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by Michael Homula

John F. Chase was saved at Gettysburg. More than once.

Born in Chelsea, Maine, John Chase enlisted as a private in Company B of the 3rd Maine Infantry in early June of 1861. One of the first men to enlist, he was a young, energetic and strapping Maine farm boy of almost 200 pounds. Transferred to the 5th Maine Artillery in November 1861, Chase’s first claim to fame occurred at the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 3, 1863.

With the rest of his battery either dead or wounded, Chase (along with another soldier) continued to fire his cannon under a sustained barrage by the forces of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson and then, under a withering fire, wheeled the artillery piece off the field to keep it from the enemy. He also returned to rescue a mortally wounded officer. Shortly after the battle the rescued officer died, but he had written a recommendation for John Chase to receive the Medal of Honor for his heroism.

The 5th Maine Artillery would reform in May and June of 1863, and Chase and his comrades in arms found themselves in Gettysburg those fateful days of July 1863. After the carnage he witnessed at Chancellorsville, Chase must have wrestled and wondered why he alone had survived unhurt from that bloody day. He surely grieved over the loss of so many friends. Like many who would survive bloody battles, Chase probably even felt guilty over why he had survived when some many of his friends had not. In the early morning hours of July 2, 1863, witnesses saw John Chase bow to his knees and cry out to God in repentance, asking for peace and beseeching God to save him through His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.

Later that same day, Chase and the 5th Maine Battery found themselves defending Cemetery Hill. He and the other brave men worked the guns at a place called Steven’s Knoll, very close to the spot where he had prayed just hours earlier. While they poured a murderous fire into the flank of Avery’s Brigade of North Carolinians, a Confederate artillery shell exploded near Chase. The blast took off his right arm, destroyed his left eye, and sent forty-eight pieces of shrapnel into his body.

Unconscious and presumed dead, Chase was carried to the rear and left for dead where he remained for nearly two days. His body was eventually loaded onto a wagon along with many others to be buried. The wagon driver heard him moan, pulled him out from among the dead bodies, gave him a drink of water, and left him on the roadside to die. Discovered by a surgeon, Chase was brought to a hospital where doctors observed his terrible wounds and a fatal infection. It was declared that he wouldn’t live and he was once again laid in a field to die alone.

Reverend Sloan, a United States Christian Commission delegate, discovered Chase and began to nurse him. He was too fragile to be moved, so Sloan built a small shelter over him, baptized him in that spot and tended to him for three months. By that time the strapping 200 pound farm boy from Maine was a mere 87 pounds. He recovered enough to be transported to a more permanent hospital, where he eventually returned to health and was discharged from the Union Army on November 25, 1863.

Having lost his right arm with which he wrote, he would later write left handed about his experience at Gettysburg:

“I lost my right arm near the shoulder, and left eye, and have forty other scars upon my brest and shouldr caused by peaces of fragments of a Spharical case shot, at the battle of Gettersburg, july the seccond 1863. I have been in the rebbels hand a number of times, and like a true yankee all ways escaped before carryed of too the prison pens.” You can view a photo of his letter at this link.

Like most enlisted men of his day from rural America, John Chase was not well educated and this is obvious in his writing. In his words he says perhaps even more than he knows. He escaped from much more than being taken prisoner by the Rebels. Using the term “...all ways escaped….” instead of the grammatically correct “always escaped”, he reveals (most likely unintentionally) a much deeper and eternal escape. When he committed his life to Christ on Steven’s Knoll, Chase escaped being taken prisoner to his sin. He escaped eternal death and eternal separation from God. Yes, Chase in ALL WAYS escaped.

Chase is believed to be the most wounded soldier to survive the Civil War and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1888 for his “extraordinary heroism” at Chancellorsville. Notably, he would also became a preacher, traveling the country and showing his "48 wounds...one for each star of the Union".

Chase was a hero. There is little doubt of this fact. However, his saving faith in Christ, his escape from sin, and what he did to share the truth of salvation makes him a hero for Christians. He was "saved" at Gettysburg more than once. Enduring his wounds and the loss of friends on the battlefields of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, he never quit. He never quite on his friends. He never quit on his country. And, having been saved by Jesus, he never quite on God. The "peace that passes all understanding" allowed him to become a hero for God by spending his life telling others about "being saved" at Gettysburg.

NOTE: The pictures above show a wounded John Chase along with him and other veterans of the 5th Maine at the dedication of their monument on Steven's Knoll. Chase is on the left of the group.

by Michael Homula

Would you read these verses from Romans 1:18-21 with me, and really think on them in view of the days we live in?

As I spent time in prayer and journaling in preparation to write this week, I struggled mightily. I ended up writing something because I had a deadline to meet. That morning I began to sense the Holy Spirit working and redirecting my path relative to this post. I just had to write something else, even if that meant missing the deadline.

I am going to diverge a bit from Gettysburg and focus on the American Civil War more broadly. Specifically, I want to look at that tragedy of our nation’s history to illustrate these verses from Romans, discuss what I believe ultimately brought on the war and challenge us all for living as Christ followers in a culture in opposition to God.

The Civil War was God’s judgment and wrath on our nation for the sin of human chattel slavery. I know that is a bold statement and I am sure some of you may disagree, but I firmly believe it to be true.

As a nation (North and South mind you), having accepted and embraced human slavery, we had the blood of human beings on our hands. In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott decision that black people, both the slave and the free, were not protected by the Constitution and were not U.S. citizens - denying them personhood. Justice Taney, writing the majority opinion said that the “negroes are… beings of an inferior order… so far inferior that they have no rights which the white man is bound to respect.”

This Supreme Court decision, which reeks and drips with the same sinful disrespect for God’s people as the Roe v. Wade decision, was in direct conflict with the Bible and God’s plan for the human beings He created in His image. Human chattel slavery in America was the creation of man’s wickedness, his godlessness, and though we were a nation that claimed to know God, our hearts were darkened with our national sin of slavery. We were a nation deserving of the wrath of God.

President Abraham Lincoln saw the Civil War this way. We know this from his personal writing but it is even more noticeable in two of his most public actions, his Proclamation of National Fasting and Prayer and his Second Inaugural Address.

The words of Lincoln in his Second Inaugural Address are some of the finest ever spoken by a human being. Interestingly, and a topic for another post, in his first Inaugural of 1861 he mentions God, Jesus, or quotes words from the Bible only 3 times in a speech that covers 3,699 words. But, in his second inaugural address, in a speech that spans a mere 702 words, he mentions God, Jesus, or words from the Bible 67 times. One of England’s leaders of this time said, “His Second Inaugural Address is not only the most spiritual speech ever given by any statesman in the world. In my opinion, it is a far better sermon than most any I have ever heard preached in a pulpit.”

Let’s take a look at a portion of the address that relates to our conversation today [the insertion of scripture references is mine]:

Both sides read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces [Genesis 3:19]; but let us judge not that we be not judged [Matthew 7:1]. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses! For it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” [Matthew 18:7] If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope–fervently do we pray–that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” [Psalm 19:9] With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God give us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.

You may need to go back and read that again because it is FULL of important insight. I know I can’t stop reading it and I have read it thousands of times. It is powerful, poignant and fully cognizant that the bloodshed of the Civil War was God’s wrath on our nation for the two hundred and fifty years of slavery: “…until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword…” Lincoln plainly says that, “…slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come…” and that, “…He gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came…”.

The Civil War was God’s wrath and judgment for the sin of human slavery.

Now, as then, we have invited God’s displeasure with us on a personal and national level. Abortion, materialism, sexual immorality, and choosing to put other gods before the Lord, are inviting His wrath. In fact, the issue of slavery as practiced in the 1800’s parallels abortion in almost every way.

The church in the time of slavery could have stopped the deepening vortex that drew us into the bloodiest war in US History. The church, who possessed the Biblical and moral mandate to guide the nation toward peacefully ending slavery, failed to use their position to that end.

History is made primarily by a committed minority, like Christian abolitionists who stood opposed to slavery on Biblical grounds alone, and their impact on the rest of the people who were drifting with the stream of cultural conformity. Today, instead of mirroring the abolitionists’ deep commitment, Christians are largely seen as indecisive, foolish, and weak when we should be meek, united, and powerful with God.

