The noble heritage of frontier parsons who not only

marched with but often led their parishioners to war to

repel attacks by Indians and renegades impelled

William Richard Gries, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal

Church, Doylestown, to resign his pastorate to accept

appointment as chaplain of the 104th Regiment of Penn-

sylvania Volunteers in the Civil War.

An unofficial chaplain from the start, Gries, who had

been rector of St. Paul’s since 1855, resigned from his

pastoral duties effective Oct. 18, 1861.  Commanders of

state volunteer units had authority to appoint their own

chaplains and Col. William W.H. Davis commanding of-

ficer of the 104th, asked the rector of his home parish to

take the job.  As Davis was to say later, it was one of the

best moves he ever made.  Third in command of the regi-

ment as it went off to war was the chaplain’s brother, Maj.

John M. Gries of Philadelphia, a frequent visitor in

Doylestown.

Chaplains at that time held no official rank, although

regimental chaplains were entitled to the pay and

prerequisites of captains of infantry.  Official military

rank finally was granted chaplains but not until after

the Civil War.  Possibly because he had served also as

chaplain of a brigade, Chaplain Gries was accorded the

title of chaplain major.

The Battle of Fair Oaks in 1862 during the seven-day

battle for Richmond was both the worst and the most

glorious day of the war for the 104th.  When the regiment

was bloodied there, when Sgt. Hiram Purcell rescued

the colors and Maj. John Gries was mortally wounded

trying to save Purcell.  Chaplain Gries was there too,

although he isn’t shown in Trego’s famous painting.  But

he was on the battleground, ministering to the wounded

and the dying, to trying to save all those he could.  As the

regiment was forced to fall back by superior forces and

after losing one third of its men, the chaplain com-

mandeered three ambulances and rushed them to the

front.  Then came the melancholy search for the pitiful

victims of that bloody field.  With the aid of a fatigue

party he searched out the casualties and filled the am-

bulances.  Davis’ report states that many were saved by

his prompt and decisive action.

Calling Gries an “able, faithful, manly, laborious, self-

sacrificing servant of the Lord Jesus Christ,” Davis,

then acting commander of a brigade, said the regiment

was fortunate in having such a chaplain, and that no

chaplain in the United States Army was more highly

respected for integrity and fidelity than he.  During his

three years as chaplain he held “more than 1,000

religious exercises, preached every Sunday in camp

with prayer meetings and a short address every evening

when possible.”  He also held special services in the

hospital, and, for a long time, Davis wrote, he was the

only chaplain on duty with the brigade, and he alone

held daily and continuous service with the troops.

For a considerable period during the operations on

Morris Island, his commander said, he was the only

chaplain in the Army to officiate at the burial of the

dead and for a time was engaged in this duty nearly

every hour of the day.

“Neither officer nor man,” emphasized Davis, was

more faithful in the exercise of his duties.”

Before going to war Gries had had an active and fruit-

ful ministry in Doylestown.  His ministry was not only

to Episcopalians, but it had a decided ecumenical flavor. 

Of German descent and speaking the language fluently,

he conducted services for the then churchless Lutherans

and included their children in the Sunday School at St.

Paul’s.  According to an old tradition it was largely on

account of their appreciation for his services that the

name of the congregation, originally called The German

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Doylestown, was

changed to St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church on

May 6, 1875.

Two or three years before his death, William

Richards Gries returned to Doylestown to preach to his

former congregation.  He found his former commander

and friend, Davis (who had been promoted to general

after the war, serving as secretary of the parish vestry,

a post he held for 40 years until shortly before his death

at age so in 1910.

He preached to the people of St. Paul’s on what had

always been his greatest concern: their spiritual

welfare.  Telling them that there was no such thing as a

“convenient season” to become a Christian.  Gries urged

the unconverted to waste no more time and not to re-

main aliens.  “I urge you,” he concluded, “to seek the

Lord whilst he may be found, to call upon him while he

is near.”—By the Rev. John R. Chisholm