Introduction

The Bible saturated the Civil War, and this book offers the most thorough analysis yet of how Americans enlisted scripture to fight the war. This introduction describes the major themes examined in the book, including Abraham Lincoln’s use of scripture (and Americans’ use of scripture to praise and to attack Lincoln), slavery and the Bible, patriotic views of scripture, and the Bible’s use to cope with the war’s death toll. The book concludes with an appendix on new data on the most-cited biblical texts in the war, ranked in three tables, labeled “The Confederate Bible,” “The Union Bible,” and “Biblical Citations in the American Civil War: Union and Confederacy.” Americans fought the Civil War with Bibles in hand, with both sides calling the war just and sacred. Supported by this groundbreaking new data, this book examines how Americans enlisted the Bible in the nation’s most bloody and, arguably, most biblically saturated war.

“A Covenant of Death”

Many southerners celebrated the war’s beginning. Others spoke in somber tones. Opinions flew in all directions after Sumter’s fall, as Americans reflected on what the war would mean. One constant presence, however, was the Bible. It helped Americans to brace for war. As the greatest crisis of their lives came into focus, they clung to the scriptures for comfort and justification. This time was remarkable for the variety of biblical responses to the war. Southern women struggled with their zeal for war, which many believed was inappropriate. If many wanted war, others drew back from the conflict, or at least worried about what the war would do to the nation, regardless of which side God was on. Just as northern preachers were sharpening their exegesis for battle, southerners did the same, as did Mormons, who hurled biblical attacks on both North and South from the West.

“Welcome to the Ransomed”

Less than a week after the carnage at Shiloh, Congress voted to free enslaved people and to compensate slaveowners in Washington, DC. Daniel A. Payne, a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, visited President Lincoln and encouraged him to sign the bill, which he did on April 16, 1862. That same week, Payne preached his most influential sermon, Welcome to the Ransomed, or, Duties of the Colored Inhabitants of the District of Columbia. Lincoln impressed Payne as a man of “real greatness.” High praise for Lincoln would be in short supply, especially from African Americans. Lincoln had wavered on emancipation, many believed, and he needed to pursue a harder war focused on abolishing slavery. The war grew in intensity, and so did debates over slavery’s role in the conflict. Through this phase of the war, Americans turned to scripture to defend an even more brutal war for and against emancipation.

“This Second War I Consider Equally as Holy as the First”

Americans rarely saw flags until 1861. Few people put up flags outside their homes, and churches did not normally fly them either. With the onset of the war, however, flags appeared everywhere—in churches, homes, businesses, and elsewhere. The flag northerners flew honored the nation of the beloved founders—a flag descended from the flag of the American Revolution—and as northerners honored the flag, they compared their war with the Revolutionary War. Not to be outdone, southerners insisted that they, not the northern aggressors, were carrying on the Revolutionary legacy. Which side was more faithful to the American Revolution? Americans debated this question throughout the war, and never more fervently than at the war’s beginning. As each side claimed to be most faithful to the patriots of 1776, they employed the Bible to support their arguments and to recruit soldiers for the fight.

“The Sword of the Lord”

Motivating soldiers to kill in the Civil War was more difficult than inspiring them to die for the cause. Killing, Drew Gilpin Faust wrote, “required the more significant departure from soldiers’ understandings of themselves as human beings and . . . as Christians.” Killing was a problem for many soldiers—violence seemed prohibited by the Bible, especially the New Testament’s Sermon on the Mount, but also the Old Testament command, “Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13). In response, Americans turned to other passages in the Bible to inspire soldiers to kill, a concern never more urgent than after the bloodbath at Antietam. Soon after that battle, Lincoln announced his Emancipation Proclamation, which gave some northerners a righteous motivation to fight. It was now a war for freedom. In wrestling with these interrelated concerns—the motivation to kill and the battle for emancipation—Americans struggled with the scriptures in the second half of 1862.

“His Terrible Swift Sword”

The Civil War resulted from a division that existed since the nation’s founding. As Abraham Lincoln said in his Second Inaugural Address, “slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war.” This division pitted those who believed slavery to be a biblical institution—and compatible with the ideals of the nation—against those who believed slavery violated both scripture and the nation’s founding ideals. This chapter narrates the Bible’s use to support and to attack slavery in the decades leading up to the Civil War, focusing especially on uses of scripture to support violence.

“Cursed Be He That Keepeth Back His Sword from Blood”

Americans turned to scripture to address various wartime needs in 1864. In the South, Confederates executed deserters while warning soldiers that the Jesus story was an execution story marked by betrayal. The biblical theme of loyalty came into play in the South as Lincoln tried to entice southerners into signing a loyalty oath in exchange for pardon. Loyalty and morale were not just southern problems, however. In 1864 Grant and Lee faced off in some of the war’s fiercest combat. Americans had seen Shiloh, Antietam, and Gettysburg—surely the worst was over, they had thought. Yet the devastation of 1864 surprised them again with lists of casualties that seemed only to get longer as the months dragged on. Americans grew more war weary than ever, which prompted Frederick Douglass and others to call on the Bible to remind Americans of the war’s sacred meaning.

“Without Shedding of Blood Is No Remission”

As everyone soon learned in this war, anything could happen in battle. Strategies went awry when shots rang out. Some Americans found comfort in providentialism, believing God controlled all events, and their lives were in God’s hands. Yet people wondered why God would allow such a bloody war to continue. The Civil War challenged Americans’ belief in providence. Maybe that was why Americans spoke so much about providence in the war—to reassure themselves that there was some order in the disorder. These concerns drove Americans to the Bible, because the Bible was the best guide to God’s providence. The late summer months of 1862 would see a turning point in the war, and the events during this time compelled some of the war’s deepest and most self-serving views of providence in scripture.

“Baptized in the Blood of Their President”

Five days separated General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox and Lincoln’s assassination at Ford’s Theatre. For Christians, it was Holy Week: Lee surrendered on Palm Sunday; Booth shot Lincoln on Good Friday. Did God send—or at least allow—this hated bullet to kill Lincoln? Was it providential? For most Americans, the best guide to providence was the Bible. Although many agreed that God was mysterious, they also agreed that scripture was the best guide to God’s will. The circumstances of the assassination made the Bible especially visible for Christians. Again, it was Holy Week: Booth shot Lincoln on Good Friday; he died on Saturday, so many preachers addressed the assassination on Easter Sunday. As news of Lincoln’s death shook the nation, preachers scrapped their Easter sermons and took on the task of addressing the crisis. This chapter examines how Americans cited scripture in response to Lincoln’s assassination.

“Trust in Providence and Keep Your Powder Dry”

Both sides finally got what they wanted in July at the First Battle of Bull Run—here was a real battle, giving both sides the chance to face off against the enemy. Here also was the first providential test of the war, the first indication of which side God would take once the fighting started. For many southerners, Bull Run (or Manassas, as southerners called the battle) confirmed their reading of God’s will; for many northerners, Bull Run stirred disillusionment and a call for of the nation to rededicate itself to God. The battle also provoked revaluations of several key biblical texts, including Exodus in the South and Romans 13 in the North, with both sides trying to tease out the relationship between the Bible and Bull Run.