James D. Porter, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 7.1, Tennessee
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

‘ [276] 6,187,000 pages of which have been distributed, besides 6,095 Testaments, 13,845 copies of the little volume called “Camp Hymns,” and a large number of religious books.’ Giving report in 1863, the superintendent said: ‘Modern history presents no example of armies so nearly converted into churches as the armies of Southern defense. On the crest of this flood of war which threatens to engulf our freedom rides a pure Christianity; the gospel of the grace of God shines through smoke of battle with the light that leads to heaven, and the camp becomes a school of Christ.’ It was but a short time, after what the Baptists thus started, until Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Cumberland Presbyterians and other denominations were vigorously pursuing the same pious work, and many Union organizations and individuals did likewise. One earnest North Carolina preacher published and gave away, by the help of friends, more than 2,500,000 pages of tracts in less than a year, besides selling at cost about the same number. This kind of beneficent service greatly aided the systematic labors of the ministry of the gospel in all parts of the Confederacy, and as the mighty conflict of war deepened, most powerful and practical results followed in the conversion of many thousand soldiers to Christ as their Savior, among whom were hundreds of officers, from the rank of general down to that of corporal of the guard.

Let it here be recorded that an institution was established in accord with all these religious movements, which seems to have been a sort of culmination of the grand denominational and other enterprises for the promotion of morals, intelligence, good order and Christianity in the Confederacy. That was the organization or covenant known among all the army ministers as ‘The Army Church.’ In brief, it was agreed by men of different denominations that administration of sacraments and reception of men into the fellowship of the church would