Clergy Dissent in the Old South 1830-1865

[L Verge]

I think I have become fixated on the subject of Jefferson Davis's conversion to the Episcopal High Church as well as his friendship with Pius IX. I have subsequently found these tidbits:

He was educated for awhile in a Dominican school in Kentucky and wanted to convert at that time, but his parents objected. His later conversion came through his West Point friendship with Leonidas Pope, who, in addition to being a Confederate general, was also a bishop in the Episcopal Church.

Davis developed a friendship with Pius IX when he sought the Pope's help when Northern agents tried to recruit Polish and Irish mercenaries. Pius assisted because he did not want the American conflict to become an international affair.

Davis and Pius IX shared many views and opinions and had a shared outlook toward the world and politics in the sense that they believed in the old world of honour, courtesy, hierarchy, chivalry and the land. For this reason, too, all Catholic bishops in the South supported the Confederacy.

The Sisters of Charity supported Varina Davis and their children while the Confederate President was imprisoned at Fortress Monroe.