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Testimonies for the Church Volume 1
Satan has, through his angels, communicated with officers who
were cool, calculating men when left to themselves, and they have
given up their own judgment and have been led by these lying spirits
into very difficult places, where they have been repulsed with dreadful
slaughter. It suits his Satanic majesty well to see slaughter and carnage
upon the earth. He loves to see the poor soldiers mowed down like
grass. I saw that the rebels have often been in positions where they
could have been subdued without much effort; but the communications
from spirits have led the Northern generals and blinded their eyes until
the rebels were beyond their reach. And some generals would rather
allow the rebels to escape than to subdue them. They think more of
the darling institution of slavery than of the prosperity of the nation.
[367]
These are among the reasons why the war is so protracted.
Information sent by our generals to Washington concerning the
movement of our armies might nearly as well be telegraphed directly
to the rebel forces. There are rebel sympathizers right at the heart of
the Union authorities. This war is unlike any other. The great lack of
union of feeling and action makes it look dark and discouraging. Many
of the soldiers have thrown off restraint and have sunk to an alarming
state of degradation. How can God go forth with such a corrupt army?
How can He, according to His honor, defeat their enemies and lead
them on to victory? There is discord, and strife for honor, while the
poor soldiers are dying by thousands on the battlefield or from their
wounds and from exposure and hardships.
This war is a most singular and at the same time a most horrible
and heartsickening conflict. Other nations are looking on with disgust
at the transactions of the armies of both North and South. They see
such a determined effort to protract the war at an enormous sacrifice
of life and money, while at the same time nothing is really gained, that
it looks to them like a strife to see which can kill the most men. They
are indignant.
I saw that the Rebellion had been steadily increasing and that it
had never been more determined than at the present moment. Many
professed Union men, holding important positions, are disloyal at
heart. Their only object in taking up arms was to preserve the Union as
it was, and slavery with it. They would heartily chain down the slave to
his life of galling bondage, had they the privilege. Such have a strong
degree of sympathy with the South. Blood has been poured out like