Soldiers experienced extraordinary hardships during the Civil War. They served long stints in the army far away from hearth and home, they watched comrades fall in battle, and each soldier faced the possibility of death. The conflict tested the endurance of soldiers on both sides, and thousands sought refuge in religion and relied on God to carry on. But how did their religious faith help them persevere? What impact did their trust in God have on their courage in battle? And how was their faith affected as a result?
The example of Alfred T. Fielder, a Tennessee soldier, offers some insight into these questions. Fielder, who was forty-seven years old when the war began in April 1861, enlisted as a private in the Friendship Volunteers, Company B, Twelfth Tennessee Infantry Regiment. The unit was made up of local boys (including several of his relatives) from the vicinity of his hometown, Friendship, located in West Tennessee. By 1863, Fielder, having demonstrated his leadership abilities, was elected captain by his fellow soldiers. The regiment was soon mustered into the Army of Tennessee, where it fought for the remainder of the war.1
Recognizing the hazards of military service, Fielder, a longtime Christian, early in the war laid his petitions before his Heavenly Father’s throne for protection for himself and his family. He realized that, while serving in the army, he was no longer in control of his own fate or that of dear ones at home, but he acknowledged God’s power over such matters, and he derived great comfort and peace from his faith. Religion, therefore, consoled him and helped him endure the ordeal of war, allowing him to carry on. And, as God proved faithful in his care, Fielder’s faith or trust in God was strengthened.2
Alfred T. Fielder in 1870. Courtesy of the Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville.
A native of North Carolina, Fielder traveled with his wife, Isabell Tate, to West Tennessee in 1835 and settled in the town of Friendship, located in Dyer County. There, he operated a small farm on which he grew corn, wheat, and cotton. Fielder prospered as a farmer and, over time, increased his holdings, including his property in slaves; by 1860, he owned more than ten. Fielder became a respected community leader and was elected by the citizens in his district to the state legislature in 1855.3
Fielder was a longtime Methodist and a devout Christian. Apparently, his interest in religion began when he was a child, for his wartime diary indicates that his father and mother were faithful Christians. Nurtured by godly parents, he embraced religion at an early age and became a dedicated believer. Once he had settled in Tennessee, Fielder attended Mt. Zion Methodist Church in Friendship and served on the board of trustees, which oversaw the physical property of the church. Fielder’s piety and faithfulness must have been evident to those who knew him, for members of the board of trustees were nominated by their church pastor and elected by the district’s Quarterly Conference. He remained a spiritual pillar of his local church during the antebellum period. He demonstrated his devoutness in his actions as well. In 1857, he deeded two acres free of charge to the church for the construction of a new “house or place or worship . . . to preach and expand God’s Holy word therein.” He remained a trustee of Mt. Zion until his death in 1893.4
As an ardent Christian, Fielder must have recognized the inconsistency of war and his religious convictions, for did not Christ command his followers to love one another? James M. McPherson points out that devout soldiers had little difficulty justifying their participation in what they considered a war of self-defense against Northern aggression. Indeed, these men could not idly stand by and watch as their native land was desolated by invading armies. If Fielder was troubled by his participation in the war, he must have resolved early on any dilemma he may have had, for there are no references to it in his journal. He likely had little difficulty reconciling his faith and fighting in a war he considered just. In the second entry in his diary, made on July 27, 1861, the day he was sworn into Confederate service, he noted that he had “[taken] up his musket with a firm determination to use it in defence of the rights of myself and family and the Southern Confederacy.” He echoed these sentiments nearly a year later when, manning the trenches surrounding Corinth, Mississippi, in May 1862, he wrote that he and other Southerners were fighting “for our homes our wives and our families and all that is sacred and all we want to be let alone[.][0]ur enemies are fighting for conquest and plunder.”5
Army life in the early months of the Civil War was inhospitable to men of faith. Few soldiers on either side expressed any interest in spiritual matters, religious services were held in the camps only irregularly, and the soldiers faced a multitude of temptations—a fact observed by Fielder early on. “I find there is more infidelity in the army than I had immagened,” he reported in March 1862. Steven E. Woodworth concludes that camp life “during the first year or so of the war was not having a good moral and religious effect on the soldiers.” He contends that many fighting men were excited initially by the novelty of army life, which could be enjoyed in relative anonymity. Historians who agree that camp life in the first months of the war was not conducive to religion include Drew Gilpin Faust, James I. Robertson, and Larry J. Daniel. Faust maintains that, early on, many prewar churchgoers, far away from hearth and home, often succumbed to the ubiquitous temptations found in camp. War “inevitably dented the faith of many Civil War participants,” says Robertson. “Leaving the restraints of home and loved ones, and then cast as soldiers in a novel environment that alternated between apathy and loneliness on the one hand to excitement and danger on the other, invited a wandering from the straight and narrow.” And Daniel asserts that, “because of the festive atmosphere in camp” early in the war, “a general religious indifference permeated the army.” The wartime letters and diaries of Civil War chaplains confirm that, on the whole, fighting men on both sides exhibited little interest in religion at the outset of the war. As a result, many regimental chaplains resigned their positions out of frustration.6
