Trotter, Richard

History 337
May 9, 2013

The Religious Life of Confederate Soldiers
The Confederate States of Americas, Confederate army, is often proclaimed as the most
religious army in American history. The term used to describe just how prevalent religion was in
the daily life of a Confederate soldier is, Christ in the Camp. This little phrase illustrates the
daily life of a Confederate soldier in just four little words. The Confederate States of America
praised the Confederate soldiers, for being Christian Soldiers, more moral than the sinful
Yankees of the North. There were fears, initially, that the camp life would corrupt the
Confederate soldiers and lead them into sin. Camps were far away from the soldiers family,
churches and Christian women. All of these things had positive influence on the Christians life,
but are not present at the soldiers camp. A soldiers camp life is one of gambling, drinking, and
profanity, making it difficult for a soldier to resist the lure of sin, in the fear that he might not fit
in. One soldier complained, I hear no sermons, hear none of the Songs of Zion, and am verily a
stranger in a strange land. By 1862, camp life begins to take a turn for the Christian soldier and
Christ in the Camp makes an appearance. Revivals begin to take place in the Army of
Northern Virginia (Lees army) in late 1862 and by the spring of 1863, the revival had spread to
an estimated third of an army. In war, soldiers need something to believe in and something to
look to, to get them through. War is a rough experience for anyone, but with the amount of
bloodshed in the Civil War, it is no surprise that many soldiers turned to Christianity and found
religion to get them through and help them find peace.
The most famous account of the revivals is from Baptist minister, Chaplain J. William
Jones. Jones asserted that the revivals are a genuine and permanent work of grace a sign of
Gods favor to the Confederate States of America. Jones uses articles and letters in his book
Christ in the Camp to give an account of the revivals throughout the various Confederate
camps. In one such article, James Nelson (Chaplin for the Forty-fourth Virginia Regiment)
writes, the soldiers are anxious to hear preaching. They are not, as some think, impervious to
moral impression. He firmly believes that the Cross of Christ can and will convince the
soldiers and save them. Nelson tells of twelve young men who have come to know Christ and
have asked to for baptism by immersion. He claims that most want to join the Baptist church
and for those wanting to join churches, he has turned them over to their chaplains (chaplains
represented several different denominations of Christians in the army). As Nelson continues, he
tells of many more soldiers who are concerned and anxiously inquiring about the Christian faith
and way of life. He tells of one soldier busting into his tent aggressively asking, What must I
do to be saved? Nelson claims that the other brigades are also blessed with Gods presence and
experience the same revival that his brigade is experiencing.
1

The march to Gettysburg and the great battle that ensued saw the loss of many of the
Confederates great officers and men. Jones claims, that this greatly interfered with the regular
revival meetings, but by no means suppressed or ended the spirit of the revival. Jones claims
that the spirit of the revival only became stronger as the season of rest came upon the Civil War.
He says the Great Revival grew even stronger and that every Confederate camp rang with shouts
of praise to God. It is clear, that even the most violent of battles could not end the Great Revival
taking place during the Civil War. Confederate soldiers are beat, battered, bruised and many of

1
Jones, William J., Christy in the Camp or Religion in Lees Army (Richmond, VA.: B.F. Johnson and CO. 1887) pages
308-309.
their friends and loved ones lay dead on the ground. When faced with what to do in this time of
sorrow, the Confederate soldiers turned to their faith and Christianity. They held firm to the
teachings of God will provide and God will protect. These teachings became rallying cries for
the Confederate soldiers in their most trying time and comforted them in their sorrow.
Christianity gave the Confederate soldiers the strength to overcome their fears and continue the
fight. They fought for what they believed to be a just and holy cause.
2

William W. Bennett gives another account of the Great Revival and the religious life of
Confederate soldiers in A Narrative of the Great Revival. He claims that the religious aspect
of the Confederate soldiers life was greatly ignored by politicians and statesmen. Bennett
believes that no matter how the South is viewed during and after the war, there can be no
denying that they carried religion into the war, practiced while in the war, and carried it out of
the war as well. He believes that the Confederate soldiers convictions of right in what they did
were second only to their convictions of the truth of the Christian religion. Bennett believes
that the great moral phenomenon of the war can be found in the influence and power of religion
among Confederate soldiers. Bennett claims that war is a dreadful place, a place full of vices
and sin. He believes that it would be easy for soldiers to fall into sin. Due to this, Bennett
believes it to be more wonderful to see soldiers turning to Christianity rather than sin. Bennett
claims that Christianity has no boundaries and even when faced with the most wicked of
subjects, Christianity endures and leads those subjects to salvation. Bennett writes, The gospel

