Research Catalog

A holy baptism of fire and blood : the Bible and the American Civil War

Title: A holy baptism of fire and blood : the Bible and the American Civil War / James P. Byrd.
Author: Byrd, James P., 1965-
Publication: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2021]

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.	Text	Use in library	JFE 21-4860	Schwarzman Building - Milstein Division Room 121

Details

Description

376 pages; 25 cm

Summary

"In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln said both North and South "read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other." Lincoln quoted several biblical texts in this address - which, according to Frederick Douglass, "sounded more like a sermon than a state paper." The Bible, as Lincoln's famous speech illustrated, saturated the Civil War. In this book, James Byrd offers the most thorough analysis yet of how Americans enlisted scripture to fight the Civil War. As Byrd reveals in this insightful narrative, no book was more important to the Civil War than the Bible. From Massachusetts to Mississippi and beyond, the Bible was the nation's most read and most respected book. It brought to mind sacred history and sacrifice. It presented a drama of salvation and damnation, of providence and judgement. It was also a book of war. Americans cited the Bible in addressing many wartime issues, including slavery, secession, patriotism, federal versus state authority, white supremacy, and violence. In scripture, both Union and Confederate soldiers found inspiration for dying and killing like never before in the nation's history. With approximately 750,000 fatalities, the Civil War was the deadliest of the nation's wars. Americans fought the Civil War with Bibles in hand, with both sides calling the war just and sacred. This is a book about how Americans enlisted the Bible in the nation's most bloody, and arguably most biblically-saturated war"--

Subject

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

"His terrible swift sword" -- "The stone which the builders rejected" -- "The Red Sea of war" -- "This second war I consider equally as holy as the first" -- "A covenant of death" -- "Trust in Providence and keep your powder dry" -- "A holy baptism of fire and blood" -- "Welcome to the ransomed" -- "Without shedding of blood is no remission" -- "The sword of the Lord" -- "We cannot escape history" -- "Of one blood all nations" -- "These dead have not died in vain" -- "Cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood" -- "Woe to that man by whom the offense cometh" -- "Baptized in the blood of their president" -- Epilogue: "Pyrotechnics of providence."

Call Number

JFE 21-4860

ISBN

9780190902797
0190902795

LCCN

2020028349

OCLC

1200831929

Author

Byrd, James P., 1965- author.

Title

A holy baptism of fire and blood : the Bible and the American Civil War / James P. Byrd.

Publisher

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2021]

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological Term

1800-1899

Other Form:

Online version: Byrd, James P., 1965- Holy baptism of fire and blood New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2020] 9780190902810 (DLC) 2020028350

Research Call Number

JFE 21-4860

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