August 29: Church Hill

Welcome to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Today is August 29th, and our story is Churchill. On August 29th, 1862, as the Second Battle of Bull Run raged, volunteers began pulling the pews out of St. Mary of Sorrows Catholic Church in nearby Fairfax Station, Virginia.

The pews were new, installed just a few years earlier when the small mission church was built. Within days, however, they would look decades old, their polish worn off and the woods soaked with blood. Volunteers placed the pews outside, lining what the locals called Church Hill.

There, they would serve as beds for a makeshift field hospital. After the battle ended the following day, trains full of food and supplies began arriving at the local station. On one of those trains was Clara Barton, a young clerk in the U.S. Patent Office. When news of the mounting casualties, more than 21,000 by battle's end, reached Washington, D.C., Barton convinced several friends to go south with her to care for the wounded.

Upon arriving at St. Mary's, Barton helped organize the chaos unfolding outside and inside the church, which after the rain began to fall, became an operating room. It rained for days, but Barton and her small group of nurses worked without pause. Eventually, trains came to collect the wounded. Barton remained until the last soldier was gone. After she left Fairfax Station, Barton founded a volunteer corps to provide similar help for soldiers throughout the war, the American Red Cross. For their part, St. Mary's parishioners received new pews courtesy of the American government and continued to tend the graves of the Union and Confederate soldiers who died there.

Several years later, the War Department arranged to have the bodies transported to Arlington National Cemetery. But one family, the Kidwells, wanted their son to remain on Catholic ground and conspired with the priest to hide his grave when officials came. They succeeded, and his grave remains there today, a perpetual reminder of all the boys who died long ago on Church Hill.

Church Hill reminds us that faith calls us to service in times of crisis. Offer help to someone in distress or need today. Your presence and assistance can bring hope in a difficult situation. Thank you for listening to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Join us tomorrow, August 30th, for another story of faith and courage in America.