In spite of the growing revivals in portions of the Confederate Army, many Baptists on the home front are increasingly worried about the largely godless life of Confederate soldiers. Two articles in this week’s edition of North Carolina Baptists’ Biblical Recorder do little to sooth such concerns.
A soldier, writing to the Confederate Baptist, from camp near Charleston, says: “So far as my observation extends, there is no such day (as the Sabbath) known, at least recognized in the army.–The same routine of the camp is gone through on that day as any other and if the soldiers are detailed on fatigue duty of any kind, when Sunday comes they are not allowed to rest from their labors. It is the same case with the negroes that have been and are still working by hundreds and thousands on our fortifications.”
And:
The chaplains of Gen Jackson‘s army corps recently held a meeting. A correspondent of the Religious Herald states the object of the meeting as follows:
Gen Jackson has taken especial pains to have his command supplied with chaplains, and yet a little over half of the regiments in our corps are still destitute. There are several entire brigades without a single chaplain….I suppose that in the other army corps there is a larger amount of destination than in ours….”
Source: “No Sabbath,” Biblical Recorder, April 1, 1863 (link); “Chaplains,” Biblical Recorder, April 1, 1863 (link)
