Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/180

166 would be more faithful in the future." He became henceforth one of the most active, useful Christian officers in the army, was spared through the war, and is to-day, one of the most efficient laymen in the church. I recall a captain from one of the Southern States who became one of the leading workers in his brigade, and who since the war has been one of the most actively useful and one of the most liberal contributors to every good object of all the laymen in his State. And yet I learn he was of so little worth to his church, so careless in meeting his church duties, before he entered the army, that the church was thinking seriously of excluding him from her fellowship. The Southern Presbyterian gives the following concerning Col. Lewis Minor Coleman:

The Christian character of Lieut.-Col. L. M. Coleman, formerly professor of Latin in the university of Virginia, was wonderfully developed by the war. Before going into the field, notwithstanding his rare mental gifts, he was undemonstrative and retiring in religious matters, shrinking even from public prayer, and scarcely, if ever, rising to the boldness of an exhortation. But thrown among his men, under circumstances which would have left them without the means of grace if he had not broken the thrall of this silence, he rose to the height of the occasion; and in the camp, on the march, whatever the weather, he was found at reveille in front of his company, with eloquent prayer invoking the blessing and aid of Almighty God on them and their undertaking. He became a minister in everything except the accidents of the office—licensure and ordination—and he had decided, if his life were spared until the return of peace, to take his place among the 'legates of the skies' in the Baptist pulpit. Here, then, was one educated by the Holy Spirit, for the ministry, in the school of this war. Why may we not look with hopeful eyes to the army, therefore, as a sphere of triumph for the Gospel, where believers may be edified in the faith, and faith, the gift of God, may be imparted to sinners?

Gen. Clement A. Evans, of Georgia (the gallant and accomplished soldier who succeeded General Gordon in his