were Catholic troops, in particular the Montgomery Guards, mostly Irish from Savannah.
Father Whelan was present on April 10, 1862
when Federal forces began an artillery bombardment of the Fort. Using new
'rifled' artillery, the rounds were able to reach the outer walls from Tybee
Island, more than a mile away. Thirty hours later, with one wall breached by
the shot, it was determined that the entire ammunition magazine was in danger
of exploding, If that happened the entire garrison would be killed. Colonel
Charles H. Olmstead agreed to surrender. Now prisoners-of-war, Father Whelan
and the Montgomery Guards were transported to Governor's Island, New York.
Bernard O'Neill hid the banner on his person.
Wartime
conditions persisted for prisoners and Father Whelan, through the office of
Father William Quinn, pastor of St. Peter's Church, Barclay St., New York,
applied for the position of Prison Chaplain so he could offer daily Mass at
Castle William. Through Father Quinn he was discharged and put on parole.
Father Whelan could have left but he chose to remain with his men and minister
to them. He eventually returned to Savannah where the Vicar General assigned
him the task of overseeing the spiritual needs of the confederate military
posts in Georgia.
On one occasion another Confederate chaplain, the Reverend
James Sheeran of the Fourteenth Louisiana, on leave from Virginia, visited him.
In his diary he observed, "He
stands nearly six feet with drab hair, coarse ill shaped countenance, round or
swinging shoulders, long arms, short body and long legs, with feet of more than
ordinary size.... One day he met a brother priest, to whom nature was no more
liberal than to himself. "Well," said he, "...your mother and
mine must have been women of great virtue....because they did not drown us when
the first saw us. None but mothers of great...patience would have raised such
ugly specimens of humanity."
During May of the
same year Fr. William Hamilton, pastor of Assumption Church in Macon,
accidentally came upon Andersonville Prison and stopped to learn how many
Catholics were there. His experience led him to petition the Vicar, suggesting
a priest be provided; Father Whelan was asked. He arrived at Andersonville on
June 16, 1864. Even though other priests and the Bishop visited briefly, Whelan
remained for four months. Although he
never penned his feelings, a pastor from Macon did. "I found the stockade
extremely filthy: the men all huddled
together and covered with vermin....they had nothing under them but the
ground."
At the fall of the Confederacy, Father
Whelan returned to Savannah and served there until 1868. Now aged sixty-nine
and in failing health from his wartime tribulations, he administered his last
baptism in 1871 and died in February of the same year.
The funeral procession was reported in the Savannah Evening
News as the longest ever seen in the city. After a 10:00 a.m. Mass a procession
of eighty-six carriages and buggies of
civilians, religious societies and Irish organizations escorted his mortal
remains through Savannah's crowd-lined streets to the Catholic Cemetery.
Colonel Olmstead led Confederate Army and Navy veterans. An officer who knew
Father Whelan said, "I followed this good old man to his grave with a
sense of exultation as I thought of the welcome that awaited him from the
Master whose spirit he had caught and made the rule of his life."
Bibliography
Gillian
Bowen, Diocese of Savannah
Father
Whelan of Fort Pulaski and Andersonville, Georgia Historical Quarterly, Spring,
1987.
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