Click 👉TODAY IN HISTORY (general history), Dec. 24
Merry Christmas
Father Abram J. Ryan
Confederate chaplain and poet
(Ca. 1870)
The poet-priest of the South, born at Norfolk, Virginia, 15 August 1839; died at Louisville, Kentucky, 22 April 1886. He inherited from his parents, in its most poetic and religious form, the strange witchery of the Irish temper. Fitted for the priesthood by a nature at once mystic and spiritual, he was ordained just before the beginning of the Civil War, entered the Confederate army as a chaplain, and served in this capacity until the end of the war. In the hour of defeat, he won the heart of the entire South by his "Conquered Banner," whose exquisite measure was taken, as he told a friend, from one of the Gregorian hymns. The Marseillaise, as a hymn of victory, never more profoundly stirred the heart of France than did this hymn of defeat the hearts of those to whom it was addressed. It was read or sung in every Southern household and thus became the apotheosis of the "Lost Cause." While much of his later war poetry was notable in its time, his first effort, which fixed his fame, was his finest production. The only other themes upon which he sang were those inspired by religious feeling. Among his poems of that class are to be found bits of the most weird and exquisite imagery. Within the limits of the Southern Confederacy and the Catholic Church in the United States, no poet was more popular. After the war, he exercised the ministry in New Orleans, and was editor of "The Star," a Catholic weekly; later, he founded "The Banner of the South" in Augusta, Georgia, a religious and political weekly; then he retired to Mobile. In 1880, he lectured in several Northern cities. As a pulpit orator and lecturer, he was always interesting and occasionally brilliant. As a man, he had a subtle, fascinating nature, full of magnetism when he saw fit to exert it; as a priest, he was full of tenderness, gentleness, and courage. In the midst of pestilence, he had no fear of death or disease. Even when he was young, his feeble body gave him the appearance of age, and with all this, there was the dreamy mysticism of the poet so manifest in the flesh as to impart to his personality something which marked him off from all other men. His "Poems, Patriotic, Religious, and Miscellaneous" has reached dozens of printings. [Taylor, H. (1912). Father Abram J. Ryan. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13282b.htm]
A CHRISTMAS CHAUNT
(Excerpted From Father Abram Ryan's Poem)
Ah! no eve is like the Christmas Eve!
Fears and hopes, and hopes and fears,
Tears and smiles, and smiles and tears,
Cheers and sighs, and sighs and cheers,
Sweet and bitter, bitter, sweet,
Bright and dark, and dark and bright.
All these mingle, all these meet,
In this great and solemn night.
Ah! there's nothing like a Christmas Eve!
To melt with kindly glowing heat,
From off our souls the snow and sleet,
The dreary drift of wintry years,
Only to make the cold winds blow,
Only to make a colder snow;
And make it drift, and drift, and drift,
In flakes so icy-cold and swift;
Until the heart that lies below
Is cold and colder than the snow.
And thus with the shadows only,
And the dreamings they unweave,
Alone, and yet not lonely,
I keep my Christmas Eve.
Father Ryan Monument, Mobile, Ala.
(Photo by M.D. Jones)
ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Dec. 24
1861: Confederate War Department Clerk John Jones in Richmond, Virginia spends Christmas Eve day working. He writes, "I am at work working on the resolution passed by Congress. The Secretary sent it to me, with an order to prepare the list of names, and said that he would explain the grounds upon which they are permitted to depart. I can only give the number registered in this office. 1862: General Rosecrans was getting his Army of the Cumberland at Nashville, Tenn. ready for his campaign against the Confederates at nearby Murfreesboro. But General John Hunt Morgan was carrying out his raid on the Yankee lines of communications by driving out three companies of Michigan cavalry from Glasgow, Ky. The Confederates would spend Christmas there and occupy the town for three days while destroying the Federal railroad and communications facilities there.
Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan
1863: Captain Felix Pierre Poché of Mouton's Brigade writes in his daily diary, "We made about 14 miles, and encamped 32 miles from Monroe. I had a lot of trouble trying to buy potatoes for the troops without success. I never thought that there was a place as poor and miserable as this in the State of Louisiana. Tonight, despite the bad colds suffered by the men, it was easy to realize it was Christmas Eve by the shouting and noise in the regiments." (A Louisiana Confederate, 1972)
1864: The Federal Navy bombarded Fort Fisher, North Carolina on this day in preparation for an assault on the fort on Christmas day. Fort Fisher was guarding Wilmington, which was the Confederacy's last link to a port on the Atlantic coast. General Benjamin "Beast" Butler was commanding the invasion force for the Yankees. While the fort was temporarily silenced and some guns dismounted, General Maj. Robert F. Hoke's Division of Confederate infantry arrived there in a nick of time before the land assault began. But the Federals also managed to land their forces on this day.
CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Dec. 24
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