For many Civil War soldiers both North and South, religion served to provide hope and meaning despite enduring years of boredom, terror, temptation, and violent death. When possible, men of the church took an active role in lending such to the troops both during times of idleness and of combat. The Reverend Father William Corby, chaplain to the Union's Irish Brigade among others, extended general absolution to all soldiers, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. He was also known to administer last rights to the dying on the field while under fire. Prior to the conflict in the Wheatfield on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, he offered general absolution to the Irish Brigade. Despite the loss of 506 of their men during that days battle, one soldier stated that, because of Father Corby, "He felt as strong as a lion after that and felt no fear although his comrade was shot down beside him." Not the only example of heroism by people of the clergy, Chaplain William Hoge ignored the Union Blockade to bring Bibles to Southern soldiers at the risk of his own arrest.

The importance of religion to the soldiers can be seen in part by considering some of the work completed during the war to allow for religious worship. During the Union's siege of Petersburg Virginia in 1864 and 1865, the 50th New York engineers built a spectacular gothic style church out of the logs and wood the found in the surrounding area. They named the structure the Poplar Grove Church in honor of a church at Poplar Springs which the two armies destroyed during the Battle of Peebles Farm. The 50th New York engineers built this church, which no longer stands, on the current grounds of the Poplar Grove National Cemetery, the final resting place of over 6,000 Civil War dead. Of those dead, 2,203 remain unknown. [C]

Of course not all who fought in the war necessarily found strength in religion. One incident relayed by George Cary Eggleston, a member of Confederate General Richard Stoddert Ewell's staff, began with the General witnessing a chaplain hurriedly moving away from the fight. Eggleston would continue, "It is said that on one occasion, the firing having become unusually heavy, a chaplain who had labored to convert the general, or at least to correct the aggressive character of his wickedness, remarked that as he could be of no service where he was, he would seek a less exposed place, whereupon Ewell remarked, 'Why, chaplain, you're the most inconsistent man I ever saw. You say you're anxious to get to heaven above all things, and now that you've got the best chance you ever had to go, you run away from it just as if you'd rather not make the trip, after all.' " [3]