The Civil War Chaplains Who Shaped Modern American Patriotism

In Prisons and Hospitals, Clergy Tended to Fighters While Stoking Familiar Strains of Nationalism

Chaplain Henry S. White, of the Fifth Rhode Island Heavy Artillery, was a devout Christian—and so when he was captured by the Confederacy, he naturally led a service for his men in prison that included prayers for the U.S. government and its armies. For White’s Confederate captors, praying for the U.S. government amounted to a hostile action. One Sunday, the prison commandant, a Captain Tabb, listened in on the service and scoffed, “Well, your prayer won’t do much good,” according to Frederic Trautmann, a Union soldier who witnessed the scene. …