"Confederate Chaplain: A War Journal of Rev. James B. Sheeran, C.SS.R, 14th Louisiana, CSA", edited by Rev. Joseph T. Durkin, S.J., preface by Bruce Catton, Bruce Publishing Co., Minneapolis, 1960. James Sheeran was born at Temple Mehill, Co Longford, in 1819. When he was 12, he emigrated to Canada. Moving on to New York and later Pennsylvania, by 1845 he was a tailor in Monroe, MI. He also taught in the boys' Catholic school there run by the Redemptorists. He married about 1842; the marriage produced a son and daughter. Sadly, very little is known about the family. When his wife died in 1849, he sent his daughter to board at an Immaculate Heart convent; she later joined the order but died in 1861, a few months short of her 18th birthday. Meanwhile, in 1855 Sheeran joined the Redemptorists, was ordained in 1858 and assigned to a parish in New Orleans. In September 1861, he was appointed Chaplain to the 14th LA Inf. In August 1862, Fr. Sheeran began keeping his journal of his experiences during the War. And quite a number of experiences he did have: serving with the 14th for most of the war, going on furlough and touring the South in late 1863, being arrested (unjustly, BTW) and jailed at Ft McHenry in late 1864. It sounds like he was very popular through the Army of Northern Virginia, even among Protestants, who oft times invited him to come preach. Fr. Sheeran was an ardent Confederate who, although he really probably shouldn't have, at times stepped into a company officer's role. Very sure of himself, he didn't take nonsense from anyone, even managing to get the last word in on both Stonewall Jackson and Phil Sheridan. He became very good friends with General Richard Ewell and his wife. While visting with them on one occassion he stumbled into the middle of what must have been a couple's squabble: "One of her questions was, 'Father, do you think a general is justified in carelessly exposing himself on the battlefield?' "No, mam! I think he is not. A general is the soul of the army, and his fall always causes despondency and sometimes great disaster to his command. A general in my opinion should keep himself as far as possible out of danger, but in such a position as to see or hear of the movements in battle; but there may arise circumstances which would require even a general to expose himself to every danger.' 'There now, General,' said she, looking at her husband, 'you see that the Father is just of my opinion.' From this remark I concluded that she and the General had been discussing the subject. "At this stage of the conversation our brigade was just passing, so after refusing a pressing invitation to stay for dinner I mounted my horse and started with our boys for camp." Unfortunately, the book is long out of print, but I found it well worth my while chasing it down. Sheeran was a very observant man with a talent for expressing himself in a lively manner - I read the entire book in one evening, it's that good. As a postscript, after the war and back in New Orleans, Fr. Sheeran aided victims of a yellow fever outbreak in 1867. He was released from the Redemptorist order and became a diocesan priest in Morristown NJ in 1871, putting the same energy and zeal he had shown as a chaplain into building up his new parish. As the editor put it: "He was doing what Robert E. Lee, at about the same time, was doing: healing the sectional wounds by placing the nation above section. He had served the people of the South in peace and in war; he would now serve the people above the Mason-Dixon line. He had been a Southern partisan, but he knew that partisanship stops at the boundary of souls." He died on 3 April 1881. Slainte, Dennis