"Both Sides Prayed to the Same God," Bill Federer

Death of Stonewall Jackson

"A few moments before he died, as he was losing consciousness, he said: 'Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.'

Most Civil War historians hold the opinion that had General Stonewall Jackson been alive and commanded two months later at the Battle of Gettysburg, the South may have won the battle, and possibly the war.

Jackson’s death was difficult to reconcile, as he was exemplary in faith and virtue. Loyal to Virginia, he was against slavery and freed the slaves he inherited from his wife’s estate.

Beginning in 1855, Jackson participated in civil disobedience every Sunday by teaching a Colored Sunday School class at the Lexington Presbyterian Church. Though a Virginia law forbade teaching slaves to read, Jackson taught both slaves and free blacks, adults and children, to read the Bible.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated, Sept. 17, 1937: 'I came into the world 17 years after the close of the war between the States. … Today … there are still many among us who can remember it. … It serves us little to discuss again the rights and the wrongs of the long 4-years’ war. … We can but wish that the war had never been. We can and we do revere the memory of the brave men who fought on both sides. … But we know today that it was best … for the generations of Americans who have come after them, that the conflict did not end in a division of our land into two nations. I like to think that it was the will of God that we remain one people.'

At the Confederate Memorial in Arlington Cemetery, President Coolidge said, May 25, 1924: 'It was Lincoln who pointed out that both sides prayed to the same God. When that is the case, it is only a matter of time when each will seek a common end. We can now see clearly what that end is. It is the maintenance of our American ideals, beneath a common flag, under the blessings of Almighty God,'"  "Civil War: 'Both sides prayed to the same God,'"Bill Federer, American Minute, 03/29/2015. 

   Johnny Cash

"Battle Hymn of the Republic"