Shrouded Veterans: A Soldier for the Pope and Lincoln

At the end of October 1860, an American teenager in a tattered Papal uniform arrived at the U.S. consulate in Trieste, seeking assistance. This young man was Louis Soistman, a resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who left for Europe to visit friends in Westphalia. A Catholic, he enlisted in the Papal Army to serve Pope Pius IX for four years in May. After the defeat at the Battle of Castelfidardo in September, General Léon Christophe Louis Juchault de Lamoricière surrendered the Papal forces to the Sardinian Army, and Soistman found himself among the Papal prisoners of war. The Sardinians, in turn, handed the young American over to Austrian military authorities in Peschiera, who ultimately granted him free passage to Trieste.

Stephen S. Remak, the U.S. consul in Trieste, found himself in a difficult position when Soistman arrived at the consulate asking for help. Remak wrote to his brother, Gustavus, who resided in Philadelphia, asking him to personally deliver a message to the teenager’s father, Charles Joseph Soistman, a German bottle mold maker, brass founder, and turner.

In the note to his sibling, Remak explained that the U.S. government had no official obligation to support Americans who violated their country’s laws by taking up arms against a state with which the U.S. was at peace. Despite this, Remak couldn’t bring himself to turn the teenager away. He chose to support Soistman at his own expense and risk, stating that without his help, the young man would likely starve.

Remak recommended that the elder Soistman send approximately $120 to $150 to the attention of Jehu Glancy Jones, the U.S. envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary in Vienna, or to his son’s friends in Geseke. He planned to send the teenager at his own expense to secure passage aboard a vessel back to the U.S., as no American ship was currently docked in Trieste.

Other Americans who served in the Papal Army until the fall of Rome and the unification of Italy included John Young Mason Blunt, Charles Tracey, Paul E. Beckwith, John H. Surratt, and others. In addition, a significant contingent of Irish soldiers who fought with the Battalion of St. Patrick in 1860 later migrated to the U.S. and participated in the American Civil War. Notable among them were Myles Keogh, John J. Coppinger, Daniel J. Keily, John D. Mulhall, and others.

Young Soistman did eventually make it back across the Atlantic to Pennsylvania safely. However, on April 29, 1861, he enlisted in the 21st Pennsylvania Infantry as a first sergeant when President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers. When his three-month enlistment expired, he reenlisted, like many others, in the reorganized 98th Pennsylvania Infantry in September. On July 25, 1862, Soistman was appointed a second lieutenant in the regiment, and a day after Christmas, he was promoted to first lieutenant.

In early May 1863, at Salem Heights, Virginia, a Confederate shell pierced Soistman’s right thigh. Three days later, he was admitted to the Campbell General Hospital in Washington, D.C. The physician tending to his injuries overlooked a piece shell that had embedded itself in the officer’s thigh before the wound was sewn up. Even when Soistman sought treatment in Philadelphia, a private physician also failed to notice the embedded fragment.

On July 8, Soistman was admitted to the Officers’ Hospital in Philadelphia, where he complained that his leg felt unusually heavy. Acting Assistant Surgeon William Hunt examined the wound and discovered something abnormal in Soistman’s thigh. Using a probe, Hunt located a foreign object — the shell fragment that had been overlooked earlier. The next day, Hunt enlarged the wound and, with considerable effort, used forceps to extract a piece of shell weighing 9 ounces. Remarkably, the fragment had been lodged in Soistman’s thigh for 66 days.

Despite this ordeal, Soistman returned to his regiment in November. Almost a year later, during the Battle of the Wilderness, he was wounded again, this time on the right side. Nevertheless, he returned to duty in August and was finally mustered out in October.

In 1869, Soistman applied for a military pension, which required him to undergo a thorough medical examination. The Philadelphia Examining Board found that his Salem Heights wound, though healed, left a nasty scar measuring approximately 5 inches long and 4 inches wide on his thigh. This injury caused partial paralysis in his right leg.

While Soistman’s war wounds were well-documented, his life after the war wasn’t. He may have joined his family members in the drum-making business. Military, city, and cemetery records conflict regarding his date of death and age. Cemetery interment records suggest that he passed away on January 24, 1875.

Initially, Soistman was buried at Odd Fellows Cemetery in Philadelphia. However, his remains, along with thousands of others, were relocated to Lawnview Cemetery in Rockledge, where he was interred in a mass grave. Recently, the cemetery staff installed a government-issued veteran headstone at his previously unmarked grave.