Catholic Priests at War
Episode 3
[Transcription of the above]
We ended our last episode with Frs. Rey and McElroy and the American-Catholic military chaplaincy during the Mexican-American War, which took place from 1846-1847. Now, we are going to travel across the Atlantic and fast forward about eight years and turn to another Catholic military chaplaincy but this time in one of the most powerful imperial armies in the modern era. We’ll be looking at the British-Catholic military chaplaincy during the lesser known Crimean War.
Now, you may be wondering: what was the Crimean War? Indeed, it was and still is a very foreign conflict for those not familiar with it. No pun intended. What led up to the conflict was the French and Russian empires quarreled over which nation had rightful jurisdiction in protecting the Christian holy sites within the large Muslim Ottoman Empire, along with the Russians believing they possessed authority to defend the Russian Orthodox believers that resided in the Turkish domains. After the Russians invaded Ottoman territory, the war began in October 1853, with the Ottoman Empire declaring war on Imperial Russia and then with the British and French empires siding with the Ottomans against Russia in March 1854 once diplomacy failed to quell the conflict.[1] By the summer of 1854, the allied army positioned their main bases at the cities of Varna, Scutari, and Gallipoli and landed an army of 64,000 British, French, and Turkish soldiers, who invaded the Crimean Peninsula in September.[2] Traveling with this allied army, in the British forces, were two Catholic priests acting as military chaplains for British-Catholic soldiers; their names were Frs. John Wheble and Dennis Sheehan.[3]
The ironic thing to note here is that the British government granted permission to the British Catholic hierarchy to select chaplains and the number granted was just two; two chaplains for the around ten thousand Catholic troops in the twenty-six thousand British army making its way to the Crimea to fight the Russians.[4] To really hone in on this predicament, the issue was that a large portion of Britain’s army recruits were Catholic, mostly from Ireland, with the number of Irish soldiers alone in 1840 being around 37.2%.[5] Even though there are no “public” numbers on the amount of Irishmen in the British army until 1868, with the number of Irishmen by then being around 30.4% to 30.8%.[6] Of the total number of Catholics in the British army in 1868, 28.4% were Catholic; thus, using these numbers in 1840 and 1868 and approximating them in 1854, there were roughly around 35.4% Catholic soldiers in the British army as a whole.[7] Among that number were the 10,000 Catholics in the British force making their way to the Crimea in early 1854, only Frs. Wheble and Sheehan to attend them.[8]
Unlike Frs. Anthony Rey and John McElroy, Frs. Wheble and Sheehan were not from a priestly order, but were, in fact, diocesan clergymen and came from the Dioceses of Westminster and Southwark, respectively.[9] But, like Frs. Rey and McElroy, these two English priests volunteered in March 1854, after Bishop Thomas Grant of Southwark beforehand requested priests for the chaplaincy to accompany the British army in the Crimea, which was very similar to how President James K. Polk requested the American bishops to choose some priests to accompany the American army during the Mexican-American War.[10] Additionally, several other English priests took up the call to go east and minister to the British-Catholic troops in the Crimea.[11] These other priests, however, would not start making their way to the Crimea and arriving there until late September to early October 1854.[12] This initial small number of priests would not, as stated, last for the whole year, but, similar, at least for a time, to Jesuit Frs. Rey and McElroy, there would be only two chaplains to minister to a great number of Catholic soldiers for a while.[13] Nevertheless, two priests were better than none and they began making an impact as soon as they encountered Catholic troops.
