©2005, Solid Ground Christian Books, 402 pages in paperback.

While acknowledging the heroics of George Washington and other leaders in America’s War for Independence, the author makes the case that pastors also greatly influenced the American cause. Pastors’ labors and examples motivated many colonists to enlist in the army and fight the invading British forces.

The book opens with a couple of chapters on the importance of election day sermons in the years prior to open conflict.  In these sermons, the congregants learned the biblical view of civil government, including its limitations and responsibilities.  Once the war erupted, pastors taught that the colonial fight against the British was just and was a struggle for liberty itself.

In successive chapters the author cites numerous examples of pastors who became chaplains.  They valiantly and vehemently spoke against British tyranny.  Headley quotes portions of sermons from Nehemiah and other Old and New Testament passages.  He laments that by the time this volume was published (l86l) many diaries and sermons had been destroyed.  This makes the accounts and anecdotes that he relates all the more important.  He devotes a chapter each to approximately forty pastors and chaplains, most of whom are unfamiliar to modern readers.

John Rossburg was compelled to leave his pulpit and volunteer for the colonial cause after New York was lost.  He left behind a wife and five children.  Soon after entering the military, he was captured and killed by Hessian soldiers.

James Caldwell, a Huguenot descendant, remained very optimistic for final victory through the darkest hours.  The vital information he passed to General Washington was so critical that the British offered a reward for him.  In time, his church and home were burned.  His wife was killed.  He remained resolute.  In one heated battle, the colonial troops were in need of wadding for their weapons.  He hastened to a nearby church and returned with hymn books which he scattered among the needy soldiers.  He added these words, “Now put Watts into them, boys.” (p. 227) The soldiers quickly and gladly obeyed his command.  I had heard this anecdote previously, but I never knew the personal price that Caldwell had paid for his patriotism.  He was  later killed by a drunken sentinel.

British ire was often directed against pastors, because their superb oratory recruited men to leave their homes and join the fighting forces.  These same skills gave the laity a vision of colonial victory and of the dangers of British success.  Pastors were beloved by their congregations.  This respect gave the pastors a hearing and a response that was very advantageous for the colonial cause.  They saw themselves as being faithful to biblical teaching regarding tyranny and unjust civil rulers as they passionately related the needs of Washington’s army to their hearers.

Headly has done his homework.  He has given us valuable history in these moving accounts.  The reader will be reminded of the impact the churches of various denominations had through the work of their chaplains on the battlefield and their pastors on the home front.  It is important to note the desire of military leaders to have their chaplains minister in the name of Jesus Christ to the living and the dying.

This volume can be read with enjoyment and profit by adults and youth.  It is useful for home school curricula.  It clearly shows the pivotal place that Christianity had in the early American culture.

Review ©2006 Byron Snapp, Hampton, Virginia