Who’s Buried in Catholic Cemeteries: Lt. Powhatan Clarke, U.S. Army (1862-1893)
One of my favorite Frederic Remington drawings depicts the rescue of a Buffalo Soldier during the Indian Wars by an officer of the Tenth U.S. Cavalry. The officer in question was Second Lieutenant...
View ArticleMilitary Mass During the Civil War, 1864
FATHER CORBY’S DESCRIPTION OF A MILITARY MASS On or about the 4th day of September, 1864, Gen. Meagher, who was on a visit with Gen. Hancock at the time, prior to his departure for the department of...
View ArticleRemembering the Fallen: Corporal John Briody, Seventh U.S. Cavalry (1847-1876)
For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated with the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the figure of George Armstrong Custer. So you can imagine my delight to find out that I had a family...
View ArticleCardinal Gibbons Preaches at Funeral Mass of General Philip H. Sheridan,...
Cardinal James Gibbons’ Sermon at the Funeral Mass of General Philip Sheridan, August 11, 1888, St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Washington, D.C. (The New York Times, August 12, 1888) Well might the children...
View ArticleCatholics at West Point, a 1908 Survey
Today, the day that the Class of 2014 graduates from the United States Military Academy, offers an opportunity to look at some of the Catholic graduates West Point. During the nineteenth century, the...
View ArticleRoads to Rome: U.S. Army Officer Enters the Church, 1909
Georginia Pell Curtis’s 1909 anthology Some Roads to Rome offers a series of first-hand accounts of Catholic converts. The following is the story of an unidentified U.S. Army officer who embraced...
View ArticleRemembering the Fallen: Lt. Robert P. Mathias, D-Day, June 6, 1944
In his outstanding history of D-Day, Stephen Ambrose describes the conditions that Second Lieutenant Robert Mathias and the men of Company E, 508th Parachute Infantry, he faced as they parachuted over...
View ArticleCatholics in the Military: Lieutenant Augustine F. Hewit, U.S.A. (1857-1882)
Lieut. Augustine F. Hewit, of the United States Army, died on Saturday in San Antonio, Texas, under peculiary sad circumstances. The deceased was a Lieutenant of the Twenty-second Infantry, stationed...
View ArticleCatholics in the Military: Lieutenant General Harold G. Moore (1922-2017)
“All through my life, I’ve tried to keep in mind that our purpose is to try to qualify for life hereafter.”—General Hal Moore One of the best books ever written about the Vietnam War, in my reading...
View ArticleWho’s Buried in Catholic Cemeteries?
Brigadier General James Rowan O’Beirne (1839-1917)– Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, New York. One of the great things about living in New York City is that there’s always some interesting historical...
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