A Fiery Gospel: Introduction

Introduction

During the past several years, historians have rediscovered the importance of religious belief and practice during the era of the American Civil War. Long a neglected topic among serious scholars, the religious dimensions of America’s greatest conflict was principally the domain of denominational historians. A number of recent publications have served to refocus historians’ interest on the significance of religion as a motivating factor before, during, and after the Civil War.

Several recent works serve to illustrate the growing interest in this topic. Perhaps the single most significant recent work in this emerging field of study is Religion and the American Civil War (1998), edited by Randall M. Miller, Harry S. Stout, and Charles Reagan Wilson . Comprised of sixteen essays by a number of prominent historians with an afterword by James McPherson, this volume helped to prompt debate among historians of this crucial but neglected aspect of American history.

While God is Marching On: The Religious World of Civil War Soldiers (2001) by Steven E. Wentworth presents a detailed study of soldiers’ religious beliefs and how they helped to shape the course of the conflict.

When Slavery was Called Freedom (2002) by John Patrick Daly examines the moral values of pro-slavery and anti-slavery Christians, concluding that they shared many of the same moral values and agreed on matters of faith more than they disagreed.

Righteous Armies, Holy Cause: Apocalyptic Imagery and the Civil War (2002) by Terrie Dopp Aamodt examines the impact of millennialism and apocalyptic conceptions on society and the war.

Evangelicals and the Coming of the Civil War (2000) by Edward R. Crowther.is yet another significant study on the role of religion. In this volume, Crowther illuminates the relationship between evangelical belief and Southern culture.

Finally, Faith in the Fight: Civil War Chaplains (2003) by John W. Brinsfield, William C. Davis, Benedict Maryniak, and James I. Robinson, Jr. sheds light on nearly 4,000 chaplains who ministered to both the Union and Confederate armies.

Recent journal literature similarly reflects a growing interest in the study of religion and religious practice before, during, and after the Civil War. A search of historical journals on JSTOR uncovers numerous articles on this topic published since 1990 including:

Religion and Combat Motivation in the Confederate Armies
Samuel J. Watson
The Journal of Military History, Vol. 58, No. 1. (Jan., 1994), pp. 29-55.

Holy Honor: Sacred and Secular in the Old South
Edward R. Crowther
The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 58, No. 4. (Nov., 1992), pp. 619-636.

Guilt Over Slavery: A Historiographical Analysis
Gaines M. Foster
The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 56, No. 4. (Nov., 1990), pp. 665-694.

A Cultural Analysis of the Role of Abolitionists in the Coming of the Civil War (in The Culture of Politics)
Richard Ellis; Aaron Wildavsky
Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 32, No. 1. (Jan., 1990), pp. 89-116.

The Evangelical Movement and Political Culture in the North During the Second Party System
Daniel Walker Howe
The Journal of American History, Vol. 77, No. 4. (Mar., 1991), pp. 1216-1239.

"A Hard, Cold, Stern Life": Parker Pillsbury and Grassroots Abolitionism, 1840-1865
Stacey M. Robertson
The New England Quarterly, Vol. 70, No. 2. (Jun., 1997), pp. 179-210.

"The Sacred Rights of the Weak": Pain, Sympathy, and the Culture of Individual Rights in Antebellum America
Elizabeth B. Clark
The Journal of American History, Vol. 82, No. 2. (Sep., 1995), pp. 463-493.

Poor Whites in the Occupied South, 1861-1865
Stephen V. Ash
The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 57, No. 1. (Feb., 1991), pp. 39-62.

James Henley Thornwell's Mysterious Antislavery Moment
William W. Freehling
The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 57, No. 3. (Aug., 1991), pp. 383-406.

"A Delusive Clothing": Christian Conversion in the Antebellum Slave Community
William Courtland Johnson
The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 82, No. 3. (Summer, 1997), pp. 295-311.

'The Soldier's Faith': Turn-of-the-Century Memory of the Civil War and the Emergence of Modern American Nationalism
John Pettegrew
Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 31, No. 1. (Jan., 1996), pp. 49-73.

Given this renewed interest in the study of religion and the Civil War in the traditional print media among historians, it seems fitting to ask the question: Is this interest religious imagination and the war also reflected on the World Wide Web. The answer is a resounding yes and no. The authoritative guide The Civil War on the Web: A Guide to the Very Best Sites lists over 400 websites devoted to various aspects of the Civil War. Only one of these, however, Jews in the Civil War deals exclusively with religion.

A search of the most prominent Civil War websites yields a mixed harvest on this topic. One of the largest gateway sites The American Civil War, maintained by Dakota State University, does not list a separate classification for “Religion” on its home page. This is true of most of the other Gateways listed on the DSU website.

The one exception is The United States Civil War Center, which claims to have assembled the most comprehensive Index of Civil War Information Available on the Internet. Clicking on the Religion link takes the user to an extensive list of links identified only by title. Examination of this list reveals that it is mostly individual pages on specific topics such as Chaplains in the Confederacy or Who are the Dunkers? Many of the sites listed here and elsewhere are course syllabi such as Religion 466: Religion in the South. Other sites are comprised of a single document such as the Confederate Soldier’s Prayer. Still other sites are simply postings of individual academic papers on topics such as Noah's Curse and the Southern Defense of Slavery.

The Web does host a number of collections of primary sources related to religion in the Civil War. Some of these include:

Of course the American Memory project of the Library of Congress contains extensive holdings of primary source material on religion and the Civil War, as does the National Archives.

In summary, those wishing to conduct research on the study religion in the Civil War era must relay on disparate and often disconnected web sites, many of questionable quality. What is needed is a comprehensive site dedicated to serious scholarship on this emerging field of study. This proposal represents an attempt to construct a new web site that will fill this need.

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