A Narrative Of The Great Revival Which Prevailed In The Southern Armies During The Late Civil War

William W. Bennett...

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Preface

The author of this book has but few words to write in presenting it to the public. Twelve years have passed away since the close of our civil war. The passions of men have had time to cool, and their prejudices time to abate. We may, therefore, view the contest as we could not when we stood nearer to it. Reared under almost directly opposite interpretations of the Federal Constitution, the people of the North and of the South fought with equal earnestness for principles regarded by each as essen

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1: Religion Among Soldiers

The late American war has no parallel in history. When we consider the area of the contest, its gigantic proportions, the number of men under arms, the magazines of warlike stores, the sieges, the marches, the battles, the enthusiasm of the people, the discipline and valor of the soldiers, the wretchedness and desolation which followed the contending hosts,— we may in vain search the annals of the world for the record of a struggle approaching it in all the dreadful elements of war. The American

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2: Subjects Of The Revival

There is a strongly marked difference between armies of invasion and armies of defence. The former are often mere bands of butchers following at the heels of some ambitious leader. But when men fight for country, kindred, and home, they bear a moral character that lifts them above mercenary motives. Soldiers may fight bravely for glory, or for gain. We should not underrate the valor of the men that bore the standards of Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon, to so many victories; but take from such so

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3: Hindrances To The Revival

Our soldiers, though worthy of the eulogies we have recorded, did not escape the vices of a military life. In the First months of the strife the call of the war trumpet was heard above all other sounds. The young men rushed to the camps of instruction; and, freed from the restraints of home, and the influence of pious relatives, Thousands of them gave way to the seductive influences of sin. Legions of devils infest a camp. Vice grows in it like plants in a hot bed, and yields abundant and bitter

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4: Helps To The Revival

The circulation of the Word of God, and the faithful preaching of the gospel by Chaplains, and other ministers sent forth by the Churches, and the distribution of select religious literature by the hands of pious colporteurs, were the chief means of bringing about the greatest revival, in the midst of the greatest war, of modern times. There were other instrumentalities, subordinate and collateral in their relations to these, which were often successful in giving the thoughts of the soldiers a s

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5: Helps To The Revival-Colportage

So important was the work of Colportage in promoting religion among the soldiers that we feel constrained to devote to it a separate chapter. And the pious laborers in this department are eminently worthy of a place by the side of the most devoted chaplains and missionaries that toiled in the army revival. Receiving but a pittance from the societies that employed them, subsisting on the coarse and scanty fare of the soldiers, often sleeping on the wet ground, following the march of the armies th

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6: First Fruits. Summer And Autumn Of 1861

The Southern people entered upon the dreadful ordeal of war with extreme reluctance. History will attest that in every honorable way they strove to avert the threatened danger. Regarding the political tenets which culminated in the elevation of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency of the United States as fraught with evil to the South, they resolved to assert those rights of Sovereign States which they had learned from the fathers of the Republic; and to attempt the establishment of a government fr

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7: Winter Of 1861-62

The stationary condition of the armies during most of the winter gave the chaplains, and other pious laborers, fine opportunities for pressing religion on the attention of the soldiers. Along the Potomac, where the Army of Northern Virginia lay for the autumn and early part of the winter, religious services were held with encouraging signs. Rev. Joseph Cross, D. D., chaplain of the Walker Legion from Tennessee, writing of his labors, says: It is interesting to see how they flock to our nightly p

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8: Spring Of 1862

The military movements of this season alternately elevated and depressed the public mind. The memorable naval victory in Hampton Roads, the evacuation of Manassas, the great Battle of Shiloh, and the fall of New Orleans-all occurred within Two months. But the people and the soldiers kept up their courage, and while they lamented over reverses, rejoiced humbly in our successes. The march from Manassas to the Peninsula was attended with great suffering on the part of the soldiers. “You would pity

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9: Summer Of 1862

The Spring closed brightly on the Confederate cause. The successful evacuation of Corinth was a strategic victory. The campaign of Jackson in the Valley of Virginia was as brilliant and rapid as that of Napoleon in Italy. In little more than Twenty days, he marched over Two hundred miles through a mountainous region, fought Four battles and a number of skirmishes, killed and wounded great numbers of the enemy, took 3,000 prisoners and Millions of dollars' worth of stores of all kinds, besides de

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10: Summer Of 1862

The moral impressions of the sanguinary battles around Richmond were of the most salutary character. A wounded soldier, referring to them, said: “God preached to us as all the preachers on earth could not do.” All felt that the hand of God was manifest in these tremendous struggles. A pious officer wrote immediately after the close of the battles: Never before have I seen so clearly and powerfully intervened in our behalf the right arm of the Lord of hosts. The names of Lee, Hill, Jackson, Magru

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11: Summer Of 1862

The Army of Northern Virginia had scarcely a breathing spell after the terrible battles around Richmond. The concentration of a powerful Federal army under General Pope on the upper Rappahannock, and its reinforcement by the shattered columns of McClellan, indicated a purpose to try again the original Manassas route to the coveted city. General Lee, who seemed to have an intuitive perception of the plans of his adversaries, at once disposed his forces to meet this new emergency. No sooner had Mc

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12: Autumn Of 1862

The sudden appearance of the Confederate army in Maryland, after the Second great victory at Manassas, startled and perplexed the Federal authorities. The unfortunate General Pope was at once displaced from the chief command as unequal to the emergency, and General McClellan again took the direction of military affairs. General Lee moved rapidly into Federicktown, from which place, on the 8th of September, he issued an address to the people of Maryland. From this point a portion of the Southern