So, we once again find ourselves in a vortex. Our zeal to “win others for Christ” ahead of personal and corporate holiness is distracting us from engaging our culture on Biblical ground. We must develop our holiness, our fear of God and a totally sold out commitment to God's commands to show others, especially other Christians, how to live for Christ in a godless and sinful culture.

We are waging a war against political powers in a political fashion using political weapons. That is not God's instruction to us. He commands us to do His will, putting His issues first, whatever the cost. The results are up to Him.

We alienate pro-abortion, homosexual, and other individuals when they see our war being waged in the political realm rather than in the spiritual realm that God directed us to pursue. The weapon God gave us is not legislation but, rather, moral suasion. Those who oppose God and His ways are not our enemies. No, they are deceived and need God's love as much as we do. We must never be silent regarding sin, but we must not engage our culture with mere politics and policy, especially when that may compromise God's values. Standing firm with God and divorcing ourselves from man-centered political power thinking becomes a great witness to our culture, as our abolitionist brothers and sisters did during the time of slavery.

Christians are quickly becoming a minority as we lose our saltiness. What happens in America with abortion, materialism, sexual immorality and all the other sins of our nation is NOT dependent on politicians. It is not dependent on the Supreme Court. It is not dependent on the government.

It is dependent on those who follow Jesus.

The Lord gave Christ followers the mandate to lead on these issues of social and moral justice and we must not surrender that mandate to the government or anyone else. We must not surrender our God given responsibility to be salt and light.

NOTE:
I have read thousands of stories about Abraham Lincoln, read his complete speeches and writings many times and read numbers of biographies. For this post I used information from the following materials and sources:

Abraham Lincoln the Christian, William Jackson Johnstone.
From the Flag to the Cross, Amos Stevens Billingsly
Broken Churches, Broken Nation, C.C. Goen
New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington – sent me copies of historical documents and affidavits from their archives.

by Michael Homula

Back in August, I wrote a post entitled All In God’s Hands, But Even If He Doesn’t. I briefly brought up Confederate General Robert E. Lee, his faith and the fact that as soon as he would order his Army of Northern Virginia into battle, he trusted them to divine providence of God’s will.

Robert E. Lee is a complex, complicated and controversial figure in American history. It is not easy to fully understand the man without getting off the surface and going very deep, I mean scholarly research deep, into his personal writings, letters, general orders and actions. Even with such research it can be difficult to discern the mythical Robert E. Lee, immortalized by the South and North alike, from the real man. I have spent nearly 20 years attempting to do just that and, while I have more clarity than 20 years ago, I assure you I am nowhere near truly knowing the real R.E. Lee.

At the heart of Lee’s story is one of the monumental choices in American history: revered for his honor, Lee resigned his U.S. Army commission to defend Virginia and fight for the Confederacy, on the side of slavery. “The decision was honorable by his standards of honor—which, whatever we may think of them, were neither self-serving nor complicated,” satirist Roy Blount, Jr. says. Lee “thought it was a bad idea for Virginia to secede, and God knows he was right, but secession had been more or less democratically decided upon.” Lee’s family held slaves, and he himself was at best ambiguous on the subject, leading some of his defenders over the years to discount slavery’s significance in assessments of his character. Lee will be the focus of SO many more posts in our Biblical Truths at Gettysburg series.

What is not in question was General Lee’s faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and his diligent commitment to prayer. There can be no doubt that his faith in God’s providence and his reliance on the almighty arm of God provided the foundation for all of his actions and the wellspring source of his undaunted composure under severe trial.

As we have looked into Romans 1:8-14 this week at Worldview Warriors, I could not help but think about Lee and his prayerful ways. Lee was a man of much prayer and great faith but probably few of his most intimate friends fully understood the depth of his feelings on this subject. He was a man of great reserve, and only his actions, and an occasional outburst of feeling, showed the sold out soul of a prayer warrior Christ follower.

Many of his staff officers and close observers often noted Lee by himself, often in a small wooded area or open field, seemingly transfixed in prayer. On one occasion, as the roar of battle loomed just up the road, Lee came upon a small group of men in prayer on their way to the deadly front. He stopped his horse Traveller, dismounted, removed his hat, and joined the mean in prayer.

In 1863 when the Rev. J. William Jones and another chaplain went to consult him in reference to a better observance of the Sabbath in the army, he says that the "General's countenance glowed with pleasure, and his eye brightened; and, as in his simple, feeling words he expressed his delight, we forgot the great warrior, and only remembered that we were communing with a humble, earnest and prayerful Christian."

When he was informed that the chaplains prayed for him, tears welled up in his eyes, as he replied, "I sincerely thank you for that and can only say that I am a poor sinner, trusting in Christ alone, and need all the prayers you can offer for me." (Titus 3:5; Ephesians 2:8-9; John 3:7)

The failure at Gettysburg was a sore disappointment to the South, but no one blamed General Lee, though there is a strong military argument to be made that the blame for defeat at Gettysburg lies solely with Lee. It was a crushing defeat for the Army of Northern Virginia and, while the lack of success was mourned over, the South never censured Lee for the failure. Confidence in and love for Lee increased, due in large part to a prayerful countenance, steadfast faith, and implicit trust Lee placed in God, and the southern people meekly bowed in submission to God’s will – a will that had not seen fit to crown the Gettysburg campaign of Lee with victory.

Just after the Battle of Gettysburg, on August 21, 1863, Confederate President Jefferson Davis declared a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer. Lee, the ever prayerful General, sent out a general order to the Army where he embellished the decree with a sincere prayer for righteousness amongst the Confederate ranks:

Soldiers! We have sinned against Almighty God. We have forgotten his signal mercies, and have cultivated a revengeful, haughty, and boastful spirit. We have not remembered that the defenders of a just cause should be pure in his eyes; that "our times are in his hand" - and we have relied too much on our own arms for the achievement of our independence. God is our only refuge and our strength. Let us humble ourselves before him. Let us confess our many sins, and beseech him to give us a higher courage, a purer patriotism and more determined will: that he will convert the hearts of our enemies: that he will hasten the time when war, with its sorrows and sufferings, shall cease, and that he will give us a name and place among the nations of the earth.
R. E. Lee, General

That following winter, a great revival took place in his army, the extent of which was almost unprecedented and will be a topic of future posts*. As gray bearded veteran and boyish soldier alike turned their lives over to Christ by the hundreds and thousands, General Lee entered heartily into their feelings, went among them, joined them in prayer, conversed with and encouraged their chaplains, asked earnestly for their prayers, and in every way showed the deepest interest in their reborn lives and work in the name of Christ.

While the controversy over Lee’s motives, intentions, and attitudes will likely rage for eternity, we can be emboldened in our own prayer lives by Lee’s faithful and prayerful life. He was a man who, facing the severest trials of his life – indeed the severest trial of our young nation’s life – prayed unceasingly and fervently for God’s will to be done.

* For more reading on the revival’s that took place in Confederate Camps in the winter of 1863 please see Christ in the Camp by Rev. J. William Jones

by Michael Homula

Contrary to our elementary school lessons that establish a meeting between pilgrims and native Americans as the first Thanksgiving, the truth is actually a far more poignant story.

As those who had been followed along in the Biblical Truth at Gettysburg series or who have joined me and the team in Gettysburg for one of our retreats know, I am a very serious student of the American Civil War and I have been studying the war since I was 15 years old. Naturally I have an affinity for many of the leaders of that period, but Abraham Lincoln’s courage, leadership and faith have always stood out to me.

The truth about the first official day of national Thanksgiving and Praise in the United States is directly attributable to Lincoln. Please note that the addition of the word Praise was not mine; it was a critical component to the first national day of Thanksgiving in this country and the preeminent reason I felt compelled to draft this post. There is a very interesting spiritual and faith based fact about Lincoln and his Thanksgiving and Praise Proclamation that I wanted to share as we approach the 151st Thanksgiving Day.

The timing of the proclamation came at a critical point in our nation's history, which was embroiled in a horrific Civil War that appeared to those living in America at the time to have no end in sight. Sarah Josepha Hale, a prominent magazine editor of the time, wrote a letter to Lincoln in 1863, urging him to have the "day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival." She wrote,

“You may have observed that, for some years past, there has been an increasing interest felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on the same day, in all the States; it now needs National recognition and authoritative fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and institution.”

