Faith in their hearts, battle at hand

Readers of Civil War literature have long known that the average soldier, both Confederate and Union, had strong religious faith that carried him through battle and the separation from home and loved ones.

Leaders such as Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson for the South were quick to thank the Almighty for victories and to pray for continual strength in battle. Even Ulysses S. Grant, who was not given to public religion, said children should attend Sunday school and receive “instruction in the science of morals.”

However, it is in the writings of ordinary soldiers, chaplains, women at home and slaves that devotion to God comes forth most strongly. It is from this great source material that Terry R. Tuley, a minister in Tennessee, compiled a yearlong devotional book called “Battlefields and Blessings: Stories of Faith and Courage From the Civil War.”

For each day, he cites a section from a private letter or diary written by one of the war’s participants, adding to it a Bible verse, and closes with a very brief comment. From the horrors of the battlefield come the heartfelt prayers and observations of the participants, words of faith that helped them in their struggles and that may be valuable to contemporary readers as well.

There was no dearth of religious material from the soldiers. According to the author, “The Southern Baptist Convention in a single year produced 6,187,000 pages of tracts and 6,000 Bibles. In less than a year, the Methodists circulated 17,000,000 pages of tracts and 20,000 Bibles. From May 1863 through March of the following year, Presbyterians produced more than 6,000,000 pages of religious material.”

A random sampling gives the tone of the book.

Feb. 2 brings a little-known story of President Lincoln en route to visit Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s headquarters near City Point, Va., in late March 1865. Stopping in the telegraph hut, he came across three tiny kittens, crying piteously. Picking up one, Lincoln asked, “Where is your mother?” One of the men answered that the mother cat was dead. Continuing to pet the kitten, Lincoln said, “Then she can’t grieve as many a poor mother is grieving for a son lost in battle.”

He picked up the other two kittens and sat there “with all three in his lap. He stroked their fur and quietly told them, ‘Kitties, thank God you are cats, and can’t understand this terrible strife that is going on. … Poor little creatures, don’t cry; you’ll be taken good care of. He looked toward Col. Bowers of Grant’s staff and said, ‘Colonel, I hope you will see that these poor little motherless waifs are given plenty of milk, and treated kindly.’ Bowers promised that he would tell the cook to take good care of them.

“Col. Horace Porter watched the president and recalled, ‘He would wipe their eyes tenderly with his handkerchief, stroke their smooth coats, and listen to them purring their gratitude to him.’ Quite a sight it was, thought Porter, ‘at an army headquarters, upon the eve of a great military crisis in the nation’s history, to see the hand which had affixed the signature to the Emancipation … tenderly caressing three stray kittens.’ ”

The author then remarks that mercy and kindness are rare commodities, but urges the reader to “go out of your way to treat someone with mercy and kindness this week.”

For the July 4 entry, titled “No Fear at Gettysburg,” the author tells of the time Lincoln spent in prayer and his dependence on divide guidance during the war-torn years of his presidency. He quotes a statement made to Gen. Dan Sickles:

“I went to my room one day and locked the door and got down on my knees before Almighty God and prayed to him mightily for victory at Gettysburg. I told Him that this war was His war, and our cause His cause, but we could not stand another Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville. And after that, I don’t know how it was, and I cannot explain it, but soon a sweet comfort crept into my mind. The feeling that God had taken the whole business into His own hands.” The reader is urged to place reliance upon his faith in God in all situations.

The May 2 entry, “Robert E. Lee’s Opinion,” recounts an occasion when Lee was asked his opinion about a fellow Confederate officer who had made some uncomplimentary remarks about him. Lee replied that he had found the man very satisfactory. This perplexed the man asking the question, who said, “General, I guess you don’t know what he’s been saying about you.” “I know,” answered Lee, “but I was asked my opinion of him, not his opinion of me.”

Many of the anecdotes are humorous, such as one titled “Clothed for a Cooler Climate,” for Aug. 2:

“The [Union] sergeant of the picket guard being stationed near Pohick Church, Va., had his attention drawn to the tinkling of a cow-bell in the bushes.” With visions of new milk running through his head, the sergeant moved forward, but “as he advanced, the cow-bell retreated.”

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