This book makes a transformative contribution to the scholarship on the religious history of the American Civil War. Even though more has been published in this area in recent years, Richard Carwardine is correct that most studies of “Union wartime politics and nationalism have remained largely secular in their focus.” This bias “reflects the largely secular mind of the modern academy,” which assumes “that when nineteenth-century politicians spoke with a religious voice, they did little more than decorate basically materialist and secular concerns with the rhetorical idioms of faith” (xxi). No book has done more to correct this misconception than this one. Carwardine has employed an impressive array of archival research, drawing on numerous sermons, religious publications, letters, newspapers, tracts, broadsides, and church records to produce a study of “warring religious nationalists” during the Civil War.

Carwardine defines “religious nationalism” as “the fusion of religious purpose and nationalist vision, where religious and national identities not only coexist but are mutually reinforcing” (xiii). He finds “a clash of opposing religious nationalisms” in the Union, “antislavery nationalists” versus “conservative religious nationalists” (xviii). He traced “antislavery nationalists” to “the socially powerful Protestant churches of New England and its Yankee diaspora.” By combining “a ‘Puritan’ faith with the political forces that culminated in the Republican Party,” these “zealous reformers afforded the government an essential and providential role in building a righteous nation” (xvi). They were inspired by a religious and political commitment to cleanse the nation of slavery in preparation for accomplishing God’s purposes in the world (xxii). This brand of religious nationalism provided a strong support base for Lincoln.

Contrasting with these nationalists were “conservative nationalists,” primarily members of the Democratic Party who were wary of alliances between church and state that encroached on individual freedoms and local autonomy (xvii). They were disgusted by the Republicans’ antislavery nationalism, which they saw as a blend of meddling of “Puritan” fanaticism and radical abolitionism (57). “It is hard to overstate wartime Democrats’ bitterness at what they cast as Protestant Republicans’ dictatorial temperament, galling assumption of superior morality, and self-righteous interference in the lives of others” (225). As Carwardine contrasted the two types, “one brand of religious nationalism” was “mission focused, ‘Puritan,’ and antislavery” and the other was “conservative, pietist, white-supremacist, and proslavery” (60).

As the war continued, conservative religious nationalists lost influence, especially after the Emancipation Proclamation, as antislavery religious nationalists turned more Northerners against slavery (xiii). Although conservatives had a loyal following in the lower northern states and the border states, especially with antiwar Democrats nicknamed “Copperheads,” they could not summon the support among denominations that the antislavery nationalists could. Religious divisions accounted for some of the difficulties. Although most Catholics aligned with the Democrats, many Democrats despised Catholics – anti-Catholicism was a long-held conviction among many Protestants, and it was one of the factors that prevented conservatives from maintaining a cohesive alliance (Xix, 219).

Critical to Carwardine’s argument is the case he makes for the influence of religious groups. He shows how Christian denominations tried to influence Lincoln’s presidency by submitting memorials and petitions that lobbied for their views (Xiv). These documents, which numbered over 120 according to Carwardine’s count, expressed the opinions of countless Americans in a predominantly religious nation. As he noted, “in 1860 at least 75 percent of the American people placed themselves within the orbit of Christian churches” (67, xxi, 156). A significant influence was exerted through the power of preaching. Using one of his favorite terms, “crystallized,” Carwardine wrote, “the existential threat to the union crystallized national thinking. Citizens turned as much to the pulpit as to the political platform in their search for patriotic meaning, instruction, and solidarity.” Preachers enjoyed near celebrity status as “Church congregations were known to clap and cheer ministers’ sermons just as they would speakers on the political platform” (xxii, see also 99, 100, 136, 153).

Carwardine’s book also adds new insights into Lincoln’s religious faith. While Lincoln’s theological convictions remain mysterious, Carwardine shows how Lincoln’s religious statements changed during the Civil War. He writes, “under the weight of wartime leadership, Lincoln’s religious voice had become more pronounced and assured” (Xii). Lincoln’s years in office were dominated by war, and “All the evidence points to the four years of his wartime presidency broadening his humanity and deepening his inquiry into the spiritual and religious dimensions of humankind” (101). Although Lincoln never joined a church and never made a clear statement of his personal spirituality or religious beliefs, he “proclaimed three days of fasting and humiliation, and six of thanksgiving, more than any president in the country’s history” (Xii). In statements proclaiming these days and elsewhere, Lincoln demonstrated that he “had an unshakable faith that the nation as an instrument of Providence stood at the hinge of American and world history” (xii). Carwardine said of Lincoln, “more than any previous president, he turned his political office into an adjunct of faith.” Lincoln did not invent the practice of proclaiming national fast and Thanksgiving days. The Puritans had done it, and George Washington did as well in the new nation. But between the Revolutionary Era and the Civil War, this was a controversial move for presidents. Some believed that it violated the First Amendment statement on the separation of church and state. This was the complaint of Lincoln’s critics, and it may have been well-founded. They “correctly recognized that Lincoln’s practice, in its degree, did indeed move the political nation into an unprecedented alignment with public faith” (xxiii–xxiv). Some Christians even praised Lincoln as a “half-way clergyman” (xviii).

At a time when several studies have re-evaluated the power of religious institutions and ideas during the Civil War, Carwardine’s book is an invaluable contribution. Carwardine presents a compelling case for the significant impact of competing religious nationalisms on the war and the conflicts that influenced it.