After setting off from England in March 1854, Frs. Wheble and Sheehan arrived in the British army on the island of Malta on March 28th and received a hearty greeting from the Catholic soldiers.[14] They must have felt great relief, considering Fr. Sheehan wrote to Bishop Grant on April 1st that the Catholic troops “feared that they were destined to go to the East without any spiritual assistance.”[15] At some point, Frs. Wheble and Sheehan separated for a while, with Fr. Wheble assigning himself to the Gallipoli division and Fr. Sheehan traveling to Scutari with another division of troops.[16]
Fr. Sheehan arrived at Scutari base in mid April and related on April 27th to the vicar general of Southwark Diocese, a Dr. Cox, that he was “leading a soldier’s life…residing in the barracks and faring on a soldier’s rations.”[17] Fr. Sheehan described that before three more regiments arrived, increasing the amount of men he would serve, he “still…had about 3,000 at mass,” with the newly landed regiments totally to ten regiments in the division that Fr. Sheehan needed to attend to and “[o]f these a very large portion is Catholic.”[18]
About a hundred miles away at Gallipoli, Fr. Wheble attended to the other British division assigned to the Crimea front, traveling with them to the city of Varna in modern Bulgaria on June 25th, and, while on the journey to Varna, Fr. Wheble set up his tent in the British camp in what Fr. Wheble called “a very isolated spot, but still I had four camps in view, by which some advantage was gained, for my solitary encampment necessarily attracted the notice of the soldiers and enabled them to find me.”[19] Fr. Wheble found plenty of work for himself, writing to Bishop Grant on June 25th that “[t]here are many men who when free, are most anxious to attend daily Mass and obtain prayers.”[20]
After arriving at Varna on June 27th many British troops fell victim to cholera, with the addition of enduring low supplies and hot weather; but Fr. Wheble was right there among them in the hospitals, treating them in the best way he knew how, with a Protestant officer commenting about Fr. Wheble in the following manner: “No Catholic has died in hospital without the priest seeing him. He is a constant visitor of the sick there and he is always trying to find out where sickness is.”[21] However, these chaplains were not enough, for The Post reported in early August 1854 that:
It would appear that the Roman Catholic soldiers are very ill-provided with Chaplains. The British forces in the East now number about thirty thousand, of whom one-third are said to be Irish Catholics. For these there are but two priests; and when it is considered how the men are scattered in different quarters…it is easy to conceive that many must fall sick, die, and be buried without the solemnities of their own religion.[22]
Historian Evelyn Bolster agrees with this assessment by contending that even though Frs. Wheble and Sheehan possessed commitment for their work the new chaplains “could not supply spiritual ministration to all who required their assistance,” even if all the soldiers experienced perfect health; considering that they did not, but, instead many soldiers suffered from various diseases, namely fever, dysentery, and cholera, within all the military units in the British army on the Crimean front.[23] Bolster goes on to assert that having hundreds dying from these illnesses, and thousands agonizing in their beds with these ailments, it became utterly apparent that more than two priests were needed for the Catholic troops stationed in the Crimea, with The Post, which was not an advocate of Catholicism, stating that since the British army had Catholic troops then “we are bound, in return, to leave no reasonable necessity of theirs, either for flesh or spirit, uncared for.”[24] Bishop Grant sought to alleviate the problem by requesting more chaplains.[25] After much hard work, providentially, Bishop Grant got what he wanted from the British government and three chaplains were additionally recruited: Frs. John Bagshawe and John Butt left England on September 21st and Frs. Michael Cuffe, Thomas Moloney, and Michael Canty made their way to the Crimea in October; however, as mentioned earlier in this video, though these priests volunteered and would go to the Crimea, they would not start showing up gradually and respectively from mid October to early November.[26] In the meantime, the chaplaincy had to make do with the considerable shortage of priests, which proved spiritually damaging to the British troops. For example, Fr. Sheehan wrote in a letter to Bishop Grant on July 20, 1854, “[T]he advantage of spiritual assistance enjoyed by the regiments of the Light and of the Second Divisions is denied for the present to the Third Division, which lies in the neighborhood of Varna. The hospital at Varna is likewise destitute of provision for the spiritual wants of the Catholic patients there.”[27] By early September, British soldiers were being loaded into transport vessels to make their way to the Crimea, and Fr. Wheble described on September 3rd how he left the hospital’s “sad scene of confusion” and that he was on his way to the Crimea, fearing that “bloody work is before us and who will live to tell the tale God only knows.”[28]
Leaving the coast of Varna shortly thereafter, British forces, along with their French ally, landed at Eupatoria on September 14th and began making their way down the Crimean peninsula on the 19th, with Frs. Wheble and Sheehan marching alongside them.[29] That same evening, the British and French coalition army camped for the night with the Russian army right across from it, both armies waiting and resting to eventually give battle by the banks of the Alma River the next day.[30] Frs. Wheble and Sheehan’s work was truly about to begin.