During his administration, President Lincoln issued many orders like this. For example, on November 28, 1861, he ordered government departments closed for a local day of thanksgiving.

Spiritually speaking, Lincoln's original 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation came at a pivotal point in his life. During the first week of July of that year, the Battle of Gettysburg occurred, resulting in nearly 10,000 dead and 53,000 wounded or missing. Four months later in November, Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address. It was while Lincoln was walking among the thousands of graves at Gettysburg that he committed his life to Christ. As he explained to a friend:

“When I left Springfield [to assume the Presidency] I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ.”

This Thanksgiving, as we meet with family and friends, let us be ever mindful of the mercy and love that God has shown us. Let us not forget the Praise element of the original National Day of Thanksgiving and Praise and lift our hearts, our voices, and our lives to our Creator and Savior from whom all good things come.

by Michael Homula

While I do not recommend the movie Gettysburg for historical accuracy (it is fraught with issues and based on historical fiction – the novel Killer Angels) it is a very low barrier and fairly entertaining entry point to start a learning journey about Gettysburg provided it is followed by some effort to discern the facts from the myth.

In the movie, Robert E. Lee (played by Martin Sheen), is repeatedly heard saying, “It’s all in God’s hands.” While there is no firsthand account or eye/ear witness who heard Lee speak these words at Gettysburg, it is historically accurate based on the writings and other words spoken by Lee in his lifetime and during the Civil War.

In studying Robert E. Lee for over 20 years, it has become crystal clear to me that Robert E. Lee was a devoted follower and humble servant of Jesus Christ. The teachings of Christ and the words of the Bible shine brightly in his walk and life. Lee was a man of prayer and devotion and his life, words and personal writings demonstrate his profound faith.

General Lee was a saved, born-again, Christian man and everyone knew and respected him for it. He wrote to his chaplains who informed him of their prayers for him that he thanked them and needed all of the prayers they could offer in his behalf. And then he said: “I can only say that I am nothing but a poor sinner, trusting in Christ alone for salvation.” (Titus 3:5; Eph. 2:8-9; John 3:7)

Given his role as the commanding General of the Army of Northern Virginia, and the reverence and esteem his officers and men held for him, it would have been easy – and perhaps understandable – if Lee would have been filled with self-pride and view that he was in control of circumstances, events, and outcomes. But this was not the case. Lee believed everything was God’s will and all of the evidence shows Lee possessed a granite like conviction of trusting God’s will implicitly.

At Gettysburg, on the afternoon of July 3, 1863, the day had turned hot and humid. At his headquarters just west of town, alongside the Chambersburg Pike, Gen. Robert E. Lee was feeling a heat that had little to do with the sun. Everywhere he looked men, animals, and weapons were moving with a sense of purpose instilled by orders he had given just a short time before. A climax to two days of battle was coming, announced by an action sure to be bloody, and certain, he fervently hoped it would be decisive and victorious. The now famous Pickett’s charge was imminent.

To anyone passing by his modest headquarters tent, the 56-year-old General Lee appeared, as one soldier recalled, “calm and serene.” There is no reason to believe otherwise. “I think and work with all my power to bring the troops to the right place at the right time; then I have done my duty,” Lee said. “As soon as I order them into battle, I leave my army in the hands of God.”

That day did not turn out well for Lee, his Army of Northern Virginia, and the Confederacy. In perhaps his finest moment, after his men had been repulsed convincingly, he rode out amongst his retreating men and blamed himself for the failure saying, “It is all my fault – I asked more of men than should have been asked of them.”

But Lee had trusted God. He committed himself, his men, and his army into the providence of God’s will. Yet, the outcome was not what he had hoped for. For Lee, God’s will had been done in the repulse of his men.

Dr. Charles Stanley said, “Be obedient and leave the consequences to God.” This is what Lee did and it is a valuable lesson for us today. Go ahead and apply it to any circumstance you’re facing. Trouble in a relationship? Making a decision about money? Need to trust God with a health issue? Be obedient and leave the consequences to God. Stands up, doesn’t it?

Lee’s attitude and behavior were a result of his faith in God and it reminds me of an amazing true story from the Bible. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego also lived out their implicit faith and trust in God’s will as we read in Daniel 3. At the edge of a fiery furnace, they had a decision. Bow to an idol or be thrown in a furnace. They chose faith, believing that God would deliver them from the very fire that tested it. But then they said, “But even if He doesn’t.” (Daniel 3:18)

They didn’t jump into the fire knowing they’d be delivered. They jumped knowing The Deliverer. I’m shaking my head as I type this sentence. I want an “Even if He doesn’t” kind of faith. Save me, help me, heal me. But even if He doesn’t…

I am confident, though I don’t know with any fact based evidence, that this part of Daniel 3:18 had taken up residence in the heart of Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg. “It’s all in God’s hand” he firmly believed as he committed his army to that fateful charge. He also firmly believed God would deliver him and his men a victory. But it is plainly evident that he also had the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. “But even if He doesn’t…” Lee would continue to trust in God and His perfect, good, and pleasing will.

Do you have an “Even if He doesn’t” kind of faith?

For more reading on Lee’s faith, please check out “Christ in the Camp: or, Religion in Lee’s Army,” by Chaplain J. William Jones, known as the “Fightin Parson,” who knew Lee personally.

by Michael Homula

I am going to deviate from sharing a specific story about Gettysburg today. Rather, I want to use a scenario that played out thousands of times at Gettysburg, and thousands more across the battlefields of the Civil War, to illustrate a point about faith.

I have been studying the Battle of Gettysburg since I was 15 years old, long before I came to saving faith in Jesus Christ in August of 2003. I recall walking the field when I was in college and wondering what would pass through the heart and mind of a man who, being mortally wounded, was facing certain death. While death came instantly for some, most would experience mind boggling pain and suffering from horrific wounds before succumbing to death. Certain types of wounds in the Civil War were almost always fatal and the men knew it. Surviving images of the dead on the battlefield at Gettysburg or any other Civil War battlefield reveals corpses whose jackets and shirts are ripped open at the chest or stomach. This was not the result of post death pillaging of the wounding but the work of the dying men themselves. They knew if they were gut shot they would die so, immediately after being wounded, they would tear open their jackets and shirts to see where they were hit. If it was in the abdomen or chest they knew they were most likely going to die and would prepare by writing last words in diaries, muttering final words for comrades in arms to share with their soon-to-be widows and families, and some would even finally come to faith in Jesus. A term that we now know as foxhole faith – though there were really no foxholes in the Civil War.

Confederate dead at the Rose Farm - Gettysburg, PA

Foxhole faith refers to someone whose life is ebbing away and in desperation they cry out to God to save them. In the face of battle and death, men who have had nothing to do with God suddenly find themselves facing bullets flying past their head or experiencing mortal wounds and they cry out to God to save them. “If you get me out of here alive, I’ll serve you, God,” might be something they’d pray in the face of death – if they are even given the time to cry out before dying.

If they survive, this type of commitment rarely ever lasts beyond the rescue. If the person is spared from death and returns to safety, the promises fade and life without God eventually returns. In Isaiah 17:7-8 we learn about another type of foxhole faith:

In that day people will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles and the incense altars their fingers have made.

Isaiah is bringing a message from God to the people of Damascas. After the ruin of that city, there will only be a few of them left, “like the stray olives left on the tree after harvest” (Isaiah 24:13). These few remaining will realize the vanity of idol worship they’ve been participating in, and they will suddenly turn to their Creator. They will suddenly have respect for God. This reminds me of that famous passage found in Philippians 2: “…and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Clearly this kind of faith is not focused on God. It is focused on self. This kind of foxhole faith is actually idolatry itself because it’s about putting God on a shelf until you need Him. True faith trusts God in the good times and the bad.

How’s your faith today? Are you able to honor God in the good times, or are you like these people from Damascas, or those facing death on the battlefield, who turn to their own pleasure and carnal pursuits until crisis hits? The problem with the latter of these two is that there is no guarantee of time to make one last confessions, one last moment of repentance or one last moment to finally trust Jesus alone for salvation. James writes, “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14). If you do not have the eternal security found only in Jesus Christ, there should be a sense of urgency because this life can be over in the blink of an eye. You may not have time to pull open your jacket and shirt and do a gut check, finally confessing Jesus as Lord and Savior at the last possible moment.

