Religion in Civil War Era

Religion in Civil War Era

North:

• Most of the Northern religious congregations, with the exception of the historic pacifist congregations, supported the Union throughout the War. Churches believed that the Union should remain unchanged since it played a significant role in world history.
• The Protestant religion was dominant during the 1860’s. Catholics and Jews supported the war in significant ways, but because the Protestant religion had larger numbers and input in in American life, they provided religious and theological reasoning for the social and political impact of the war.
• Some said that the practice of slavery was a sin and wanted immediate emancipation and abolition, while others argued that the Bible treated the topic of slavery as a practice that did not go against any morals. In fact, there are parts of the Old Testament law that arguably condoned (morally accepted) slavery.
• Those who were for slavery claimed that Jesus lived in a world with slavery, yet never spoke a word against it. Paul, an apostle that taught the gospel of Christ in the first-century world, wrote letters that said slaves must obey their masters, which is why those in favor of slavery argued that the practice was not a sinful action.
• Most church leaders were in between the two extreme opinions on slavery. They did not think slavery was ideal, but believed that it would be ended by slow and peaceful means. They also disapproved of the Abolitionists attack on slave masters when they called the slave masters sinners and demanded immediate emancipation. For their final position on slavery, they prayed for God would reveal the answer to them if slavery should or should not be continued.
• At the start of the war, the North wanted to save the Union and not solely focus on freeing the slaves, but since there were mixed outcomes of battles there was a needed reassessment of their goals. When the Union Army of the Potomac was defeated multiple times, they believed the hand of God was present at every battle. The Protestant ministers wanted a religious explanation of why the military failed, and searched until they found one.
• They read “Jeremiad,” which is a sermon named after Jeremiah from the Old Testament that promised judgment for those who did not admit their sins. Reading the “Jeremiad” also took a current disaster and interpreted it as a punishment from God, where the people and religious leaders would ask what they did to deserve it. They thought that because the Union army was defeated, it was a punishment from God, and would not let the North win the war until they worked on trying to end slavery.
• Some churches demanded emancipation in the fall of 1861, but others did not demand it for months or years later. All religious groups concluded that the War was made for God to show that slavery should end.
• The North believed that God used the issue of slavery to start His Kingdom of God on earth.
• Abraham Lincoln also promoted religion during his term as President three notable and separate times: he made the public fast to urge Americans to go to their places of worship, confess their sins, and ask for God’s blessing.
• These designated times of confession provided opportunities for Ministers to show that the war was a baptism of blood—when someone bleeds for their faith in Christ. Apparently the shedding of blood would cleanse the nation of its sins, and prepare it for a moral rebirth which required more than the abolition of slavery. It required people to give up selfishness and individualism, as well as not to question, yet to follow the authority figure.
• It was only possible to make a strong American nation if the citizens would sacrifice themselves for it.
• Reverend Horace Bushnell was a Congregationalist minister and theologian in Hartford, Connecticut who preached the Sunday after the Union army had been beaten at Bull Run in the summer of 1861.Reverend Bushnell shows the nation’s perspective after the War. "There must be reverses and losses, and times of deep concern. There must be tears in the houses, as well as blood in the fields; the fathers and mothers, the wives and the dear children coming into the woe, to fight in hard bewailing’s." His words show that it was good that the War was a long and grueling process because the country would not have grown, and the sins would not have been purged without it.

Slaves+African-Americans:

South

By: Kate Milby

• The South claimed the title of “God’s Chosen People” through print, speech and rituals at the start of the Civil War.
• The Southern leaders thought of their national motto as “Deo Vindice,” which translates into meaning “God will avenge.”
• The South said that they were a uniquely Christian nation, even in the Confederate Constitution. The South was dependent on their faith and dedication to God, which is proved in a quote from the Confederate President, Jefferson Davis. He said the purpose of faith was “to recognize our dependence upon God … [and] supplicate his merciful protection.”
• The South called the Northern government “godless” since they believed Northerners ignored God in their constitution, as well as put non-religious concerns above Christian duties.
• Local church attendees heard that the Civil War was holy, which was the same message portrayed in newspapers and public meetings. The pastors would make the war seem as though God supported it, and that He created it with a purpose in mind.
• Women and children were the most regular church attendees in the South throughout the war since the husbands, fathers, and sons were fighting in the battles. The women were those who kept a godly agreement in their morals, prayers, and home-front war support.
• Women also believed that they bore a crucial responsibility before God about the outcome of the War by helping at home, and thought that they were doing God’s work on earth as men died. They worked in the mills and factories that were without workers, they took over the roles of protector and provider at home, and believed that they were crucial for Christianity to continue being practiced at such a great devotion.
• They also thought they were doing God’s work by “Christianizing” the African-American slaves.
• To pacify the Abolitionist's desire to end slavery, Southern preachers said that sacred trust existed between the South and the slave traders from Great Britain and the Northern States.
• Some Southerners thought that God made slavery to punish African-Americans for not being Christian. Baptist ministers looked to pass a ruling that encouraged their congregations to take political action toward repealing laws that banned slaves from becoming literate. The Baptist Ministers thought that everyone should learn about God and practice Christian beliefs. Some thought that God would be less liked if He allow the slaves to be treated so horribly, yet some disagreed.
• As the North took a greater lead in the war, the South turned to their religion more frequently.

