Historiography of Religion during the American Civil War

Edward Ferrer
HIS 602: Era of the Civil War
Dr. Joel McMahon
May 8, 2016
 Ferrer 2

Religion shaped the lives of people in different situations and political conditions. The

Civil War is generally known to be fought over the preservation of the Union as well as the issue

of slavery, but religion played a significant role before the war, during the conflict and in the

post-war period. Although the Civil War was not known to be a war over religion or beliefs,

religion was prevalent on each side and used to express their moral identity and to justify their

beliefs along with rallying people to fight for their side by making them believe God was on their

side and was going to deliver them a win. During the Civil War, people would use religion as

motivation to perform their specific duties as well as how people viewed their cause for the war

and determined certain political decisions. However, religion during the American Civil War is

an historical lens that had been mostly ignored by historians until about the last twenty-five

years.

The topic of religion during the Civil War rematerialized as a major interpretative

component of Civil War research and experience with the publication of sixteen previously

unpublished essays written by noted historians like Drew Gilpin Faust, Mark Noll, etc. These

essays were compiled and published in the noted work, Religion and the American Civil War by

historian and Professor, Randall Miller. This publication is a collection of essays and articles by

well-known historians dedicated to the study of religion during the Civil War as well as the

catalyst that would bring the historiography of this subject to the attention of many historians and

open another realm of that era.1 There are six different categories, which historians use to

identify existing approaches to the role of the religious in the conflict. They all play a

foundational role in the Civil War. In evaluating the historiography of religion and the Civil War,

historians have approached the theme utilizing, at a minimum, seven different subcategories that

1
Randall M. Miller, Harry S. Stout, and Charles Reagan.Wilson, Religion and the American Civil War
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).
 Ferrer 3

can overlap with each other: 1) general religion during the Civil War, 2) religion in the North

and the Civil War, 3) Southern religion, 4) religion within the military, 5) Civil War chaplains, 6)

religion among the slaves during the Civil War, and 7) women and religion during the Civil War.

Another subcategory that has been relatively ignored is denomination during the Civil War. It

seems that historians have paid little attention to this lens while denominational historians have

given little thought to the Civil War. Regardless, few works exist which would eliminate it from

this essay.

GENERAL RELIGION AND THE CIVIL WAR

The reason to fight the Civil War was to decide the continued existence of the United

States as well as the sectional political dissention between the north and the south that had been

brewing for many years. In Evangelicals and Politics in Antebellum America, Richard

Carwardine examines the situation in the United States and the issues between politics and

religion before the start of the Civil War. The author provides some of the best evidence that

evangelicals played an important role in the political life in the middle of the 19th century.2 The

complex view of the evangelical movement and its impact on American policy and social life

during the antebellum period was crucial. Carwardine suggests that the Civil War had both

secular and religious preconditions. The religious issues and conflicts were one of the most

important factors, which resulted in the commencement of the Civil War3.

Carwardine, considered by many historians to be the leading authority on religion during

the Civil War, suggests that Protestant evangelicals were the primary creators of the political

culture in America prior to the Civil War. In order to promote their agendas, Protestant leaders

became allies with leading political parties, mainly the Whig and Republicans. In return, the

2
Richard Carwardine, Evangelicals and Politics in Antebellum America (New Haven: Yale, 1993), 7.
3
Carwardine, 41.
 Ferrer 4

politicians of these parties focused their efforts on winning the Protestant vote which in turn, led

to sectionalism.4

On a more ideological point, Virginians who were not connected with any of the

churches or religious sects even considered the Civil War in religious terms. Most of the

Virginians who had to face death or who saw their loved ones dying in the Civil War were in a

dilemma as to how God can permit such misery on people. The white Virginians considered

Union victory an upsetting dispute to their belief that God had privileged both the slavery system

and the Confederacy. On the other hand, the Virginians who were black found Union victory a

booming affirmation that God has fulfilled their desires.5 In summary, the complex view of the

evangelical movement and its impact on American policy and social life during the antebellum

period was crucial. Carwardine suggests, as previously noted, that the Civil War had both secular

and religious preconditions. The religious issues and conflicts were one of the most important

factors, which resulted in the commencement of the Civil War.6

There are other historians and sociologists who have argued that most Christians during

the Civil War claimed that that Christianity is the base of all religion to be followed by the

people living in United States. Robert Wuthnow explained the effect of people’s belief and

religion and stated that difference in religious convictions reshaped the society of United States

of America. In The Restructuring of American Religion, Wuthnow gives an example of a

sectional viewpoint stating that most of the people living in Virginia attended a Protestant church

even before the start of the Civil War in the United Stated of America and that these men and