On September 20, 1854, the battle began in the morning by the French forces, who occupied the center and right flank of the assault on the Russians, and events for them went quite well.[31] However, the British forces on the left flank, having officers who were bent on keeping their troops in scrupulous line formations, did not attack with the French until later and faced stiff resistance from the Russians until the French diverted their forces to the left wing and helped to push the Russian army back.[32] Rewinding back to the battle, Frs. Wheble and Sheehan were in the midst of the Battle of the Alma and the Catholics in the British forces only had these two brave priests to attend them. Recollecting the battle, Fr. Wheble wrote in a letter on October 7th that “[o]ur brigade began the battle of Alma, and suffered much[.] I had no idea we were so near the Russians when the bullets came whizing [sic] and the round shot bowling along. I then retired to the rear a little where the wounded were brought. A fearful sight.”[33] A more detailed retelling from Fr. Wheble came in a letter he wrote on October 17, 1854. Fr. Wheble wrote how the British Catholic chaplaincy was under staffed and had it not been at the Alma “one of us ought also to have followed the battle through for the sake of those who died on the field and before they could be removed to the rear.”[34] Fr. Wheble made this comment because the French Catholic chaplaincy during the battle had, it would seem, from his letter enough priests to tend to their soldiers, considering that the chief French chaplain, Fr. Parobert, informed Fr. Wheble “that he went from one poor fellow to another, absolving all whom he found dying, but leaving the mere wounded to the other clergy in the rear.”[35] Unfortunately, there were not enough priests among the British forces.
But, though they had not enough chaplains to effectively attend the men, Fr. Wheble marched with the troops into battle anyway.[36] The brave priest described what he faced during the Battle of the Alma on September 20, 1854, with the following words, which is worth to quote at length:
As it was I simply marched at the head of the English column, and as soon as a poor fellow dropt [sic] I was ready to attend him; and before I had done all for him and the man others brought back, the army had advanced far ahead. The battle was over, in fact, before either Sheehan or I had finished our work where the regimental surgeons were busy. We then both started to look for any on the field of battle, but all we came across before reaching the village were dead, and at the village were fresh batches of wounded and general hospitals were opened.[37]
Fr. Sheehan described in more detail what he and Fr. Wheble witnessed when they returned to the Alma battlefield in a letter he wrote on October 22nd:
The battle field is indeed a terrible thing; and the field of Alma was a frightful illustration of war’s horrors. It is not in the battle itself that one feels so much, but afterwards. I went over the field when the fight was over to try if I could find any poor fellows who had been left there in a dying state. It was an awful thing to behold the poor soldier, who went out in the morning full of glowing hopes, rigid in death, and so battered in head or shattered in limb as to present a most revolting sight. More deplorable still was it to hear and especially when dusk came on, the cries of the wounded, who were so numerous and scattered that it took two days to bring the last of them into the hospital. The hospital was indeed a congregation of misery. I shall never forget the sight as long as I live.[38]
Even with all these horrible sights, Frs. Wheble and Sheehan performed beautifully in their duties as chaplains to the troops during and after this engagement with the Russians, with one British soldier claiming that:
Almighty God must have endowed Messrs Wheble and Sheehan with a supernatural strength, to enable them to do the Herculean work they have. How I prayed to God to strengthen these two reverend gentlemen, when, the day after the battle I was employed in burying the dead. I saw these two under the hot sun, toiling with unceasing energy in their endeavours [sic] to assist and give consolation to the wounded and dying.[39]
[Stay tuned for my next episode on the British Catholic chaplaincy in the Crimean War. I will simply take up where I left off in this episode. The story of Frs. Wheble and Sheehan and their colleagues is not over. And thanks for watching. If you want to watch more content like this and what I have been putting out in my shorts, click that like button, subscribe, and hit that notification bell. Thanks again and God bless. St. Bede the Venerable, pray for us. Ave Mater Benedicta.