The encouragement today is to trust Him. Have faith that God has and will rescue you now and forever from death if only you will trust in Jesus.

by Michael Homula

The United States Christian Commission (USCC) came into existence during the first year of the Civil War. Delegates from various Young Men’s Christian Associations (YMCA) held a convention November 14 and 15, 1861 in New York City where they resolved: “That it is the duty of Young Men’s Christian Associations to take active measures to promote the spiritual and temporal welfare of the soldiers in the army and the sailors and marines in the navy, in cooperation with the chaplains and others.”

From this convention the USCC was formed. It combined religious support with social services and recreational activities. It supplied Protestant chaplains and social workers and collaborated with the U.S. Sanitary Commission in providing medical services.

The first circular of the United States Christian Commission was issued on November 16, 1861, and stated, in part: “Chaplains wish our aid; Christians in the army call for it; and the precious souls of thousands, daily exposed to death and yet unprepared, demand it of us, in the name of Him who died for us. It is a field white unto the harvest. The soldiers are ready to hear the Word of God spoken in love, and to receive the printed pages. Brethren, will you aid us?” The delegates, instilled with the urgency of their mission, returned home, confident that appeals to their congregations for material and financial aid would be met with an outpouring of generosity. Bible-believing and Christ-following Christians responded generously and the USCC mission to serve the soldiers and sailors of the Union in the name of Christ was well supplied.

During the war, more than 5,000 Christians would serve on the front lines ministering, nursing, and caring for men of both armies on the battlefields, hospitals, and in the camps of our war torn country.

As we have been studying and learning, the first three days of July 1863 would bring the largest and most costly battle of the war to the crossroads town of Gettysburg. Following the bloodletting, the two armies would leave the area. In their wake, more than 20,000 wounded (some severely) and dying from both sides would be left behind. The Christian Commission dispatched more than 300 delegates to Gettysburg.

A commission official had this to say about the citizens at Gettysburg: “Too much cannot be said of the kindness of the people of Gettysburg to the Delegates, whose accommodations at first were very limited. Nor was this confined to them; until the hospitals were withdrawn from the neighborhood, the residents were untiring in their efforts to alleviate the wants of the wounded and dying.”

Mr. Demond, a delegate of the commission, relates two stories of relief work performed by fellow delegate John C. Chamberlain (who we will study more later, photo to the right), brother of Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain who led the 20th Maine on Little Round Top at Gettysburg. Demond wrote:

“He heard just at nightfall of a hospital, some miles away, that had not been visited. Though weary from the labors of the day, he went to it at once on foot. He found the Surgeon in charge sick, and the assistant overwhelmed with the care of some two hundred wounded, and no stores or comforts.

He told the doctor there was a station of the Sanitary Commission within a mile, and asked why he had not got stores. The doctor said he did not know how to get them. Mr. Chamberlain wrote an order on the Sanitary Commission, the doctor signed it and the Delegate went to the station and found that the Sanitary Commission had gone away. What was to be done? It was late; he was very weary; it was nearly five miles to Gettysburg, where the station of the Christian Commission was, the road was hard and the streams were swollen and high. But the men were suffering, and there was no one but him to help. He took the long and lonely walk, and very early the next morning, the wagon of the Christian Commission was at the hospital, laden with stores and comforts for the heroic sufferers. That same Delegate came one day upon an out-of-doors hospital, where the men were lying in the July sun with no shelter. After looking a moment, he took a stone and stick, and arranged the blanket of a soldier so as to shield his face. Others caught the idea, and soon everyone in the hospital was sheltered from the burning and torturing blaze of the sun.”

Professor M.L. Stoever of Pennsylvania College in Gettysburg came upon two interesting and intelligent young men recovering in the schoolhouse from amputations. They were Confederates and both from Lutheran colleges—one from Roanoke College in Virginia, the other from Newberry College in South Carolina. Their teachers had been students in the college at Gettysburg and were well known to the professor.

One of them was already a Christian; the other had just come to know Christ on the bloody field at Gettysburg. “Tell my father,” said the first, “if you can get a letter to him, that I am leaning on the strong arm of Jesus; He comforts me; all my hope is in Him.” Said the other, “Write to my mother that I have found the Savior; He is precious to my soul. And say to her, ‘If I meet you, mother, no more on earth, I hope to meet you in heaven.’”

We will be learning more about the United States Christian Commission in the coming months.

by Michael Homula

I was planning to share this writing next May on the anniversary of the event but something happened in my life this week that prompted me to share it now. I learned that an old friend had died rather suddenly. He was not a Christ follower, in fact he pretty much rejected Jesus and God, so my heart was broken over where he will now spend eternity. I learned that in his final moments he was frightened. That too broke my heart - severely if I am being honest. I am still hurting.

But it got me thinking of a Civil War (though not Gettysburg specific) related event that serves as a lesson for those of us who follow Christ and hope for those who don’t and are uncertain about death and heaven and eternity and things of that sort.

On May 10, 1863, less than two months before the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson would breathe his last earthly breath in a plantation office in Guinea Station, Virginia. He was the South’s finest tactical commander and a debate rages today about what difference he may or may not have made at Gettysburg had he been there. Eight days earlier, at Chancellorsville on May 2nd, General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was mortally wounded (shot by his own men as he rode between the lines in the dark looking to press the advantage he had gained during the daytime fighting) and carried to a hospital where his surgeon, Hunter McGuire, amputated his left arm in an effort to prevent infection and save his life. Jackson was a Christ follower of enormous faith and never was it on display more clearly than in the final days and hours of life in his “earthly tent” (2 Cor. 5:1-10).

The following brief overview of his last days is taken from the detailed notes of Dr. Hunter McGuire and the eyewitnesses to General Jackson’s last days and moments on this earth.

Sometime after sunrise the morning of May 3rd, after having his arm amputated around 2 a.m., General Jackson was awake, alert, and in good spirits. Captain Smith read a note that was sent over from General Robert E. Lee: "I have just received your note, informing me that you were wounded. I cannot express my regret at the occurrence. Could I have directed events, I should have chosen, for the good of the country, to have been disabled in your stead. I congratulate you upon the victory, which is due to your skill and energy." General Jackson, always cognizant of where proper credit is due, replied: "General Lee should give the praise to God."

Due to the battle that had re-ignited around the hospital tents, General Lee gave orders to move Jackson and his medical team to Guinea Station, VA where they would occupy a small plantation office on Thomas C. Chandler's 740-acre plantation named "Fairfield."

Dr. McGuire wrote:
He expressed great satisfaction when told that his wounds were healing, and asked if I could tell from their appearance how long he would probably be kept from the field. Conversing with Captain Smith a few moments afterwards, he alluded to his injuries and amputated arm, and said, “Many would regard them as a great misfortune; I regard them as one of the blessings of my life.”

Captain Smith replied: “All things work together for good to those that love God.” (Romans 8:28)

“Yes,” General Jackson answered, “that's it, that's it.”

By mid-week General Jackson worsened and he began to develop severe pain in his side – the product of pneumonia the doctors believed – and it did not seem he would survive. But by Thursday he seemed to be improving and Dr. McGuire wrote:

Towards the evening he became better, and hopes were again entertained of his recovery. Mrs. Jackson arrived to-day and nursed him faithfully to the end. She was a devoted wife and earnest Christian, and endeared us all to her by her great kindness and gentleness. The General's joy at the presence of his wife and child was very great, and for him unusually demonstrative. Noticing the sadness of his wife, he said to her tenderly: "I know you would gladly give your life for me, but I am perfectly resigned. Do not be sad. I hope I may yet recover. Pray for me, but always remember in your prayers to use the petition, ‘Thy will be done.’"

By Saturday, nearly a week after he was wounded and his arm amputated, General Jackson’s condition worsened again. Dr. McGuire described the situation and the scene in the plantation office:

Dr. Tucker, from Richmond, arrived on Saturday, and all that human skill could devise was done to stay the hand of death. He suffered no pain to-day, and his breathing was less difficult, but he was evidently hourly growing weaker.

When his child was brought to him today he played with it for some time, frequently caressing it and calling it his "little comforter." At one time he raised his wounded hand [his right hand had also suffered a severe gunshot wound] above his head and closing his eyes, was for some moments silently engaged in prayer. He said to me: "I see from the number of physicians that you think my condition dangerous, but I thank God, if it is His will, that I am ready to go."

