higher inspiration,
that has its origin far beyond the realm of the narrow house!

Sacred to one and all--in the Dixie of yesterday, in the southern half
of the cemented Union of to-day--is the memory of that past. Sweet and
bitter commingled, as it is, we clasp it to our heart of hearts and
know--that were it bitterer a thousand fold--it is ours still! So I may
not leave the field of southern song, unnoting its noblest strain--its
funeral hymn! Father Ryan's "Conquered Banner" is so complete in
fulfillment of its mission, that we can not spare one word, while yet
no word is wanting! Every syllable there finds it echo far down in
every southern heart. Every syllable has added significance, as coming
from a man of peace;--a priest of that church which ever held forth
free and gentle hand to aid the cause of struggling freedom!

In hottest flashings of the fight; in toilsome marches of winter; in
fearful famine of the trenches--the Catholic soldiers of the
Confederacy ever acted the motto of the Douglas; their deeds ever
said--"Ready! aye, ready!"

And, in fetid wards of fever hospital; in field-tents, where the busy
knife shears through quivering flesh; on battle-ground, where shattered
manhood lies mangled almost past semblance of itself; at hurried
burial, where gory blanket, or rough board, makes final rest for some
"Hero without a name;"--there ever, and ever tender and tireless, the
priest of Rome works on his labor of love and consolation! And the
gentlest daughter of the eldest church was there as well. All southern
soldiers were brothers, in her eyes; children of the One Father. And
that noble band of Sisters of Mercy--to which our every woman belonged;
giving light and hope to the hospital, life itself to the cause--that
band knew no confines of ministry--no barriers of faith, which made
charity aught but one common heritage!

Over the border, too; in struggling Maryland, in leaguered Missouri,
and far into the North, the Catholic clergy were friends of the
southern cause. They ceased never openly to defend its justice; quietly
to aid its sympathizers. They helped the self-exiled soldier to bear
unaccustomed hardships, on the one side; carried to his lonely mother,
on the other, tidings of his safety, or his glory, that "caused the
heart of the widow to sing for joy!"

Fitting, then, it was that a father of that church should chant the
requiem for the dead cause, he had loved and labored for while living;