Bartosz Suchecki

Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

“If God is for us hoo can be a gainst us” – God and Faith in the Civil War Letters

The American Civil War, marked by suffering, death, and separation, led soldiers and their families to seek solace in faith. Religion, often invoked in personal letters, became a source of hope amidst the trials of war (Miller 2007: 14). However, faith also played a role in the ideological conflict, as abolitionists framed slavery as a moral sin demanding divine justice (Miller et al. 1998: 76). This dual role of faith shaped both personal experiences and the larger war narrative.

This paper uses a corpus-driven approach to examine religious faith in the writings of Civil War soldiers and their families from the Confederacy and Union. Drawing from letters in the Private Voices (Ellis and Montgomery 2023) repository, we utilize LancsBox X software for keyword and frequency analysis. Our study compares how correspondents from both sides expressed religious beliefs, invoked prayer, and appealed to divine guidance, expecting linguistic differences in how faith framed personal suffering and the war.

By analyzing these letters, we aim to uncover subtle variations in the religious expression between the Union and Confederate correspondents, providing insights into how faith shaped personal perspectives during the conflict.