It seemed that the Lord was indeed calling His dearly loved General Jackson home. There would be no daring flanking maneuver around an earthly death – something the warrior leader Jackson was so adept at executing on the battlefield – but Jackson was not searching for a way around the “enemy’s” flank. He did not need it for He had Christ as His redeeming Savior, and Jackson was well prepared for his real home. My words would be inadequate to describe Jackson’s final moments compared to those who were there and witnessed the brave warrior go into glory.

Doctor McGuire shares the final moments:

About daylight on Sunday morning Mrs. Jackson informed him that his recovery was very doubtful, and that it was better that he should be prepared for the worst. He was silent for a moment, and then said: "It will be infinite gain to be translated to Heaven." He advised his wife, in the event of his death, to return to her father's house, and added: "You have a kind and good father, but there is no one so kind and good as your Heavenly Father." He still expressed a hope of his recovery, but requested her, if he should die, to have him buried in Lexington, in the Valley of Virginia. His exhaustion increased so rapidly that at 11 o'clock Mrs. Jackson knelt by his bed and told him that before the sun went down he would be with his Saviour. He replied: "Oh, no; you are frightened, my child; death is not so near; I may yet get well." She fell over upon the bed, weeping bitterly, and told him again that the physicians said there was no hope. After a moment's pause he asked her to call me. "Doctor, Anna informs me that you have told her that I am to die to-day; is it so?" When he was answered, he turned his eyes toward the ceiling and gazed for a moment or two as if in intense thought, then replied: "Very good, very good, it is all right." He then tried to comfort his almost heart-broken wife, and told her that he had a great deal to say to her, but he was too weak.

Colonel Pendleton came into the room about 1 o'clock, and he asked him, "Who was preaching at headquarters to-day?" When told that the whole army was praying for him, he replied: "Thank God, they are very kind." He said: "It is the Lord's Day; my wish is fulfilled. I have always desired to die on Sunday."

His mind now began to fail and wander, and he frequently talked as if in command upon the field, giving orders in his old way; then the scene shifted and he was at the mess-table, in conversation with members of his staff; now with his wife and child; now at prayers with his military family. Occasional intervals of return of his mind would appear, and during one of them I offered him some brandy and water, but he declined it, saying, "It will only delay my departure, and do no good; I want to preserve my mind, if possible, to the last." About half-past one he was told that he had but two hours to live, and he answered again, feebly, but firmly, "Very good, it is all right."

A few moments before he died he cried out in his delirium, "Order A. P. Hill to prepare for action! Pass the infantry to the front rapidly! Tell Major Hawks," then stopped, leaving the sentence unfinished. Presently a smile of ineffable sweetness spread itself over his pale face, and he cried quietly and with an expression as if of relief, "Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees;” and then, without pain or the least struggle, his spirit passed from earth to the God who gave it.

This is the kind of peace, a peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7), one has when their eternity is secure in Jesus Christ alone. When we trust in Jesus we need not fear earthly death, whether it comes suddenly or after many years of a life well lived, but rather look forward to it with anticipation as we cross over the river to rest under the shade of the tree’s with the One who created us and loves us more than our heart or mind could ever fathom.

Have you trusted Christ alone for your salvation?

by Michael Homula

Last week I shared a brief story about Elizabeth Thorn and what she experienced, endured and did during those three fateful days of July 1863 while six months pregnant. Today I want to take some time to look more closely at Thorn and what we can learn about the character of God and how we should respond when we face suffering and tribulation.

In the summer of 1863, when a battle came to Gettysburg, its citizens were trapped between armies and soon witnessed that the universe of battle was broad and complicated and they too would have to be players in the drama. So they stepped in. They performed all sorts of duties during the crisis – some acted as spies, some picked up a rifle and defended their homes, others cooked, and most ultimately nursed and comforted the wounded and dying. But in the case of Elizabeth Thorn, she scouted ground for the Union Army and then took on the gruesome task of burying the dead all while six months pregnant. Truly amazing!

Thorn documented her experience like virtually no other in the town of Gettysburg at that time. In her writings we find a woman weary but strong, frightened but courageous, horrified but comforted. We must ask ourselves: why was she able to do what she did in the face of such tribulation?

Immediately after the battle, upon returning to the cemetery and the gatehouse that was her home, she found dead and dying men littering the ground. Ordered by the cemetery president to begin burying the dead, she wrote:

"Yet for all the foul air we two started in. I stuck off the graves and while my father finished one, I had another one started. This lasted for days, until....Two [others] came, but one only stayed two days, then got deathly sick and left. The other stayed five days, then he went away very sick.

"[We] kept on burying the soldiers until they had the National Cemetery ready, and in that time we buried one hundred five soldier…it was only excitement and God that helped me to do all the work, with all that stench."

The “why” was her God. The temptation to run away from the horror, carnage, and stress must have been enormous. No one would have faulted her for doing so. Instead of sinking into a paralysis of fear or run to get away, she turned to God and He delivered – as He always does. This is a lesson those who follow Jesus and declare God as Father.

In Zechariah, the prophet heard great news from an angel about Jerusalem:

"Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst." (Zechariah 2:4–5)

In Thorn’s weak, fragile, and vulnerable condition God afforded her protection – “I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord.” If it were true for the vulnerable villages of Jerusalem then surely it was true for Elizabeth Thorn, and it is true for us today as God’s dearly loved children. God will be a “wall of fire” around us.

He has been. He will be.

But, it gets even better. Inside that fiery wall of protection God says, “And I will be the glory in her midst.” God is never content to give us the protection of His fire; He will give us pleasure of His presence.

This certainly would be an encouragement to Thorn during the days and months of hard and gruesome labor and it should be sweet to us as well, carrying us through whatever we face in our lives.

There are seemingly infinite lessons for us in the suffering, perseverance, courage, and fortitude of a pregnant woman burying the dead at Gettysburg. Worldly suffering is inevitable but God has many reasons to allow us adversity, just as Jesus suffered before and on the cross. In the interest of time and space, I chose three reasons:

To Glorify God

It may sound odd, but sometimes we are given tribulation in order for God to receive glory. Consider the events in Daniel concerning Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. They were to be thrown into a flaming furnace for not worshiping a pagan god. They declared to king Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3:16-18, “the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us…”

In other words, in this tribulation that the three were receiving, God would be glorified in their deliverance from it. Similarly, just as Elizabeth Thorn faced her trials, we may face trials so that our perseverance in God may one day glorify Him when we are delivered from the hardship.

To Build Faith

This is opposite of what most people would believe. One would think that trial and tribulation would cause a believer to lose faith in the Lord, however this is opposite of what the Bible teaches. Faith is built by being tested just as how exercising, though it is uncomfortable to most, builds muscle.

Peter in 1 Peter 1:6-7 emphasizes this idea. Peter tells us that our faith would be found to glorify Jesus, though it be tested by fire. The classic example of this is Job who, although he lost everything, maintained and built faith in the Lord. Elizabeth Thorn’s faith was tested in a way that none of us are likely to experience yet her faith remained firm under fire.

To Grow

Adversity and tribulation, just as it helps us build faith, also helps us to grow more complete, especially in perseverance, character and hope. Romans 5:3-5 says the following:

"…we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us."

God promises that our growth occurs in a process starting with hardship. Hardship gives us a reason to have perseverance: to get through it no matter what. Perseverance builds character by having us trust in the Lord and be humble. Finally, good character gives us the hope we need to overcome the hardship.

I see no greater example of these (and many others) than actions of Elizabeth Thorn at Gettysburg as she faced, alongside her God, suffering and adversity beyond what any of us could imagine.

So, what will you do when you next suffer or face a trail?

by Michael Homula

Elizabeth Masser and Peter Thorn emigrated to the United States from Germany and were married in Gettysburg in September of 1855. The Thorns were German-speaking Christ followers who worshipped in a Gettysburg church where other German-speaking Christians of both the Lutheran and Methodist denominations shared worship space. The same year they were married, the cornerstone for the local cemetery was laid. A few months later, Peter was hired to be caretaker of what was to be called Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg.

