Catholic Confederate General Beauregard’s Statue Removed in New Orleans

The AP report is here. Sometime before this, the city took down the statue of Confederacy President Jefferson Davis, who was (as you will see in the article below) a Catholic in heart. Another Catholic Southern General who converted shortly after the war was James Longstreet. Longstreet was with Lee at Gettysburg. In fact, there he pleaded with General Lee to change his uncharacteristically inane battle plan (dare I say tyrannically stubborn!) to stage a frontal assault on a strategic hill already taken by the Union forces. Davis, by the way, was most respectful of and communicated with Blessed Pope Pius IX, who even sent the president a gift of a crown of thorns when he was in prison. Macon, Georgia, dedicated a boulevard to Pius IX. It is named Pio Nono Blvd. The following article is Brian O’Neel is concise and objective, well worth a read.

Note: Correction. I was informed by a commenter to our website that Pius IX did not send a crown of thorns to Davis, but rather a picture of himself with words of support. Davis’ wife wove a crown of thorns herself for her husband. See more on this here http://cwmemory.com/2009/09… and here https://www.abbevilleinstit

National Catholic Register, Brian O’Neel: June 2, 1865: 150 years ago, Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, who commanded Confederate forces west of the Mississippi, signed surrender terms offered by the Union, causing the last Confederate army to cease to exist.

Catholics played a huge role in the “War Between the States.” The conflict showed the best and the worst its faithful have to offer.

Many Catholics — both in the South and the North — opposed the war. Most Catholics didn’t favor slavery. For centuries, the Church had voiced full opposition, most recently by Pope Gregory XVI in 1839. The rest is here.