Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/162

148 tary of war, and J. K. Barnes, surgeon-general, show that nearly four per cent more Confederates perished in Northern prisons than Federals in Southern prisons; and this notwithstanding the fact that the Confederacy was deficient in food, raiment and medicines for even its own soldiers, while the Federals had an abundance of all supplies. The truth is that our Christian President, Jefferson Davis, and his generals conducted the war on the highest plane of civilization; that our rank and file caught their spirit and showed in this, as in other directions, their peculiar and lofty morale. The great English scholar and poet, Prof. P. S. Worseley, wrote the truth in lines of blended strength and beauty in his poem dedicated to Gen. R. E. Lee, in which he thus refers to the Southern Confederacy:

But, after all, the surest proof of the morale of the Confederate armies is the very large religious element which composed them, the very large number of earnest Christians who were their leaders, or belonged to their rank and file. I have given this phase of the subject very special study, and have collected a large mass of material concerning it. I speak, therefore, what I do know, and testify to that which I have seen when I say that no armies—not even Cromwell's nicknamed "Roundheads"—ever had in them so large a proportion of true, active, Christian men as the armies of the Confederate States, and in no other armies were there ever such religious revivals or such a large number of professions of faith in Christ.

Beginning our investigation with the most prominent Confederate officials, it is ascertained that the South committed its civil and military affairs to eminent men of true moral and religious character. The President and