This volume, written by the highly acclaimed 19th century historian Joel Tyler Headley, explores the vital, but often neglected, role of ministers of the Gospel to the cause of liberty in the founding of this great nation. Headley (1813-1897) gives dozens and dozens of sketches of the men who were literally the spiritual leaders of the American Revolution. Having searched in vain for this volume it is exciting that a brother in Christ from Florida has entrusted this volume to me for this project. This is the history that today's secular historian does not want you or your children ever to know. Here you will be introduced to men who risked their lives and gave their lives for the freedom we now enjoy.

For both the Union and Confederate soldiers, religion was the greatest sustainer of morale in the Civil War, and faith was a refuge in times of need. Guarding and guiding the spiritual well-being of the fighters, the army chaplain was a voice of hope and reason in an otherwise chaotic military existence. The clerics' duties did not end after Sunday prayers; rather, many ministers could be found performing daily regimental duties, and some even found their way onto fields of battle.

In Pulpit and Nation, Spencer McBride highlights the importance of Protestant clergymen in early American political culture, elucidating the actual role of religion in the founding era. Beginning with colonial precedents for clerical involvement in politics and concluding with false rumors of Thomas Jefferson’s conversion to Christianity in 1817, this book reveals the ways in which the clergy’s political activism—and early Americans’ general use of religious language and symbols in their political discourse—expanded and evolved to become an integral piece in the invention of an American national identity. Offering a fresh examination of some of the key junctures in the development of the American political system—the Revolution, the ratification debates of 1787–88, and the formation of political parties in the 1790s—McBride shows how religious arguments, sentiments, and motivations were subtly interwoven with political ones in the creation of the early American republic. Ultimately, Pulpit and Nation reveals that while religious expression was common in the political culture of the Revolutionary era, it was as much the calculated design of ambitious men seeking power as it was the natural outgrowth of a devoutly religious people.