civil war manuscripts - American Memory from the Library of Congress

aiders to coon hunts. The exercise appears to have involved
little danger and is presented as a welcome intrusion into the
camp routine. Perhaps another unfounded belief concerns the
discipline and prowess of Gen. John C. Fremont's famous
"Pathfinders." After observing the actions of General Fremont's
troops during their march into the Shenandoah Valley in the
spring of 1862, one disgusted Federal officer remarked that
these German soldiers marched off the road most of the way;
the paths they followed led chiefly from one farm to the next,
which they plundered in turn.
In the area of religion, extensive reading in the collections
seems to lead to the conclusion that, at least during the height
of the war, the militant Christian was a contradiction in terms.
Moreover, if comments in the collections about professional
men of faith who entered the army can be trusted, chaplains
seem often to have failed in their mission. Occasionally, a particularly
devout recruit would gather a half dozen followers for
evening prayers and Bible study, but the sessions did not continue
long and excited little interest among the rank and file.
Delegates of the U.S. Christian Commission and Sanitary Commission
visiting Federal troops in the war zone were greeted
eagerly if they had food and clothing to distribute, but piety
was at a discount. Some observers testified that the men fought
mechanically, without malice, just as they would sift grain or
saw wood. They might be moved greatly by jealousy of each
other or become enraged at some petty encroachment by a
comrade, a deficiency in their rations, or some insult or unfairness
on the part of an officer, but of God and his worship—
nothing at all. This regression in religious interest and observance
is neatly outlined in the postwar remarks of William
McDonald, a surgeon with the Army of the Potomac: "The chaplains
were often called upon to hold Service on Sundays regularly
during the winter of 1861 and 1862, not at all during the
Peninsular Campaign, now and then during the winter of 1862
and 1863, and never after as far as my knowledge and observation
went."
Few aspects of the war are better represented in the collections
than its effects upon southern blacks. The hopes and
achievements, the disappointments and sufferings of freedmen,
appear in diverse and sundry ways: in the unlearned scrawl of
a grateful black recruit, in the sharp rebuttal of a black officer
defending the performance of his troops, in the compassionate
observations of missionaries and volunteer teachers, in the
casual but telltale remarks of officers and soldiers, and in the
recollections of escaped Federal prisoners of war. The backdrops
against which the lives of freedmen were acted out range
from the newly established schools and freedmen's camps to
ravaged towns and plantations, from smoking battlefields to
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