I first came across Father Whelan seven or eight years ago while visiting Fort Pulaski on the way to Tybee Island in Savannah. There was a sign at a cell of the fort that called to mind how Father Whelan was taken prisoner when Fort Pulaski fell to Union forces in April 1862.
I ran into him again recently when I visited the Andersonville National Park and Cemetery. A historical marker in the small confederate village of Andersonville, Georgia reads:
Father Whelan was an Irish priest serving the Diocese of Savannah at the outbreak of the War Between the States. He volunteered to serve as chaplain to CSA [The Confederate States of America] troops at Ft. Pulaski and was taken as a POW there when the fort fell to Union forces. After being held over a year at Governor’s Island and Ft. Delaware, he returned to Savannah where he answered the plea to minister to the prisoners held at Camp Sumter. Whelan came to Andersonville on 16 June 1864 and he remained here for four months daily tending to the needs of prisoners in the stockade. After the war, Whelan publicly defended Capt. Wirz as an innocent scapegoat. His life was cut short by a lung disease he contracted here and died on 6 February 1871. He was remembered by Confederate and Union soldiers alike as truly a “Good Samaritan.”
Bishop Augustine Verot of Savannah, nicknamed Rebel Bishop, heard of the deplorable conditions of the prisoner camp in Andersonville and assigned Whelan as its full-time chaplain. Whelan complied and faithfully tended to the spiritual needs of the prisoners.
If you’d like to read more about the conditions at Camp Sumter in Andersonville and the work of Father Whelan, read this interesting and informative article by Ed Churchill:
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