William T. O'Higgins

William T. O'Higgins (1829-1874) was a Catholic chaplain in the American Civil War.

Born William T. Higgins in 1829 near the border of counties Leitrim and Longford, Ireland,[1] he later took the last name of his uncle (Bishop William O'Higgins (1793-1853)), styled O'Higgins, after the royals.

[1] After studying in Maynooth at the Royal College of St. Patrick's, he was sent to British Guiana in the West Indies.

[1] After difficulties in Cincinnati, William wrote the Archbishop, John B. Purcell, requesting a position as chaplain; this "remov[ed him from a thorny personnel situation by responding to an obvious wartime need".

[1] Following the war, he returned to Cincinnati as a pastor and chaplain, but later left for the Diocese of Little Rock, Arkansas, where he served at the Cathedral of St. Andrew, with a colleague from Ohio, Bishop Edward Fitzgerald.