Let it cheer and stimulate every godly woman in our land to know that our beloved general, whom God has so often made victorious, has expressed it as his belief that our great successes are due not more to the prowess of our men on the battle-field, than to the prayers of our women at the mercy-seat.
We found our soldiers at Fredericksburg all alive with religious animation. A rich blessing had been poured upon the zealous labors of the Rev. Mr. Owen, Methodist chaplain in Barksdale's Brigade. The Rev. Dr. Burrows, of the Baptist Church, Richmond, had just arrived, expecting to labor with him for some days. As I was to stay but one night, Dr. Burrows courteously insisted on my preaching. So we had a Presbyterian sermon, introduced by Baptist services, under the direction of a Methodist chaplain, in an Episcopal church! Was not that a beautiful solution of the vexed problem of Christian union?
The large edifice was crowded with soldiers. They filled the chancel, and covered the pulpit stairs. After the sermon, some fifty or sixty of them, I should think, came forward with soldierly promptness, at the invitation of the chaplain, for conversation and prayer. An inquiry-meeting is held for them every morning. At that time it had been attended by about one hundred persons.
There are several incidents connected with our visit to Fredericksburg on which I would like to dwell, if time served. We spent hours in riding over its great battle-field and through its melancholy streets. We stood at the spot made memorable by the fall of General Thomas R. R. Cobb—lawyer, statesman, author, orator, gentleman, Christian and Presbyterian elder. He was struck by a shell from the heights beyond the river. A few hundred yards from the tree by which he fell stands the house in which his mother was born. As she looked out of those windows, in the days of her girlhood, over this fatal field, she knew not what a tragical interest it was one day to have for her.
In the evening, while pausing in my walk to enjoy an admirable military band attached to Barksdale's noble Mississippi Brigade, I was introduced to the general. He said his men were never more comfortable, never in such health, and never so eager for the fray as now.
A little before sunset I ascended the spire of the Episcopal
