Fifth Wheel or Godsend?
Sergeant George W. Maret, with little else to do on a cold winter’s day in January of 1862, wrote an openly frustrated letter from his regiment’s position near Arlington, Virginia, to his parents in New York. Among other subjects, he vented anger at his (unnamed) regimental chaplain, calling him an “old woman who ain’t fit to be called a chaplain.”[1] Maret viewed the chaplain as little more than a lying charlatan who would soon be removed from the regiment for lying on an official statement to receive cash payments to which he was not entitled.[2] While Maret’s experience with a poor chaplain was not unique, as one might expect, not everyone had such poor experiences with chaplains.
Corporal Lucius W. Barber of the 15th Illinois Infantry remembered his chaplain very differently. Later in life, Barber recalled the chaplain (Barton F. Rogers) as “a noble and good man” who “remained with us through all the war, sharing with us our privations and relieving our wants and necessities when possible.”[3] Barber enshrined the memory of his chaplain in a positive light, declaring, “he was indeed our friend and benefactor.”[4] Barber’s testimony of Chaplain Rodgers is but one in a sizable corpus of soldier recollections of their perception of the benefit the chaplaincy brought to their regiments.
What makes a chaplain good? The bad could be obvious, as was apparently the case in Sergeant Maret’s regiment. However, not all principled clergy were effective chaplains. Famed author Louisa May Alcott, who served as a nurse during the war, verbally skewered the chaplain assigned to her hospital for insensitive care.[5] Even well-meaning ministers could be viewed as poor performers.
Current chaplains have clear guidance on qualifications for accession and their duties. The Army defines a chaplain’s core competencies as “nurture the living, care for the wounded, and honor the fallen” and defines their roles as delivering “religious ministry to Soldiers and families” while providing access to ministry to those in other faith groups, and encouraging spiritual readiness” among all members.[6] Additionally, chaplains “serve as professional military religious staff advisors” who guide “their commanders on matters of religion, morals, and morale” including religious accommodations.[7] The other services have similar definitions. Additionally, modern chaplains enter the service as commissioned officers and have a clear place in their command staff structure.
None of these definitions or clear roles and responsibilities existed for clergy that entered Civil War armies, North or South. The US military chaplaincy is older than the Constitution and chaplains had been a part of every major conflict since the Revolution, but their roles and responsibilities were extraordinarily ill-defined.[8] There were expectations for chaplains, but they appear to be quite diverse. Lawrence Kohl, introducing the notable memoirs of Civil War chaplain Father William Corby, highlighted the challenge of working with such a nebulous assignment. Khol pointed out that a chaplain had to “determine what he was supposed to do” because “Congress…never spelled out [the chaplaincy’s] duties, nor did it grant chaplains any authority within the command structure.”[9] In the absence of clear direction, chaplains did the best they could with what they had. Was it good enough?
Previous studies on Civil War chaplains from among both belligerents have either assumed competency and effectiveness or chosen to follow the narratives of a relatively small sample size to make a determination of effectiveness based on witness testimonials, such as those represented above by Sergeant Maret, Corporal Barber, and Louisa May Alcott. The many qualitative attempts to gage the Civil War chaplaincy’s effectiveness have done much to bring to light a segment of Civil War history that has been largely overlooked. However, the work in this area can be improved.
Over the next year and a half, one can expect to find occasional updates here on a growing body of data that should fill a gap in the literature. Due to the absence of clearly defined military roles and responsibilities, this study will seek to determine how chaplains, church leaders, commanders, soldiers and women defined the roles and responsibilities of chaplains. After determining these definitions, narratives of chaplains can then be compared with existing chaplain rosters to identify specific chaplains whose stories can be compared to those standards with quantitative rigor, potentially granting a clearer picture of the quality of ministry provided by chaplains during the war.
With 14 years of experience as an Active Duty Air Force Chaplain (currently serving), 23 years of experience as an ordained minister, and as an active student of Civil War history whose ancestor’s life was positively impacted by a Civil War chaplain, I am eager to bring this subject to life in new and potentially unexplored ways.
Bibliography
Alcott, Louisa May. Hospital Sketches. Boston: James Redpath, 1863.
Barber, Lucius W. Army Memoirs of Lucius W. Barber: Company D, 15th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Chicago: J. M. W. Jones Stationary and Printing Co., 1894.
Corby, William , and Lawrence Frederick Kohl. Memoirs of Chaplain Life: Three Years with the Irish Brigade in the Army of the Patomac. New York: Fordham University Press, 1992.
Dickens, William E. “The Standardization of the Military Chaplaincy during the American Civil War.” Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1998.
Jr., Harvey G. Cox. Military Chaplains: From a Religious Military to a Military Religion. New York: American Report Press, 1973.
Maret, George W., and Paul J. ed. Engel. “A Letter from the Front.” New York History 34, no. 2 (1953): 204.
Stamps, Paul. Celebrating 250 Years of Sacred Service: U.S. Army Chaplain Corps 1775-2025. Edited by U.S. Army, 2024.
Woodworth, Steven E. While God Is Marching On: The Religious World of Civil War Soldiers. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2001.
[1] George W. Maret, and Paul J. ed. Engel, “A Letter from the Front,” New York History 34, no. 2 (1953): 206.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Lucius W. Barber, Army Memoirs of Lucius W. Barber: Company D, 15th Illinois Volunteer Infantry (Chicago: J. M. W. Jones Stationary and Printing Co., 1894), 101.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Louisa May Alcott, Hospital Sketches (Boston: James Redpath, 1863), 37, 87.
[6] Paul Stamps, Celebrating 250 Years of Sacred Service: U.S. Army Chaplain Corps 1775-2025 (2024), 15.
[7] Ibid.
[8] William E. Dickens, “The Standardization of the Military Chaplaincy during the American Civil War” (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1998), 2-4, Harvey G. Cox Jr., Military Chaplains: From a Religious Military to a Military Religion (New York: American Report Press, 1973). Steven E. Woodworth, While God Is Marching On: The Religious World of Civil War Soldiers (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2001), 146-47, 57. Woodworth resorts to soldier’s praise and critique to highlight the roles and expectations chaplains fulfilled because, in the absence of clear expectations, there was little else one might discuss the effectiveness of the chaplaincy.
[9] William Corby, and Lawrence Frederick Kohl, Memoirs of Chaplain Life: Three Years with the Irish Brigade in the Army of the Patomac (New York: Fordham University Press, 1992), xiv-xv.
A Thousand Thunders 