Fielder was, however, determined to continue his prewar routine of attending religious services, praying, and reading his Bible once in the army. Indeed, he attended services (both morning and evening) his first Sunday in camp. He continued his religious practices in part out of habit. “As has been my custom for years I offered my devotions to almighty God before closing my eyes to sleep,” he wrote in June 1862. Fielder also maintained his routine because he was a genuine Christian and cherished the relationship he had with his Heavenly Father and sought to continue it while serving in the army. His sincere attempt to persist in his religious activities tells us something, not only about his relationship with God, but also about his prewar religious commitment. Historians contend that antebellum Southern men often engaged in “worldly amusements” and that devotion to religion resided primarily in the female sphere. But Fielder’s wartime experiences indicate that he, too, was intensely pious and had been prior to the war. Disturbed by the iniquitous activities of his fellow soldiers in December 1861, Fielder openly criticized their behavior: “The Cause of sobrity, virtue, and piety have comparatively few advocates in the army but as for myself though it may be unpopular—I am determined by Gods grace to advocate them all and remonstrate with those who say and act differantly.” Apparently Fielder found few who took his advice, for two days later he remarked: “I further intend to talk less (because it anoys some) and think more as it may be more profit to myself and less anoyance to others.” Even though his influence on others was limited, Fielder was determined to remain untarnished. He did not completely isolate himself from his comrades but chose instead to associate with other godly men in camp. During his first few weeks in the army, he joined other like-minded soldiers nearly every night in the chaplain’s tent for prayer meeting.7
Fielder also believed that it was necessary to act piously to secure the Lord’s blessing in order to prevail over the North, for he realized that God would not bless those he considered unrighteous. Indeed, his fear was that the irreligious behavior of his comrades would, instead, provoke God’s wrath. He was bothered in particular by the soldiers’, as well as the army’s, violation of the Fourth Commandment. In December 1861, Fielder noted: “The Sabbath is but little regarded in the army[.] May God have mercy upon our rulers and our men and help them to learn righteousness . . . ‘righteousness exalth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people.’” Apparently, things improved but little, for, on a Sunday in 1863, he remarked: “It is now sun set and this Sabbath day has been spent by the army in one general stir and I fear but few have thought that it is written ‘Thou shalt observe the sabbath day to keep it holy.’ . . . I pray God to forgive us our wrongs both national and individual.” He furthermore believed that Southerners must demonstrate a firm faith in the Lord and “meet his aprobation” in order to achieve victory. In July 1863, he asserted: “Our cause is Just and will prevail, God is a Just God and if we will but trust him as we ought he will bring us off Conquerors[.] Lord help us as a nation to humble ourselves under thy mighty hand.” Therefore, Fielder endeavored to remain faithful and desired that his fellow soldiers would do likewise and become pious men, which would guarantee military success.8
Fielder’s relationship with God took on even more importance once he was in the army, for he faced many new and terrible trials. Illness, mishap, or military action could claim his life at any time. He was reminded of this when the Twelfth Tennessee participated in the effort to repel a small force of Yankees advancing on Belmont, Missouri, in November 1861. Fielder saw several of his friends fall, and he himself “felt the wind from a ball brush my left lock or whisker.” The next day he confided in his journal: “Oh! how thankful to God I am that I am still spared and that I am what I am. . . . I do not remember to have ever seen a day in my life that I felt more thankful and more willing to submit to the will of providence.” Fielder trusted in the Lord for his own safety, and he found peace of mind in his faith, for he, like most mid-nineteenth-century Americans, believed strongly in the providence of God. According to Lewis O. Saum, the belief in providence was the most pervasive religious theme in antebellum America. Therefore, most Americans during this era interpreted trials as part of God’s plan and resigned themselves to his will. Their belief in providence, Saum contends, also helped soldiers accept the deaths of their comrades as the inscrutable will of an all-wise Heavenly Father. Fielder’s certainty that the Lord directed human events meant that God could shield him and his loved ones from harm. And, if he were to perish on the battlefield, Fielder understood that it must be the Lord’s will and that there was little he could do to prevent it. Thus, he became resigned to the will of his Heavenly Father. Fielder prayed earnestly for his own protection, which eased his fears about the events going on around him. In June 1863, he wrote: “I was enabled to feel that God was still my father and friend and in my soul there was a peace the wor[l]d can neither give nor take away.”9
Nor was Fielder able to care for his family back home. He prayed fervently throughout the conflict for God’s safekeeping, not only for himself, but also for them. Thoughts of his loved ones frequently crowded his mind, particularly early in the war. After the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson in February 1862, his concern for his home in West Tennessee was evident: “For the last two or three days my mind has much run out in prayer for myself and family . . . my mind [was] much upon home my family and all my earthly possessions being between me and Lincolns army. I pray God it may not long be the case, but that the time may be near at hand when the soil of Tennessee shall not be polluted by the tread of an enemy of the Southern Cause.” Although the area near his home in Friendship was not subjected to any long-term Federal occupation, both Union and Confederate soldiers frequently conducted raids and foraging expeditions in that region. Realizing that he could do little to protect his loved ones, Fielder turned the matter over to God. When called on to pray during a church service in the summer of 1862, Fielder “felt my heart much drawn out after my wife and family & friends who are now exposed to the enemy oh! that God may throw the arms of his protection around them and protect them from insult and abuse.” Learning in December 1862 that Yankees had been to his farm in Friendship and had confiscated his slaves, an incensed Fielder wrote: “They are stealing our property burning our houses. . . . O Lord throw the arms of protection around my wife and family and shield them from insult and injury is my prayer.” As with himself, he placed his “family & all that I possess” in God’s hands and noted in his diary that, when it came to his loved ones, “my trust is still firmly fixed in God.”10
