Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 216, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1911 — STORIES OF CAMP AND WAR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STORIES OF CAMP AND WAR

GREAT REVIVAL OF RELIGION On* of Moot Remarkable Features Among Soldiers Ourjna Loot Days of Groat Struggle. *!©ne of the most remarkable features of the Civil war,” says an old exConfederate of St Louis, Mo., "was the great revival of religion in the Confederate armies during the last 18 months of the struggle. “While most of the Confederate soldiers were loath to admit it yet after the fall of Vicksburg, which opened the Mississippi and cut the Confederacy in two, the awful defeat at Gettysburg, which proved the impossibility a successful Invasion of the North, it became deaf to every thinking man in the south that the cause was lost And yet, self-convinced that they were in the right, the soldiers could not persuade themselves but that in some mysterious way they would win. They hoped that complications between the United States government and Great Britain would take place, and when this hope was disappointed they looked confidently for trouble with Prance over the Mexican affair. Nothing came of it, however, and still the poor fellows clung to their hope of help from some unexpected quarter until some of them actually came' to believe that supernatural aid would be extended at the last moment "The chaplains In the southern army were aa a rule very earnest, devout men, and encouraged the superstitious hopes of the soldiers, until finally both chaplains and men came to believe that earnest prayer an<T supplication would bring about Divine intervention in their behalf. "But the chaplains told the men they must first as they expressed it ‘get right with God themselves.' So the men proceeded at once ‘to seek their own salvation.' The movement first began in the Tennessee army, and among the regiments from the mountain districts of Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee. Most extraordinary scenes were witnessed in the camps. All night, after a long day’s march, perhaps skirmishing or fighting from dawn till dark, the men would gather round the fires, and what little rations they had—and the rations were often very unequal to their needs—then pray and sing, often until long after midnight. "The preachers were everywhere. They went from one camp fire to another, encouraging those who were ‘under conviction,* praying with those who were groaning crying, shouting with those who thought they had religion, clapping their hands, roaring ‘Hallelujah,’ and in every way seeking to promote the excitement which had already passed beyond their control. Many men seemed actually erased with religious enthusiasm. It seems paradoxical to say it, but whole groups

could be seen In a sort of hysteria, crying and laughing at the same time, embracing one another and performing antics that would hare justified a looker-on in the belief that they were all insane. Many cases of the jerks occurred, many of the soldiers went into trances, some had visions, and one member of a Tennessee regiment claimed to have a revelation which foretold the coming of Jesus Christ, with 'lt legions of angels to assist the Confederate cause. He said that all human help waa vain, and after the Confederacy had been reduced to the last possible extremity, then Christ and his angels would appear, drive back the Union armies, and the cause would be saved. Of course the poor man was Insane; be afterwards died In an asylum, but there were many lik4 him, and many, too. who believed fa him and his prophecies. But no wonder can be felt st the numerous cases of insanity, both religious and otherwise, which occurred in the Confederate armies during the last year nf the var.” ,•*. \

Foretold Coming of Christ With Le gions of Angels.