An archway with interior living space for the caretaker was built as a gateway into the cemetery grounds. Elizabeth’s parents lived on one side of the archway building; Peter and Elizabeth lived on the other. Today there is a caretaker house built behind the arch on the right side. Six years later when the Civil War began, the Thorns had three sons. By 1862, Peter felt it was his duty to join the Union Army, and he enlisted with the 138th Pennsylvania Infantry, leaving the cemetery caretaking duties to Elizabeth and her father. At the time, the cemetery was averaging about five burials per month.

On June 26, 1863, Confederate soldiers began moving into Gettysburg. As the Confederates arrived, the Gettysburg community had little choice but to answer their demands and feed them. The Union Army of the Potomac was not far behind the Confederate movement. General Oliver Otis Howard (The Christian General) and his men came in on the road that took them past the cemetery, so they stopped at the Evergreen gatehouse looking for a man who could familiarize them with Gettysburg. Six months pregnant, Elizabeth Thorn stepped outside as the most capable volunteer in the household. She accompanied one of General Howard’s men into the field, pointing out the main roadways and the lesser known local paths that the soldiers could use.

That night Elizabeth to prepared dinner for Union Generals Howard, Sickles, and Slocum. In return, General Howard ordered some of his men to move the family’s belongings to the cellar for safekeeping. Elizabeth asked whether the family should leave the area, and Howard allowed that they could stay but should go to the cellar when fighting began. He added: “When I give you orders to leave the house, don’t study about it, but go right away.” It was understood that if the family needed to move on, they were to take nothing with them.

The next day the fighting began near Cemetery Hill, and the Thorns, along with some neighbors, took refuge in the cellar. At the conclusion of that day’s fighting, a soldier arrived and told them to leave; that they should follow the main road so the soldiers would know it was them and not open fire. The family made it to a farmhouse before nightfall. Hoping for food they found none, but they had a place to spend the night.

Elizabeth was among the Gettysburg citizens who set down eyewitness accounts after the siege, so we have in her words what happened to her during the next few days. She wrote that the next day she and her father traveled back to the gatehouse to see if they could retrieve any possessions. On their arrival they found that their hogs had been killed, the windows of the house were shot out, and the trunks that had been taken to the cellar for safety had been emptied. The house was filled with wounded men calling for water. Outside, townspeople were beginning to deposit the dead who had been killed around town.

Starting late on July 4, General Lee began to move some of his men back to Virginia, and the family made their way back to the gatehouse. As they arrived, they saw vast numbers of bodies had been delivered to the cemetery for burial. There were also were fifteen dead horses near the house, and nineteen others horses had died on the property nearby. The stench of animal and human decay was overpowering.

The house itself was in shambles. Three local women came over to help Elizabeth wash what was salvageable, and cemetery president David McConaughy came by to see Elizabeth and directed that burials needed to move forward quickly. He went into town to enlist volunteers, but those who came soon became overwhelmed and left—some of them too ill to continue, some of them simply repulsed by the grisly work. Though Elizabeth received no extra pay for her work, nor were the Thorns ever compensated for the damages incurred, Elizabeth stretched to pay some workers, but even they did not last long.

For the most part, the work was done by Elizabeth and her father, working in the heat of mid-July, the heat and humidity rapidly and appallingly driving the decay and stench, for as long as daylight lasted. Ultimately, they buried 105 war casualties (91 soldiers and 14 civilians).

Despite the hard work of digging graves, Elizabeth managed to carry the baby to term, giving birth to the Thorns’ first daughter, Rose Meade (named for General Meade who commanded the Union Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg), on November 1, 1863. Peter Thorn returned home after Appomattox in 1865, and the family remained at Evergreen as caretakers until 1874.

In 2002 a Civil War Women’s Memorial was dedicated. The memorial is within Evergreen, near the gatehouse. The sculpture depicts Elizabeth attending to burial duties. Her face is full of anguish, an apron covers her pregnant abdomen, and she holds a spade representing all she did.

Next week we will revisit Elizabeth Thorn and her actions through the lens of God’s Word and what lessons we learn from this sister in Christ who endured so much and did the seemingly impossible.

by Michael Homula

Today’s Biblical Truth at Gettysburg post is written by my good friend and brother in Christ, Jim Lamason. Jim will be involved in the retreats we will lead to Gettysburg and he is an expert and author on New Jersey regiments in the Civil War and at Gettysburg. - Michael Homula

The history of the United States of America is filled many notable personalities. From the founding fathers through the intervening years into the present day. Most of us know of these men – Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Ford, Rockefeller, Roosevelt, Eisenhower – the list goes on and on.

However, and perhaps most importantly, the history of the United States is also filled with “common” men. Men who were born, raised, had families and served this nation with steadfastness, courage, honor, and duty. Most of them relied on a deep faith in God that gave them the strength to endure incredible hardship and do extraordinary things in times of great strife and war. Unfortunately, most of these men remain unknown to most of us.

One such man, long forgotten along with those who served with him at Gettysburg, is Robert McAllister. Born in 1813 of Scottish descent in Juanita County, Pennsylvania, outside of what we know to be State College, his dad was a farmer and his mother raised young Robert and his brother Thompson. Growing up in a household with a Christian faith as the center piece, the core values of faith in God and Jesus Christ served him well.

He grew up doing the usual things that young boys and then men did during this time in our history. Hard work, daily devotions and prayer time with family developed in the young man a rock solid foundation that would serve him all of his days. Notably, through the four long and bloody years of the American Civil War.

McAllister married his wife Ellen and began to migrate east, eventually settling in Oxford, New Jersey. There they had two daughters, Henrietta and Sarah, who soon become the apple of their father’s eye. It was during this period that McAllister developed his military and leadership skills, recruiting and training militia for both New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

He made a living in the railroad construction business and it kept him busy. Through the economic difficulties that occurred in the late 1850’s he kept the business running, managing to keep as many workers employed as possible. He also saw to it that those who worked for the company had housing, though rough and primitive even for the times. This was all the more challenging during the darker times, such as when a business building was burned to the ground during employee unrest.

When Civil War broke out, McAllister walked into his business office and spoke with his partner who was also well trained in militia tactics. His partner upon thinking it through said, “Robert, you go, for you will have a greater influence than I will. I will see to the business, and come along shortly.”

Commissioned as a Lt Colonel in the 1st New Jersey regiment of volunteers, McAllister was upset not to be given command of the regiment. He noted his unhappiness with the decision in a letter to his daughter. That letter is one of over 900 he would write during the war. Those same letters document his steady, sure approach to the equipping, training, and leading of his regiment to ensure its preparation for the battles that were looming.

In August of 1862, after skillfully leading his men during the Peninsula Campaign, he was finally offered the command he so deeply desired and readily accepted. With his appointment the 11th New Jersey Regiment of Volunteers, to which his name is forever linked, was born.

McAllister cared deeply for his men. Born out of his faith in Christ, he loved them and cared for their every need, even in ways that may not have been clear to them. With an eye towards their survival he used the same keen eye for detail he had practiced during his militia service, and in the 1st New Jersey, discipline and detail were important. Every button was to be in the right place, the accoutrements that the men needed to carry (ammunition, caps, and other equipment) were to be clean and ready for use. All weapons were to be maintained and always at the ready for the deadly work that was sure to come. This dedication to detail earned him the moniker “Mother McAllister” from his men. At the time it was not a term of endearment.

He led the 11th New Jersey into action for the first time at Fredericksburg in December of 1862 and the New Jersey boys performed admirably, suffering only light casualties as the rest of the Army of the Potomac suffered a disastrous defeat. This first taste of fire, death, and human suffering revealed to his men why McAllister was so detailed. From then on, “Mother McAllister” became a term of endearment that would follow him the rest of his days. McAllister’s dedication to the welfare and care of his men increased their devotion to him.

McAllister met regularly with the regimental chaplain for prayer, Bible study, and Sunday services. At first his men resisted but as time wore on, it became clear that it was wise for them to join in. McAllister never verbally ordered his men to do this; they just realized that it would be good to do so. While McAllister never drank nor uttered a foul oath, he did not condemn the men if they wanted to drink or play cards, things he himself would never do. He endeavored to bring on the change by example and deed. As a result, two massive revivals that swept the entire Union Army began in McAllister’s regiment.

The Sunday before Gettysburg, the chaplain of the 12th New Hampshire preached his sermon from Philippians 3:14: “Forgetting what is behind I press on towards the mark, the upward call in Christ Jesus.” Those two words, “press on”, became Colonel McAllister’s watchword for the night of hard marching to the fields just south of Gettysburg on the night of July 1, 1863.

