Book Review: “A Holy Baptism of Fire and Blood: The Bible and the American Civil War” by James P. Bird

Byrd, James P. A Holy Baptism of Fire and Blood: The Bible and the American Civil War. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. 276 pp. $34.95.

Biographical Sketch of the Author

James P. Byrd serves as Professor of American Religious History, Cal Turner Chancellor’s Chair of Wesleyan Studies, and Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Research at Vanderbilt Divinity School of Vanderbilt University.[1] An active researcher in the area of the Bible and American public life, he is the author of several publications in addition to the present text, including Sacred Scripture, Sacred War: The Bible and the American Revolution, The Challenges of Roger Williams: Religious Liberty, Violent Persecution, and the Bible, and The Story of Religion in America: An Introduction.[2] He is currently engaged in a writing project focused on the assassination and legacy of Abraham Lincoln under contract with Oxford University Press.[3]

Byrd received the Bachelor of Arts degree from Gardner-Webb University in 1988.[4] Following completion of his undergraduate studies, he received the Master of Divinity degree from Duke Divinity School of Duke University in 1991.[5] Byrd then pursued additional graduate education, receiving the Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Vanderbilt University in 1997 and 1999, respectively.[6]

Summary of the Contents

Byrd’s A Holy Baptism of Fire & Blood is a magisterial treatment of the influence of Scripture on the people, leaders, and events which, together, constituted the American Civil War. The book follows the historical timeline of the war, with Chapter 1: “His Terrible Swift Sword” (pp. 19-40) examining the cultural forces and currents, including slavery, which were foundational to the war in relation to Scripture. In Chapter 2: “The Stone Which the Builders Rejected” (pp. 41-56), Byrd explored the succession crisis and how Americans of various backgrounds evaluated the succession crisis in relation to authoritative texts, including the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bible. Chapter 3: “The Red Sea of War” (pp. 57-65) explored the zeal and motivations of Americans to fight the war, particularly in light of the fact that Christianity was generally viewed and understood as a religion of peace.

As the book progresses further into the development and history of the war following succession and Fort Sumter, Byrd proceeds to explore the experience of Americans through the trauma and enormous cost of the war in terms of its economic and human cost. In Chapter 4, “This Second War I Consider Equally as Holy as the First” (pp. 67-77), the work explored the role, impact, and consequences of ministers during the war, recognizing that heroes were created in the pulpit, as well as in the battlefield. Next, Chapter 5, “A Covenant of Death” (pp. 79-94), continues the examination of the North-South divide over how to understand the war in relation to Scripture. While Americans clearly understood that God was present through the events that shaped the American Civil War, there was considerable debate over how to understand the war itself (a religious war, a holy war, or a political war), as division over whose side was favored by God based on the interpretation of Scripture.

In Chapter 6, “Trust in Providence and Keep Your Powder Dry” (pp. 95-109), Byrd explored Americans’ views on the relationship between suffering throughout the war and God’s divine plan throughout the war. Chapter 7, “A Holy Baptism of Fire and Blood” (pp. 111-123), continued to examine the suffering experienced throughout the war in the form of the shock experienced by Americans in response to the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, particularly the battle of Shiloh. Chapter 8, “Welcome to the Ransomed” (pp. 125-143), examined the status of American hearts and minds near the mid-point of the war in the summer of 1862. At this stage of the conflict, war-weary Americans struggled with understanding the future trajectory of the war, reading their Bibles, and looking to their leadership for the decisions that would affect the future of the republic.

In Chapter 9, “Without Shedding of Blood is No Remission” (pp. 145-157), Bryd explored the divide existing between North and South concerning the interpretation of providence in Scripture, particularly in relation to the events of the war after second Manassas. Following this, Chapter 10, “The Sword of the Lord” (pp. 159-173) and Chapter 11, “We Cannot Escape History” (pp. 175-186), explored how Americans interpreted emancipation in relation to the Word of God, while Chapter 12, “Of One Blood All Nations” (pp. 187-200) explored the modulating attitudes of Americans toward slavery in relation to Scriptural interpretation in both the North and South as the events of the war continued to unfold.

Chapter 13, “These Dead Have Not Died in Vain” (pp. 201-220) and Chapter 14, “Cursed Be He That Keepeth Back His Sword” (pp. 221-239), explored how Americans, both North and South, interpreted the ongoing sacrifices of the war and decline in morale, along with the war’s reckoning with slavery, in relation to Scripture. Chapter 15, “Woe to That Man by Whom the Offense Cometh” (pp. 241-259), provides a more comprehensive survey of the varied reactions to the war in conjunction with how American’s understood God’s judgments being levied through the war’s terrible tragedies and costs. Chapter 16, “Baptized in the Blood of Their President” (pp. 261-284), continued the theme of squaring the sacrifice of the war with God’s will in a highly climactic fashion as Byrd explored Americans’ reactions to the assassination of President Lincoln.

