Thanks in large part to the efforts of Southern Baptists, Christian literature is proliferating in Confederate Army camps. Stories of the positive effect of such literature are now circulating in the Baptist press of the South, such as the following story told by an army colporter.
One young man told me that he dated his conviction to tract that I gave him last Fall. It was “A Mother’s Parting Words”–pulling the tract from his pocket, he said, here it is; I bless God that you was sent to labor among us; I intend to keep this as long as I live, and when I die I will leave it to my poor mother.
The generic voices of mothers and wives are frequently employed in Christian literature directed at Confederate soldiers. Southern Baptist women’s role, whether directly or indirectly, is to remind their men to live moral and upright lives in terms of personal behavior and piety while they are serving as soldiers defending God’s nation from the evil United States. Indeed, Baptist (male) leaders on the home front often take liberties to speak on behalf of women in encouraging soldiers to live righteously.
Source: A. E. Dickinson, “An Interesting Letter From the Army,” Christian Index, April 13, 1863