4
Ibid, 153-156.
5
Carwardine, 37.
6
Carwardine, 41.
 Ferrer 5

women witnessed severe clash in their congregations and denominational councils during the

Civil War. 7

Noted Southern studies historian Charles Reagan Wilson was one of the first to really

kick start the research of the role of women and the impact of the religion in the Civil War. In his

research, Wilson compares the religious aspect among the English Civil War (1640s), The

American Civil War and the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s. While he finds that each war had

constitutional reasons he realized that religion was at stake in the two European wars but not in

the United States. The American Civil War did not threaten the dominance of the northern or

southern Protestantism but that the functions of religious leaders and groups were similar. It dealt

with human tragedy of war, promotes moral changes, and supported the ideology of each of each

side as to why the war was being fought. Wilson concluded that the religion’s overall role was to

promote nationalism.8

WOMEN AND RELIGION DURING THE CIVIL WAR

The focus of women and religion during the Civil War has only been moderately

addressed by historians within the context of women reformers or, on occasion, alongside the

backdrop of larger Civil War topics. The support of women during the war is without question

one of the biggest factors in the Union winning the war and the South keeping the faith and hope.

In Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865-1920, historian Charles Reagan

Wilson argues on the role of women in the Civil War and the influence of religion in the South

region. Wilson explores the issue of the role of women in the Lost Cause and the revolution of

the national right progression and stated that women in the United States actively participated in

7
Robert Wuthnow, The Restructuring of American Religion (New Jersey: Princeton University Process,
1988), 67.
8
Charles Reagan Wilson, “Religion and the American Civil War in Comparitive Perspective” in Religion
and the American Civil War, ed. Randall M. Miller (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 17.
 Ferrer 6

the Civil War and supported their families as well.9 The war provided middle to upper class

white women with different opportunities to take part in the open communal sphere. Over and

over, women expressed their opinions about the war. In contrast, the war proved to be less

energizing for the poor white women, as the anxiety of the conflict and monetary adversity

produced foremost challenges in sustaining themselves and their families.10

The religious conviction considerably affected the lives of American women. Noted

historian, Drew Gilpin Faust dedicated her book, Mothers of Invention: Women of the

Slaveholding South in the American Civil War, to the contribution of women in Civil War, where

the author states that women supported their men through religious societies such as the United

States Christian Commission, the essential beginning of the moral movement.11 Faust describes

that women in America, especially in the South, started praying and recited their holy books

where they understood that God is on their side as they are fighting for their rights. Faust also

states that due to the fact that the men were away fighting the war that a woman’s faith helped

them through difficult times and resulted in new spiritual roles in the home and bigger roles in

the church.12 Many enslaved women started the evolution to freedom and believed that their faith

and that God is going to help them achieve this goal.13 It was this faith that slave women would

pass on to their families and give hope that someday, freedom would be realized.

The women belonging from both African and American Culture agreed to follow the path

of religion towards victory in the Civil War. Joshua Goldstein praises the role of women during

the Civil War and explained that women in the war zone, whether voluntary or not, became more

9
Charles Reagan Wilson, Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865-1920 (Athens:
University of Georgia Press, 1980), 11.
10
James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1988), 449.
11
Drew Gilpin Faust. Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War.
New York: The Unoversity of North Carolina Press, 1996, 251.
12
Ibid. 184-185.
13
Ibid. 111.
 Ferrer 7

religious during the on-going Civil War than they were before. Many southern women started

attending church and participate in different religious activities to protect their homeland and to

obtain freedom from the corrupt government of United States of America.14

Charles Reagan Wilson goes deep into the issue of the role of women in the Lost Case

and the revolution of the national right progression. The author clearly describes that women in

the United States of America actively participated in the Civil War and supported their families

as well. The interesting note by Wilson is how women accepted religion after the war. They

embraced their loss by remembering, honoring and praying over the graves of Union and

Confederate soldiers. Women used religion to learn what the war had taught them especially the

point that religion promised a solution to unite Christian people divided by sectionalism.15 More

work is needed in this field of study to understand not only women during the time but how

religion affected them.