Fielder was furthermore comforted by the fact that, if he were to fall in battle, he knew that God would take care of his family. Before departing for his command after a brief furlough home in January 1865, he confessed: “This is the day I am to start for the army of Tennessee[.] My trust is firm in God and into his hands I commit my family as into the hands of a faithful and trusty friend.” He was also reassured by the thought that, if he were to die, he would see his loved ones again in the next world, where they would remain together for eternity. He wrote in the spring of 1863: “God has blessed me much of late though I have been the subject of some bodily affliction yet he has blessed my soul and I have been enabled to look by faith beyond the Jordon of death to a better and happier home in heaven when I expect to overtake many loved ones that have crossed over before me and many others who are on the way.”11
As his words reveal, Fielder’s religion consoled and sustained him during the war. The uncertainty of military life and his inability to care for his loved ones back home in West Tennessee moved Fielder to place his life and the lives of his loved ones in the hands of his “faithful and trusty friend,” and he found great comfort in the thought that a sovereign and loving God directed events. Accepting that his all-wise Heavenly Father was in control of human affairs, Fielder petitioned God for his protection and gave him the credit when he was spared. And if the Lord allowed him to fall on the field of battle, then it was his will. These thoughts helped Fielder overcome any fears he may have had and strengthened his will to fight. And, when it came to death, he had no fear, for he was destined for another world—an eternal one where hardship and war could not trespass. Thus, the strength he drew from his faith had a positive impact on his courage. Earl J. Hess phrases it best: “Many soldiers clung desperately to thoughts of God while bullets flew over their heads. . . . This was the elemental role that religion played in the soldier’s ability to hold on. It steadied his emotions at a critical time and provided a rock on which he based his courage.” Indeed, devout Christians like Fielder made the bravest soldiers, for they held no fear of death. “Live or die I am his,” confessed Fielder in the summer of 1864. The comrades of dying soldier-Christians often noted that they were at peace as death approached, for their thoughts were focused on the next world. Such thoughts reassured Fielder and helped him persevere despite the hardships he encountered, allowing him to see the war through to the end.12
Furthermore, Fielder’s faith in God was strengthened during the war. The Lord had proved dependable time and again in protecting, not only Fielder, but also his loved ones at home, and Fielder acknowledged God’s faithfulness. His gratefulness to the Lord for watching over his family was evident when, after receiving word throughout the war that his family was doing well, he attributed it to God and thanked him. He also expressed thankfulness for his own protection. After each engagement in which he fought, Fielder credited God with sparing him. Following Shiloh in April 1862, he admitted: “I . . . passed the two days of the ever memorable battle of Shiloah—the thousands that had been Killed and wounded and that I had passed through it all and was not seriously hurt my soul appeared to be almost melted within me in thankfulness to God for his preserving Care.” Crediting God for sparing him at Shiloh was Fielder’s acknowledgment that the Lord was answering his prayers and protecting him. God’s faithfulness in preserving his life engendered in Fielder a desire to trust him further. He echoed this sentiment after surviving several more engagements. After the desperate fighting on the Union right in the Battle of Murfreesboro on December 31, 1862, Fielder wrote: “Thank God I have been spared to see the Commencement of an other year[.] Dear Lord help me to spend the future of my life more devoted than the past[;] it is my firm determination to do so.” Fielder made a similar statement nearly two years later when, near Corinth, Mississippi, he visited his regiment’s old encampment and “thought of the boys that were there then, many of whom have since been Killed upon the battle field, or disabled for life. . . . [T]hought of the many long and wearsome marches I had made and hard fought battles I have been in since that time and how many had been cut down by the relentless hand of death while I was still spared which caused me to thank God for his goodness and mercy towards me—I returned to my quarters I trust prepared to be a better man.” Indeed, his own words testify to his deeper faith in God. Recuperating from the wounds he received during the Battle of Atlanta, Fielder noted: “I am quite feeble and have a poor apetite but my faith and trust is strong in God.” The best testament to his strengthened faith, however, occurred on March 3, 1865, the day he celebrated another birthday as a soldier. The significance of the day engendered much thought and reflection. As he was preparing to leave home and rejoin his command, Fielder recorded these words in his diary: “I am 51 years of age this day—My life may be said to have been an eventful one. I have Come up through many difficulties and dangers but Gods unseen hand has protected and shielded me thus far for which I am thankful and feel in my heart willing to trust him in the future believing his grace will be sufficient for me.”13