2
Jones, William J., page 312.
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. In the eyes of Bennett, there is
no better test, for what he calls the blessed truth than the horrors of war.
3

Confederate camps were blessed with morally strong and religious men who never forgot
their obligation to God. These men were friends and neighbors of fellow troops who had not yet
found salvation in Christ. These Christian soldiers came from all lifestyles and had various roles
within their churches back home. Some were deacons, some were preachers and some where no
more than Sunday school teachers, but they all, for the most part, held firm to their faith in God
and set a good example for the lost soldiers. On the souls of Confederate soldiers, rested the
truths of the gospel and the saving power of Christ. This led to even the most wicked and
reckless among them being readily impressed and easily led into the ways of virtue religion.
An office later claimed, that at the commencement of war, he organized a Calvary and shortly
realized that their nature and profanity was so drenched in sin that he would have to act swiftly to
set a good example for his men to follow. The officer explained to his men that there would be
no gambling in the tents and he required all of his men, when off duty on the Sabbath, to observe
the Sabbath as the Lords Day. He later caught several of his soldiers participating in a gambling
card game and rebuked them for taking part in something that he had forbidden. He threatened
to get a new captain for them, but the players quickly threw the card down, ripped them up and
said we do not wish to have another captain. The officer writes that he never caught another one
of his soldiers gambling again. Many Christian soldiers and officers set a good example for their
fellow soldiers to follow. This Christian officer is just one example of the many that held firm to

3
Bennett, William W., A Narrative of the Great Revival (Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen and Haffelfinger, Nos. 624,
626 and 628 Market Street. 1877.) pages 9-10.
their beliefs and religion. He never wavered and fought hard to be an excellent Christian
example for his men.
4

Some Chaplains, as in the case of Rev. C.T. Quintard (Chaplain of the 1
st
Tennessee
Regiment), gave their soldiers, a pocket manual full of devotions. The pocket manual that
Quintard gave his soldiers began with a set of guidelines for a Christian man. The duties of a
Christian man were to lead a sincere Christian life, serve and obey God to the best of his ability
and power, strive to please his neighbor, and to please God in all of his endeavors. Quintard
writes, that Christian men should practice these guidelines unto their lifes end and that by doing
so they would lead a good Christian life. He also tells his soldiers to pray for grace, not just for
themselves, but for fellow Christians and the lost soldiers as well. Quintard provides the
Confederate soldiers with morning prayers, evening prayers, and even a prayer of hope and
victory. The beginning of the prayer of hope and victory reads as follows, Now may the God of
grace and power attend his peoples humble cry; defend them in the needful hour, and send
deliverance from on high. This prayer symbolizes how the Confederate believes that they are
Gods chosen people and that God will defend them and send deliverance in the darkest hour of a
Confederate soldier. In the manual are hymns and devotionals for the soldiers to read and sing on
a daily basis, to provide them with hope and strength for the continuous battle. One such
devotion provides soldiers with the knowledge that God is their protector and their strength. God
will give them the strength to endure, even when their fear is overwhelming. Other devotions
tell the soldiers to trust God and believe that God will give them safe passage and protect them
against evil. This manual of devotions helps in the boosting of the soldiers moral and gives them
hope in a war that at sometimes seemed hopeless and endless. Soldiers need something to boost

4
Bennett, William W. pages 19,22-23.
their moral and in the case of many, they turned to religion and the never-ending promise that
God endures, provides and protects. They also believed that God would give them the strength
to endure even the most corrupt and evil of all enemies, the Yankees.
5

William W. Crumly, (Chaplain of Georgia Hospitals, Richmond) gives an account of
how soldiers found peace and rest in trying time, full of fighting, pain, suffering and death.
Crumly writes a short narrative asking the soldiers to not grow weary, but to suffer on,
explaining that the war will not last forever and that the fighting will soon be over. He writes
that banners will soon wave in triumph over every Southern home and there they will find rest.
Crumly continues to say that they will never grow weary, but will trust in God and Davis, while
defending their country to the end. The battlefields are covered with death and gore all around
them, but their fellow soldiers have found peace and rest there. Just like many of the Chaplains
and the leaders of the Confederacy, Crumly believes the Souths cause is just and that God will
deliver them a victory, even from the grasp of defeat. He relays this message to the Confederate
soldiers in an attempt to give them strength to continue with the fight. The Civil War is nearing
an end and it is becoming apparent that the South will lose, but Crumly wants to motivate the
soldiers by telling them to trust in God to deliver them with a victory.
6

