Customer Reviews

While God is Marching on: The Religious World of Civil War Soldiers (Modern War Studies)

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I thoroughly enjoyed reading about an important but overlooked area of many a Civil War soldier's life - religion.

Woodworth's book is a refreshing and balanced view of the typical Northern and Southern soldier's religious views and life during the Civil War. While officers and generals are mentioned, the great majority is devoted to the foot soldier and noncommissioned officers.

The book contains several anecdotes of soldiers' faith in Jesus Christ from both North and South: how they were able to reconcile their religious beliefs with fighting a war, comments on the dangers and moral lapses of camp life, how a dying soldier was able to confidentally face eternity based on their personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and other fascinating aspects of religious life during the Civil War.

While there were Jews, atheists, agnostics, and other types of beliefs in both armies, the emphasis is on the Christian faith.

Read and enjoy. Highly recommended if you are interested in learning more about the faith of several Civil War soldiers!

Woodworth brings to light important aspects of source material from common Civil War soldiers that most historians disregard or dismiss with a quick sentence or two. The extensive quotation of what soldiers said about their faith in letters and journals gives an authentic picture of what real individual soldiers of the time thought and believed. Woodworth may have had his own biases in selecting the material presented, but I greatly appreciate what he has done in letting the soldiers speak for themselves. I have a special interest in Christianity during the Civil War, and this is the best book on the subject in the past half century or more.

Our society has a very different attitude and belief system making it almost impossible to understand the religious world of the Civil War. Nor am I sure that we can talk about it without being judgmental and condescending or bemoaning America's loss of faith. This is a subject that most histories ignore or quickly mention on the way to something else. I feel they do so at of fear, not wishing to touch such a highly charged subject. Having read Woodworth, I felt he would do give me a good balanced history of religion during the war.

He did much more than that! Very carefully, he navigates between the poles never seeming to lean in either direction while give us a full history of Christianity leading up to and during the war. This produces a very fair balanced history that every one can read and enjoy. Woodworth, for the most part, lets the participants tell the story. Using a combination of letters, diaries and books, he shows us what they thought and felt. With this foundation, he guides us from the person to society and showing us the application. Each important term, the practice of religion and its' place in American life is fully covered in Part I. Part II covers the war and the application of Christian principles during the war. The belief system, the sermons and prayers are both a solace and a trap for the South as the war is being lost. The last twenty-five pages alone are worth the price of the book. They deal with the South coming to terms with defeat and reconstruction in contrast to the North's feelings of God's favor in granting them victory.

I have seen request for information of religion in ACW armies and now have the answer. This book covers a huge gap in Civil War history and needs to be read by all who wish to really understand the armies that fought the war.