As Fielder relied more on God, he drew nearer to him and sought to become a better Christian. At his post as sentinel one evening at Columbus, Kentucky, in September 1861, Fielder took advantage of his time alone and spent it “much drawn out in prayer,” hoping that the “morning found me a better more devoted man.” This desire to improve his spiritual condition did not abate during the war. At Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the summer of 1863, he climbed Lookout Mountain for some alone time with God and remarked: “I was there thinking of the great power and wisdom of him that spoke all things into existence . . . and in comparison of which how weak, feeble and insignificant the creative man—I trust that what I have this day seen may bring about reflections that will make me a better man.”14
As Fielder became more devout, he exhibited a greater desire to worship. Congregating with other Christians in the presence of God as well as listening to the ministers’ discourses encouraged him and helped assuage his fears. Indeed, by early 1863, he was often attending several different services on Sundays. On one Sabbath day, he wrote: “I trust that I have spent this day to profit having heard three sermons and indeavered to worship the God of my fathers in sincerity.” Other times, he went out of his way to worship. One Sunday in the spring of 1862, Fielder, recognizing that no church service would occur in his regiment, called on the chaplain of a nearby regiment and arranged for him to hold services in his command later that day. Traveling home in the spring of 1864, Fielder sought out congregations holding services in the towns he passed through and joined them for worship. On a Sunday in Selma, Alabama, he heard two sermons while awaiting his departure for Tennessee. And, when military operations prevented his attending formal services, he expressed his disappointment and often escaped from camp and sought a quiet, natural setting in which to worship. In November 1862 in Tullahoma, Tennessee, he recorded in his diary: “I have Just come in from a walk to the woods where I spent several hours in meditation and prayer Oh! I have thought of and prayed for dear friends at home.” Fielder especially enjoyed worshipping among the clouds atop Lookout Mountain in 1863. He noted that it was “one of the best places for reflection and meditation upon nature and natures God I ever saw.” His devotion to worship is further illustrated by his recording the scriptural references for the sermons he heard. This not only indicates his interest in the sermons but also likely meant that he took notes as well and meditated on the ministers’ words over and again. He also regularly evaluated the ministers’ discourses and criticized those he found lacking, especially when he sought comforting words. Uneasy about an impending engagement near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in December 1862, he listened intently to a sermon delivered by his new chaplain but found it unsatisfying, for the minister “did not preach exceeding 10 minutes.”15
Another sign of his growing devoutness was the frequency with which Fielder studied Scripture. During his first week in the army, he immersed himself in the Bible. Just days after arriving at his command, he read the three chapters in Matthew that constitute Christ’s Sermon on the Mount and encourage believers to remain true to Christ’s teachings even in the face of difficult circumstances. He no doubt found these verses comforting, especially after observing the moral corrosiveness of army life. Fielder continued to study Scripture throughout the war. At Columbus in January 1862, he reported that, because of the disagreeable weather, there was “little stiring about” in camp, so he spent the time reading the Bible and “read nine Chapters.” Near Chattanooga, Tennessee, in August 1863, with the pickets exchanging fire continuously, he recorded in his diary: “I spent some time of this day in reading the Scriptures meditation and prayer for myself and family Kindred friends and Country yes and for my enemies.” In the summer of 1864, he set out to read the Bible from beginning to end, a task that he completed in under six weeks. His Bible was so worn from use that, in March 1865, he paid to have it rebound.16
Fielder also grew more spiritually minded in his outlook on life as the war progressed. For one, his thoughts turned increasingly to the other world beyond the clouds. Phillip Shaw Paludan maintains that, prior to the Civil War, Americans had thought little about the afterlife, but the war’s appalling carnage had touched virtually every family and, thus, had “brought death into the foreground of life.” Families mourning the loss of loved ones, therefore, thought more of heaven and saw it as an eternal refuge far away from the tribulations inherent in a human existence. Fielder’s comments suggest that Paludan’s assertion was especially true for soldiers, for Fielder found hope in the thought of an eternal home free from earthly troubles. He wrote in June 1862: “I [feel] that this world was not my perpetual home but I was enabled to look by faith beyond the vail that skirts time from eternity where there will be no wars, no sickness, no pain, no death but . . . triumph o’er sorrow and death.” In the summer of 1864, convalescing from the wounds he suffered during the Atlanta Campaign, Fielder confessed: “Last night I commenced thinking on the love of God to man and my heart was melted down in thankfulness and God [descended] to pour his love into my soul. . . . I looked forward with pleasing anticipation to a home in heaven.” His references to heaven only increased as the war dragged on.17
