Lee's Army of Northern Virginia: Mel. James post/relgion

» Ulysses - Mel. James post/relgion

Mel said: When they were losing, some soldiers felt the people back home were not keeping true to the faith or sacrificing enough. If they remained true, then surely God would not deliver them into the hands of their enemy. What do you think?

Funny you should mention that. In a book I recently read, "For Cause and Comrades" by James M. McPherson (my fav. CW writer!!) wrote about the importance of religion in the Civil War and compared it to similar revivals in other wars. McPherson stated that the Confederate armies were more suseptible to this than the Union armies (which he says had no large scale revivals) especially after the reverses at Gettysburg, and Vicksburg, when the feelings of defeat hung in the air. Unfortunately, perhaps because of the nature of the book, he does not say clearly if the soldiers felt God was letting them down due to a lack of faith at the homefront. McPerson does quote many who, though desparing of the cause (Confederate), would fight on because they couldn't believe a merciful God would allow them to be subjugated by the Yankees. Still, it is an interesting book and I hope you have the privillage one day of reading it and getting a far better understanding than I could enlighten you with in this format.

Ulysses (Steven).

-- posted by Ulysses