cover image Faith in God and Generals: An Anthology of Faith, Hope, and Love in the American Civil War

Faith in God and Generals: An Anthology of Faith, Hope, and Love in the American Civil War

. B&H Publishing Group, $24.99 (187pp) ISBN 978-0-8054-2728-8

The religious dimension of the Civil War gets ungainly treatment in this companion volume (a ""must-read for anyone who sees the film,"" notes director Maxwell) to the Civil War epic Gods and Generals. The contributors, mostly Christian academics and media figures, draw on letters, speeches, prayers and military orders to evoke faith's importance to preachers, politicians, soldiers, slaves and wives during an era steeped in religious feeling and imagery. Organized around profiles of major and minor Civil War figures selected for their piety and their prominence in the film, this illustrated volume tilts in the direction of the generally more devout Confederates. While substantial essays are devoted to Lincoln and to Union poster-boy Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the text is weighted toward hagiographies of Southern generals, including the ""humble, forgiving"" Robert E. Lee and the deeply religious Stonewall Jackson, an ""extraordinary man"" who ""walked among us 130 years ago."" And although Confederate efforts to stamp out prostitution, profanity and card playing in army camps are applauded, the Christian piety of slave-owners like Jackson is accepted without much reflection. The lengthy excerpts from Civil War-era writings convey the religiosity of period rhetoric, but the book's reverential tone and lack of historical nuance makes it feel rather like a Sunday School lecture. Color and b&w photos. (Feb.)