IN GOD’S PRESENCE: CHAPLAINS, MISSIONARIES, AND THE RELIGIOUS SPACE OF WAR AND PEACE By BENJAMIN L. MILLER A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2012 1 © 2012 Benjamin L. Miller 2 To my parents 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my dissertation advisors, J. Matthew Gallman and William A. Link, for believing in the worth of this project from its inception and guiding me through its completion. I would also like to thank the other members of my committee, Jon Sensbach, Mitchell Hart, and David Hackett for their advice and encouragement. Research for this project would not have been possible without the generous support of an Archie K. Davis fellowship from the North Caroliniana Society, an Andrew W. Mellon research fellowship from the Virginia Historical Society, and a research fellowship from the Institute for Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina. Closer to home, the University of Florida funded this project through multiple conference travel grants, and research awards which also helped fund my archival journeys. This project would also have been far more difficult without the help of the professionals who worked at the numerous research archives I visited. At a crucial point in this project’s germination, I attended a seminar led by Harry Stout, who along with one of the other participants, Edward Blum, offered strong words of encouragement, and help with conceptualizing the dissertation’s larger argument. Last but certainly not least, I would like to thank my wife for putting up with me while I completed this project. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 9 Theorizing the “Sacred” in the American Civil War Era: A Discourse on Method ...... 9 Chapter Outline ....................................................................................................... 19 Scope of Dissertation .............................................................................................. 21 2 MEN OF THE CLOTH ............................................................................................. 25 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 25 The Clergy and Organized Religion in Antebellum America ................................... 26 Challenges For Wartime Clergy .............................................................................. 31 The Antebellum Lives of Several Sample Clergy .................................................... 39 3 CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS ......................................................................................... 51 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 51 “Awash in a Sea of Faith”: Religion in Antebellum America .................................... 52 “Seeing the Elephant”: Christian Soldiers Go Off to War ........................................ 62 Comrades and Friends: Soldiers and Their Spiritual Guides .................................. 72 Wartime Religion and the Written Word .................................................................. 77 4 CONSTRUCTING SACRED SPACE IN CAMP: WORSHIP PRACTICES.............. 81 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 81 New Wartime Worship Practices ............................................................................ 82 Reproducing and Adapting Antebellum Worship Practices ..................................... 95 5 CONSTRUCTING SACRED SPACE IN CAMP: CHURCHES, BATTLES, AND DIVERSITY ........................................................................................................... 130 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 130 Building Churches in the Civil War Armies ............................................................ 130 The Sacred and the Profane ................................................................................. 139 Diversity in the Camps .......................................................................................... 158 6 FIGHTING, DYING, SICK, AND WOUNDED ........................................................ 173 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 173 5 Religiosity During Combat: Navigating the Boundaries of Life and Death ............ 174 Aiding the Dispossessed: Ministering to the Sick, Wounded, and Dying in the Hospitals ............................................................................................................ 192 The End of Worldly Suffering: The Religious Space of the Dying ......................... 216 7 CLERICAL CARE IN GENERAL HOSPITALS AND PRISONS ............................ 227 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 227 Time is on Our Side: Sacred Space in the Union General Hospital ...................... 228 Fighting Profane Space in the Union General Hospital ......................................... 244 Prisons: Inculcating Religiosity and Civil Religion ................................................. 250 8 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 268 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 281 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 312 6 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy IN GOD’S PRESENCE: CHAPLAINS, MISSIONARIES, AND THE RELIGIOUS SPACE OF WAR AND PEACE By Benjamin L. Miller December 2012 Chair: J. Matthew Gallman Cochair: William A. Link Major: History Using insights drawn from spatial theory, this dissertation examines religious developments during the American Civil War era, by focusing on the military chaplains and missionaries who served the spiritual needs of the Civil War armies. It looks specifically at how clergy and soldiers navigated the wartime religious world in military camps, battlefields, hospitals, and prisons. In these varied spaces, soldiers and clergy intent on maintaining a spiritual life initially tried to replicate the idyllic world of the antebellum church. Instead of succeeding in that endeavor, they found themselves constructing a new religious world, needing to adapt to wartime circumstances including constant movement, persistent deprivations, and the peculiar challenges posed by living in an almost entirely masculine setting. The wartime religious world contained vestiges of the prewar period including providential thinking, revivalism, and belief in the Good Death. However, the changes were more marked. The wartime religious world fostered themes of religious and societal equality. With few exceptions, chaplains and missionaries ministered to men regardless of religious belief, racial identity, or army affiliation. An organization of 7 Northern evangelical missionaries, the United States Christian Commission (USCC), in particular focused much attention on the spiritual development of African American soldiers and civilians. While first emerging within the camp and battlefield environments, the prison and the general hospital inculcated civil religion within the ranks of Civil War soldiers. The spiritual life of Civil War soldiers had a large impact on postbellum religious changes such as the expansion of black churches, the growth of civil religion in the North and South, and the gender composition of American churches. 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Religion and war have always been at the center of the human condition. Warfare often leads to heightened religiosity. The American Civil War era in particular cannot be fully explained without understanding religion’s role in the conflict. The goal of this dissertation is to shed light on how wartime clergy interacted with the flock of male soldiers within the bloody, fratricidal conflict known as the American Civil War. This chapter sets out to do three things: first, discuss the methodology undergirding the dissertation; second, provide a chapter outline of the dissertation; and finally, provide an overview of the dissertation’s scope. Theorizing the “Sacred” in the American Civil War Era: A Discourse on Method This dissertation is based on a theoretical framework a century in the making. I have examined how religious theorists from Emile Durkheim to Kim Knott have conceptualized religious space, and have taken aspects of their theories to inform my own work.1 The next few pages sketch how these religious theories have evolved, 2 before I offer my own conception of religious space. 1 The following works on sacred space provide a theoretical background for the dissertation: Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious