Religion and the American Civil War

437 Pages·1998·27.95 MB·English

by  Randall M. Miller

Religion and the American Civil War
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RELIGION
AND THE
AMERICAN
CIVIL WAR
Edited by
Randall M. Miller
Harry S. Stout
Charles Reagan Wilson
with Afterword by James M. McPherson
New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1998
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
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Copyright © 1998 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Religion and the American Civil War / edited by Randall M. Miller,
Harry S. Stout, Charles Reagan Wilson.
p, cm.
Essays presented at a symposium held at the Louisville
Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Oct. 1994.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-19-512128-7 (cloth); ISBN 0-19-512129-5 (pbk.)
I. United States—History—Civil War, 1861-1865—Religious
aspects—Congresses. I. Miller, Randall M. II. Stout, Harry S.
III. Wilson, Charles Reagan.
E468.9.R46 1998
973.7'78—dc2i 97-475IO
The poem on page 27 is reprinted by permission of the publishers and the
Trustees of Amherst College from The Poems of Emily Dickenson,
Thomas H. Johnson, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press, copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the
President and Fellows of Harvard College.
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Preface
From the days of the Civil War and after, Americans have wrestled with the
religious significance and effects of their "ordeal by fire." Many, in their Amer-
ican conceit, gave the war cosmic meaning, as Lincoln had done at Gettysburg.
However they might have disagreed on the sanctity of their own cause and
God's favor, countless preachers and politicians, among others, echoed the
belief that the war not only touched and tapped America's soul but also pointed
the way to the salvation of republican order and society everywhere. Historians,
too, have noted the pervasiveness of religious language and symbols among
soldiers and civilians and the ways Americans invoked religion to drum up
support for their side in the war and to justify their actions during and after
it. Yet, for all the recognition of religion's centrality in and to the war, sur-
prisingly few scholars have undertaken extended, extensive studies of the sub-
ject. The need for such work led John M. Mulder, president of the Louisville
Presbyterian Theological Seminary and a noted historian in his own right, for
one, to ask what might be said about religion and the Civil War. As it turned
out, plenty.
This book began with conversations among Mulder's colleagues at the
Seminary and in the historical profession over two years. Those conversations
soon bloomed into a major symposium on religion and the Civil War, co-
sponsored by the Louisville Institute of the Louisville Presbyterian Theological
Seminary and the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University
of Mississippi, and funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, thanks in large part
to Joel Carpenter, who had participated in the early discussions on the need
for such a symposium. The symposium was held at the Seminary in October
1994 and brought together many of the leading scholars of American religious
history and the Civil War era, all of them charged only with the call to provide
an original work on some aspect of the conference theme. The conversations
there proved to be open and wide-ranging. The success of the symposium in
turn spawned the book.
The Louisville site was fitting. The Seminary had played a pivotal role in
reunifying the northern and southern "branches" of the Presbyterian church in
vi Preface
1983, after more than a century of sectional division caused by differences over
theology and social conscience, especially the issue of slavery. Louisville itself
was both "northern" and "southern" in its institutions, interests, and identity.
Louisville thus symbolized the gathering together and intellectual fellowship
the conference hoped to achieve—reinforced by the convergence of students
of religion, history, African-American studies, women's studies, and other dis-
ciplines.
The lengthy gestation period from conception to publication of this book
owed to the vastness, variety, and complexity of the subject. Recasting papers
into publishable essays responsive to the many astute comments from discuss-
ants, participants at the conference, and readers also took time. This book was
not rushed to print. The commentators at the symposium and the readers at
Oxford University Press would not have it so. Certainly, the book benefited
much from the insightful commentary provided by John Boles, Dwight Hop-
kins, James Moorhead, George Rable, the late Armstead Robinson, and Anne
C. Rose at the conference and from the anonymous readers at the press. So,
too, the valuable questions and observations from the many participants who
gathered in Louisville for four days in 1994 added immeasurably to both the
general conversation on religion and war and the content and character of this
book.
No consensus emerged among authors and others regarding the specific
ways to approach the subject or even on how religion defined the war and the
age. But all those involved in the symposium and the book came to appreciate
anew how central matters of religion, broadly defined as a system of belief and
a culture, were to definitions of slavery, society, polity, and so much more in
nineteenth-century America. Participants also came to understand how slavery,