RELIGION IN THE NORTH

Protestants still enjoyed a momentous cultural supremacy in the 1860s and the people of

North considered religion as a motivational strength. The immeasurable amount of people in

Northern religious bodies, with the exemption of the significant "peace" churches

enthusiastically supported the Civil War for the Union. Catholics and Jews even agreed to

support the Civil War. The Protestants, given their information and location in American life,

contributed religious justifications of the Civil War in America.16

At the beginning of the Civil War, Northern churches were distant from unanimous in

their approach toward individual repression. In Gospel of Disunion, Mitchell Snay explains the

14
Joshua S. Goldstein, War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa,
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 107.
15
Wilson, “Religion and the American Civil War in Comparitive Perspective,” 387-389.
16
McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 32-33.
 Ferrer 8

abolitionist crises, faith, and sectional politics. Mitchell discusses the impact of religion in the

north and states that difference in religion became a big issue in the North. At the beginning of

the Civil War, Northern churches were distant from the unanimous in their approach toward

individual repression. A small number of people even declared the practice as a wrongdoing and

called for instant liberation or obliteration. On the other hand, few argued that the Bible treated

slavery as an ethically justifiable institution. 17

The logic that God was with certainty at work in favor of the Union was also strongly

misrepresented by the way in which church leaders dealt with the issues of slavery and slave

states. This is particularly true when looking at the Protestant sect as researched by George M.

Fredrickson. Fredrickson was a historian who excelled in the lens of comparative history. He

wrote a chapter in the notable Religion and the American Civil War titled “The Coming of the

Lord: The Northern Protestant Clergy and the Civil War Crisis” which explores the norther

Protestant clergy and its militant opposition to slavery. He argues that despite the fact that

northern society looked to clergy leadership when it came to the anti-slavery issue and the

legitimacy of the war, the growth in ecclesiastical status was at the expense of acceptance of

politics and secular methodology.18

Revivalist enthusiasm was running rampant throughout the northern United States during

the early 19th century as was the new movement of Christian abolitionists separating from

established churches and establishing congregations of abolitionist-only parishioners. In War

against Proslavery Religion: Abolitionism and the Northern Churches, 1830-1865, Civil War

historian John R. McKivigan writes about the struggles of American abolitionists to sway the

17
Mitchell Snay, Gospel of Disunion: Religion and Separatism in the Antebellum South (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1993), 46.
18
George M. Fredrickson, “The Coming of the Lord: The Northern Protestant Clergy and the Civil War
Crisis” in Religion and the American Civil War, ed. Randall M. Miller (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998),
113-116.
 Ferrer 9

northern churches to endorse instant emancipation of slaves. McKivigan concludes that the rise

of these few abolitionist congregations signaled only limited success of abolitionists to recruit

any northern churches; the number was very small. According to McKivigan, the failure of

abolitionists to persuade the churches is due to the theological ideology lack of organization of

the religious sects, as well as arrogances towards social order. Despite this, as the war began and

raged on, McKivigan shows that persistence of the abolitionists led to all religious sects, other

that the Catholics and Episcopalians, to accept and support emancipation.19

The set of guidelines for the people who were living in the United States of America and

their redemptive goal was the entire majority version of northern nationalism. Mitchell Snay

considers the slaveholding principles and the religious operation to the slaves. The author

acknowledged the effort for the independence of the North, with the terms holy and just

conflicts.20 It significantly contributed to the actuality that such an uncertain state development

as the amalgamation existed in an atrocious conflict for more than four years. The involvement

of religion in the Civil War was thoroughly proven. In plain language, the common theme

discovered by many historians is that that God had a special plan for the United States and the

North was the vessel of that hope. Historian David W. Blight subscribed to this idea about the

north and believed that hope united with the political belief of Republicanism represented the

bonding of the secular and scared in the northern society.21

SOUTHERN RELIGION

Contemporary historians differ to some extent on the connection between religion and

southern sectionalism. On the other hand, a number of historians focus on sectionalism defining

