Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/183

Rh lowed me in this, too. I have now resolved to change my course. I have enlisted under the banner of the Cross, and mean, by God's help, to prove a faithful soldier of Jesus as I have been a true soldier to my country. I call upon you, my brave boys, to follow me as I shall try to follow 'the Captain of our salvation,' and I want all who are willing to do so to come, here and now, and give me their hands and let me pray for them." It is hardly necessary to add that the effect was electrical. The men crowded around their loved captain, tears flowed freely, earnest prayers were offered, and the brave fellow continued his personal efforts until his company had become a center of powerful influence for the religious good of their regiment and brigade.

Most potent among the instrumentalities in our work were the liberality and zeal of the young converts. I have never seen more princely liberality than among these Christian soldiers. There are old subscription papers for regimental library, for tracts, Bibles and religious newspapers, for the Fredericksburg sufferers, and other benevolent objects which show the self-sacrificing liberality of these noble men. In the winter of 1863-64 the Young Men's Christian Association of Posey's (afterward Harris') Mississippi brigade led off in a movement which was followed by a number of other brigades. They solemnly resolved to fast one day in every week in order that they might send that day's rations to the suffering poor of the city of Richmond. Here were these poor fellows away from home, and many of them cut off from all communication with home, receiving only eleven dollars per month in Confederate currency, often getting not more than half rations, and very frequently not that, voluntarily fasting one day in the week in order to send that day's rations to God's poor in the city, for whose defense they were so freely and so heroically offering and sacrificing their lives.

Men think that the manner in which one meets the