politics, and war affected religious beliefs and church structures. They realized
that too much might be made of religion and cautioned readers that the sacred
and the profane did not always converge in Americans' minds and actions.
War brought many men and women closer to their God, but it also shattered
the belief of others. What the authors did agree on was the need to sustain
the conversation begun in Louisville. Thus came this book.
The essays gathered herein stand at various stages of maturity. Several
essays provide syntheses of larger works already underway, while others offer
initial forays (invitations, really) into subjects as yet little explored. To broaden
the intellectual range of inquiry, the editors invited submissions from outside
the original symposium circle, with an eye to gaining fresh perspectives from
younger historians and established scholars outside the historical profession.
Several such essays are included in this book. Two subjects that the editors
commissioned did not become fully realized essays for this book, and one
conference participant chose not to revise for publication at all. As a conse-
quence, some subjects needful of attention are not fully represented herein.
Rather than wait to try to fill in a canvas already crowded and large, the editors
followed the urgings of readers and conference participants to publish the re-
vised, finished essays now. This book, after all, makes no claim to being com-
prehensive. Its purpose is principally to inspire and inform a wider and deeper
Preface vii
examination of the connections among religion, war, and society—to begin a
discussion rather than settle it.
In the end, this book represents a collective effort, the product of many
hands. Foremost among those who made the book possible are several persons
whose names do not appear anywhere on the title page or table of contents.
Daryl Hart of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicalism at Whea-
ton College played a vital role in conceptualizing the conference. John M.
Mulder translated ideas into action by mobilizing the resources and reputation
of Louisville Seminary to sponsor, arrange, and manage the major conference
from which this book grew. At the Seminary, James W. Lewis, Director of
the Louisville Institute, ground out the daily details and headed the team of
advisors who gave life to the symposium idea. Charles Brockwell, Director of
Graduate Studies at Louisville Seminary, coordinated all the arrangements for
the conference in Louisville. An advisory board—led by Lewis and Mulder
and including the editors of this book and Daryl Hart—drafted the proposal
for funding, enlisted scholars to present at the meeting, and tracked the prog-
ress of all the proceedings. The Pew Charitable Trusts generously underwrote
the conference and the editing process. More than just money, the Pew Char-
itable Trusts, through the presence of Joel Carpenter at the conference, en-
couraged other scholars to invest in the ideas advanced there. The Seminary
and the Pew Trusts -wanted the conversations to continue with as wide, diverse,
and varied a participation as possible.
With the conference completed, the command center shifted southward
to Oxford, Mississippi. There the editors mixed visits to William Faulkner's
Rowan Oak and local barbecue and catfish eateries with several days' review
of essays and rethinking of the book's organization and themes. At the Uni-
versity of Mississippi, Charles Reagan Wilson took hold of the basic corre-
spondence and other managerial duties to keep the project going. Bill Ferris
and Ann Abadie, director and associate director of the Center for the Study
of Southern Culture, provided encouragement and support throughout the pro-
ject, and Susan Glisson and Mary Annie Brown typed and phoned and pro-
vided other essential assistance. In the true ecumenical and interregional spirit
that governed the conference and the book, Saint Joseph's University, in Phil-
adelphia, provided additional support. There, and at the libraries of Haverford
College, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Library Company of Phil-
adelphia, and the University of Pennsylvania, Randall M. Miller was able to
check references and do other background editorial work thanks to the assis-
tance of the many librarians and historians who answered queries, opened
resources, and became downright interested in the book. At Saint Joseph's
University, Stephanie McKeller deserves special kudos for her friendly and
efficient handling of a host of administrative tasks. Stretching into New En-
gland, the editorial -work profited from Harry Stout's wise counsel and good
offices at Yale University.
To all, we say thank-you and hope that the ideas in this book, and the
work that emanates from it, will repay many times the confidence and invest-
ment so many people and institutions have given this project.
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Contents
Contributors, xi
Introduction, 3
RANDALL M. MILLER, HARRY S. STOUT, AND CHARLES REAGAN WILSON
I. OVERVIEW
I. Religion and the American Civil War, 21
PHILLIP SHAW PALUDAN
II. IDEAS
2. The Bible and Slavery, 43
MARK A. NOLL
3. Religion in the Collapse of the American Union, 74
EUGENE D. GENOVESE
4. Church, Honor, and Secession, 89
BERTRAM WYATT-BROWN
5. The Coming of the Lord: The Northern Protestant Clergy
and the Civil War Crisis, no
GEORGE M. FREDRICKSON
6. "Wholesome Reading Purifies and Elevates the Man":
The Religious Military Press in the Confederacy, 131
KURT O. BERENDS