Religious condition of our Soldiers,
To the Editors of the Dispatch:
Having been for some days visiting the camps and hospitals with a view of supplying them with suitable reading matter, I will write a few lines giving some account of the religious condition, of the army, and place them at your disposal.
There are about three thousand in the hospitals of this city, and others are being brought here from more exposed paints. It is the purpose of the an horrifies to establish hospitals at Liberty and Farmville. Several hundred sick soldiers are already in these two towne. The hospitals, offered a most inviting field for religious effort. The solemn quiet and the serious reflections which pervade the soul of the sick soldier, who, far away from home and friends, spends so many hours in communing with his own heart, is very conducive of religious improvement. An invalid remarked that during the month he had been at the hospital he had read through the New Testament and the , though he was not a professor of religion. Last Monday morning at an early hour I walked through the hospital at and found not a few of the abidingly, their Bible.
There is, without doubt, considerable religious feeling in the corpe. Take the following as one of many facts corroborative of this statement. After several days to long weary marches, General Stonewall Jackson a command came into Staunton Sunday and Monday. the which arrived overcome with fatigue and hunger, and yet when into the yard of the and Deaf , though it was nearly sunset they had not had their dinner as they full down upon the green grass to rest their warted limbe many took from their pocaets copies of the Word of God which, with the utmost eagerness and they perused. A soldier said of his retirement ‘"I would not take anything in the world for this book. It was given me by a pious lady"’ In hundreds of instances, the reading of truces has been blessed to the spiritual good of our men--Major General Jackson is a pious elder of the Presbyterian Church and Major, one of his aids, is a Press, to fan Doctor of Divinity. ‘"I wish instead of two you had a dozen coinoyteure in my army"’ said Gen. Jackson, ‘ "and I am ready to do anything I can to aid you in so good a work."’ There is reason to hope that in a few weeks fully a dozen colporteurs will be operation among the in the Valley Gen. Edward Johnson, though not a professor of religion, encourages colpora to visit his command. On one occasion when orders had been given that no one was to to enter the lines, a colporteurs me, and no sooner was the object of his mission made known than the General gave him a cordial welcome: ‘"We are always glad to see you; stay with us and do all the good you can."’ He then took the good man to his own tent, and shared with him his blankets.
We have now more than one hundred engaged in these labors of love among the soldiers, and hope that the day is not distant when number shall be more than doubled. The are white fate the harvest. I expect soon to visit the army at Dublin, Cumberland Gap, and Knoxville. Persons desirous of aiding the cause can dose by enclosing their done to me at Richmond, Va.