In another short narrative, Crumly talks about and explains the Soldiers Bible and what
the Bible means to a soldier. He writes about how a soldier with a faltering lip and throbbing
brow, pressed the Bible to his heart to remember his family. He writes about how a soldiers
dying mother passed the family Bible on to him and how his father read the holy book to him

5
Quintard, Charles T., The Confederate Soldiers Pocket Manual of Devotions (Charleston: Printed by Evans and
Cogswell, No. 3 Broad Street 1863) pages 3-5, 7-8, 17, 20.
6
Crumly, William W., The Soldiers Bible [Raleigh, N.C.: s.n., between 1861-1865] Call number 4619 Conf. (Rare
Book Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1999) page 15.
and his brothers and sisters. Crumly explains how the soldiers family influenced his religious
life and how he read the Bible and what the Bible means to him. The soldier finds peace and
refuge in the Bible because he saw how calm his mother was when she read it. The soldier was
influenced by his family at a young age and carried that influence into war. The Confederate
soldier believed that whoever leaned on the word of God would find peace in the midst of the
struggle. In a changing world there was only one constant and that was God and his holy word.
This Confederate soldier, like so many other Confederate soldiers, used the Bible as a counselor
and guide. God is the truest friend that a Confederate soldier could ever know and his holy word
provided peace for the weary, and broken hearted. The Bible taught the soldiers how to live their
life and taught them how to die. It taught them not to fear death because God would be waiting
on them and they would have everlasting life in Heaven. Soldiers turned to Christianity, not just
to cure their boredom during down time in war, but also to give them peace of mind. They
turned to Christianity to ensure them that if they died in this war; they would have eternal life in
Heaven with God.
7

Many of the Confederate soldiers held firm to their faith and their Christian way of life,
but this does not mean there were not temptations present in the camp. There are records of
gambling, alcohol and even prostitution being present in the Confederate camps as well as in the
Union camps. These were temptations that would be hard for any man to resist, and many
Christian soldiers fell to the temptations of sin. Most of the writers covering the Civil War did
not publish articles or journal discussing this aspect of the Confederate camp life. This is
because of the period and because of the expectations of all Southern people to have Christian
morals. Most of the news was about the Great Revival sweeping through the Confederate camps

7
Crumly, William W., page 16.
and rightfully so. Many lost and perishing sinners found salvation due to the circumstances of
the Civil War. As the war dragged on, many Southerners began to lose hope and turned to God
for the salvation of their cause. Bell Irvin Wiley asserts that many Confederates began to lose
hope in 1864 and 1865 and this contributed to the demise of the Confederacy. Toward the end of
the Civil War, there was an increase in revivalism as Evangelical Christianity swept through the
ranks. In part, this was a reaction to the failing Confederacy and it was a reaction to the danger
faced by the men day in and day out. During the last years of the Civil War, many Southerners
lost hope and deserted while those who remained turned to God for salvation and a renewal of
spirit.
8

The Souths defeat in the Civil War led some people to believe that their religious faith
reached a state of weakness never documented before. The South believed from the beginning of
secession that they were Gods chosen people and that he would deliver them ultimate victory
against the forces of evil, the North. As providential thinking is intertwined with hopes for the
state, the church by all traditional measures suffered. George Rable resists claims that the war
weakened religious faith, by refusing to see religion as merely the sum of its parts. He contends,
that despite underwhelming institutional numbers and evidence of traditional religious practice,
people maintained an adherence to providential thinking. As the war ended, and people sought
to find the purpose of it all, religious explanations gained new valence for this holiest war in
American history.
9

The Civil War is viewed by many as a religious war, that not only brought the deaths of
thousands of soldier, but a war that also brought salvation to thousands of soldiers. There are

8
Wiley, Bell I., The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy (Louisiana State University Press
1943, 1978)
9
Rable, George C., Gods Almost Chosen Peoples (The University of North Carolina Press 2010) Page 397
accounts of the temptations present in the camps of Confederate soldiers and many gave into
those temptations (gambling, alcohol, and prostitution). There are also accounts of Christian
Confederate soldiers rejecting these sins and holding a firm grasp to the word God and their
Christian morals. Many soldiers participated in the revivals that swept through Confederate
camps as a way to deal with boredom, but many of them found salvation along the way and
Christianity became part of their daily life. Confederate and Union soldiers went through hell on
earth and needed something to carry them through the struggle. Religion and Christianity was
there. Christianity gave soldiers hope, in a hopeless time and helped them continue the fight on
daily basis.