The Spirit Divided: Memoirs of Civil War Chaplains – The Union
Compiled and edited by Benedict R. Maryniak and John Wesley Brinsfield Jr

Illustrated, footnotes, appendix, bibliography, index, 260 pp., 2007. Mercer University Press, 1400 Coleman Ave., Macon, GA 31207, $35 plus shipping.

Reviewer: John Deppen
John Deppen is past president of the Susquehanna CWRT, a member of General John F. Hartranft Camp #15 of the SUVCW and a living historian who portrays Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock. His articles and reviews have appeared in Military Heritage, Gettysburg Magazine, The Civil War News and The Daily Item in central Pennsylvania.

Review:
“The head of a regiment is the Colonel, the heart of it should be the chaplain,” wrote Chaplain Thomas Kinnicut Beecher of the 141st New York Volunteer Infantry. With their roles ill defined by regulations and often treated with indifference by officers and soldiers alike, chaplains in the Union army struggled to make a difference.

As this fascinating book illustrates, some chaplains succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations, while others failed miserably.

 For army chaplains during the Civil War, the call of military service superseded the call to shepherd their flocks at home. In several of the sermons and letters home collected in this volume, the men detail their reasons for joining the army.

For many, the reasons had as much to do with their perception of religious duty as they did with patriotism. Some of these men, aging and in questionable health, pushed themselves beyond their limits to fulfill their sense of mission.

Reading the words of these men of faith is a unique experience. Some write with a witty insightfulness about army life, while others express themselves with a dry solemnity that they no doubt demonstrated in their work among the troops. A few chaplains took their work as soldiers more seriously than their responsibilities as moral leaders.

As noted by the editors, “A chaplain’s pay was equivalent to that received by a captain of cavalry: $100 per month. Some Union Army chaplains took this comparison beyond its intent, however, and wore the shoulder straps of a captain as if they were company commanders.”

The book covers various aspects of ministry in the army, from life in camp to campaigning to working in the prisons and hospitals. It is well-organized and does not overwhelm the reader with burdensome footnotes or unnecessary appendices. The editors most often allow the chaplains to speak for themselves.

The quality of this volume will inspire those who have not done so to read The Spirit Divided: Memoirs of Civil War Chaplains — The Confederacy, published in 2006.

The burden of Confederate chaplains was in some ways greater, having to convince soldiers that God was still on their side, even as the Confederacy tottered toward defeat in the war’s last months.