Faith in God and Generals: An Anthology of Faith, Hope, and Love in the American Civil War

Ted Baehr and Susan Wales have compiled this book that gives biographical sketches of just about every character in Ron Maxwell's film Gods and Generals. This book is unique in that it gives attention to how the Christian faith of these people influenced their lives, particularly during the war. It is written with brevity and is full of quotes from their letters. This book is important because a person's faith will influence what he does in life, to varying degrees. That is why I feel it is important to study this aspect of their character and to this end I am particularly grateful to Ted Baehr and Susan Wales for putting this book together. It will also serve as an introduction to many of these characters for the reader who may be studying these people for the first time. Each piece in this book has footnotes that will guide the reader to other sources that they can read if they would like to study a person or topic further. Ron Maxwell provides a very insightful foreward to this book in which he tells of his conviction to portray history accurately. The book has many nice photos from the film as well as photos and drawings from the Civil War era. 18 people contributed to this book, historian Gabor Boritt among them. Talk-show host and columnist Les Kinsolving contributed a piece on William Barksdale, to whom he is related. He also plays William Barksdale in Gods and Generals and Gettysburg. My favorite chapter is the one on Stonewall Jackson and his wife Anna. It is full of lengthy quotes from their letters to each other. The back of the book has an appendix that lists the cast of the film. It also has a note about each of the contributors to this book. By all means, get this book and keep it handy on your coffeetable. And get the Gods and Generals DVD to go with it.

Having published a review of the film "Gods and Generals," I found this book an interesting companion to it. This beautifully illustrated anthology provides insights into individuals caught up on both sides of the Civil War and how their faith guided them. The excellent Forword by Ron Maxwell is a must read. It makes a great gift book.

This book was written to be a companion of the 2003 movie, Gods and Generals. Covering many of the historical figures from that movie, the book tells about them, and particularly about their faith in God, and how that affected what they did. Filled with many great pictures and illustration, this book makes for some fascinating reading!I must admit that I really enjoyed this book. The authors' contention that religious faith is usually given short shrift in most history book is spot on, and that does go along way to making this book practically unique! But, I must say that more is covered in this book than religious subjects; for example, one of my favorite stories told in the book is the story entitled "Grandmother's Quilt," which tells the story of a quilt and the love of two people.Overall, I found this to be a great book! I highly enjoyed it, and I highly recommend it to you.

Having read many Civil War histories and biographies, I was surprised to find much information I had never seen before on prominent, as well as lesser known characters from that period, particularly as it pertained to their spiritual lives. That issue is sometimes briefly touched upon, but never in such depth and personal details, many of which come from their own hand, including letters, diaries, etc. It also gives a lot of attention to what the women of the time were thinking, saying, and writing - something usually missing from most military biographies. It is very poignant to read the accounts from godly men on both sides of the conflict who at first believed that God was behind their cause, and then when victory was not as quick and certain as predicted, began to have doubts, and finally to conclude that ultimately, God was working through the conflict to bring about His own sovereign purpose which was far and above any human goal. Those who gave this book a negative review reveal their own bias and the reason why most authors leave this type of information out of their books. They view it as being insignificant to themselves, and therefore fail to understand the impact it has had throughout history.

This book is very interesting, because it gives a different approach of the Civil War, far from the history books we usually read.I don't agree with the review below, this book has some errors, but is still valuable. A very good complement for the Civil War studies.