Another sign of Fielder’s increasing focus on religious matters was his concern about the spiritual state of the army. Fielder was disappointed by the irreligiousness of the troops early on. “I awfully fear that religion and the worship of God is on the retro[grade],” he wrote in December 1861. “May God have mercy upon our rulers and our men and help them to learn righteousness.” Religious interest among the troops in the Army of Tennessee did increase, however. The discouraging retreat from Kentucky in the fall of 1862 and the bloody stalemate at Murfreesboro at year’s end triggered a wave of religious fervor that swept the army during its winter quarters near Tullahoma, Tennessee. The role that longtime Christians like Fielder played in initiating the revivals is unclear. What is clear, however, is that, at a time when few of their comrades were interested in spiritual matters, ardent Christians like Fielder kept religious interest alive in the armies. Fielder persisted in his religious activities enthusiastically and openly, and he served as an example to those around him. Indeed, his fellow soldiers recognized his devoutness and repeatedly asked him to lead them in prayer during services, which he did willingly. After a desperate first day of fighting at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862, Fielder led the men in his company in worship: “At the suggestion of Jas Hammons I read the 71 Psalm give out and sing two verses of the hymn Commencing ‘God of my life whose gracious power’ Knelt down and tryed to return Thanksgiving and prayer to God.” During one prayer meeting in January 1863 at Tullahoma, the chaplain asked Fielder to lead the meeting, which he did gladly. Later he recorded: “I trust good was accomplished.” Fielder furthermore was determined to conduct himself morally and avoid any activity that could bring reproach to himself or to the cause of Christ. In December 1862, he noted regretfully: “I played two games of Fox & Geese . . . last night and am sorry that I indulged even that much and intend to do so no more.” Even though his influence on others was limited, he was determined to stand firm in his faith: “I this day resolve in my heart to live more prayerful and let others do as they may as for me I will still try to serve God and get to heaven.” The actions of committed believers like Fielder kept religion alive in the armies, and, whether or not soldiers were interested in religion initially, they were constantly exposed to it as well as the hope and contentment it offered. The actions of these devout Christian soldiers provided fertile soil in the ranks that helped the revivals to blossom. Fielder hoped that the soldiers’ interest in religion would continue and that the men would benefit spiritually from the revival services. After one service he remarked: “I pray God that [the meetings] may be to his glory and our good.” The meetings continued with much fervor until the summer of 1863, when the Army of Tennessee commenced a new campaign.18
The army experienced another outbreak of even more intense revivals during the winter of 1863–1864 at Dalton, Georgia. Wounds he suffered in the battle for Chattanooga in November 1863 and a journey home in early 1864 to collect stragglers and enlist new recruits prevented Fielder from participating in most of these meetings, but he would certainly have been encouraged by the soldiers’ religious interest, for, even late in the war, he continued to express his hope that the cause of Christ was being advanced in the army. Attending a service held by his chaplain on April 30, 1865, just days after Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee, Fielder wrote: “I trust its fruits will be seen in eternity.”19
As Fielder grew more spiritually minded, he focused less on sectarian issues and more on worshipping God. Prior to the war, and during the first months of the conflict, Fielder, a staunch Methodist, strictly adhered to the tenets of his faith. He and his home church pastor, Rev. T. D. Harwell, had a good friendship, which they continued throughout the war. And, in 1857, Fielder even donated property for the construction of a Methodist church near his home. When an interdenominational Christian association was organized in his regiment in early 1863, Fielder refused to join. “I am a member of the M. E. C. South and am willing to [be] governed [only] by its rules,” he wrote in April. Less than two months later, however, he reconsidered and admitted in his diary: “[To]Night the Christian association met and quite a number Joined it[,] myself among the number.” He seldom missed the meetings and at one even read an essay on prayer he had written. He even attended the associational meetings of other regiments. Fielder’s primary desire was to hear the Gospel preached regardless of the setting or the minister. Indeed, he regularly attended services held by ministers of other denominations. On a Sabbath near Augusta, Georgia, in 1865, he wrote that he had attended a Methodist service in the morning, an Episcopal church in the afternoon, and still another church that evening.20
Although Fielder held out hope, even late in the conflict, that the South would win the war and achieve its independence, this was not to be. He and other Southerners were forced to reconcile the defeat of the South with the belief that they held early in the war that God was on their side. Confederate Christians accepted defeat because they interpreted it as the inscrutable will of a providential God. Although initially they held a firm belief that God favored the Confederate cause, military setbacks cast doubt on that conviction. Although soldier-Christians maintained the belief that the Lord would intervene at the appropriate time, they sought an explanation for the defeats. The South’s surrender, however, ended all hope of divine intervention and forced Christians in that region to reconcile their faith with the defeat of the Confederacy. Southern Christians concluded that God refused to intervene on their behalf because they were undeserving of his favor. Although tens of thousands of Confederates had made professions of faith during the revivals and became God-fearing soldiers, Christians maintained that Southerners as a whole had turned away from the Lord. Indeed, they believed that many had exhibited a lack of faith in God, placing their trust instead in Confederate military leaders. The Southern people, they insisted, were not worthy of God’s blessing. Moreover, Christian soldiers believed that, if God, in his infinite wisdom, allowed the defeat of the South, they must accept it as part of his plan. Southerners took great comfort from Hebrews 12:6—”For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth”—and believed that the Lord’s chastisement was preparing them for something greater. Realizing that God’s will might be contrary his own, Fielder expressed his willingness to yield to the Almighty’s infinite wisdom.21
Direct evidence about Fielder’s spiritual life after the war is lacking. He discontinued his diary shortly after arriving home, and no postwar correspondence exists. What little evidence does exist provides only a glimpse of his postwar life.
