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| Father Scully preaching to the ninth Massachusetts regiment: service for the recruits at Camp Cass, Arlington heights, Virginia, 1861. It was not often during army life that the advanstage of churches or places of religious worship were available to the troops in the field. When chaplains were connected with regiments in active service, any improvised tent or barrel for an altar or pulpit was utilized for the minister's benefit. The question of denomination rarely entered the minds of the men. Where a church edifice was near the camps, or when located near some village or city, services were held within the edifice, but this was very infrequent. The camp at Arlington Heights was located directly opposite Washington and Georgetown, D. C., overlooking the banks of the Potomac River on the Virginia side. The Ninth Massachusetts was a regiment composed of Irish volunteers from the vicinity of Boston. The Catholic chaplains were very assiduous in their attention to the ritual of the Church, even on the tented field. Many of these chaplains have since risen to high positions in the Church. Archbishop Ireland was one of these splendid and devoted men. An example of the fearless devotion of the Catholic chaplains was the action of Father Corby, of the Irish Brigade, at the battle of Gettysburg. As the brigade was about to go into the fiercest fighting at the center of the Federal line and shot and shell were already reaching its ranks, at the solicitation of Father Corby it was halted, and knelt; standing upon a projecting rock, the brave father rendered absolution to the soldiers according to the rites of the Catholic Church. A few minutes later the brigade had plunged to the very thick of the fierce fighting at the ‘Loop.’ |
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[100]
Review of Reviews. New York. 1912.
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