“Back came our decimated battalions along the way they had already traveled. They marched in wearied silence until they came to the slopes around Meurcy Farm. Then from end to end of the line came the sound of dry, suppressed sobs. They were marching among the bodies of their unburied dead. In the stress of battle there had been but little time to think of them—all minds had been turned on victory. But the men who lay there were dearer to them than kindred, dearer than life; and these strong warriors paid their bashful involuntary tribute to the ties of love and long regret that bind brave men to the memory of their departed comrades.”
Entering the Priesthood
Duffy, the third of 11 children, was born in Cobourg, Canada and was the grandson of Irish immigrants who had fled starvation during the Great Hunger in Ireland. Though physically frail, he excelled in his studies. After graduating from Saint Michael’s College in Toronto, he migrated to America and attended St. Joseph’s Seminary in Troy, New York, where he was ordained for the priesthood in 1896.He pursued the ministry at St. Gabriel’s Church in Manhattan, then St. Peter’s Church in Haverstraw. He studied briefly at Catholic University, and later became a professor of philosophy at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie. In between those years, he received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore and, toward the end of the Spanish-American War, he served a short stint in Montauk, New York, as a chaplain meeting wounded soldiers returning from Cuba.
When his views ran counter to the administration at St. Joseph’s Seminary, he was moved to the Bronx in 1912 where he became the priest of the tiny Our Savior Church. His brilliant mind and need for activity resulted in a thriving parish. One of his more progressive views was to offer childcare for mothers so they could attend mass, a notion uncommon for the period. Our Savior Church grew into a new building and opened a school and convent. Duffy was still somewhat restless and in 1914 became the chaplain for the New York National Guard’s 69th Regiment.
A War Was Coming
The Regiment, known as the “Fighting 69th,” was composed primarily of Irish Americans. When World War I broke out in Europe, America refrained from involvement. It remained neutral for more than two and a half years while the European nations battered each other. Before America entered The Great War in April 1917, trouble brewed in Mexico with its constant revolutions. In 1916, he, along with the 69th, spent eight months stationed in McAllen, a border town in Texas.
After returning to New York, the 69th was federalized to become the 165th Infantry Regiment in the 42nd Rainbow Division of the U.S. Army. Duffy became the 165th’s senior chaplain, and the regiment would be one of the first sent to France as part of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF).
But the AEF, under the command of Gen. John Pershing, was not to be delivered and destroyed piecemeal. Pershing understood how the French, and practically every other nation, had haphazardly sent their boys into the line of fire. He resisted assigning American troops under the command of foreign powers and he was in no rush to send unprepared troops into the fray. It was not until late spring 1918 that the Americans engaged in their first battle.
The Soldier’s Task
“Death was busy on that hill that morning,” he wrote in his autobiography, recalling the dead brought back from a fight on Hill 152. “The survivors were a sorry remnant of the splendid battalion that had so gallantly swept across the Ourcq that morning. But they had carried out a soldier’s task.”One of those who “carried out a soldier’s task” was his friend and well-known Irish-American poet, Joyce Kilmer. Kilmer was killed. “His body was carried in and buried,” he recalled. “God rest his dear and gallant soul.”
Duffy had grown close over the years to the men of the former-69th Infantry Regiment. Men with last names like McAllister, Murphy, O’Connor, and O’Leary. But Duffy did more than jot down names; their memories were honored when he referred to them as “a pious lad,” an “old soldier and solid man,” or one “who had done prodigious deeds in action.” Many of these men, like Kilmer, were killed; a fact often reflected in his writing, such as “the pitiful remnant of a company, one officer and forty-two men instead of the six officers and two hundred and fifty men.”
Awarded for Service
Duffy hardly slept as he rushed back and forth between the dead and the dying, performing last rites. Pershing took notice of the senior chaplain’s tirelessness and dedication to his men. On Sept. 7, Duffy was awarded by Pershing with the Distinguished Service Cross. Less than a week after being awarded, the 165th was part of the massive St. Mihiel Offensive, which also involved more than 100,000 French troops.In the final days of the war, which would end two months after the St. Mihiel Offensive began, Duffy was assigned more chaplains to lead. He encouraged the weary soldier, prayed with the hopeless and the wounded, and sought out the dying, even joining stretcher-bearers into “No Man’s Land.” As the battles wore on, there were times Duffy’s confession line “exceeded the chow line,” according to the Pearl River Ancient Order of Hibernians.
By the end of the war, Duffy had become the most decorated cleric in the U.S. Army’s history. Along with the Distinguished Service Cross, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, Conspicuous Service Cross, the French Legion d’honneur, and Croix de Guerre. He was also promoted to lieutenant colonel. He had performed so well during the battles and proved himself such an irrepressible leader that Col. Douglas MacArthur, who was chief-of-staff of the 42nd Division, considered appointing him regimental commander.
When Duffy returned home, he became pastor of Holy Cross Church in Hell’s Kitchen near Times Square. When he died in 1932, approximately 25,000 to 50,000 people lined the streets for his funeral and procession. Five years later, a statue of an 8-foot Duffy with his back to a 17-foot Celtic cross was placed in Times Square. Its immediate surroundings are known as Father Duffy Square. On the Celtic cross are the words: “A Life of Service / For God and Country.”
