ABSTRACT
The priest goes to war as a man of peace. His armor is the Cross. His right hand is raised, not to take life but to give it. He blesses, he absolves, he breaks the Bread of Life to his men, he anoints them and closes their dying eyes, and over their graves he erects the Cross and chants the Requiem of a fallen hero. 1
In the Brief History of the United States Army Chaplain Corps - an Army pamphlet produced in 197 4 - the authors trace the history of Army chaplains from 1775 onwards. The chaplains who served in the military during the American Revolution were really serving 13 separate colonies with 13 separate policies and 13 different ways to organize chaplains' services. The Continental Congress had established the Army Chaplain, as a recognized position, on 29 July 1775 and a chaplain was supposed to be assigned to each regiment. George Washington, at the head of the Continental Army, directed that chaplains would hold Sunday services throughout the army and issued an order in 1776 that chaplains were to be paid 33 1/3rd dollars per month - and should be 'persons of good character and exemplary lives' .2 As in subsequent wars, Washington, as commander in chief, recognized 'the blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary, but especially is it in times of public distress and danger .... The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor so to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier, defending the dearest rights and liberties of the country'. 3
Indeed, some clergymen during the Revolution actually raised their own militia units.