Finally, the book’s Epilogue, “Pyrotechnics of Providence” (pp. 285-301), provides a comprehensive summary of the central themes, conclusions, perspectives, and convictions that marked how Americans of various backgrounds saw the war in relation to their understanding of the teachings of the Bible. Byrd aptly summarizes the evidence presented by noting that the Bible was a great constant of the war in two senses: its presence in American lives and minds and the debate generated in relation to the war’s decisions and events. Following the Epilogue, Byrd presents one of the book’s most valuable features in an Appendix (pp. 303-307), encapsulating his work in surveying the biblical citations throughout the historical materials of the American Civil War era.

Critical Evaluation

Byrd’s work in A Holy Baptism of Fire & Blood constitutes, in many respects, a groundbreaking and magisterial treatment of Americans’ use of and thoughts concerning the Bible during the American Civil War. While other works have examined the relationship between the Christian faith and the American Civil War, Byrd’s original contribution, with its precise focus on the role of Scripture during this pivotal period, significantly expands on the existing scholarship.

Byrd’s analysis of American religious thought during the Civil War era is pioneering in content and methodology. The work is groundbreaking in content in that it reveals previously unexplored facets of the deep divides in American life and thought leading up to and during the war itself. While it has long been understood by historians that the forces shaping American attitudes concerning slavery, succession, the war itself, and reconstruction were complex, Byrd’s use of varied sources reflecting an array of perspectives in the thought shaping national life in both the North and the South reveals dimensions, nuances, and veins of thought that provide an enhanced understanding of larger national conversation undergirding the period.

For example, Byrd’s coding analysis of sources according to biblical texts revealed that one of the most common Scripture references among Confederate sources was Job 1:21: “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (KJV); this passage was cited 63 times in Confederate sources (304). In contrast, among the most frequently referenced biblical passages in Union sources (cited some 231 times) was Acts 17:26: “And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation” (305). While both sides of the conflict experienced and reckoned with immense suffering, the frequent citation of Job 1:21 among Confederate sources highlights the prevalence of reckoning with the costs and outcome of the war in the South. In contrast, the frequent appeal to Acts 17:26 among those in the North emphasizes the impact of emancipation and the national reflection upon it on Northern consciences.

The Civil War constitutes one of the most complex eras of American history. Consequently, the war presents the student of history with one of the most challenging periods to understand. The content of Byrd’s work constitutes a pioneering, engaging, and insightful contribution to the history of the American Republic, as well as scholarship examining the impact of Christianity on American history.

The work is groundbreaking in methodology in that Byrd and his supporting research team leveraged new technological capabilities to generate fresh insights from the historical sources under examination. As Byrd mentioned in his acknowledgments and the introduction to the book’s Appendix, Lincoln Mullen assisted in his work by facilitating enhanced identification of biblical verses in source materials consisting of text files through machine learning. Further, Byrd also mentions the use of R programming to support the project’s source material analysis in his acknowledgments, as well as the book’s Appendix. As Byrd summarized the research process, “Mullen uses the methods of machine learning (based on the R programming language) to search documents for biblical citations. During my research on the Civil War, I converted my collection of sources to text files, sent them to Mullen, and he scanned them with his application” (303). Byrd further described a research project and forthcoming publication by Mullen examining the use of Scripture in U.S. Newspapers and his employment of Mullen’s newspaper source material in the present work. “In this book, therefore, I have used data from this newspaper project, combined with data from my sources (including sermons, diaries, tracts, letters, and slave narratives), all totaling thousands of biblical citations from over two thousand sources” (303).

Thus, through his employment of technologically enhanced analysis, Byrd was able to generate remarkable insights into the public understanding and use of Scripture by Civil War-era Americans. The Appendix provided at the conclusion of the book is of immense value, cataloging the most common Scriptural citations employed by Americans in support of the Union and the Confederacy. Following Byrd’s introduction and overview, the Appendix itself is organized into three tables. First, Table A.1 “The Confederate Bible” presents the biblical reference, frequency of occurrence, and KJV biblical text of the most common Scriptural verses cited in Confederate sermons, newspaper articles, journals, and slave narratives (304). Next, Table A.2 “The Union Bible” presents similar information (reference, frequency, and KJV text) for biblical citations in Union source material. Finally, Table A.3, “Biblical Citations during the American Civil War Era: Union and Confederacy,” presents the most frequently cited biblical references according to chapter and verse reference, frequency, and KJV text for both Union and Confederate source material combined (306-307).

