Tendin’ to Morale: The Battle of Gaines’ Mill and Reverend J. William Jones
Corey Jenrette, 3/27/2023
The role of the Confederate chaplain was never clearly defined, so explicitly stating their assigned role in the war can be difficult. The Confederate chaplain’s job was plagued by the conflict between church and state. Both church and state wanted control over the appointment and provision of chaplains. On May 3rd, 1861, the Confederate Congress passed a law giving President Jefferson Davis the power to appoint chaplains to regiments. Davis was hesitant to appoint them, though, as chaplains had their own denominational biases. There were several instances of chaplains of one denomination being assigned to regiments of another denomination. This upset the soldiers in the regiment when it happened. Along with this pressure, Davis had to contend with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) seeking power over the appointment of chaplains. Chaplains did have their own agency, though. Chaplains had no rank throughout the entire war. This was a positive, as it allowed chaplains to move freely among the ranks without having to acknowledge themselves as subordinate or superior to anyone. This made ministering much more efficient. This degree of agency and the dearth descriptions in Confederate law left it up to the chaplains and soldiers themselves to define what exactly the chaplain’s role would be in the war. The soldiers would set expectations for chaplains to fill. As the war developed, the successful chaplains established the ideal Confederate chaplain as a man who lived, ate, and slept with the men they attended to. They matched their soldiers’ march step-for-step. Reverend John William Jones exemplified the ideal chaplain early in the war at the Battle of Gaines’ Mill (see figure 1 below). Thus, he provided a mold for other chaplains to fill and successfully performed the duties Confederate soldiers expected from a chaplain. This solidified the role of the Confederate chaplain and changed the perception of the chaplaincy.
Figure 1. A Young J. William Jones in the 13th Virginia, taken from Jones’s book
The Battle of Gaines’ Mill, June 27th, 1862, is the second in a series of battles known as the Seven Days Battles, which took place just east of Richmond, Virginia. The Seven Days Battles were the result of the Army of Northern Virginia’s attempt to drive the Army of the Potomac away from Richmond. In the first battle in the series, Mechanicsville, June 26th, General A.P. Hill had initiated an unauthorized attack against General Fitz John Porter’s V Corps. The V Corps retaliated and were driving Confederate lines back until an exhausted General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson arrived with his men. With these reinforcements, the Confederacy mustered just enough strength to cause Porter and his men to retreat to high ground just past Boatswain’s Creek, near Gaines’ Mill. The withdrawal was General McClellan’s order. McClellan believed the Confederacy was threatening his supply line near the Chickahominy, so he shifted his base to the James River to defend this perceived threat. He ordered Porter to remain at Gaines’ Mill to stave off the Confederacy. As James McPherson asserts, this decision proved that McClellan was no longer fighting to take Richmond. He was defending his retreat from the Peninsula altogether. This put both armies in particular scenarios. The Confederacy was fighting to drive the Union away, but the Union was leaving anyway. Porter was still determined to put up a good fight. The Confederacy won the battle, but at the cost of 9,000 men. This six hour battle nearly produced more casualties than the entire two days of Shiloh. Many of these 9,000 came from A.P. Hill’s brigades.