19
John R. McKivigan, The War against Proslavery Religion: Abolitionism and the Northern Churches,
1830-1865 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009), 187-190.
20
Snay, Gospel of Disunion: Religion and Separatism in the Antebellum South 15.
21
David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass’ Civil War: Keeping Faith in Jubilee (Baton Rouge: Louisiana
State University Press, 1991), 215.
 Ferrer 10

religious conviction. Regardless, Civil War historians have acknowledged the idea that pro-

slavery views have always been the focal point to southern religion before and during the Civil

War. However, historian John B. Boles explained the curse of slavery system. The author

describes the function of religion in the Old South and stated that religion played a very

important role in the history of the Civil War in south.22 It is abundantly clear that religion stood

at the core of the Civil War for both the southern whites as well as the enslaved black population.

The south looked to God for implication, and each side supposed with identical passion

and conviction that God was on their side. According to William E. Montgomery’s Under Their

Own Vine and Fig Tree: The African-American Church in the South, the responsibility of the

African-American church in the South was to provide a spiritual, comfort, sоcіal services,

political leadership, and a strong sеnsе оf community and stated that the leaders in the Old South

taught the soldiers the importance of religious conviction in the Civil War.23 The author attests

that the big leaders went so far as to state publicly that God had intended the Civil War in

America and would conclude its time-span, its compensation, and its final result.

Many well-known political and religious leaders had long declared themselves as God’s

preferred inhabitants in the south. In Clergy Dissent in the Old South, 1830-1865, David B.

Chesebrough explains that the southern clergy had tried to present a unified pro-slavery front

prior to the Civil War. This was not as it appeared to be due to some clergy in the south who did

not subscribe to the slavery issue and therefore either did not comment or suffered various

penalties within the community or simply just moved to the North. There was also the issue of

clergy who did not support succession. Through Chesebrough, we see that opposition to southern

22
John B. Boles, Masters & Slaves in the House of the Lord: Race and Religion in the American South
(Lexington: University Press of Kentucky,1988), 154.
23
William E. Montgomery, Under Their Own Vine and Fig Tree: The African-American Church in the
South (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994), 43.
 Ferrer 11

succession was a crime more serious to opposing slavery. Some clergy members supported and

even justified slavery but could not support secession let alone war. As Chesebrough states, this

idea would sometimes carry a death sentence, legally or illegally. There was clearly a clergy

dissention in the south. Chesbrough does not give the numbers in his book but does claim that

there were more Presbyterian clergy who challenged the status quo of slavery ideology in the

south than clergy from Methodist and Baptist churches. Despite this, the Presbyterian Church

was the one body that did not split over sectional issues prior to the war.24

The war and secession are the main concerns viewed by the author and stated that people

in the Old South region believed that God was on their side and would help them in the war.

After the start of the Civil War, Southerners declared in the course of speeches that God is

supporting them. In fact, the people living in South claimed to be a distinctively Christian nation.

Chesebrough sets up a quote from historian James Silver in the beginning of his book that many

historians can support, "Clergymen led the way to secession. … As no other group, Southern

clergymen were responsible for a state of mind which made secession possible."25

In contrast to many other historians, southern historian John B. Boles makes the

argument that the south renounced its religious rebel heritage by embracing the Confederate

States during the Civil War. In The Irony of Southern Religion, Boles identifies that supporting

the institution of slavery did not mean that there was acceptance of the practice. Nevertheless,

clerical call for slave reforms through persuasion had not succeeded as legislators and the public

showed very little interest throughout the 1850s and into the war years.26 Public guilt over not

24
David B. Chesebrough, Clergy Dissent in the Old South. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press,
1996), 37-42.
25
Ibid. 1.
26
John B. Boles, The Irony of Southern Religion (New York: Peter Lang International Academic
Publishers, 1994), 43-52.
 Ferrer 12

heeding to these calls would only come after the south had started to experience many defeats

during the war and many southerners began to ask why god was punishing them.

It seems that the heart of southern religion’s fears as related to slavery is explained in an

article in the in 1994 by Davis Stowell, “’We Have Sinned and God Has Smitten Us!’: John H.

