Sherman's Chaplain
Sherman's Chaplain
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“I hope we will never have to shoot at such men again”
Autumn of 2014 marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Griswoldville, the first Confederate infantry opposition to Sherman’s ‘March to the Sea’ – an opposition mounted largely by local militias of teenage boys and elderly men. On November 22, 1864, some 4,300 of these untested volunteers repeatedly charged across an open field* against 3,000 entrenched Union veterans, with predictable results: more than 500 Georgia militia dead and wounded. A Union officer, surveying the carnage, uttered the sorrowful words, “I hope we will never have to shoot at such men again.”
The battle, and its aftermath, are the inspiration for a dramatic chapter in David Bellin’s novella, Sherman’s Chaplain, as a newly ordained young clergyman comforts a dying Confederate teenager – the first battlefield death he has witnessed -- and then presides at his first funeral service, a somber mass burial by torchlight of Confederate dead along with the few Union soldiers killed in the encounter.
Many more stormy episodes lie ahead for the chaplain, a recent graduate of a Rhode Island seminary, as he is caught up in Sherman’s devastating sweep through the Georgia countryside to seize Savannah and its prized seaport. Comforting the hurt and bereaved on both sides (including Sherman himself on the death of his young son), often without regard for his own safety, the chaplain confronts the casual brutality of war and ultimately earns the trust and respect of battle-hardened troops who had earlier scorned his youth and inexperience.
Civil War News states that “David Bellin has woven the events of 1864 and 1865 into a very enjoyable, enlightening and thought-provoking work of historical fiction,” while San Francisco Book Review terms it “A great read for Civil War history enthusiasts.” (Sherman’s Chaplain is available from Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com)
*The field has been well preserved and may be viewed at the State Historic
Site about 10 miles NE of Macon, Ga.
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