On the morning of the 27th, General Lawrence Branch had corresponded with A.P. Hill, telling him to attack Union lines upon any notice of movement or sound. Hill did just that, fighting alone for hours in the thick Virginia forest until Generals Longstreet and Jackson joined. Brian Burton estimated Hill lost a little more than 2,000 men in his first attack alone. J.B. Hood finally made a breakthrough near sundown to push Porter and his men back. Tactically, this was a win for the Confederacy. Morally, it was catastrophic. Many wounded Confederate soldiers were sent to hospitals behind battle lines, where they were met by nurses and chaplains. While the nurses provided physical treatment, the chaplain’s role was to attend to the soldier’s spiritual needs. The Confederate casualties at Gaines’ Mill demanded their greatest efforts. Reverend J. William Jones exemplified the ideal Confederate chaplain. He exceeded any expectations Confederates had for a chaplain. Jones was born in Virginia, was educated at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and enlisted in the Army of Northern Virginia in 1861 as part of the 13th Virginia Infantry, which was under the command of A.P. Hill. He was a regimental chaplain upon enlistment, but quickly became a chaplain to the entire Army of Northern Virginia. He was a notably effective and extraordinary chaplain. The job of the chaplain was demanding and tiresome, so not many wanted it. The few who did want the position did not do that well. This made Jones’s success outstanding. General Robert E. Lee was particularly fond of Jones for his success as a chaplain. A.P. Hill was impressed by the speed with which he operated. Someone like Jones possessed the ability to inspire soldiers to face death despite overwhelming opposition, such as the Gaines’ Mill situation. The Army of Northern Virginia continuously had the numerical disadvantage during the Seven Days Battles, but men like Jones were able to sustain morale just enough.
Jones was particularly effective at Gaines’ Mill. Since the majority of the men wounded during the battle were from Hill’s brigades, he likely knew some of the men he attended to. He claimed that his regiment, the 13th Virginia, lost 175 men out of the 306 they began with at Gaines’ Mill. Jones hosted several meetings and worship sessions while the 13th Virginia marched toward Richmond for the Seven Days Battles. Jones marching alongside the soldiers and ministering to them along the way is a clear example of Jones establishing the duties of the ideal chaplain in a pivotal series of battles early in the war. Jones wrote, “I found a number who referred to those meetings and expressed themselves as deeply affected by them”. He explicitly stated that his role at Gaines’ Mill was in the field hospital, where he remained after the battle for an unspecified amount of time. This sparked conflict, though, as many top Confederate commanders, namely General Richard Ewell, were requesting his presence at the front lines. Jones had to explain that his presence was needed at the hospitals since that was where his fellow infantrymen were. He documented several instances of soldiers professing reception of the utmost spiritual care after Gaines’ Mill. What made Jones successful as a chaplain was not his theological knowledge, but his ability to use his resources and meet the soldier at his own level. His relentless willpower to reach these soldiers surpassed the soldiers’ expectations for chaplains.
Jones had several institutions backing him and supplying him with the proper resources for a job well done. Jones named the SBC, the South Carolina Tract Society (SCTS), and the Soldiers’ Tract Association (STA) as crucial institutions that deliberately supported Confederate chaplains. They contributed bibles, tracts, and pamphlets for distribution on the war front. A close look at the resources these institutions distributed will highlight the religious material Confederate soldiers came in contact with, and, by extension, the material Jones distributed at Gaines’ Mill. The 1863 SBC Annual documented that, from May 1862 to May 1863, they had provided 379,995 tracts, 2,601 testaments, and 3,479 hymn books. They estimated that they had provided for the distribution of at least 5,000,000 pages worth of religious material. The SBC also advocated for priority to go to injured or sick soldiers, using Jesus’ ministering to the sick and diseased as evidence to support the notion. This would partly explain why someone like Jones, who was a SBC appointee, spent a great deal of time with the injured and wounded. Though the SBC financed the distribution of the material, the material was not original to them. Institutions such as the SCTS and STA saw to the actual distribution of material. They were the ones putting it in the soldiers’ hands. The Soldier’s Pocket Bible, distributed by SCTS seems to be the single most referenced piece of religious material that circulated the Army of Northern Virginia. SCTS also published a catalog with their most popular tracts.
