Antietam

On September 17, 1862, the bloodiest day in American military history, the Battle of Antietam raged near Sharpsburg, MD. More men were killed or wounded at Antietam that day than on any other single day of the Civil War. Federal losses were 12,410, Confederate losses 10,700. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia met McLelland's Federals, and though out-numbered almost two to one, the Confederates fought the Union almost to a standstill. But the tide of the war turned.

Accounts from the Civil War indicate that there were, from time to time, evangelistic meetings and revivals in the camps of the combatants of both sides. Undoubtedly there were young boys and old men who sought to make peace with their Maker, even if the likelihood of peace with their brothers across the line was small.

I've been reading a book titled Company Aytch by Sam Watkins. It's the memoir of a Confederate private, writing some twenty years after the War. He recalled two chaplains who had a powerful impact on him, Dr. C.D. Elliott (Brigade Chaplain) and Dr. C.T. Quintard (Chaplain of First Tennessee Regiment): "two of the best men who ever lived." But he also remembered a couple of others far less favorably, evidently because of their withdrawal in the face of danger.

Who can fathom the anguish of those terrible years of internal strife? Not the least casualty was the fabric of Christian witness in the still comparatively new land. Churches splintered north and south. Yet there were some voices for the unboundaried gospel that could be heard beneath the din of ideological polarization. One such peacemaker was Rev. Milton Bird of my denominational tradition. At the first General Assembly of our Church after the War, as clerk of that body Bird made sure that the southern and northern delegates were seated just the same. His personal influence and witness was such that no one raised an objection.