Providence and Cheerfulness

Civil War soldiers learned that they could not afford to rely on God absolutely and unconditionally if they hoped to survive in the ranks. Yet the war did not undermine faith or lead people to stray from the idea that they had a direct and personal relationship with God. Letters full of certitude abound from both sides as a result, but even soldiers who wrote with blinding clarity could not always paper over the metaphysical confusion that drifted into their thinking.