Fielder surrendered with Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee in April 1865 and soon thereafter received his parole. He made his way home to Friendship, Tennessee, reaching there on Friday, May 26. After his arrival, he commented: “I felt in my heart to thank God I was at home once more.”22
Fielder’s strengthened relationship with God carried over into the postwar era. Once home, he eagerly resumed his religious routine. Indeed, his first Sunday back he attended both morning and evening services at Mt. Zion Methodist Church and noted that he hoped he had spent the day “profitably.” In all likelihood, he faithfully attended church each Sunday thereafter. He returned to his duties as a trustee of Mt. Zion and played an integral part in its operation. During this time, he placed immense importance on furthering the cause of Christ. In 1868, he and others chartered a new Methodist church in Friendship. Whether he became an active member of the Friendship church is uncertain. It is clear, however, that he continued his affiliation with Mt. Zion, for, in 1889, he gave a half acre to the church for a cemetery, and he is listed as a trustee in the deed. He furthermore served as a lay delegate to the Dyersburg District Conference during the late 1880s and early 1890s. Alfred Fielder died August 1, 1893, and was buried in the Mt. Zion cemetery he helped establish.23
Military service brought distress and difficulties unmatched by anything Fielder had seen in his civilian life. He responded to the hardships he faced by relying on his religious faith, in which he found sanctuary and sustenance. Fielder believed that God controlled human affairs, and he trusted him to protect himself and his family. And, as God proved faithful time and again, Fielder’s faith or trust in him grew. Furthermore, Fielder believed that, if it was God’s will that he should fall, he would take up residence in heaven, where he would be reunited with loved ones—a fact that he took comfort in. In heaven, he would live in eternal peace and happiness. Reassured by these thoughts, Fielder exhibited courage despite the possibility of his death, and he demonstrated a willingness to fight to the end. His relationship with his Maker also benefited from his wartime experiences. It became more meaningful and grew stronger as he faced new trials and tribulations. He also thought increasingly of spiritual matters and of heaven. His increased spiritual-mindedness can be seen in the concern he expressed for his comrades in arms and his frequent references to heaven. In short, his religious faith had a positive influence on his military service, and his wartime experiences had a positive impact on his faith. Indeed, Alfred T. Fielder went to war in 1861 relying on his faith to get him through the ordeal, and he emerged from the conflict a more committed Christian and the better man he had sought to become.
This essay is an expansion of a topic first mentioned in Kent T. Dollar, Soldiers of the Cross: Confederate Soldier-Christians and the Impact of War on Their Faith (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2005).
1. Ann York Franklin, ed., The Civil War Diaries of Capt. Alfred Tyler Fielder, 12th Tennessee Regiment Infantry, Company B, 1861–1865 (Louisville, Ky: privately printed, 1996), 1, 7, 152, 189–90, 248; Compiled Service Records, Twelfth Tennessee Infantry, National Archives (NA), Washington, D.C.
2. “A battlefield offers the extreme challenge to the belief that man can control his fate,” writes James McPherson. “Rain, shells and bullets fall on the just and unjust alike” (For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War [New York: Oxford University Press, 1997], 62).
3. Franklin, ed., Fielder Diaries, 248; History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present; Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Gibson, Obion, Dyer, Weakley and Lake Counties (hereafter cited as History of Dyer County) (Nashville: Goodspeed, 1887), 842, 845; Eighth Census, 1860, Manuscript Returns of Productions of Agriculture, Dyer County, Tennessee, 59; Seventh Census, 1850, Manuscript Returns of Productions of Agriculture, Dyer County, Tennessee, 801; Seventh Census, 1850, Manuscript Returns of Slaves, Dyer County, Tennessee, 886; Eighth Census, 1860, Manuscript Returns of Slaves, Dyer County, Tennessee, 207, NA; History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present; Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Lauderdale, Tipton, Haywood and Crockett Counties (Nashville: Goodspeed, 1887), 837; Nancy C. Wallace, ed., History of Friendship, Tennessee, 1824–1986 (n.p., n.d.), 43, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville; Robert M. McBride and Dan M. Robison, Biographical Directory of the Tennessee General Assembly, 2 vols. (Nashville: Tennessee State Library and Archives and the Tennessee Historical Commission, 1979), 2:1031–32.
4. Franklin, ed., Fielder Diaries, 21, 24, 46–47, 114, 160–61, 164; The Doctrines and Disciplines of the Methodist Episcopal Church (New York: Nelson & Phillips, 1876), 215; Susanna W. Fielder and Alfred T. Fielder to A. W. Swift and Others, April 4, 1857, Deed Book L, 350, Register of Deeds Office, Dyer County, Dyersburg, Tenn.; The History of the Mt. Zion Methodist Church (n.p., n.d.), 1, Mary Alice Badget Personal Papers, Friendship, Tenn.
