Faust claims that religious "convictions, as we have seen in the ritual of the Good Death, made both dying and mourning easier. Some historians have argued that, in fact, only the widespread existence of such beliefs made acceptance of the Civil War death tolls possible, and that religion thus in some sense enabled the slaughter. Confidence in immortality could encourage soldiers to risk annihilation. Civil War Americans themselves would not have questioned what one Confederate chaplain called the 'military power of religion'" (Faust 175).
Stout states that, "Yet the language of martyrdom reveals how, at least subconsciously, this war was generating through sheer quantity of blood sacrifice a living and vibrant civil religion. By linking patriotism to Christianity and paying lip service to the superiority of the eternal over the temporal, ministers and people could embrace the new faith without fully acknowledging exactly what they were doing." (Stout xxii)
Given the fact that Faust states "the military power of religion" (Faust 175) was unquestioned during the Civil War, were the soldiers, leaders, and citizens consciously aware that this "blood sacrifice" was also creating a new faith of civil religion, as well? Or, as Stout seems to indicate, was this blending of patriotism and Christianity into a "new faith" only apparent with the help of historical hindsight?
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