Caldwell and the Religious Meaning of Confederate Defeat.” Caldwell is a southern Methodist

minister who had a change of attitude about slavery in 1865 and the author, Stowell, presents

him as the object of both contempt and fear among southerners who were coping with the

concept of God’s judgment. When Caldwell announced that slavery was wrong and it was the

direct cause of the Confederate defeat, most of his congregation walked out and he was

eventually reassigned to a more remote area. Caldwell, to the joy of many northerners, joined a

northern branch of the Methodist church. Stowell goes on to argue that maybe it was God

punishing the south for the bondage of men.27

RELIGION IN THE MILITARY

During the Civil War, quite a lot of momentous divine revivals took place in the northern

and southern army. Reagan Wilson explains the impact of religion on the defence forces. The

author explains the significance of religion and states that the cream of the crop persuaded the

armed services to become more dutiful so supernatural being will assist them in the conflict.28 It

provides a few anecdotes about religious actions. Abraham Lincoln documented the worth of

religion as a stabilizing energy in the unification of army. The Chaplain was probable to be an

intended minister of a Christian quantity and was supposed to obtain an officer's salary. Lincoln,

in addition to it, supported the United States Christian Commission, an inter-denominational

27
Daniel W. Stowell, “"We Have Sinned, and God Has Smitten Us!" John H. Caldwell and the Religious
Meaning of Confederate Defeat,” The Georgia Historical Quarterly 78 (1): 1-38.
28
Wilson, Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 82.
 Ferrer 13

association that was devoted first and foremost to the dispersal of the Gospel in the unification of

the army.

IMPACT OF RELIGION ON THE SOLDIERS

The religious leaders that were living with the soldiers sent out a regular stream of the

script to their churches and other holy places, where they asked them to send their best holy men

to help in evangelizing the soldiers. Civil War historian, Steven E. Woodworth gives his

viewpoint of armed forces throughout the Civil War from both sides of the lane. In While God Is

Marching On: The Religious World of Civil War Soldiers, Woodworth explains the

responsibility of Southern Christian high society, with their particular denominational

organizations. They made serious efforts to supply the soldiers with Bibles and other religious

tracts as well as keep them in moral composition.29 Although the South had a few conveniences

for printing their holy books such as Bibles, the Southern Christian leaders made it their highest

priority to get ahold of Bibles and tracts for their territorial army. Many Bible societies

responded generously.30

The United States Christian Commission was a national civilian army of men and women

that were residing near the camps of armed forces. They helped them in passing out sacred

religious tracts, in managing the worship services, and acted as nurses in the hospitals to help the

injured ones. Historian George C. Rable explains in God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious

History of the American Civil War, that the Northern soldiers were providential as Christian

leaders in North were better structured and more enthusiastic to pay no attention to their

29
Steven E. Woodworth. While God is Marching on: the Religious World of Civil War Soldiers (Lawrence:
University Press of Kansas, 2001), 163.
30
Ibid. 166.
 Ferrer 14

denominational differences.31 The religion acted as a motivational energy for all the soldiers as

many of them believed that God is helping them in captivating. The Territorial Army started

praying even more for their victory.32

The radical Christian wisdom shaped their existence, standards and approach to the Civil

War .Woodworth presented several major sources of the conflict stage as mail, autobiography,

and diaries. These primary sources helped to understand the impact of religion on the lives of

armed forces and their motivations. Protestant values and practices take an exacting position in

the book. Woodworth presented much strong evidence that altered their belief about the Civil

War and the impact of religion on it. It reveals the authentic affairs between the abolitionism in

the Northern states and slavery in the South.33

CIVIL WAR CHAPLAINS

Thousands of black men and women were converted to Christianity during the

Renaissance and strengthening of revivalism at some stage in the Second grand development in

the nineteenth century. Ministers appealed to the enslaved people and convinced them to accept

Christianity as their official religion as it is going to bring peace in their life. The religious

people in the society helped them in this matter of converting religion. Drew Gilpin Faust

provides the best information of loses in the civil conflict. In This Republic of Suffering: Death

and the American Civil War, Faust showed the consequences for each family in America and

stated that families of the armed forces actively participated in the war.34

31
George C. Rable, God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War (New
York: The University of North Carolina Press, 2010), 318.
32
Ibid. 31.
33
Woodworth. While God is Marching on: the Religious World of Civil War Soldiers
34
Drew Giplin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (New York: Alfred A.
Knopf Press, 2008), 13.
 Ferrer 15