[1] James Hagerty and Tom Johnstone, “Catholic Military Chaplains in the Crimean War,” Recusant History 27, no. 3 (2005): 415.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Hagerty and Johnstone, “Catholic Military Chaplains in the Crimean War,” 420. James Hagerty, “A Catholic Chaplain in the Crimean War,” Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 82, no. 329 (2004): 25.
[4] Ibid, 23.
[5] Ibid, 21.
[6] Peter Karsten, “Irish Soldiers in the British Army, 1792-1922: Suborned or Subordinate?,” Journal of Social History 17, no.1 (1983): 36. H. J. Hanham, “Religion and Nationality in the Mid-Victorian Army,” in War and Society: Historical Essays in Honour and Memory of J. R. Western, 1928-1971, ed. M. R. D. Foot, (New York, NY: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1973), 161.
[7] Karsten, “Irish Soldiers in the British Army,” 36. Hanham, “Religion and Nationality in the Mid-Victorian Army,” 161.
[8] Hagerty, “A Catholic Chaplain in the Crimean War,” 23.
[9] Hagerty and Johnstone, “Catholic Military Chaplains in the Crimean War,” 420.
[10] Robert Emmett Curran, “‘It Will Serve to Destroy Those Calumnies That Catholics Are Not Faithful Subjects’: The McElroy-Rey Mission and the Limits of Patriotism in the Mexican-American War,” U.S. Catholic Historian 38, no. 1 (2020): 57, 59.
[11] Hagerty and Johnstone, “Catholic Military Chaplains in the Crimean War,” 420. Hagerty, “A Catholic Chaplain in the Crimean War,” 24.
[12] Hagerty and Johnstone, “Catholic Military Chaplains in the Crimean War,” 420. Hagerty, “A Catholic Chaplain in the Crimean War,” 24. Evelyn Bolster, The Sisters of Mercy in the Crimean War, (Cork, IRE: The Mercier Press, 1964), 182.
[13] Fr. McElroy noted that if preparations were better made four to five priests would have been needed during the Mexican-American War to attend to the American troops (Fr. John McElroy, “A brief account of the Missions of the two Fathers, McElroy & Rey S.J. as Chaplain in the U.S. Army in the war against Mexico,” p. 33, Journals (11 of 15), 1846-1872, John McElroy, S.J., 1813-1877, Papers of Individual Priests of the Maryland Province, 1790-2003, Archives of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, Georgetown University Archival Resources).
[14] Hagerty, “A Catholic Chaplain in the Crimean War,” 24.
[15] Fr. Dennis Sheehan to Bishop Thomas Grant, April 1, 1854, Archives of the Archdioceses of Southwark [AAS], Bishop Thomas Grant Papers, quoted in Hagerty and Johnstone, “Catholic Military Chaplains in the Crimean War,” 420-421.
[16] Hagerty, “A Catholic Chaplain in the Crimean War,” 24. Fr. Dennis Sheehan to Dr. Cox, April 27, [1854], in “CATHOLIC CHAPLAINS IN THE EAST,” Boston Pilot, Volume 17, Number 27, 8 July 1854,
https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=bpilott18540708-01.2.4&e=------185-en-20--1--txt-txIN-Sheehan----1854--
.
