God Has Favored Our Cause Chapter Summary

Woodworth receives the information pertaining to the spiritual experience of the soldiers from reading hundreds of letters from soldiers to their families. In these letters, soldier write to their families about Southern beliefs that God is on their side, the soldiers’ relationships to the chaplains, and the beneficial assistant of the U.S. Christian Commission. In chapter 7, titled “God Has Favored Our Cause,” Woodworth writes that the people of the South believed the North to be corrupt, and the South needed to rise up and create a government fully based on Christian values. The Southern soldiers wrote home constantly mentioning the idea that God had initiated this war for the South to reassert their Christian values in government. Whether …show more content…
Chapter 8, “The Boys Love Him As A Father,” described the feelings of the soldiers towards the chaplains in the camps. The chaplains were the most representative factor of the Church during wartime. However, not ever regiment had a chaplain. The soldiers, that did have a chaplain, opinions on the chaplains ranged from seeing them as useless and as extremely beneficial. The position of chaplain was easy to obtain, but difficult to be successful. The chaplain received benefits like an officer, but could leave the battlefield whenever it got dangerous. The chaplains that were truly respected did not leave the battlefield and assisted the soldiers by being the wartime postal service. Finally, chapter 9, “To Labor For the Souls of Their Fellow-Men,” describes the overwhelming gratitude the Union and Confederate soldiers had for the work of the U.S. Christian Commission. These missionaries were mostly present in hospitals where they read to illiterate injured soldiers, and they provided Bibles to the soldiers, which in turn led numerous soldiers to Christianity. Some soldiers even saw the missionaries as more beneficial than the chaplains present in the