In the nineteenth century, when the majority of the slaves in America were not willing to

convert their religion to Christianity, Protestant evangelicalism emphasized the importance of

freedom and straight conversation with God which would successfully bring first significant

conversion of enslaved peoples. The spreading of religion Christianity became familiar for all the

black slaves as well as freed men, as they were willing to accept Christianity as their religion to

make their life easier and better. John Wesley Brinsfield debates that the Christianization was

one of the most noteworthy developments in the American-African civilization of that time.35

The efforts were afforded to both white and black people, as the preachers tried their best to

convert all the Americans to Christianity. Brinsfield also makes note for both Union and

Confederate soldiers, military chaplains were the voice of hope and reason in an otherwise

chaotic military existence. In a more unfortunate circumstance, Brinsfield also states that

chaplains were the calming voice to a soldier during their last seconds of life.36

As Faust suggest, the religious conviction played an important part in the post-war era.

Faust is considered as the best historian as he provided the most excellent information of loses in

the civil clash. The families in America had to face a lot of issues. They needed help to overtake

the financial and political problems. The author also explained the importance of life and death

for the American general public37.

SLAVES AND RELIGION DURING THE CIVIL WAR

The study of religion among the slave during the antebellum and Civil War era has been

an up and coming lens since the 1990s. Despite the fact that slave participation and contributions

35
John Wesley Brinsfield, Faith in the Fight: Civil War Chaplains (Virginia: Stackpole Books Press,
2003), 37.
36
Ibid. 42.
37
Faust, This Republic of Suffering, 28.
 Ferrer 16

to religious life of the Civil War era were significant, historians have focused more on the

abolitionism or slave life during the antebellum era rather than the war itself.

During the Civil War Evangelical, Christianity became a protector of slavery. It was

necessary for the growth of the nationalism. John B. Boles is committed to the religious state of

affairs in the United States for the period of the Civil War. It is considered as one of the most

influential books that depicts the antebellum period as well as regarding Evangelical Christianity

as a familiar religious conviction for whites and blacks alike. Boles make the case into the

relation connecting religion and black slaves and discovers how politically energetic the church

can be during the war.38

Some historians have made their focus on their research with this topic towards African-

American leaders, like Frederick Douglas. David Blight wrote what is perhaps one of the best

biographies on Frederick Douglass. In Frederick Douglass’ Civil War: Keeping Faith in Jubilee,

Blight demonstrates that Douglass was sure that God’s will was in favor and supported the

abolition movement and that it was certain that the slaves would be freed.39

Dr. Monroe Fordham, shows the growing social gospel of African-American religion in

the North as the Civil War drew near. Fordham goes on to explain in Major Themes in Northern

Black Religious Thought, 1800-1860, that northern blacks had made the call for moral

improvement in order to escape slavery, to focus on peace and hope in order to overcome

uncertainty and despair, to find strength to face adversity and persecution, to help each other in

time of need and finally, the universal equality of man.40

38
Boles, The Irony, 19.
39
Blight, Frederick Douglass’ Civil War: Keeping Faith in Jubilee
40
Monroe Fordham, Major Themes in Northern Black Religious Thought, 1800-1860 (Hicksville, New
York: Exposition Press, 1975), 153-158.
 Ferrer 17

When the Civil War ended and slavery was abolished, southern blacks had to find their

own way and build on their new social status. On the religious side, blacks began to establish

their own churches which would become the focal point of their community. Historian William

Montgomery has researched black churches in Under Their Own Vine and Fig Tree: The

