Originally aired on July 25, 1997 - In part 152 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson examines the most often overlooked soldier in the army.
#152 –Chaplains
Among the most overlooked of all Civil War soldiers was one vital to every regiment. That fewer than half the regiments had such a person made their presence all the more important. They were the men who guarded and guided the spiritual well-being of the soldiers. They were army chaplains.
Neither side knew exactly what to do with chaplains. While they received officer status, chaplains had no prescribed uniform and usually had to cover their own expenses, including forage for their horses. One minister on entering the army was discouraged to learn that a chaplain (in his words) had “no appointment or recognized place…on a march, in a bivouac, or in line of battle. He was a supernumerary, a kind of fifth wheel to a coach, being in place nowhere and out of place everywhere.”
Many officers openly opposed the presence of chaplains. Religion, they asserted, made men more fearful of death, it preached against popular sins, and it was a challenge to the blind obedience on which an army depended.
A shortage of army chaplains existed in the beginning and grew worse as the war continued. There were not enough clergy to meet the demands in military service and maintain church organization at home. The soldiers had one kind of need; the church hierarchies had another.
The first wave of chaplains were too often elderly men, misfits, and individuals unprepared for the hardships and dangers of army life. Their numbers steadily diminished. In their place, beginning in 1862, came dedicated and unpretentious servants filled with both patriotism and righteousness, and able to bring a sense of caring to a war atmosphere of callousness.
Methodists were most prevalent among chaplains, followed by Presbyterians, Baptists, Episcopalians, and Lutherans.
Whatever the denomination, chaplains performed a host of duties. They held church services and prayer meetings as often as possible. They baptized and buried, comforted the wounded, visited the sick, distributed Bibles and religious tracts, wrote letters for and read letters to the illiterates in their care, gave words of reassurance to the homesick.
Although chaplains were under orders not to take part in combat, many of them went to the front lines, gave encouragement, and often displayed incredible gallantry under fire. Chaplain Isaac Tichenor of Alabama wrote of the battle of Shiloh: “We were under a crossfire from three directions. Under it the boys wavered. Seeing (this), I…took off my hat, waved it over my head, walked up and down the line and ‘preached them a sermon.’ I reminded them that it was Sunday. That at that hour all their home folk were praying for them…I called upon them to stand there and die, if need be, for their country. The effect was evident. Every man stood to his post, every eye flashed, and every heart beat high, with desperate resolve to conquer or die.”
At least 50 chaplains died in battle. Another 100 succumbed to disease or fell wounded. Those who were left continued to preach the faith. If their side was winning, chaplains stressed that it was because the men were following the commandments. If they were losing, it was a temporary setback caused by sinfulness. Ministers rationalized protracted reverses by comparing the current plight to the tribulations faced by the Israelites of old as they struggled toward the Promised Land.
Civil War chaplains deserve far more attention than has been paid them. In quiet and unobtrusive ways they strengthened men to face the greatest challenge of life: namely, death. Army chaplains need no epitaph. It was written for them centuries earlier: “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”