Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/177

Rh papers, and hundreds of letters and narratives from chaplains, missionaries and colporteurs, the following estimate is made of the number of men in the army of Northern Virginia who professed faith in Christ during the four years of its existence: During the fall and winter of 1862-63, and spring of 1863, there were at least 1,500 professions. From August, 1863, to the 1st of January, 1864, and to the opening of the Wilderness campaign, at least 2,000 more were added to this number. And from May, 1864, to April, 1865, it is a low estimate to put the number of converts at 4,000.

Add to these figures at least 2,500 who, during the war, were converted in the hospitals, at home, or in Northern prisons (for Christ was in the prisons, and there were revivals at Point Lookout, Fort Delaware, Elmira, Johnson's island, and other points), and we have a grand total of at least 15,000 soldiers of Lee's army alone who professed faith during the four years of the war. Rev. Dr. Bennett ("Great Revival in the Southern Armies," page 413) says: "It was believed that fully one-third of all the soldiers in the field were praying men, and members of some branch of the Christian church. A large proportion of the higher officers were men of faith and prayer, and many others, though not professedly religious, were moral and respectful to all the religious services, and confessed the value of the revival in promoting the efficiency of the army." But figures cannot, of course, give a tithe of the results of a great revival. The comfort, the peace, the strength for hardships, privations, sufferings, trials, temptations—these cannot be counted, but are really of far more value than mere numbers of professed converts. Add to all this, the gladness which these revivals carried to "loved ones at home," who were wont to spend sleepless nights thinking of and praying for the soldier boys at the front, and the influence upon the churches, many of which were blessed with great revivals, directly traceable to