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Book Reviews These are some reviews from a recent issue of
The Civil War News:
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Mosby’s Fighting Parson: The Life and Times of Sam Chapman
by Peter A. Brown.
Illustrated, notes, bibliography, index, 423 pp., 2001. Willow Bend Books, 65 East Main St., Westminster, MD 21157-5026, $29.95 plus shipping.
What motivates a man to go to war? When it comes to the average enlistee of the Civil War era, the reasons are varied: a sense of patriotism, a hunger for adventure, peer pressure perhaps? Especially of interest to this reviewer is the reasons as to why ministers of the Christian gospel were compelled to leave their pulpits and platforms for the trenches. To be sure, patriotism and adventure played major roles in preachers donning uniforms, but a larger reason lay in the Christian’s sense in right and wrong. Church leaders, be they chaplains, field officers, or common soldiers, were to a man convinced of the holy righteousness of their cause, be it Union or Confederate. A case in point is the story of the Rev. Samuel Chapman, an ordained Baptist minister from the Blue Ridge region of Virginia who served first as an artillery officer and subsequently became a member of Col. John Mosby’s fabled Confederate partisan raiders. Young Sam was the beneficiary of a solid education, first as a pupil of the future Confederate mapmaker Jedediah Hotchkiss, followed by attendance at Columbian College in Washington, D.C., and Richmond College in Virginia. A lifelong Baptist with an early call to ministry, Chapman was licensed to preach at age 20 and diligently pursued his ministerial studies in Richmond until he rallied to the Confederate cause. Sam Chapman believed in his cause—he held fast to the belief that God was on the side of the South and joined his brothers in the wearing of the gray. He served with distinction as a lieutenant in the Dixie Artillery in the Valley Campaign, the Seven Days’ battles and Second Manassas—he would cherish for the rest of his life his service as a captain with Mosby’s Rangers, participating is some of the most violent cavalry actions of the war. Particularly poignant is the author’s description of Chapman’s postwar years, his tireless work planting and pastoring churches throughout western Virginia, his equally tireless enthusiasm for Confederate veterans’ organizations and activities, and his love for his wife Rebecca, whom Chapman married while still a young cavalryman amid the flames of war. Brown’s account of the 60-year-old Chapman’s service as a chaplain of U. S. Volunteers during the Spanish-American War provides the reader with a rare look at ministry to troops during that brief yet pivotal period of American history. This is a book to relish. Chapman’s letters give us insight into various facets of his life—military service for two nations, home missionary and pastor, proud Confederate veteran. Sam Chapman’s time in the spotlight has been severely overdue; this work sheds a bright light on such a man devoted to God and country.
Larry G. Gray
Larry G. Gray earned his B.A. in history from Commonwealth University and an M.Div. from Vir-ginia Union University. His M.A. in history is from University of Missouri/Kansas City. He lives in southeast Missouri.
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