Originally broadcast on August 25, 1995 - In part 52 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson introduces us to a forever unknown Confederate soldier.
#52 – An Unknown Confederate Soldier
People who say that nothing else needs to be published on the Civil War are woefully uninformed. Over 31 million Americans were involved in that conflict. Each had a story to tell. What most of them saw, and experienced, changed their lives just as permanently and just as dramatically as it changed the nation into an indivisible united stated. And knowing what each person endured has value because the individual stories illustrate how dear our heritage should be to all of us.
One such participant in the Civil War will forever be unknown. He was a Confederate soldier. In all likelihood, he hailed from Virginia. If the man fit the usual pattern, he was a farmer, in his early twenties, single, and devoutly Protestant. He had gone to war because his state (which was then his country) had been invaded by a Northern army that seemed determined to overturn illegally a Southern way of life in existence since colonial days.
The soldier probably had fought in a number of battles. His simple life had been shattered by the brutality of man, the sight of combat, the screams of the wounded, and the stench of death. He lived in filth, suffered from hunger, wore rags and the shoes of a dead soldier. He feared sickness more than the enemy, for diarrhea, typhoid fever, measles, and pneumonia were the biggest killers of all.
For three years this Johnny Reb survived everything that man and nature could hurl at him. Asked how he had managed to outlast adversity, the man likely would have answered that the protective hand of God had kept him safe. Religion was more a personal matter than a denominational issue for most Civil War soldiers; and the higher toll the war took, the more those men fell back on the one thing they had left: faith.
Obviously, this man had hopes for the future. He also was confident that after the cruel war was over, and with the blessings of the Almighty, he would know success and happiness. But first he must affirm his allegiance to Him who had given the young soldier life and opportunity.
In the spring of 1864, battle exploded once again on the outskirts of Richmond. After the fighting ended and armies marched off to grapple elsewhere, small details of soldiers moved onto the battlefield to bury the dead. One party came upon the Confederate soldier. He lay amid the dead in the front of the battle line.
Just before burying him on the field, the grave-diggers made the usual search of the body. Inside the shirt pocket was a sheet of paper. On it this common soldier a day or so earlier had scrawled some thoughts. They were a statement of what life meant to him. As such, the words are an everlasting testimonial to one simple human being.
The soldier wrote:
I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly how to obey.
I asked for health, that I might do greater things.
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy.
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life.
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for – but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.
