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150 chapter 5 For God, Erin, and Carolina Irish Catholics in the Confederacy Although Irish religious leaders of all denominations supported the Confederacy , it was Catholic clergy and sisters who natives saw as the leaders and role models of the Irish community. Thomas Smyth from Second Presbyterian Church in Charleston, for example, was a prominent cleric and Irish immigrant, but it was his Catholic counterpart and fellow Irish immigrant across the city at the Cathedral of Saint Finbar and Saint John the Baptist, Bishop Patrick Lynch, who came to represent the larger Irish Confederate population. Indeed, the vast majority of Irish Confederates whether in military service or on the home front, were Roman Catholics. The position of the Catholic Church on the Confederacy was fundamental then in determining significant Irish support for the new nation. Beyond the confines of the Confederate States, the fact that Irish Catholics had connections to their co-religionist countrymen in the North and across the Atlantic Ocean gave them significance beyond their rallying of Irish southerners to the cause. In the patriotic effort, they ultimately failed, as most Irish Confederates accepted defeat with relative ease. The example of Irish Catholic bishops, priests, and nuns, as well as some prominent lay spokesmen, left an impression of Irish loyalty to the cause greater than it actually was. From the beginning of the conflict, native Confederates welcomed Catholic leaders’ encouragement of Irish congregants to join the armed forces. On September 17, 1861, at his cathedral in Charleston, for example, Bishop Lynch spoke publicly to the Irish Volunteers who were just about to muster into Confederate service. On this day, in front of their bishop and their friends and families, they were to receive their company flag, which had been made by the students of the local Sisters of Mercy. He told the Irish soldiers that “The banner I present today is the work of fair hands of innocence . It gives to the breeze and the light of the sun the emblems of Erin— the Shamrock and the Harp—with the Palmetto of Carolina and Stars of our Southern Confederacy. You will recollect all those lessons of religion and For God, Erin, and Carolina / 151 innocence that have been taught you.” He reminded the Volunteers of the company’s history of service in every American war since its foundation in 1797. He concluded: “Receive it then [the flag]—rally around it. Let it teach you of God—of Erin—of Carolina. Let it teach you your duty in this life as soldiers and as Christians, so that fighting the good fight of Christians you may receive the reward of eternal victory from the King of Kings.” Captain Edward Magrath thanked the bishop and the “young ladies of the Institution of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy for this beautiful present at their hands.” Magrath vowed to protect the flag’s honor and that of the ladies who had made it. He then lined his soldiers in front of the altar before the packed cathedral and reminded them of the pledge they had made to the cause of their “adopted State” and the symbolism of the flag under which they would fight. “Dear Harp of their Country!” he exclaimed “what associations does the sight not give rise to in the bosoms of Irishmen . . . True, the sons of Ireland are scattered everywhere. Yes, like the children of Israel, they had sent forth a prayer for a blessing on the land of their birth.” Magrath then spoke that this quest for Irish freedom matched that of Carolina’s. Led by their color sergeant the Volunteers marched out of the packed cathedral and through the streets with their new flag.1 The Volunteers’ Confederate service had been blessed by their spiritual leader. This religious endorsement of the cause was vital to Irish Confederates , as indeed it was for all Confederates. Soldiers, in particular, found comfort in religion. It provided a motivator for upcoming fights and assurance of salvation if one died in the struggle for a righteous cause. With God on your side, as Bishop Lynch had assured the Irish Volunteers, you could fight with honor and receive the “eternal victory from the King of Kings.”2 For life in general, clerical leadership was very important to Irish immigrants in America. In turn, the Irish were very important to the Catholic Church, providing the majority of its congregants, clerics, and sisters. The roots of clerical leadership of Irish Catholic communities in America...

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