The Angel of Andersonville (Article 110)
The Angel of Andersonville (Article 110)
Even in the most despicable surroundings, humanity can shine through. The Confederate Andersonville Prison, formally Camp Sumter, near Macon Georgia, has an earned reputation as the worst prisoner of war camp of the Civil War. Hastily built in 1863 to house only 10,000 prisoners, by late 1864 there were nearly 35,000 Union soldiers held there, and the death rate was atrocious. Into that mass of starving and diseased men, came a volunteer, Father Peter Whelan; who became known as the Angel of Andersonville by both Confederate guards and Union prisoners.
One contemporary description of him was as follows: “He stands nearly six feet with drab hair, coarse, ill shaped countenance, round shoulders, long arms, short body and long legs, with feet of more than ordinary size. He may comb his hair sometimes, but if so, it shows no indication of it, as it is generally in a standing condition. His coat is not of the latest nor approved fashion: the sleeves exposing some inches of the lower part of his arm (and) his pants exhibit a considerable portion of his stockings and unpolished shoes... He is fully sensible of his personal exterior. One day he met a brother priest, to whom nature was no more liberal than to himself. ‘Well, your mother and mine must have been women of great virtue...because they did not drown us when they first saw us. None but mothers of great...patience would have raised such ugly specimens of humanity."
Maybe so, but there was an inner beauty to Peter Whelan.
Although native to Ireland and already serving there as a local priest, Father Whelan moved to the United States in 1829, when he was about 28, after being recruited by American priests to “bring Catholicism to the colonies.” He served as a missionary in North Carolina and a pastor in a Georgia parish. Over the years, he became a dedicated Southerner and, as war clouds were beginning to gather in late 1860 and early 1861, he favored secession. His adopted home states of Georgia and North Carolina did eventually secede as did nine other states. Certainly, there were people of all faiths in the South who favored secession, but Father Whelan was a bit of a zealot on the matter. One visitor said that, “Father Whelan tried to make me a secessionist, and even jokingly warned of tar and feathers." But Father Whelan, at sixty years old, wanted to do more than talk and volunteered as Chaplain to a predominately Irish Confederate unit in Savannah. As only one of a few priests in all of Georgia at the time, he maintained other duties in addition to his chaplaincy. However, he soon decided he needed to stay with his soldiers, especially after Union forces began heavy bombardment on their location at Fort Pulaski. When the Confederates finally surrendered the fort and the soldiers became prisoners of the Union Army, Father Whelan volunteered to join them in a prison camp in New York. While the officers had adequate quarters, the enlisted men were crowded into tents and shacks, with little protection from the elements. As a result, many of the men soon began to suffer from pneumonia and typhoid, but that is where Father Whelan chose to stay!
During that time, he appealed to Catholic clergy in Northern states to send provisions, and received some help from New York and Baltimore. There is no question that the men imprisoned with Father Whelan benefited from his efforts, not only to obtain food and other supplies, but also for his service to their spiritual needs. Fortunately, for those prisoners, after a few months, an exchange was arranged and they were given paroles and allowed to return home.
But Father Whelan heard about another place that could use his attention. He volunteered to serve as Chaplain to the Confederate guards at Andersonville prisoner of war camp, a large facility which was already receiving international notoriety (and condemnation) for the squalid conditions under which the Union prisoners were kept.
He wrote, “I was not to foresee what I encountered. Confederate guards were unkempt, underfed, miserable, and undisciplined. But they were so much better off than the prisoners. ….there were men with no shelter, lying in the dirt and their own filth, many unable to stand. There were a few hundred stronger prisoners who stole what little food weaker men were given.” He added that men were “dying by the hundreds each day.”
Another priest who visited Father Whelan wrote, “I found the stockade extremely filthy; the men all huddled together and covered with vermin .… The men were dying there very rapidly from scurvy…diarrhea and dysentery…they had nothing under them at all except the ground”
When he saw the conditions in which the 35,000 prisoners were living (and dying) Father Whelan described himself as distraught. He petitioned the Confederate Commander to allow him to minister to the Union prisoners as well as well as the Confederate soldiers and his request was granted. He then began a remarkable ministry to not only Catholic boys, but any others who he could help. Every day, he entered the stockade at first light and stayed until dark, before returning to his room for evening prayers. Another priest wrote that, “Exhausted, he would fall asleep full of sorrow for what he had seen all day.”
Before Father Whelan’s arrival, an organized group of about fifty prisoners had formed which stole the meager possessions of new arrivals, took more than their share of what little rations were distributed, and assaulted or even murdered those who tried to oppose them. Confederate guards rarely entered the stockade, so these criminals operated unfettered. That is, until Father Whelan arrived. With the Priest’s assistance, the camp Commander finally directed the guards to work with a select group of prisoners to arrest the gang. There was a semblance of a trial with the six ringleaders sentenced to death. Father Whelan visited them the night before their execution and, that morning, even tried to get a stay of their sentence, but it was not granted. For the time being, however, while the lawlessness ended, the deprivations continued.
In late 1864, as General Sherman’s Union Army smashed its way across Georgia near Andersonville, the Confederate guards began to transfer the healthier prisoners elsewhere. Many of the prisoners, however, were too ill to be moved, so the stockade became a large infirmary with over 10,000 patients. Father Whelan went to a Catholic businessman in nearby Macon, Georgia and borrowed, in his own name, enough money (about $400.00 in gold) to obtain provisions for those left behind. He bought flour which was baked into thousands of loaves of bread for the prisoners. The recipients began to call it “Whelan’s Bread” and many of them wrote about that gesture, and Father Whelan’s other caring service, to their families and in memoirs.
One wrote, “Without a doubt he was the means of saving hundreds of lives." Another described Whelan's ministering to the sick: "All creeds, color and nationalities were alike to him…He was indeed the Good Samaritan." Another, in a memoir, wrote, “Of all the ministers in Georgia accessible to Andersonville, only one could hear this sentence, 'I was sick and in prison and you visited me,' and that one is a Catholic."
After the Civil war ended and the atrocities of the Andersonville prison became widely known, the Commander, Captain Henry Wirz, was put on trial. Father Whelan was called to testify, but disappointing the prosecutors, he said that Wirz was just a scapegoat. He testified that there were not enough provisions provided by other Confederate officials for guards or prisoners. But, in a foregone conclusion, Wirz was convicted and executed; becoming the only Confederate to be tried for war crimes and suffer that fate.
But what about the $400.00 Father Whalen had borrowed to feed the ill prisoners? He petitioned Secretary of War Stanton for assistance but was rebuffed. About the same time, friends in Savannah, concerned about the priest’s health, raised enough money to allow Father Whalen to travel to New York where he might recuperate. Although grateful for the gesture, he promptly gave the money to the merchant in Macon, whose business had collapsed at war’s end. To Father Whelan, it was more important to repay his debt, than to attend to his own health. And, he was never able to make the recuperation trip.
For the next few years, he continued normal pastoral duties and worked tirelessly for Confederate and Union veterans; verifying their service to assist in pension applications, and helping to raise funds for veterans’ homes in the Savannah area. But his health steadily declined and he died on February 6, 1871, at sixty-nine.
His funeral was attended by hundreds, including some former Union soldiers. The Savannah Evening News reported that the funeral procession was the longest ever seen in the city with eighty-six carriages and buggies following the casket. Impressive for a poor boy from Ireland.
The Angel of Andersonville, and the provider of Whelan’s Bread, had earned his eternal peace.