The following day, July 2, found McAllister and his regiment on the Emmitsburg Road among the farm structures of the Klingle (Klingel) family farm, absorbing the brunt of the Confederate assault as it rolled up the Union line. McAllister and his regiment were steadfast as they held their own alongside men of two other Union brigades. It would cost the 11th New Jersey dearly.

The 11th New Jersey Monument along the Emmitsburg Road in Gettysburg

The regiment lost every officer above the rank of 1st Lieutenant and, by the end of the day, was commanded by John Schoonover, the regimental bookkeeper.

McAllister would recover from his wounds at Gettysburg and return to duty by August of 1863. He would rise to the rank of Major General by the end of the war. The Army would pester him to stay but he would muster out in July of 1865 and he would die on February 26, 1891 at the age of 78.

What can we can take from McAllister’s life and his faith?

Perseverance. In the face of incredible odds, both in his life and the horror of the battlefield, McAllister persevered – buoyed by his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Stewardship. In the battles of life, just like the battles of war, God requires us to put to good use all He has given us and all He has taught us. McAllister put his faith to good use through his actions, and the care and discipline of his men. This not only enabled them to perform courageously and well in combat, saving many lives, but McAllister’s acts of faith and love spread a fire of revival through the entire Union Army that led to lives saved for eternity.

Robert McAllister’s life, courage under fire and skill as a Christ following leader of men are a living testimony. His life matched his faith and belief in Jesus Christ. His actions reflected the light, life and love of Jesus.

Does yours?

- Jim Lamason

Author of the forthcoming book Into the Vortex of Fire - an historical novel about the 11th New Jersey in the Gettysburg Campaign.

by Michael Homula

When Jason DeZurik and I first began to sort out what God might have planned for the Biblical Truth at Gettysburg ministry at Worldview Warriors, I was stirred deeply. I had been leading men to Gettysburg for nearly 10 years on mini-retreats and they were fun, educational, spiritually enlightening and just great fellowship. But, I knew they could be so much more.

When I started writing this series, I shared that it was my heart’s desire to be in conversation with Christians about the extraordinary events and the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ during the days leading up to, during, and after the epic Battle of Gettysburg. In this conversation, it is my earnest hope, we will find ourselves challenged to live out our faith in a more actionable and effective way.

As Christians, if we are ever to think with discernment and wisdom about the American past, in this context Gettysburg, it is imperative that we learn good historical thinking skills. The first step to thinking historically is understanding the difference between the “past” and “history”. It is a critical difference.

The past is everything that humans have said or thought or done until now. The past is almost infinitely vast and intensely complex. We are only afforded blurred glimpses or vague shadows of the past – that is all that has survived. History, on the other hand, is the effort to piece together the evidence that remains in order to make sense of the past. I like Christian historian John Lukacs’ simple definition of history as the “remembered past.”

History presents us with a nearly infinite storehouse of compelling human stories, but I am convinced that if the study of history is to be truly educational and spiritual, it must be much more than that. An educational and spiritual study of history, a Christian historical view if you will, must alter the way we think, challenge our hearts and change who we are. Our encounter with the past, with those people who lived during the Battle of Gettysburg and the events surrounding the epic struggle of the Civil War, should be a relentless quest for a heart of wisdom - “a conversation with the dead about what we should value and how we should live,” (David Harlan). As Christ followers, we can’t settle for less. Genesis 32 tells how Jacob wrestled with God the whole night through, telling the Lord, “I will not let you go unless you bless me!” (v. 26). I can’t begin to fully uncover the depth and intent of that story’s meaning, but I think of it often when I walk the fields and study the people, places and events that forever changed our nation at Gettysburg. Rowan Williams, the former archbishop of Canterbury and an accomplished historian, encourages us to believe “that there will always be gifts to be received from the past.” We must seek them persistently and relentlessly. Like Jacob, we must resolve not to let go until the Lord has blessed us.

I am NOT suggesting that we pray for special revelation from God, asking him to disclose hidden meanings from the past. I can find nothing in scripture that the Holy Spirit will reveal American history to us but the Bible is clear that the Spirit is given in order to convict us of “sin, and righteousness, and judgment” (John 16:8). The purpose of wrestling with the past, again in this context the people and events at Gettysburg, until the Lord blesses us is to study history in such a way that it ultimately exposes our hearts. Our ultimate aim is not to simply understand the past for its own sake or vainly attempt to distill lessons from the past that help us get what we want in the present. No, our ultimate goal is to see both God and ourselves more clearly, to the glory of God and for our sanctification.

The goal is to get wisdom. As Proverbs 4:7 puts it, “Wisdom is the principal thing.” If wisdom is our goal, we must figure out how to scrutinize the past so that it will lead to a more intense and Godly scrutiny of our hearts in light of God’s Word. This is exactly what it means to have a Christian historical view. To think about history as Christ followers.

The weight and intensity of the past at Gettysburg is jarring. It is palpable. You can see it, hear it, feel it, taste it and smell it as you walk the fields. It is not easily described and unless you have been there you can’t fully appreciate it. When we walk the battlefield we can feel the nearly tangible presence of the 170,000 men who clashed there, and the 2,200 inhabitants of Gettysburg who dealt with the aftermath. I don’t mean literally that their spirits hover there (despite the ridiculous number of “Gettysburg Ghost Tours” that exploit the hallowed ground financially). There is something deeply spiritual about walking the ground of a famous historical event. Walking over the ground at Gettysburg, “heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for us”, connects us to those whose footsteps we follow.

It is an experience that will jolt us out of our own narrow frame of reference. Just ask Jason. Gettysburg, the landscape and the stories of the men and what they did there, has a way of suddenly making us feel small. That is a good thing because an integral component of wisdom is self-knowledge, and self-knowledge ought to lead to great humility.

by Michael Homula

Last week, I shared the story of Father William Corby blessing the famed Irish Brigade moments before they plunged headlong into The Wheatfield to check the Confederate advance. The fight for The Wheatfield at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863, has long been one of the most confusing and misunderstood engagements. I will make no attempt to clear up the confusion in a blog post (you will have to sign up for one of our Biblical Truth at Gettysburg retreats to get that).

The Wheatfield stands out as one of the bloodiest places in American military history. In only a few hours of fighting, the 19 acre field of wheat changed hands between the North and South six times with some 4,000 casualties. The veterans who survived called it a “whirlpool” of battle because regiments on both sides were seemingly sucked into a vortex of confusion, chaos and carnage.

The monument to the 27th Connecticut in The Wheatfield

The Wheatfield is one of my favorite places on the battlefield to spend time studying the fighting, reading my Bible and praying. Mostly I sit in quiet reflection, listening to the voices of the dead.

Now before you think I have lost my mind, allow me to explain.

One of the best quotes about the value of history comes from historian David Harlan. In his book The Degradation of American History, Harlan reminds us, “at its best, the study of American history can be a conversation with the dead about what we should value and how we should live.” Not many academic historians hold to that view anymore, and we lose a proper view of history as a result.

I am repeatedly reminded of this when I walk the ground of The Wheatfield at Gettysburg. The opportunities for life-changing conversations abound, if we have ears to hear (Matthew 11:15). The Wheatfield, for me, is the best place to have the conversation Harlan describes. The “whirlpool” recalled by those who survived now sits in peace and tranquility ready to engage us.

As I try to imagine what these men experienced, much more personal, far more disturbing questions come to dominate my thoughts. “Could you steel yourself to do what these men did?” I find myself wondering. “Could you endure what they endured?” More importantly, “Could you witness such carnage and still believe in mankind? Could you help to inflict such destruction and still believe in yourself? Could you experience such suffering and still believe in God?” Above all, “Are you devoted to any principle, any cause, any person, any Master enough to give,” in Lincoln’s words, “the last full measure of devotion?”

The short answer to all of the above is, “I don’t know.” I pray to God that my faith would not falter, but I just don’t know.

What I do know about myself is not reassuring: I too often struggle with even the most trivial acts of self-denial, the most mundane expressions of laying down my life that pale in comparison to the price paid by so many who fought there.