African-American Church in the South, 1865-1890. He has concluded that once freed from

bondage that southern and northern blacks were successful in establishing churches at a quick

pace in order to help other black become aligned with society. Religion to the former slaves was

everything to them and as a result, black denominations would flourish for decades after the

war.41 Other historians such as Donald Nieman and Samuel Hill would support the fact that the

formation of religion among the blacks and the development of congregations and denominations

was one of the most major changes in religion in America

Religion exerts an enormous influence on different societies. Throughout history, religion has

been an intellectual force for social development and to motivate the people. From the discussion

presented here it could be highlighted that religion remained pivotal in the development of

spiritual qualities in a human being. Religion helps society in reshaping their lives after a

traumatic experience. While the Civil War was not fought over religion, it played a very

prominent role during the war. Religion during the Civil War was marked as a critical

component. Many historians have proven the importance of religion in the Civil War in their

notable essays and books published by different publishers. Religion acted as a motivational

force for millions of people living in the United States at the time, although historians have not

discussed much the impact of religion on the Civil War due to the lack of information or want,

but still it has been clearly proven that religion played a vital role in the Civil War. Just take a

look at how the North and South used the Bible in answering the question of slavery. The
41
Montgomery, Under Their Own Vine and Fig Tree: The African-American Church in the South, 1865-1900
 Ferrer 18

Northern population was interested in the spirit of the Bible, or liberalism, in opposition to

slavery. In contrast, the Sothern populace appealed to the literalism of the Bible in defending

slavery. The opposing biblical stands helped shape the differences that led to secession and

finally war.

Religion and the Civil War is a lens of history that has only recently begun to show its

full nature. The release of Religion and the American Civil War in 1998 sparked the growing

interest in this field that has many historians researching and publishing new sources. It is still a

filed in its infancy and there are still many areas still lacking in information as well as

denominational histories during the middle 1800s.

 Ferrer 19

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Blight, David W. Frederick Douglass’ Civil War: Keeping Faith in Jubilee. Baton Rouge:

Louisiana State University Press, 1991.

Boles, John B. Masters & Slaves in the House of the Lord: Race and Religion in the American

South, 1740-1870. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1988.

Boles, John B. The Irony of Southern Religion. New York: Peter Lang International Academic

Publishers, 1994.

Brinsfield, John Wesley. Faith in the Fight: Civil War Chaplains. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole

Books, 2008.

Carwardine, Richard. Evangelicals and Politics in Antebellum America. New Haven: Yale

University Press, 1993.

Chesebrough, David B. Clergy Dissent in the Old South, 1830-1865. Carbondale: Southern

Illinois University Press, 1996.

Daly, John Patrick. When Slavery Was Called Freedom: Evangelicalism, Proslavery, and the

Causes of the Civil War. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2002.

Faust, Drew Gilpin. "Christian Soldiers: The Meaning of Revivalism in the Confederate Army."

The Journal of Southern History 53, no. 1 (1987): 63. doi:10.2307/2208627.

Faust, Drew Gilpin. The Creation of Confederate Nationalism: Ideology and Identity in the Civil

War South. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988.

Faust, Drew Gilpin. This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. New York:

Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.

Fordham, Monroe. Major Themes in Northern Black Religious Thought 1800-1860. Hicksville,

NY: Exposition Press, 1975.

 Ferrer 20

Goldstein, Joshua S. War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

McKivigan, John R. The War against Proslavery Religion: Abolitionism and the Northern

Churches, 1830-1865. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009.

McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Miller, Randall M., Harry S. Stout, and Charles Reagan. Wilson. Religion and the American

Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Montgomery, William E. Under Their Own Vine and Fig Tree: The African-American Church in

the South 1865-1900. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1994.

Rable, George C. God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War.

New York: The University of North Carolina Press, 2010.

Scott, Sean A. A Visitation of God: Northern Civilians Interpret the Civil War. New York:

University Press of Oxford, 2010.

Snay, Mitchell. Gospel of Disunion: Religion and Separatism in the Antebellum South.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Stowell, Daniel W. 1994. “"We Have Sinned, and God Has Smitten Us!" John H. Caldwell and

the Religious Meaning of Confederate Defeat”. The Georgia Historical Quarterly 78 (1).

Georgia Historical Society: 1–38. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40582983.

Wilson, Charles Reagan. Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865-1920. Athens:

University of Georgia Press, 2009.

Woodworth, Steven E. While God Is Marching On: The Religious World of Civil War Soldiers.

Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001.

 Ferrer 21

Wuthnow, Rober. The Restructuring of American Religion. New Jersey: Princeton University

Process, 1988.