FROM THE LSU PRESS CATALOGUE:
Conflicting
Worlds
Civil War
Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War, edited by T. Michael Parrish, showcases lively writing, innovative research methods, and comparative studies across a variety of disciplines on the Civil War. We are proud to offer A Black Patriot and a White Priest as the first book in this exciting series.
A
Black Patriot and a White Priest:
André Cailloux and Claude Paschal Maistre in Civil War New Orleans
Stephen J. Ochs
“A deeply human tale of how two
ordinary men, immersed in struggle against their own internal
doubts and fears, and the machinations of their fellow men, became extraordinary.” – Joseph P. Reidy, author of Freedom’s Soldiers: The Black Military Experience in the Civil War
Sergeant Alfred Noldier of F Company,
73rd Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
(courtesy the National Archives)
In A
Black Patriot and a White Priest, Stephen J. Ochs chronicles the
intersection of two lives in Civil War New Orleans – that of the first black
warrior-hero of the Civil war, Captain André Cailloux of the 1st
Louisiana native Guards, and that of the Reverend Claude Paschal Maistre, the
lone Catholic clerical voice of abolition in New Orleans and one of the first
white radicals to emerge in the city. Their paths converged on a humid day in
July 1863, when Maistre, in defiance of his archbishop, officiated at a large
public military funeral for Cailloux, who had perished while courageously
leading a doomed charge against the Confederate bastion of Port Hudson. The
story of how Cailloux and Maistre arrived at that day and of what happened as a
consequence provides a prism through which to view the complex interplay of
slavery, race, radicalism, and religion during American democracy’s most
violent upheaval.
Born a slave, Cailloux eventually
gained his freedom, attained respectability as a cigar maker within antebellum
New Orleans’ Afro-Creole society, and became one of the first black officers in
the Union Army during the Civil War. In death, Cailloux became a powerful
mythic symbol of heroism and freedom for Afro-Creole and English-speaking
blacks, as well as for their white radical allies – such as the French-born
Father maistre – who regularly invoked his memory in their campaigns for
emancipation, suffrage, and civil rights.
The enigmatic Father Maistre, a
maverick throughout his priestly career, allied himself with the cause of
Afro-Creole radicalism and prodded his church to do more on behalf of black
Catholics. Suspended by Archbishop Jean-Marie Odin for his outspoken
abolitionism, Maistre defiantly maintained a schismatic parishfor seven years
and publicly supported Radical reconstruction until his submission to a new
archbishop in 1870.
Combining social, African American,
Civil War, and church history, A Black Patriot and a White Priest
provides a vivid picture of antebellum Afro-Creole society, of the black
military experience, and of the complex relationship between Afro-Creoles and
Roman Catholicism. It illustrates how the crisis of war transformed two
relatively common men into symbols of hope and freedom for people of color, and
of dangerous radicalism for many whites. Both Cailloux and Maistre paid dearly
for their efforts on behalf of racial justice, but they helped inspire an
Afro-Creole protest tradition that would plant the seeds of a later, more
successful Second Reconstruction.
Stephen J. Ochs is a teacher and chair of the history department at Georgetown preparatory School. The author of two previous books, including Desegregating the Altar: The Josephites and the Struggle for Black Catholic Priests, 1871-1960, he lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. He may be contacted by e-mail at sjochs@gprep.org
Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American
Civil War
T. Michael Parrish, Editor
E-Mail to author: sjochs@gprep.org
Link to LSU Press: http://www.lsu.edu/guests/lsuprss/index.html
Link
to Barnes and Noble.Com (discount - $27.96) http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?ATH=Ochs%2C+Stephen&userid=2MT0MZYHHD&srefer
Link
to Amazon.COM (30% discount - $27.96)): http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0807125318/o/qid=953647127/sr=8-2/002-2927880-0205053
Other books by
Stephen Ochs:
Desgregating
the Altar: The Josephites and the Struggle for Black Catholic Priests,
1871-1960 (Baton Rouge; LSU Press, 1990) – ($16.96 in paperback;
available from LSU PressAmazon.com, and Barnes and Noble.com
Academy
on the Patowmack: Georgetown Preparatory School, 1789-1927(Rockvile,
1989) Available from the Georgetown Preparatory School Store at http://www.gprep.org/place/prepstore/