The Soldier’s Pocket Bible was a reissue of a work by the same name used by Oliver Cromwell and his army beginning in the year 1643. SCTS prefaced their reissue with Cromwell’s purpose for approving the piece and quotes from Cromwell himself. The preface read, “Cromwell’s success was due, in no small degree, to the strict morals and rigid discipline of his army, and to the inspiring power of religion…Cromwell’s Ironsides, as they are usually called, fed their faith upon God’s word, went into battle with psalm-singing and prayer, and fearing God only, were the best soldiers, perhaps, the world has ever seen”. The quotes from Cromwell himself were of spiritual nature, of course. In each quote, Cromwell professed his belief in Christ and exclaimed the war-like courage and confidence that came from that belief. He intertwined prayer with battle. This preface inspired the men who read it. Cromwell’s achievements during the English Civil War and his reign as Lord Protector afterward have served as ideals for soldiers ever since. The body of The Soldier’s Pocket Bible capitalized on the preface. It followed the same themes of courage and confidence established in the preface. It provided the Confederate soldier with practical spirituality for persevering on the front lines of battle. The ensuing tracts exhorted the soldier to always pray before battle, to search for all strength in God, and to view their suffering as an enactment of God’s will being done. These tracts almost exclusively referenced the Old Testament, since the Old Testament contains most of the biblical passages concerning war. The Soldier’s Pocket Bible ended with a prayer and battle hymn.
The ultimate purpose of these tracts aligns with the missions of Confederate chaplains as a whole. The entire chaplaincy’s mission was to encourage soldiers to see themselves as soldiers of Christ. This is why conversion was so central to their focus. The more Confederate soldiers they could convert, the more soldiers of God they had fighting on their side. The more soldiers of God on their side, the better their chances at victory over and independence from the Union. Simply put, this material sought to create as many pious soldiers as possible. Since most chaplains were appointed by the SBC, like Jones, the SBC had a considerable degree of influence over the chaplains’ theological approach. The SBC’s influence and the chaplains’ approach were also in line with the popular Confederate narrative that southerners were God’s chosen people. Chaplains and their supporting institutions also sought to instill fear in the soldier by reminding them what defeat would mean. Complete tyranny would become reality if they failed to fight for the Confederacy’s holy causes. Finally, pamphlets mustered positive spirit in Confederate soldiers by reminding them of their necessity to the Confederacy’s success. These specific uses of God and the Confederacy gave soldiers something bigger to fight for. It forced them to see themselves as part of a noble and holy collective greater than themselves.
These tracts, bibles, prayers, and hymns were doubtless effective at Gaines’ Mill, as Gaines’ Mill was gruesome. The best was demanded of chaplains working the hospitals, like Jones. A soldier with General Hood’s 4th Texas Regiment wrote,
[T]he groans of the wounded and their cries for water resounded through the night air; while glimmering lights scattered far and wide over the field told of the eager search for some brother, son or friend, or the base and heartless robbing of the dead by contemptible and merciless demons dressed up like soldiers….I will not attempt to describe the appearance of the field. I could write twenty pages and yet give you no adequate idea of it….Texas need not feel ashamed of the deeds of her sons in the Virginia army.
Lee’s attack en masse approach cost the Confederate soldiers greatly, because this approach required him to concentrate a lot of soldiers to overwhelm a certain area. This is what A.P. Hill had tried to do earlier on the 27th and what Hood succeeded at doing the evening of the 27th. This particular soldier’s thinking reflected the approach Confederate chaplain’s took. Chaplain’s persuaded their men to see themselves as God’s chosen soldiers and the Union soldiers as God’s enemies. This is why this soldier referred to Union corpse robbers as “merciless demons dressed up like soldiers”. This soldier’s reflection serves as a testament to the chaplains’ effectiveness at encouraging and exhorting their men. This approach further villainized Union soldiers and heroized Confederate soldiers. This, in turn, made Confederate soldiers more willing to fight for the common cause. Men like Jones directly ministered to these men and encouraged this perspective.