Byrd employed a chronological approach to analyzing Americans’ use of Scripture throughout the period leading up to, during, and immediately following the conclusion of the Civil War. This chronological approach assists the reader in understanding how Americans’ thoughts and reactions to events through the lens of Scripture developed over this pivotal period. Further, Byrd’s work examined an array of perspectives throughout the war. While many works focused on the American Civil War employ the Union-Confederate dichotomy, Byrd’s approach is more nuanced. He continues to utilize this dual perspective but does so through the eyes of prominent pastors and evangelists, elected officials, soldiers, and civilians from various professional and socio-economic backgrounds.

Byrd began his treatment of the subject by examining the relationship between Scripture and American conceptions of the various cultural forces shaping the march to war, particularly that of slavery. Following this, Byrd probes Americans’ varied perspectives on the succession crisis in light of their reasoning from Scripture. Byrd showcases the connection Southerners made between Lincoln’s election to the presidency and the impetus for succession in light of Lincoln’s own biblical appeal years earlier. As Byrd observed, “Southerners couldn’t forget that a couple of years earlier Lincoln had caused a stir by quoting a Bible verse: ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand’ (cf. Matthew 12:25)….Lincoln was referring to proslavery versus antislavery Americans” (43). Byrd continued to elaborate: “Eventually, slavery would either be extinct or established. The United States could not disagree on slavery and remain united states. These and other statements left no doubt in the South: Lincoln hated slavery” (43).

Byrd’s recognition that the impetus for succession was intricately connected with Americans’ interpretation of Scripture is not novel. Other historians have recognized the relationship between Scripture, deeply engrained in the 19^th-century American conscience, and how they viewed the events of the war. Memorably, Shelby Foote recounted General Winfield Scott’s assessment of Jefferson Davis in biblical terms: “He is not a cheap Judas. I do not think he would have sold the Saviour for thirty shillings. But for the successorship to Pontius Pilate he would have betrayed Christ and the Apostles and the whole Christian church.”[7] However, the quality and depth of Byrd’s analysis provide greater insight into precisely how Americans reckoned with the various forces shaping national and regional political decisions, unprecedented sacrifices in life and treasure, and the vast consequences of the war in its immediate aftermath and succeeding eras.

Byrd’s work also showcases the evolving role of the Bible in American national life before, during, and after the War. While clearly demonstrating that American perspectives on the war were deeply influenced by the content of Scripture, Byrd’s work in A Holy Baptism also advances the notion that the American debates on slavery contributed to the declining application of the Bible to American public life following the Civil War. Byrd acknowledged the hermeneutical divide in America regarding the Bible’s treatment of slavery: “Biblical arguments in support of slavery, based on a literalist, commonsense view of scripture, were common sense mainly for whites. As many African Americans read the Bible, it opposed both slavery and racism – and it was not even a difficult argument to make” (291). However, Byrd also recognized the divergence in interpretation, along with the natural confusion that divergence generated, caused considerable damage to American acceptance of the authority of Scripture in public life. Byrd observed, “[m]uch of the damage to America’s Bible was done in the debates over slavery, which introduced Americans to questions about the Bible’s authority and its historical validity well before most of them had heard of higher criticism or the theory of evolution” (300-301).

Byrd’s work is commendable in many respects. However, it does evidence some important limitations. The chronological structure of the book, while logical given the nature of the topic, also presents certain limitations inherent to this approach. A thematic, rather than chronological, evaluation of the book’s topic could provide a more practical presentation of the topics Byrd addressed. Further, the headings throughout the book, while engaging and insightful, also present a practical limitation in terms of the book’s reference quality. While some chapter titles, including Chapter 16’s ominous title, “Baptized in the Blood of Their President,” clearly foreshadow the topic under treatment, other headings throughout the work, such as Chapter 4’s “This Second War I Consider Equally as Holy as the First,” provide little practical benefit as a title within a work to be referenced. While Byrd’s historically inspired choice of headings yields labels that are fascinating and engaging, the book’s quality as a reference resource could be enhanced by the use of headings possessing greater clarity. 

In A Holy Baptism of Fire & Blood, James P. Byrd has produced a masterful treatment of the relationship between the Bible and the American Civil War. Similar to Byrd’s earlier work in Sacred Scripture, Sacred War: The Bible and the American Revolution, Byrd’s labors in the present work provide valuable and insightful contributions to significantly expand the scholarly understanding of the forces shaping the American Civil War and the role and impact of the Bible among those forces. Accordingly, A Holy Baptism of Fire & Blood is a work that will influence students, scholars, and general readers of American history and historical theology for generations to come.

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[1] Vanderbilt University, “James P. Byrd,” Graduate Department of Religion, Vanderbilt Graduate School, Vanderbilt.edu, Accessed April 7, 2023, https://www.vanderbilt.edu/gdr/people/bio/jimmy-byrd

 [2] Ibid.

 [3] Ibid.

 [4] Ibid.

 [5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Shelby Foote, The Civil War: A Narrative, Fort Sumter to Perryville (New York: Random House, 1958), 13.