Benjamin R. Lacy suggests that the revival began in the camps and hospitals aroundRichmond, Virginia.[1] The revival began in theArmy of Northern Virginia in early 1863.[2] In March 1863, for example, a new chaplain arrived at the41st Virginia Infantry regiment and found the beginnings of a revival.[3] The revival was encouraged byStonewall Jackson andRobert E. Lee and, by mid-1863, it had spread to all the Confederate armies.[4] Mark Summers argues, however, that Jackson and Lee were exceptional as far as enthusiasm among the officers went, and rather than a "top down" revival (the traditionalLost Cause of the Confederacy view), it was much more "bottom up", as thousands ofreligious tracts were distributed among the soldiers. Summers suggests that due to theUnion blockade, the soldiers had little else to read.[5]
According to the Confederate chaplain J. William Jones, by the end of the war, 150,000 soldiers had beenconverted.[4][6] Kurt O. Berends argues that the revivals were a major cultural event.[7] Ben House suggests that the revivals provided "the spiritual resources that would be necessary to enable the South to survive defeat andReconstruction with a strong Bible base still intact."[8]
Carroll, Dillon J., "'The God Who Shielded Me Before, Yet Watches Over Us All': Confederate Soldiers, Mental Illness, and Religion,"Civil War History, 61 (Sept. 2015), 252–80.
Faust, Drew Gilpin. "Christian Soldiers: The Meaning of Revivalism in the Confederate Army."Journal of Southern History (1987): 63–90.online
