Faith and Courage: The Enduring Legacy of America’s Military Chaplains

Faith and courage are a double helix in American history, intertwined, codependent, and decisive. Better put, courage with faith is the American alloy.

In the Founders’ era, we think of George Washington and the courage shown by his barefoot troops during seven soul-testing, physically trying years: Valley Forge, crossing the Delaware, wins at Trenton, Princeton, and Yorktown by unpaid, unfed, unclothed – yet undeterred – troops.

We remember the “Sons of Liberty” – nine men under a tree in Boston, later called the Liberty Tree, in 1765, resolved not to bend to tyranny. We remember the heroes and revolutionary defiance memorialized in our Bill of Rights.

Less often do we remember the chaplains who fortified those led by Washington, Greene, Wayne, and others, sustaining the colonial generation with faith.

In countless wars, America’s military chaplains have strengthened our combat warriors and those at home who have faith in the mission and destiny, who pray for our warriors’ safety, strength, and success in defending freedom.

We remember the “four chaplains,” memorialized on a postage stamp – men of unshakable faith who gave their lives to save others as the USS Dorchester sank during WWII. We remember chaplains across time, but it began at our founding.

In the 1750s, as British tyranny grew, gradually demonstrating colonists were not equal under the crown, bound to be heavily taxed and oppressed, pastors began to speak with vigor; many of these eventually became military chaplains.

A recent publication by “The Sons of Liberty” notes colonial chaplains were “educated men who could handle the mental and spiritual issues that other men were not trained to handle …Anglican, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist, Congregational and Quaker,” with some “Jewish congregations.”

Two years before the Declaration of Independence, the first Continental Congress convened with prayers by Reverend Jacob Duche. They were later joined by other pastors, like New Jersey’s Declaration signer, Reverend John Witherspoon.

In time, chaplains became integral to the Continental Army. Witherspoon, who later founded the Presbyterian Church after being president of Princeton, was a revolutionary pillar. Likewise, Pastor James Caldwell, after seeing his church “burned to the ground” and his wife killed, became a chaplain in Washington’s army, his effect on morale so remarkable the British put a price on his head.

By 1777, Washington wanted a paid chaplain in each brigade. Congress appointed one for each. Many – a tradition that carried forward – were medically trained.

In New England, David Avery, a Yale graduate, became an army chaplain and served with valor at Bunker Hill and Trenton, reportedly “intrepid and fearless in battle, unwearied in his attentions to the sick and wounded”; he “often rode with Washington.” Another Yale graduate, Abraham Baldwin, was a noted chaplain.

Closer to Maine, Baptist Pastor Hezekiah Smith –another graduate of Princeton, then College of New Jersey – was often in battle offering comfort. He stayed close to Washington all their lives.

Baptist Pastor David Jones served at Valley Forge, and with Washington’s General Anthony Wayne, for whom the town in which I live is named.

Long story made short: America is the product of enormous sacrifice, which required courage and faith. America’s courage is rooted in confidence born of faith. And nowhere is faith more real or more needed than in battle.

In 1776, Washington told his men: “The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary, but especially so in times of public distress and danger,” adding “Let vice and immorality of every kind be discouraged as much as possible in your brigade… as a chaplain is allowed to each regiment.” Washington knew of what he spoke. America’s greatness is a double helix, an alloy, courage with faith.