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13: Autumn Of 1862

The return of the army to Virginia, and the repose absolutely necessary after so arduous a campaign, were highly favorable to the spread of religion in all our camps. The men were deeply impressed by the dangers they had escaped, and their hearts were opened to receive the truth. “They gladly hear,” writes a clergyman, “And with alacrity assist the chaplain in all his work. They gather the congregations for preaching by singing hymns under some spreading tree in the midst of our camp after circu

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14: Autumn Of 1862

Let us now turn to the Army of the West and gather up a few of the precious relics that lie scattered over that wide field. After his masterly evacuation of Corinth, and the concentration of the army at Tupelo, General Beauregard, worn down by excessive toil, asked to be relieved from duty in order to recruit his shattered health, and General Bragg was placed in chief command. In the month of October, the Confederates, under General Van Dorn, made an attempt to retake the town of Corinth, which

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15: Winter Of 1862-63

The Battle of Sharpsburg was followed by a series of movements which brought both armies face to face again on the soil of Virginia. The unfortunate General McClellan fell under the ban of his government, and was superseded by General Burnside. The Federal army moved slowly southward from the Potomac to the Rappahannock, while the Confederates made a corresponding march through the Valley of Virginia, crossed the Blue Ridge, and placed themselves on the south side of the last named river. We quo

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16: Spring Of 1863

After the terrible repulse at Fredericksburg, the Federal army lay along the north side of the Rappahannook, engaged as usual, after the failure of an “On to Richmond,” in refilling its thinned ranks and mapping out a new route to the coveted city. General Burnside, who had not conciliated his government by the rose-colored dispatch given in the last chapter, was set aside, and General Joseph Hooker placed in command of the Northern army. Our forces occupied the town of Fredericksburg, and exten

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17: Spring Of 1863

Let us turn again to the armies of the West and Southwest. On the coast the Federal fleets closely blockaded all the ports, and made demonstrations at the most important points. On the Mississippi, Port Hudson and Vicksburg were fiercely assailed, with serious damage to the Federals and with little loss to the Confederates. In Tennessee, Gen. Van Dorn greatly annoyed the Northern Generals by his swift and sudden movements against their forces in the neighborhood of Columbia, Franklin, and other

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18: Spring Of 1863

Revivals, deep and genuine, prevailed in nearly every brigade of the army for weeks before the Battle of Chancellorsville. In Barksdale's brigade, just before the fight, the number of conversions had reached Two hundred, and when the heavy columns of Hooker began their movements the revival was spreading in greatest power. From their religious services the soldiers went forth to meet the foe; they hurled him back with dreadful loss, and again returned to hear the gospel from their ministers, and

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19: Summer Of 1863

After the great victory of Chancellorsville, the Confederate army lay along the south side of the Rappahannock, watching the movements of the Federals, who held the opposite side of that river. But few military movements of importance were undertaken for some weeks, and this period of repose and re-organization was well-improved by the zealous Christian workers in the army. The fervor of the revival was even greater after the battle than before; in almost every regiment the reports of chaplains

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20: Autumn Of 1863

The close of summer and the opening of autumn were marked by great religious power in all the armies of the Confederacy. Rev. Dr. John C. Granbery, whose labors among the soldiers will ever be remembered by the surviving veterans of the war, in September wrote of his work to the Richmond Christian Advocate: I have been employed One month in my new position as a missionary to the army. Bro. Evans having been compelled by ill health to resign his appointment, Bishop Early transferred me, at my req

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21: Winter Of 1863-64

The armies in the field on both sides used the interval of winter to repair their wasted energies for the spring campaign. The towns held by the Federals, and those besieged by them, continued to feel the heavy hand of war. Charleston had a terrible bombardment on Christmas day, 1863, which makes it a red-letter day in the history of that city. No person who was there can ever forget the scenes. “For hours before the eastern sky was streaked with the First gray tints of morning the cold night ai

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22: Spring Of 1864

The preparations on both sides in the early spring of 1864 gave promise of a year of great battles. After the repeated failures of Six successive Federal Generals to take Richmond, General Grant was appointed to the command of all the Federal armies, and he fixed his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac. General Lee confronted him with the Army of Northern Virginia. At Dalton, Ga.. was General Johnston with an admirably equipped army, and opposed to him were the gathering Thousands of Feder

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23: Summer Of 1864

The boast of General Grant while the movements described in the preceding chapter were going on, was, that he would “Fight it out on that line if it took all summer;” but after the bloody repulses in the Wilderness and at Spottsylvania Courthouse, he thought better of the matter, and edged his way down towards Richmond until he found himself in the position formerly occupied by Gen. McClellan. This position he might have taken without the loss of a man by simply moving his army by water from the

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24: Autumn And Winter Of 1864-65

The condition of the armies in the East and South west was not specially favorable to the revival at the close of the summer. At Petersburg the Federals made desperate efforts to cut Gen. Lee's lines of communication with the South, but were foiled by the activity of the Confederates. In Georgia Gen. Hood was forced to abandon the city of Atlanta, and Gen. Sherman entered and made it the starting point of his famous “March to the Sea.”In East Tennessee, at Greenville, the gallant cavalry-leader,

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25: Spring Of 1865

We are near the end of the tremendous struggle for Southern independence. In the last month of winter the famous Hampton Roads' Conference was held between President Lincoln and the Southern Commissioners. The only terms offered were unconditional submission to the Federal authorities, and it proved an utter failure. In Richmond gloom and anxiety filled the minds of the people. The noble Army of Gen. Lee, reduced to Thirty thousand men, had a line Forty miles long in front of Gen. Grant, with hi

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