By Edward T. O’Donnell
One hundred 35 years ago this week, on May 19, 1866, the poem "The Conquered Banner" appeared in the pages of the Freeman’s Journal. Published 13 months after Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, it captured the spirit of sentimentality and martyrdom then emerging in the war-torn South. The "Lost Cause," the characterization of the South’s bid for independence as noble and tragic, was born.
Surprisingly, the author of "The Conquered Banner" was Abram Joseph Ryan, a Catholic priest. Born in Maryland in 1838 to Matthew Ryan and Mary Coughlin Ryan of County Limerick, Ryan grew up in St. Louis. He entered the seminary at Niagara Falls, N.Y., in 1854 and was ordained in 1860.
Ryan went to the South and was working as a parish priest and teacher when the Civil War broke out. Denied a formal commission in the Confederate Army, Ryan nonetheless served in an unofficial capacity for the duration of the war. For four years he offered Mass and spiritual comfort, as well as care for the sick and wounded. According to legend, on more than one occasion he shouldered a rifle in battle.
So unlike so many subsequent contributors to the Lost Cause canon, Ryan experienced the war firsthand. Indeed, his first attempt at poetry — "In Memoriam" and "In Memory of My Brother" — came in response to the death of his brother, killed in battle fighting for the Confederacy.
Nearly everyone who met Ryan during and after the war was struck by his captivating, almost mystical persona. With long, flowing black hair and bright, expressive eyes, he cut the figure of an Old Testament prophet. Soldiers recalled his fearlessness under fire and in ministering to cholera victims.
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When the war ended, Ryan returned to his normal duties as a parish priest (he would serve as pastor of churches in several Southern states). But he continued to write poetry. Inspiration for "The Conquered Banner," he later related, came within hours of Lee’s surrender. He wrote it as a cathartic exercise with little thought of publication. One year later, however, he submitted it to the Freeman’s Journal.
The poem became an overnight sensation. It was reprinted in papers across the South and soon set to the music of a popular hymn. Its spirit and tone are captured in the last stanza: