Recent Historiography on Religion and the American Civil War
Religion and the American Civil War is a field of study which has received much attention in recent years. Previously considered a peripheral issue by most Civil War historians (erroneously so), religion reemerged as a significant interpretive element of the Civil War experience with the publication of Religion and the American Civil War (1998), a collection of essays edited by Randall M. Miller, Harry S. Stout and George Reagan Wilson. Well-known historians such as Eugene D. Genovese, Daniel W. Stowell, Drew Gilpin Faust, Bertram Wyatt-Brown and Samuel S. Hill contributed to the ground-breaking volume.
The 1994 religion and Civil War symposium in Louisville that led to the Religion and the American Civil War volume stands as a watershed event in terms of religion and Civil War historiography. However, a survey of Civil War historiography from the mid-1970s to the present provides the larger context in terms of recent historical attention given to religion and the Civil War. Modern historians have approached the theme of religion and the Civil War in at least seven distinct, albeit sometimes overlapping, subcategories: 1) Religion in general during the Civil War, 2) Northern religion and the Civil War, 3) Southern religion and the Civil War, 4) Religion among the soldiers, 5) Civil War chaplains, 6) African-American religion and the Civil War, 7) Women and religion during the Civil War, and 8) Religious denominations and the Civil War. Any discussion of the American Civil War must take into account the issue of slavery, the underlying cause of the War. The sectional debates over slavery were frequently couched in religious language. Modern historians addressing the relationship of religion and the Civil War typically focus on slavery as the one defining issue of antebellum religion. As such, an important question begs our attention: should historical literature pertaining to the larger antebellum and Reconstruction eras, but not the Civil War
The 1994 religion and Civil War symposium in Louisville that led to the Religion and the American Civil War volume stands as a watershed event in terms of religion and Civil War historiography. However, a survey of Civil War historiography from the mid-1970s to the present provides the larger context in terms of recent historical attention given to religion and the Civil War. Modern historians have approached the theme of religion and the Civil War in at least seven distinct, albeit sometimes overlapping, subcategories: 1) Religion in general during the Civil War, 2) Northern religion and the Civil War, 3) Southern religion and the Civil War, 4) Religion among the soldiers, 5) Civil War chaplains, 6) African-American religion and the Civil War, 7) Women and religion during the Civil War, and 8) Religious denominations and the Civil War. Any discussion of the American Civil War must take into account the issue of slavery, the underlying cause of the War. The sectional debates over slavery were frequently couched in religious language. Modern historians addressing the relationship of religion and the Civil War typically focus on slavery as the one defining issue of antebellum religion. As such, an important question begs our attention: should historical literature pertaining to the larger antebellum and Reconstruction eras, but not the Civil War
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