[17] Fr. Sheehan to Dr. Cox, April 27, [1854], in “CATHOLIC CHAPLAINS IN THE EAST,”
https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=bpilott18540708-01.2.4&e=------185-en-20--1--txt-txIN-Sheehan----1854--
. Hagerty and Johnstone, “Catholic Military Chaplains in the Crimean War,” 421.
[18] Fr. Sheehan to Dr. Cox, April 27, [1854], in “CATHOLIC CHAPLAINS IN THE EAST,”
https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=bpilott18540708-01.2.4&e=------185-en-20--1--txt-txIN-Sheehan----1854--
.
[19] Fr. John J. Wheble to Bishop Thomas Grant, AAS, Bishop Thomas Grant Papers, June 25, 1854, quoted in Hagerty, “A Catholic Chaplain in the Crimean War,” 24.
[20] Hagerty, “A Catholic Chaplain in the Crimean War,” 24. Fr. Wheble to Bishop Grant, AAS, Bishop Thomas Grant Papers, June 25, 1854, quoted in Hagerty, “A Catholic Chaplain in the Crimean War,” 24.
[21] The Tablet, August 19, 1854, Quoted in Hagerty, “A Catholic Chaplain in the Crimean War,” 25.
[22] The Post, quoted in the The Freeman’s Journal, August 1854, quoted in Bolster, The Sisters of Mercy in the Crimean War, 180.
[23] Bolster, The Sisters of Mercy in the Crimean War, 181.
[24] Bolster, The Sisters of Mercy in the Crimean War, 181. The Post, quoted in the The Freeman’s Journal, August 1854, quoted in Bolster, The Sisters of Mercy in the Crimean War, 180.
[25] Bolster, The Sisters of Mercy in the Crimean War, 181.
[26] Bolster, The Sisters of Mercy in the Crimean War, 182. Hagerty and Johnstone, “Catholic Military Chaplains in the Crimean War,” 420. Hagerty, “A Catholic Chaplain in the Crimean War,” 24, 27, 28.
[27] Fr. Dennis Sheehan to Bishop Thomas Grant, July 20, 1854, AAS, Bishop Thomas Grant Papers, quoted in Bolster, The Sisters of Mercy in the Crimean War, 182.
[28] Hagerty, “A Catholic Chaplain in the Crimean War,” 25. Fr. Wheble to Bishop Grant, September 3, 1854, AAS, Grant Papers, quoted in Hagerty, “A Catholic Chaplain in the Crimean War,” 25.
[29] Hagerty and Johnstone, “Catholic Military Chaplains in the Crimean War,” 421. Winifred Baumgart, The Crimean War: 1853-1856, (London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020), 121.
[30] Baumgart, The Crimean War, 121-122.
[31] Ibid, 122, 123.
[32] Ibid.
[33] Fr. John J. Wheble to [unknown], October 7, 1854, Boston Pilot, Volume 17, Number 46, 18 November 1854,
https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=bpilott18541118-01.2.29&srpos=19&e=------185-en-20--1--txt-txIN-Sebastopol----1854--
.
[34] Fr. John J. Wheble to [unknown], October 17, 1854, “The Irish Catholic Army,” Boston Pilot (1838-1857), Volume 17, Number 50, 16 December 1854,
https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=bpilott18541216-01.2.29&srpos=6&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-Wheble+----1854--
.
[35] Ibid.
[36] Ibid.
[37] Ibid.
[38] Fr. Dennis Sheehan to Dr. Cox, “Dear Dr. Cox,” October 22, 1854, “Catholic Chaplains in the East,” Boston Pilot, Vol. 17, no. 51, December 23, 1854,
https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=bpilott18541223-01.2.3&srpos=104&e=------185-en-20--101-byDA-txt-txIN-sheehan+----1854--
.
[39] The Tablet, Oct. 28, 1854, quoted in Hagerty and Johnstone, “Catholic Military Chaplains in the Crimean War,” 423.