Father Peter Whelan (1802 - February 6, 1871) was an Irish-born Catholic priest who distinguished himself as a chaplain for both Confederate troops and Union prisoners of war during the American Civil War. Father Whelan previously served as a missionary in North Carolina and pastor of Georgia's first Catholic parish, and twice served as administrator of the entire diocese of Savannah. He initially ministered to Confederate troops including the Montgomery Guards, an Irish company established in Savannah for the First Georgia Volunteer Regiment. He remained with them during the Union siege of Fort Pulaski which guarded Savannah harbor, and volunteered to remain with them during their imprisonment in New York in 1862. About a year after his release in a prisoner exchange, he was assigned to minister to the Union prisoners-of-war held at Andersonville, Georgia, where he became known as the "Angel of Andersonville." Nonetheless, according to a biographer in 1959, Father Whelan "never received a lasting place in the history of the Southland he loved so well." Early life and ministry Peter Whelan was born in 1802 in Loughnageer, Foulkesmills (parish of Clongeen), County Wexford, Ireland. Little is known about his early life. From 1822 to 1824 he attended Birchfield College in Kilkenny, where he received a classical and mathematical education before coming to America. Whelan heard about an appeal for priests made by John England, the popular and dynamic bishop of the new diocese of Charleston, which at the time comprised both Carolinas and Georgia. Whelan was incardinated on April 6, 1829, and was ordained in Charleston on November 21, 1830. For the next two years he served as secretary to the bishop before beginning his duties in communities throughout North Carolina, including New Bern, Washington, Greenville, Fayetteville, Lincolnton, Salisbury, Wilmington, Long Creek, and Raleigh. He was said to have celebrated the first Mass ever offered in Raleigh, in 1832, at the boarding house of Matthew Shaw, a Presbyterian. His zeal also played a key role in the erection of the capital city's first Catholic church. Although Whelan occasionally visited Georgia, it was not until February 21, 1837, that he became pastor of the Church of the Purification of the Most Pure Heart of Mary at Locust Grove, near modern-day Sharon, Georgia. He spent nineteen years in this small parish, which was the first planned, Catholic community in the state. Located on an old stagecoach road running from