But these are not the only voices that I hear in The Wheatfield at Gettysburg. There were countless other voices raised during the battle itself. We don’t have audio recordings of these moments, perhaps thankfully, so most of these cries from the heart are known only to God. However, a precious few have survived. They come in the soldiers’ own words, conversations and confessions made to peers, not necessarily uttered for us to hear today. The testimony of an unnamed and unknown soldier who bore witness to a very different kind of response to the indescribable happenings in The Wheatfield.

We only know of this soldier through the recollection of Confederate Captain George Hillyer of the 9th Georgia Infantry. When the fighting at Gettysburg began on 1 July, the men of the 9th GA were twenty-nine miles away. They marched all day and all night to arrive on the field just before dawn on 2 July. After spending the morning laying around in woods just west of The Wheatfield, Hillyer’s company was in the middle of the Confederate Attack on the Union left and found itself face to face with the Irish Brigade in The Wheatfield.

The Georgians were forced to withdraw and Hillyer, along with his exhausted and bloodied company, spent the night within earshot of the field where, only a few hours earlier, they had fought and killed and watched their friends be killed. As the sun went down neither side held the field and the now trampled wheat, covered in blood and dead and dying men, became a type of no man's land separating the Union and Confederate lines.

In the midst of that hellish scene, Hillyer was amazed to hear one of the men between the lines begin to sing. Hillyer wrote there were “thousands of desperately wounded men lying on the ground within easy hearing of the singer and as his voice rang out like a flute . . . not only the wounded, but also five or ten thousand and maybe more of the men of both armies could hear and distinguish the words.” The song they heard had been written four decades earlier by an Irish poet named Thomas Moore. It was later set to music and published in 1831:

Come, ye disconsolate, where’er ye languish;
Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel;
Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish;
Earth has no sorrow that heav’n cannot heal.

When I sit in the middle of The Wheatfield today, this is the voice I hear. Taking the past seriously, especially as those who follow Christ, means putting our own lives to the test (James 1:2-4). The conversations at Gettysburg, in places like The Wheatfield, do just that, pressing us with hard, uncomfortable questions: What do we value? In what do we hope? Where do we find meaning?

The answers, etched in granite stone and marble on monuments dotting the fields of Gettysburg – written by the blood of men who gave their lives – are noble. No doubt. However, they are also earthbound and temporary.

Vastly more challenging, far more convicting, much more comforting, supremely hopeful is the response on the lips of the unknown soldier whose voice one can still hear if we have ears to hear. Sung in darkness amid death and despair, it is both historical occurrence and spiritual metaphor, an echo of God’s invitation to a bruised and hurting world.

Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel…

by Michael Homula

The only bronze statue on the Gettysburg battlefield dedicated to a chaplain is that of Catholic Priest Father William Corby. His likeness stands on a rock with his left hand on his chest and his right lifted with palm open, giving general absolution to the men of the Irish Brigade, moments before they entered the maelstrom of fighting in and near the Wheatfield on 2 July 1863.

Corby’s father was an Irish immigrant who first came to Montreal in 1824 (where he met and married Corby’s mother) and later moved the family to Detroit in 1826 where William was born in 1833. In 1853, his father sent him and his two younger brothers to the recently founded and struggling University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. At Notre Dame, William Corby entered the priesthood and took his final vows in 1860. The outbreak of Civil War would forever change his life. Students and faculty from the University of Notre Dame would figure significantly in the Civil War. None more than William Corby.

[To learn more about Notre Dame and the Civil War, please read Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory written by Jim Schmidt – a friend of mine]

In the fall of 1861, Father Corby began his chaplain duties by working with another Catholic priest, James Dillon, who was chaplain of the 63rd New York Volunteer Infantry, one of the three regiments that made up the famous Irish Brigade. It was not long until Corby was assigned to the 88th New York as chaplain.

Like any good shepherd, Father Corby knew his flock intimately and well. The men of the 88th New York and the other regiments of the Irish Brigade, appreciated Corby because he so identified with them in daily life and routine of a soldier. Though a chaplain, Corby was every bit a soldier - a warrior for the Lord, if you will. He was unflinching in the midst of a fight, would move to the front with the men and would do his duty even when shot and shell whirred around him. He was fearless, no doubt because of his faith in Christ, and no place on a battlefield was too dangerous or too exposed to enemy fire that he would even remotely consider abandoning those he had the responsibility to minister to.

At Gettysburg, on 2 July 1863 at about 4:00 pm, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia attempted a massive and sweeping assault of the Union left flank. The Confederates began to dismantle the Union line, leaving human carnage and death in its wake. As the fighting engulfed what is known as the Wheatfield, the Union line was in grave danger of being flanked and over run. The Irish Brigade would be asked to drive headlong into the bloody field to slow the Confederate advance.

Father Corby stood with the men he served in the Irish Brigade watching and listening to Rebels overrun their brothers in arms. Just before they would advance, he asked Colonel Patrick Kelly for permission to address the men. Climbing onto a large boulder to be clearly seen, Corby looked into the eyes of the men he loved; men who would engage the enemy to their front within minutes with many losing their life. There was no time to hear confessions this day, so he informed the Brigade he would pronounce a general absolution of sins for those who were truly repentant and trusted Christ. He reminded them of the noble cause for which they fought and declared that the Church would turn its back on those who deserted their flag.

Dale Gallon’s painting of Father Corby praying over the Irish Brigade near The Wheatfield

Reciting the Latin words of Catholic absolution he raised his right hand over the columns, and every man fell to his knees. The battle was now raging all around them – to their front was the Wheatfield, to their left was Devil's Den and Little Round Top, to the right, the Peach Orchard. Those who were there said that in those moments, as Corby prayed over the men, all seemed silent. Major General Winfield Scott Hancock, commander of the Second Corps (to which the Irish Brigade was attached) though not prone to much pomp or religious fervor, was clearly moved by the scene and removed his hat and bowed his head.

The Irish Brigade fought bravely and well that day, slowing the Confederate advance with great cost of life. Control of the field was not decided and that night the screams of wounded and dying men of both armies would haunt veterans for a life time.

[The Irish Brigade Memorial near The Wheatfield at Gettysburg is one of the most beautiful, most photographed and most visited of any on the field.]

While it was never awarded, Corby was recommended for the Congressional Medal of Honor by the men of the Irish Brigade. Major W. L. D. O'Grady of the 88th New York insisted that Corby deserved the CMOH because he was, "a man whose courage was not surpassed by the bravest soldier of our armies, whose unflinching devotion on the march, in camp and under fire, made him eminent, whose magnificent conduct at Gettysburg has become historical, one of the most picturesque and beautiful incidents of that great drama."

Pastor Corby involved himself in the lives of the men he served. He experienced what they experienced. He walked alongside them in everything they did – including combat. This won for him their love and honored respect. When Corby attended the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg the rugged veterans of the Irish Brigade tearfully embraced their old chaplain. His willingness to share in their hardships had brought spiritual and physical comfort to them in the midst of battle.

Father William Corby would survive the war and serve two terms as President of the University of Notre Dame. On the campus, just outside of Sorin Hall, there is a replica of Corby’s statue at Gettysburg. Given Notre Dame’s reputation as renowned college football program, and a unique American sense of humor, through the year’s students and faculty have affectionately dubbed it as “Fair Catch Corby”. This image is courtesy of the University of Notre Dame Archives.

Thirty-four years after that fateful day at Gettysburg, at the age of 64, Father Corby died from complications of pneumonia. In a fitting departure from custom, the casket was not carried by priests. Aging Civil War veterans carried his coffin, wrapped in the flag of his old Irish Brigade regiment, and lowered it into the ground as rifle volleys pierced the crisp late December air. The last call of the bugle was trumpeted, and the veterans present sang the words: "Answering to the call of the roll on high, dropping from the ranks as they make reply, filling up the army of the by and by."

When you visit the hallowed ground of Gettysburg you can visit the statue of Father William Corby, stand where the Irish Brigade stood and walk through the Wheatfield where they fought valiantly – many giving the last full measure of devotion to their country. I encourage you to pause and stand quietly and allow your mind to go back to the later afternoon of July 2, 1863. Hear the muffled din of battle while the faithful chaplain prays over the men of the Irish Brigade, and remember the awesome price that was paid by Americans to preserve our cherished freedoms. More importantly, remember what those men did on that field and allow the moment to become an inspiration – renewing our commitment to winning the lost in the battle for men's souls.