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Four men joined the Catholic Church in the mid-1840s: a soldier, his bishop brother, a priest born a slave and an editor. For the next two decades they were in the thick of the battles of the era--Catholicism versus Know-Nothingism, slavery versus abolition, North versus South. Much has been written about the Catholic Church and about the Civil War. This book is the first in more than half a century to focus exclusively on the intersection of these two topics.
By the death of every person something within the range of his study and knowledge is lost beyond recovery. In publishing this book of memories it is my desire to rescue from oblivion persons and events coming under my observation during a long life, and to make a record of habits, customs and fashions which have prevailed at different periods within my knowledge. The book is not intended to be either in any sense an autobiography, or a mere collection of interesting reminiscences, but a legacy which I wish to leave for the benefit of those coming after me. I cannot permit its publication without a grateful acknowledgment of the service rendered during its preparation by friends too numerous to be mentioned by name in contributing material essential to its approximate completeness and accuracy. — WM. T. DAVIS. FROM THE BOOK.
During the battle of Gettysburg, as Union troops along Cemetery Ridge rebuffed Pickett's Charge, they were heard to shout, "Give them Fredericksburg!" Their cries reverberated from a clash that, although fought some six months earlier, clearly loomed large in the minds of Civil War soldiers. Fought on December 13, 1862, the battle of Fredericksburg ended in a stunning defeat for the Union. Confederate general Robert E. Lee suffered roughly 5,000 casualties but inflicted more than twice that many losses--nearly 13,000--on his opponent, General Ambrose Burnside. As news of the Union loss traveled north, it spread a wave of public despair that extended all the way to President Lincoln. In the b...
Although the United States has always portrayed itself as a sanctuary for the world's victim's of poverty and oppression, anti-immigrant movements have enjoyed remarkable success throughout American history. None attained greater prominence than the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, a fraternal order referred to most commonly as the Know Nothing party. Vowing to reduce the political influence of immigrants and Catholics, the Know Nothings burst onto the American political scene in 1854, and by the end of the following year they had elected eight governors, more than one hundred congressmen, and thousands of other local officials including the mayors of Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, a...