This is an intriguing article by Ronald J. Rychlak of Inside Catholic. I knew that Rosecrans was a Catholic convert but I never knew that Lincoln requested him for his Vice President for his second term. I was stunned, but not surprised, to read that Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, had been accused of intercepting General Rosecrans’ letter of acceptance and destroying it. The fact that Lincoln never did receive this extremely important letter sent by a general is most suspicious. It led to his choosing another candidate, Andrew Johnson, as VP. As you will read in the article, Sylvester Rosecrans, the General’s brother, greatly influenced by his brother’s conversion, followed him into the Church, later entering the seminary. He was ordained in Rome in 1852, and was later made the first bishop of Columbus, Ohio.
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was cruel and anti-Catholic. On no evidence, other than the fact that the inn that she owned was used by John Wilkes Booth and other conspirators, he prosecuted the Catholic hostess, Mary Surratt. She was the first woman to be executed in the USA by court order through a military tribunal. The seven men who were accused in the plot (Booth was shot dead twelve days after the assassination) were forced to wear heavy inch-thick hoods over the face with no holes cut except for the mouth area for eating. Their ankles and wrists were bound by chains tied to a 75 pound ball. They were never unshackled. During the hot weeks of the trial the men grew sick, bloated, swollen, and mentally disoriented. Four of the man were hung. I don’t know what happened to the other three.
Here is the lede to Ronald J. Rychlak’s fascinating article: “Most people know that John F. Kennedy, elected in 1960, was the first Catholic president of the United States. Many are also aware that Al Smith was the first Catholic to run for the presidency, in 1928. Very few, however, know about the Catholic Civil War general who almost became Abraham Lincoln’s vice-president and would have been in line to succeed him when he was assassinated.” Read more here.
