Preacher's Tale: The Civil War Journal of Rev. Francis Springer, Chaplain, U.S. Army of the Frontier, The

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Summer 2002 by Gannon, B Anthony

The Preacher's Tale: The Civil War Journal of Rev. Francis Springer, Chaplain, U.S. Army of the Frontier. Edited by William Furry. Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas Press, 2001. Pp. xxiv, 182. $34.95.

Because death, dying, and mortality are always close in combat, because few of the combatants are spiritually ready to die, war often produces a wide variety of religious reflection and thought, and the Civil War, America's great apocalypse, is no exception. Memoirs, letters and journals, from soldiers, nurses and generals alike, are haunted by religious allusion and sentiment; while these thoughts are doubtless heartfelt, many of them do not exhibit deep intellectual or spiritual depth. The Preacher's Tale, William Furry's wonderfully-edited version of the Civil War journal of the Reverend Francis Springer, U.S. Army of the Frontier, is a notable exception to this observation. Springer was an ordained Lutheran minister and a trained educator and theologian, who by 1850 had become successful in these various enterprises, most notably in Springfield, Illinois, where he was briefly a friend and neighbor to Abraham Lincoln. He achieved similar success after the war. During the Civil War, however, Reverend Springer served in several religious capacities from 1861 through 1865, beginning his career as chaplain of the Tenth Illinois Cavalry and ending his army service as post chaplain at Fort Smith, Arkansas. During this period, Springer composed his journal. Though not intended for publication, as William Furry notes, this journal was Springer's "woodshed, the place he went to make sense of the war and the people who were caught up in it" (page xxiii).

Like many others, Springer did not see the war in merely political, economic, or geographic terms. He often cast the conflict in decidedly religious fashion; as an ardent Unionist, he presented the conflict in Christian, albeit dualistic terms, favoring northern righteousness while never downplaying the terrible human, physical and spiritual toll of war. It was southerners, driven by the demonic rhetoric of Calhoun, who were the "war-makers ... it was they that took the sword; & I infer therefore, that it is their doom to perish" (page 9). Unionists sought to unclasp man-made chains; theirs were the causes of "truth & justice" sanctioned by God and destined to prevail (pages 80-81). Springer did not merely proclaim. His journal is rich in deeply introspective essays, "sermons in the making" as William Furry calls them, that explore the meaning of the war from religious, moral and political points of view. Yet Springer did not seek to portray the Civil War as a glorious, earthly manifestation of the cosmological struggle between good and evil. After first viewing combat, Springer likened it to "Mars, reddened with fire & blackened with smoke," the "shrieks" of the wounded blending with the "stunning sounds" of artillery. War was horrifying, and Springer vowed never to allow his "moral nature" to be "perverted to a taste for carnage" (page 7).

The Preacher's Tale, however, is much more than a series of religious reflections about the Civil War; it is filled with illuminating stories about the essential lawlessness of late- and post-war Arkansas and of the Fort Smith region in particular, but much of the success of this work will be due to the editorial skill of William Furry Furry's selection of entries is astute, but better is his editorial skill. His detailed endnotes amplify the historical and geographical context; but, for the most part, Furry resists the modern editor's temptation. He lets Springer speak for himself. Furry does not seek to explain away Springer's obvious flaws: Springer the emancipator is a racist; freed blacks are above "half-breed" Indians but below whites in moral character. Springer is a dilettante, using his considerable knowledge to convolute and confuse southern argumentation, and Springer is a sexist, portraying Southern women as shrieking malcontents, devoid of a truly moral base. As a Unionist, then, Springer was like many of his time, and Furry allows him to be so. As a chaplain in the Civil War, though, Springer was remarkable. Attempting to find religious meaning in the Civil War was Reverend Springer's great quest, and he was often successful, but his larger theme transcends the Civil War. War causes religious re-examination. In this manner, perhaps others, war and religion are inseparable.

B. Anthony Gannon is the Graduate Coordinator for the Department of History at Murray State University. He studies and writes about the religious character of major Civil War leaders.