5. McPherson, For Cause and Comrades, 71–72; Franklin, ed., Fielder Diaries, 1, 26, 41, 52, 98, 124, 127, 135. For more on how Christian soldiers reconciled their participation in the war and their Christian faith, see McPherson, For Cause and Comrades, 21–29, 71–74; Steven E. Woodworth, While God Is Marching On: The Religious World of Civil War Soldiers (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001), 128–32; and Kent T. Dollar, Soldiers of the Cross: Confederate Soldier-Christians and the Impact of War on Their Faith (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2005), 53–64.
6. Franklin, ed., Fielder Diaries, 41; Woodworth, While God Is Marching On, 175–89; Bell I. Wiley, The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1943), 175; Drew Gilpin Faust, “Christian Soldiers: The Meaning of Revivalism in the Confederate Army,” Journal of Southern History 53 (February 1987): 68; James I. Robertson, Soldiers Blue and Gray (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1988), 172–73; and Larry J. Daniel, Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991), 115. Woodworth does admit, however, that many soldiers struggled to remain faithful followers of Christ despite the difficult conditions in camp. For more on these committed Christians, see Woodworth, While God Is Marching On, 175–90; and Dollar, Soldiers of the Cross, 52–98. Chaplains who commented on the irreligious nature of the soldiers early in the war include the Confederate chaplains Nicholas A. Davis and Pere Louis-Hippolyte Gache and the Northern chaplain Louis N. Beaudry. See Donald N. Everett, ed., Chaplain Davis and Hood’s Texas Brigade (San Antonio, Tex.: Principia Press of Trinity University, 1962; reprint, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1999), 2; Cornelius M. Buckley, ed. and trans., A Frenchman, a Chaplain, a Rebel: The War Letters of Pere Louis-Hippolyte Gache, S.J. (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1981), 48; and Richard E. Beaudry, ed., War Journal of Louis N. Beaudry, Fifth New York Cavalry: The Diary of a Union Chaplain, Commencing February 16, 1863 (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1996), 7–9.
7. Franklin, ed., Fielder Diaries, 1–8, 18, 24–25, 35, 56, 92, 110, 121, 134, 136–37, 148, 151, 163, 165, 169; Anne C. Loveland, Southern Evangelicals and the Social Order, 1800–1860 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1980), 2, 8, 13–16, 93, 97, 103; Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), 180. See also Donald G. Mathews, Religion in the Old South (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), 101–3, 109, 111–13, 115, 120–23; John B. Boles, “Evangelical Protestantism in the Old South: From Religious Dissent to Cultural Dominance,” in Religion in the South, ed. Charles Reagan Wilson (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1985), 32–33; Orville V. Burton, In My Father’s House Are Many Mansions: Family and Community in Edgefield, South Carolina (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985), 114–15, 131–34, 138–40, 145–46. Scholars are, however, beginning to challenge this stereotype of men in the Old South. Peter Carmichael, e.g., contends that the “popular, but one-dimensional image of Southern youth as lazy, immoral, and hotheaded overlooks the changing nature of what it meant to be a young man in the slave South.” Southern manliness was not static, but evolving, asserts Carmichael, and a generation of young Virginians was reshaping what it meant to be manly. They were drawn in particular to the ideal of the Christian gentleman, a man of feeling and faith. See Peter S. Carmichael, The Last Generation: Young Virginians in Peace, War, and Reunion (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005), 6, 11, 58–88, 244n, 245n. See also Stephen W. Berry, All That Makes a Man: Love and Ambition in the Civil War South (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 9–13, 90–94, 115–16, and passim. For more on the thoughts and activities of religious soldiers in the first months of the conflict, see Kent T. Dollar, “Strangers in a Strange Land: Christian Soldiers in the Early Months of the Civil War,” in The View from the Ground: Experiences of Civil War Soldiers, ed. Aaron Sheehan-Dean (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2007), 145–69.
8. Franklin, ed., Fielder Diaries, 22–23, 127–28. According to Steven Woodworth and Gardiner Shattuck, many Confederates feared that God would allow their defeat if they proved unworthy. See Woodworth, While God Is Marching On, 126–27; and Gardiner H. Shattuck, A Shield and Hiding Place: The Religious Life of the Civil War Armies (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1987), 106.
9. Franklin, ed., Fielder Diaries, 15–16, 121; Christopher Losson, Tennessee’s Forgotten Warriors (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989), 33–35; U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 1861–1865, 70 vols. in 128 pts. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901), ser. 1, vol. 3, pp. 306–10; Lewis O. Saum, The Popular Mood of Pre–Civil War America (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1980), 3–17.
10. Franklin, ed., Fielder Diaries, 35, 59, 62–63, 94; History of Dyer County, 847.
11. Franklin, ed., Fielder Diaries, 111, 214. Lewis Saum maintains that, for mid-nineteenth-century Americans, death represented “an escape from the world’s sadness, an end to the pilgrimage through spiritual and bodily hostility. It meant the passage to that realm where parting is no more” (Popular Mood of Pre-Civil War America, 103–4).
