William W. Bennett, A narrative of the great revival which prevailed in the Southern armies during the late Civil War

[248] dreary bivouac, and the sound of the gospel of peace for the notes of whistling minnies and bursting shells. In the battle, and in the hospital, the genuineness of those army conversions was fully tested. In the terrible campaign that followed, whenever the smoke of battle cleared away, and the weary men had a little rest, they gathered their shattered but undaunted cohorts, and, with renewed zeal, and with love tested in the fire of war, repledged their faith to each other and charged again and again the strongholds of Satan. Lying behind the strong barrier of the Chattahoochee river for a few days, these Christian soldiers built a brush arbor, and beneath it many souls were born of God. Dying, those noble men of the South gave testimony to the power of divine grace. “Can I do anything for you?” said the missionary, kneeling by the side of a private shot through the neck. “Yes, write to my poor wife.” “What shall I write?” “Say to my dear wife, it's all right.” This was written. “What else shall I write?” “Nothing else, all's right” --and thus he died. He was a convert of the camp.

“Passing through a large stable where the wounded lay,” says Mr. Redding, “I noticed a man whose head was frosted with age. After giving him wine and food, I said, ‘My friend, you are an old man. Do you enjoy the comforts of religion?’ ‘Oh, yes,’ he exclaimed, ‘I have been a member of the Church for twenty-five years. Often in our little church at home our minister told us that religion was good under all circumstances, and now I have found it true; for even here in this old stable, with my leg amputated, and surrounded by the dead and dying, I am just as happy as I can be. It is good even here. I want you to tell the people so when you preach to them.’ I left him rejoicing.”

Among the pious officers who worked faithfully in this revival, we have already mentioned Colonel Capers and Colonel Dunlap. We believe the former, since the war,