Both sides admire priest’s heroic service

Father John B. Bannon, a Catholic priest and leader of a St. Louis parish, ministered to congregations and soldiers, manned artillery during heated Civil War battles, served as Jefferson Davis’ special secret envoy to Europe and finished his life as a Jesuit priest in his native Ireland.

Even before the commencement of hostilities in the Civil War, Bannon joined a St. Louis militia unit, the Washington Blues. War seemed inevitable, and the Irishmen of Bannon’s Total Abstinence and Benevolent Society participated enthusiastically in church and militia life. Although pastor to many of the men, Bannon also insisted upon wearing the militia uniform and drilling with the troops.

During growing tensions in Missouri, Bannon refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Union. One might be surprised to find a Catholic priest siding with the pro-slavery forces, but the feisty Irishman did not view the problem that way. He stood by the men of his parish, who looked at the actions of the Union forces in Missouri as harassing, oppressive and akin to British subjugation of the Irish.

When the local Germans turned out almost unanimously in support of the Union, one Missourian wrote, “the infidel, Sabbath-breaking, beer-drinking Dutch [Germans] were of the same breed as those who harried Ireland.”

In December 1861, Union leaders, fed up with Bannon’s vitriol-laced sermons advocating the Southern cause, issued a warrant for the priest’s arrest. Bannon fled St. Louis one step ahead of his Union pursuers.

‘A noble man’

Bannon became a Confederate and donned the butternut uniform of the South in January 1862. He agreed to minister to Gen. Sterling Price’s “Patriot Army of Missouri” even though he received no pay and officially, he was not mustered into the Confederate Army. A man of conscience, Bannon felt his place was with the Irishmen he had served as their pastor in St. Louis. Bannon remained in the field, mostly with the First Missouri Confederate Brigade until after the fall of Vicksburg, Miss., in July 1863.

Bannon gained the admiration of nearly everyone he encountered. A caring, stubborn, humorous and energetic man, he participated in every facet of military life, sometimes serving as a scout, obtaining provisions, securing lodgings, while at the same time keeping up a daily ministry to his men. Noticed usually for his holy actions or raucous laughter, the tall well-built Bannon was difficult to miss, even when motionless and silent. A soldier wrote in his diary, “Father Bannon’s … commanding figure enabled him to be recognized.”

The diaries of the men Bannon served abound in praise. “A noble man on the march … he always had an encouraging word and [stood] ready to help those who became exhausted & etc. I have seen him walking while some tired fellow was riding his horse.”

Bannon himself recognized the soldiers’ complaints about many other chaplains, who “were frequently objects of derision, always disappearing on the eve of an action.” Bannon assisted men in the danger of skirmish lines, battlefronts and all kinds of engagements. At Pea Ridge, Ark., he was seen tending to the wounded as bullets flew all around, “armed only with the viaticum [Eucharist] the tourniquet and with a bottle of whiskey.” Bannon was ready to offer a wounded man prayer, extreme unction (the last rites) or stronger liquid solace, as the need arose. The sacrament of confession often included a wounded man’s last words.

Armed with a bottle

Bannon frequently ministered to and befriended army leadership. At one point, Bannon offered a drink to an exhausted Gen. Price himself, saying, “Take a drop, ‘twill do you good, and then you can get a nap!” Gen. Dabney Maury of Price’s command recalls, “The good Father never drank a drop himself but he was indefatigable in his care for the wounded and wearied people and always carried into battle a quart of good whiskey.”

Price admired Bannon greatly. After the fighting at Cross Timber Hollow, Ark., Price wrote, “The greatest soldier I ever saw was Father Bannon. In the midst of the fray he would step in and take up a fallen soldier. If he were a Catholic, he would give him the rites of the church, if a Protestant and if he desired, he would baptize him.”

Bannon’s stubbornness startled Gen. Earl Van Dorn, who ordered him out of battle and to the rear to attend to the wounded there. Bannon responded, “I can attend to them later. I must attend now to those not able to be removed from the field.” Threatened with arrest for disobedience, Bannon replied, “I am doing God’s work, and He has no use for cowards or skulkers. A Catholic priest must do his duty, and never consider the time or place. If I am killed, I am not afraid to meet my fate. I am in God’s keeping. His holy will be done.”

An artilleryman

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