12. Earl J. Hess, Union Soldier in Battle: Enduring the Ordeal of Combat (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997), 103–4; Franklin, ed., Fielder Diaries, 191; Woodworth, While God Is Marching On, 244. The topic of religion’s impact on soldiers’ combat motivation and courage has attracted the interest of historians. Samuel J. Watson points out that soldiers’ religious faith had a positive impact on their combat performance, for it “enabled men to control their fear” (“Religion and Combat Motivation in the Confederate Armies,” Journal of Military History 58 [January 1994]: 34–36, 52–55). McPherson goes even further and asserts: “[The] heightened religiosity helped to prevent the collapse of both armies during the terrible carnage of 1864, but was a particularly potent force in the Confederacy. It may not be an exaggeration to say that the revivals of 1863–64 enabled Confederate armies to prolong the war into 1865” (For Cause and Comrades, 75).
13. Franklin, ed., Fielder Diaries, 7, 24, 32, 34, 36, 44, 63, 100, 107, 134, 191, 207, 219. On March 3, 1863, Fielder celebrated his second birthday in the ranks. It prompted this remark: “I am 49 years of age and feel thankful to God for his preserving Care. Oh! the dangers through which I have come[,] so many have died who set out in life since I have lived[.] Lord help me to live more religious than I have ever done” (ibid., 108).
14. Ibid., 8, 130. Fielder expressed his desire to become a more devout Christian several times throughout the war. See ibid., 59, 100, 105, 108, 111, 121, 137, 168.
15. Ibid., 50, 88, 95, 104, 130, 169–70.
16. Ibid., 1–2, 28–29, 135, 197, 220. Christ’s Sermon on the Mount is in Matthew, chaps. 5–7. Fielder also read other religious books he borrowed from his chaplain. See ibid., 33, 58.
17. Phillip Shaw Paludan, A People’s Contest: The Union and the Civil War, 1861–1865 (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), 365–68; Franklin, ed., Fielder Diaries, 55–56, 194. For Fielder’s other references to heaven, see ibid., 21, 101, 110–11, 137, 168.
18. Franklin, ed., Fielder Diaries, 21–22, 25, 43, 102–24, 148, 164; Woodworth, While God Is Marching On, 212, 232. For other times Fielder led a service or prayer, see Franklin, ed., Fielder Diaries, 3, 55, 59–60, 63. In Psalm 71, David seeks God’s refuge and deliverance. For a description of the revivals that swept the Army of Tennessee, see Shattuck, A Shield and Hiding Place, 100; and Daniel, Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee, 116–17.
19. Franklin, ed., Fielder Diaries, 152–62, 169–79, 230.
20. Ibid., 114, 121, 136–37, 148, 219, and passim. The chaplain in Fielder’s regiment for much of the war was a Baptist, and Fielder, although a Methodist, regularly attended his services. See John W. Brinsfield et al., eds., Faith in the Fight: Civil War Chaplains (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole, 2003), 213.
21. Franklin, ed., Fielder Diaries, 53, 139, 153. Many Southern fighting men maintained the belief late in the war that God could and would deliver to the South ultimate victory. For more on this, see Jason Phillips, “Religious Belief and Troop Motivation: ‘For the Smiles of My Blessed Saviour,’” in Virginia’s Civil War, ed. Peter Wallenstein and Bertram Wyatt-Brown (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005), 101–13. For more on how Northern and Southern Christians viewed military reverses and the war in general, see Woodworth, While God Is Marching On, 94–137. For more on Southern Christians’ attempts to reconcile defeats (including the defeat of the South) and God’s will, see Shattuck, A Shield and Hiding Place, 40, 100, 102, 108–9, 113; Woodworth, While God Is Marching On, 270–86; Daniel W. Stowell, Rebuilding Zion: The Religious Reconstruction of the South, 1863–1877 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 5, 33–44, and “Stonewall Jackson and the Providence of God,” in Religion and the American Civil War, ed. Randall M. Miller, Harry S. Stout, and Charles Reagan Wilson (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 197–202; Eugene D. Genovese, A Consuming Fire: The Fall of the Confederacy in the Mind of the White Christian South (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998), passim; Dollar, Soldiers of the Cross, 177–222; Charles Reagan Wilson, introduction to Miller, Stout, and Wilson, eds., Religion and the American Civil War, 10; and Paul Harvey, ‘“Yankee Faith’ and Southern Redemption,” in ibid., 175. Many Christian soldiers concluded that defeat was consistent with the will of God. See Shattuck, A Shield and Hiding Place, 40, 109.
22. Compiled Service Records, Twelfth Tennessee Infantry, NA; Franklin, ed., Fielder Diaries, 235.
23. Franklin, ed., Fielder Diaries, 235–36, 248; Pearl Dunagon, Elizabeth Kirby, and Virginia Kirby, The History of Friendship Methodist Church (n.p., n.d.), 1, Friendship Methodist Church, Friendship, Tenn.; History of the Mt. Zion Methodist Church, 1; Dyersburg District Conference Journal, May 24, 1889, May 29, 1891, May 24, 1892, Mclver’s Grant Public Library, Dyersburg, Tenn.