• Slaves’ religion emphasized that God could and would change their life on earth for the better and would punish the slave masters for their cruel actions.
• God provided slaves with the courage to try and run away to the North
• In 1800, most slaves had not converted to Christianity, but in the following years, Protestant evangelicalism emphasized freedom and communication with God. These two ideas are what encouraged the first major conversion of male and women slaves to Christianity.
• The Protestant clergymen defended slavery by saying it was part of a Christian hierarchy where slaves had to obey their masters.
• The number of black churches in the North grew in numbers which provided the black communities a place to practice their faith. These churches would protect those slaves who were fugitives.
• Most of the religious life of a slave occurred in private, or as an “invisible institution.”
• Revivals and camps throughout the North and South during the middle of the 19th century reached a small amount of slaves to convert to practicing the Christian religion.
• In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, large amounts of black women and men converted to Christianity. Baptist and Methodist ministers also reached out to the slave and free blacks because they had a simple message of hope and redemption. African traditions were becoming more integrated in religious practices through call-and-response singing, shouting, and dancing.
• The white and formal churches had limited control over the African-Americans’ religious stance, beliefs, and practice.
• Slave preachers emphasized the need to obey slave masters when whites were present, but would emphasize struggle, suffering, and redemption when there were not any whites listening.
• A slave’s obedience to God would often be what saved him or her from a violent beating.
• Most religious beliefs were expressed passionately through song lyrics. The slaves would sing about being freed referencing Biblical figures like Moses. Their songs could also function as expressions of resistance to a situation, or about their secret plans to escape.
• Some farmers thought of Christianity as a way to control the slaves, while others welcomed ministers into the slave homes and built chapels for the plantation. In church, freed blacks and slaves would think of themselves as sisters and brothers that were viewed as equal to the whites in the eyes of God.

(Main Ideas because there is too much to say for each!)

Soldiers:

• Many of the soldiers practiced Christianity as well as attended masses and church on a regular bases.
• Some carried testaments from the Bible to keep God close to them.
• All had to use the Bible to swear by when taking their oath to enter the army.
• Both the Union and Confederate armies had many regimental (the permanent unit of an army) and brigade (subdivision of the army) chaplains. Chaplains were members of the clergy that are from a private chapel, institution, ship, or branch of the armed forces.
• Chaplains helped in field hospitals, helped the sick and wounded, as well as were the ones to write letters for the soldiers who could not. The chaplains held field services for their special units as well when they were in battles, and most chaplains would accompany their group of soldiers on to the battlefield.
• Soldiers (and some fallen soldiers) kept Bibles in their pockets or knapsacks. These soldiers believed that the Bible carried in their breast pockets would and could stop bullets
• There were also problems with having most of the soldiers practicing their faith on the battlefields. It was hard to distribute enough Bibles to those on both sides of the war. Union fighters intercepted some Bibles as contraband when they were being delivered to the Confederates.
• There is a possibility that Soldiers turned to have faith in God because they were scared about the idea that they would die without having faith in a religion or God.
• A myth was told about General Stonewall Jackson (one of Confederacy's most famous leaders) about his faith. Before a battle he told all of his troops that God would give them victory, yet he died on that battlefield, but died as a sort of martyr for the Lost Cause (apparent lack of God’s looking out over all of the men who died) of the South. The date of His death (May 10) is the date of Confederate Memorial Day.

South and North (Similarities)

• The North and South believed in religion as the center of their thoughts and actions.
• They looked to their God to help them and thought that He was on their side no matter what the topic was.
• This point is debatable though since everyone thought that God was on his or her “side.”
• God cannot be on everyone’s side if there are times of war since there are two distinct goals that are opposites—both sides want to win; one side would win, and one side would lose.
• Another similarity between the North and South was that the Religious as well as the war leaders believed that God was the one that started the war and that He would decide the length, outcome, as well as damages of it.
• They thought that whoever won the war had God more on their “side” since He “decided” the victor.
• Those in the United States also had Christian values, democratic ideals, and republican institutions.