South Lost Faith, Lost War, Say Experts

April 21, 1986|United Press International

NORFOLK, VA. — Many theories explain why the South lost the Civil War -- a Northern naval blockade, a lack of railroads or wartime industry -- but four historians are presenting a new one. The South lost its faith in God.

The conclusion even surprised the authors.

``We examined all the previous answers,`` William Still Jr. told Sunday`s Virginian-Pilot and Ledger Star, but they didn`t hold up to scrutiny.

The East Carolina University professor, who joined three other historians to write Why the South Lost the Civil War said the conflict started as a holy war. But when victory didn`t come, Southern preachers started calling the defeat`s God`s judgement on Dixie.

``Unfortunately for the South, religion not only sustained morale, it also had the effect -- eventually -- of undermining it,`` Still said.

As tensions mounted, ``Southern churches assumed a large role in urging secession, and after the war commenced, many of the ecclesiastics went into combat,`` Still said, adding researchers found cases of entire units with ministers as officers.

As the war progressed, superior generals and better motivated troops could produce nothing better than a standoff. An answer was needed to explain the apparently impossible.

``As the war went on,`` Still said, ``the ministers gave overwhelming evidence that this was God`s punishment on the South`` -- partly because of slavery, partly because of other alleged or assumed sins.

By the time the last two Confederate armies, under Robert E. Lee and Joe Johnston, surrendered, the will to fight was gone. Northerners had worried about a running guerilla war, but as Still put it: ``Southerners lost the will to fight.``

One newsletter, the Fayetteville (N.C.) Presbyterian, said during the height of the conflict that ``if God is not for us, the Confederacy is in much worse condition than we had ever imagined it to be.``

The book will be released May 20 by the University of Georgia Press.

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