American Catholics

The Catholic Record Society 64^th

While not a Roman Catholic, George Washington (1732-1799), renowned military leader of the American Revolution and groundbreaking first President of the United States, instead was a moderate Anglican in faith. However, throughout his life he socialized with many Catholics, ranging from the prominent Carroll family of Maryland to his many French and Polish born army officers, such as Larayette and Kosciuszko. Washington also once attended a Catholic mass in Philadelphia and contributed funds towards the construction of a Catholic church in Baltimore.

Monsignor James Marshall Campbell devoted his life to The Catholic University of America (CUA) as a student, professor in the Greek and Latin Department, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, his contributions shaped the lives of many. As a priest and later a monsignor, he was a chaplain at Holy Cross Academy and Dumbarton College while simultaneously working at CUA. He was also named a Domestic Prelate of His Holiness Pope John XXIII (1959).

Since 2015, I've been working on a project regarding the Spanish-American War in NJ's Gateway Region (Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Passaic, Union and Middlesex counties). Last summer, I decided to focus my research on religious attitudes in the region during the war, because I noticed that there was markedly less conflict between Catholics and Protestants in the region than would be expected, given the heated religious rhetoric that surrounded the conflict.

In his 1977 hit single ‘Heroes,’ David Bowie sang “We can be heroes, just for one day…We can be heroes, forever and ever.” He may just as well have been referring to the ‘Catholic Heroes of the World War‘, whose valor was chronicled in the

The September 2017 issue of The Journal of the Civil War Era is now available! It can be accessed via Project Muse and is also a membership benefit for those in the Society of Civil War Historians.