On the debate as to who was most religious, North or South, the answer should be..."yes." In other words, "both prayed to the same God," in those insightful words of Lincoln. That is the very title of the presentation tomorrow nite at the Ann Arbor Civil War Roundtable by Rev. Robert J. Miller, who authored a book with that same phrase as title.
Anyone ever hear of the United States Christian Commission? It was a soldiers aid society formed in the first year of the War to provide both material and spiritual benefits to Union military personnel.
Anyone ever see these song lyrics, with numerous references to the hereafter, penned by a Yankee?
"The Faded Coat of Blue, or, The Nameless Grave" (1865)
by J. H. McNaughton
1.
My brave lad he sleeps in his faded his coat of blue.
In a lonely grave unknown lies the heart that beat so true;
He sank faint and hungry among the famish'd brave,
And they laid him sad and lonely within a nameless grave!
REFRAIN
No more the bugle calls the weary one,
Rest, noble spirit, in thy grave unknown;
I'll find you, and know you among the good and true
When a robe of white is given for the faded coat of blue.
CHORUS
No more the bugle calls the weary one,
Rest, noble spirit, in thy grave unknown;
I'll find you, and know you among the good and true
When a robe of white is given for the faded coat of blue.
2.
He cried "give me water and just a little crumb.
And my mother she will bless you tho' all the years to come;
Oh! tell my sweet sister, so gentle, good, and true,
That I'll meet her up in heav'n in my faded coat of blue."
(REFRAIN) {CHORUS)
3.
He said "my dear comrades, you cannot take me home,
But you'll mark my grave for mother, she'll find me if she come,
I fear she'll not know me, among the good, and true,
When I meet her up in heav'n in my faded coat of blue."
(REFRAIN) {CHORUS)
4.
No dear one came nigh him to close his sweet blue eyes,
And no gentle one came by him to give him sweet replies;
No stone marks the sod o'er his bed, so brave, and true,
In his lonely grave he sleeps in his faded coat of blue.
(REFRAIN) {CHORUS)
Just a few examples on the Northerner being no less religious than the native of Dixie.
