"Confederates on the Front Porch: The Ongoing War" Topic

"From the time of the Puritans, America had harbored a sense of divine mission. So perhaps it was natural that the Civil War would come to be viewed as part of that providential plan. In the wake of the War, many Americans--both North and South--concluded that the war had been a punishment sent from God. Just as ancient Israel had been punished for her sins in the Old Testament, many now believed that a proud nation had been humiliated by God because it had not only tolerated slavery, but had allowed such a wicked institution to flourish.

But not everyone accepted this interpretation of God's providential plan. In some quarters, the war was viewed as something more than simply an occasion for punishment. Horace Bushnell and Phillip Schaff, two of the more influential Protestant clergy of their day, came to see it as a chance for national redemption and renewal. According to Bushnell and Schaff, the nation had undergone a "Baptism of Blood" that would wash way its sins.

On this point, both North and South were in general agreement. The phrase "baptism of blood" was common in the preaching of ministers in both regions during the war years, but the two differed on the nature of the sins for which they were atoning. In the North, there was a growing belief that the bloodshed taking place on the nation's battlefields was to atone for and to wash away the sin of slavery, and the wrongs done to black persons. The South, needless to say, saw things differently. Southerners came to believe that they were not just engaged in a battle to defend a way of life or an institution, they were in fact fighting in a Holy Crusade on behalf of God himself…"
From here
historyaddict.com/acw4.html

Amicalement
Armand