An anthology of writings from Union chaplains who served from 1861 to 1865

Historians are only beginning to address religion as a facet of the Civil War. Because neither war department had an office governing military chaplains,almost 4,000 of them in blue and gray were nearly lost to future study. Aftermany years of research, their names, assignments, and denominational affilia-tions were listed in Faith in the Fight. In an organization created to destroy theenemy, chaplains ate, drank, and slept dissonance. Older than most soldiers and looking at battle with very different eyes, chaplains had their beliefs brutally tested at the same time they instilled faith that sustained men through adversities and tragedies.

The Spirit Divided is a collection of letters, reports, and rec-ollections in which army chaplains describe their motives and methods, their failures and achievements. Some threw away their somber black uniforms and became dashing staff officers who rode over battlefields to deliver orders, evencapture enemy soldiers. Scorning these “chaplains militant,” others were, in the words of a battlefield journalist, “bearers of the cup of cold water and the word of good cheer—the strong regiment may be the colonel's, but the wounded brigade is the chaplain’s.”

Chaplains were also, of course, human beings. They wondered whose side God was on, and if their ministries might be in vain. They saw, on both sides, God’s Spirit at work. Was the Spirit divided, was God punishing both North and Southfor their sins, or was there some other explanation for this seemingly endlesswar? The reflections of these men of the cloth, who were underfed, underpaid, and largely unappreciated, have much to teach modern readers. They had to find, above all, the faith and perseverance to sustain the spirit of their people during the greatest war ever fought on this continent.

Benedict R. Maryniak is a social worker with the Erie County Medical Center.He has been the president of the Buffalo, New York Civil War Round Table since1985. He is the author of Faith in the Fight: Civil War Chaplainsand severalnewspaper columns and newsletters.
John Wesley Brinsfield, Jr. is the Chaplain Corps Historian at the Army Chaplain School, Ft. Jackson, South Carolina. He is the author of The SpiritDivided: Memoirs of Civil War Chaplains–The Confederacy and other books, journal, and newspaper articles.

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