Beside God Himself, Jones also admired Lee as a spiritual leader in the war. He admired the fact that Lee always humbly acknowledged God with complete dependence and trust as often as possible. After Gaines’ Mill, Lee wrote to President Davis, “Profoundly grateful to Almighty God for the signal victory granted to us, it is my pleasing task to announce to you the success achieved by this army to-day”. Jones cited this as just one example of Lee crediting God with victory. This exemplified the thoroughness of Christian thought in the Army of Northern Virginia. From top to bottom, God was always central to the purpose and responsibility of war. Lee was a good example of how a Christian man should view battle and the Confederacy’s cause in a spiritual sense. When men like Lee, Jackson, and Hill attended Jones’s worship meetings, it was not only a reflection of the character of the generals, but of the chaplain’s character (see figure 2 below). The fact that these three men all respected and trusted Jones as a spiritual minister created spiritual cohesion and unity among the Army of Northern Virginia. It also promoted trust in Jones as a chaplain. When soldiers saw the men at the top of their army, with their heads bowed, they all knew Jones was the real deal.
Figure 2. General Lee at Prayer, taken from Jones’s book
The Battle of Gaines’ Mill put Jones in the perfect opportunity to interact with Confederate soldiers on an individual level, prove his ability as a chaplain, and establish the duties and expectations of the Confederate chaplain early in the war. McClellan and the Army of the Potomac were seeking to take Richmond. The Seven Days Battles, for the Confederacy, were about driving the Union off the Peninsula. Being the second battle in the series, Gaines’ Mill was make or break. The Army of Northern Virginia had to capitalize on the momentum created by A.P. Hill at Mechanicsville a day prior. Defeat was unacceptable, yet they came close with A.P. Hill’s early attack. He could march, eat, sleep, and fight alongside them. He saw the same vapid destruction they saw. This allowed Jones to relate to the soldiers on a personal level. He was able to witness their needs first hand. Many chaplains were not willing to do this. Many quit upon seeing the gruesome ugliness of war, but not Jones. He constantly went above and beyond to meet the soldiers’ needs. He could have been fighting next to them, gun in hand, as he had in 1861. He instead chose to devote himself to those most in need. Jones understood his role behind war lines. He chose to minister to the injured and sick, something the soldiers surely saw as Christlike. Jones single handedly changed the Confederate chaplaincy by encouraging soldiers spiritually and creating favor from the army’s officers. Looking at what the Confederacy faced after the Seven Days Battles (Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg), a clear definition of the chaplain’s roles and duties was surely needed. At Gaines’ Mill, Jones took on the task of fully defining an undefined role by proving what it meant to meet and exceed a soldier’s spiritual needs in the face of death.
Selected Bibliography
Burton, Brian K. Extraordinary Circumstances: The Seven Days Battles. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 2001.
Descriptive Catalogue of the Tracts Published by the South Carolina Tract Society. Charleston:
South Carolina Tract Society.
“Gaines’ Mill Battle Facts and Summary.” American Battlefield Trust.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/gaines-mill.
General Lee at the Soldiers’ Prayer Meeting. In Christ in the Camp. Richmond: 1887, 51.
“Graphic Description of the Battle of Gaines’ Mill.” Daily Whig (Richmond, VA), August 4
1862.
J. William Jones, When Chaplain of 13th Virginia Regiment, C. S. A. In Christ in the Camp.
Richmond: 1887, facing page 60.
J. William Jones Papers, 1861-1892. Accession 21294. Personal papers collection, The Library
of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia. http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=lva/vi01129.xml
Jones, John William. Christ in the Camp or, Religion in Lee’s Army. Richmond: 1887.
McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1988.
Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Ser. I, Vol. XI, Part 3.
Proceedings of the Southern Baptist Convention at its Ninth Biennial Session, May 1863,
Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, SBC Annuals.
Robinson-Durso, Pamela. “Chaplains in the Confederate Army.” Journal of Church and State
33, no. 4 (Autumn 1991): 747-763.
The Soldier’s Pocket Bible. Charleston: South Carolina Tract Society.
Waddell, Josh. “‘Silent but Powerful Preachers’: Southern Religious Pamphlet Literature during
the Civil War.” Civil War History 68, no. 3 (September 2022): 268-294.