The Civil War's Moses Moment at Providence Spring—100 Bible Verses That Changed America

On this episode of Our American Stories, the Union Soldiers at Andersonville Prison were near starvation, and dehydration, when prayer saved thousands of lives. If you want to know about the history of America, it is imperative that you know the role that the Bible played in shaping our country. Our Founding Fathers—both Christian and non-Christian—were heavily influenced by the Bible. Here to share another story is Robert Morgan, author of 100 Bible Verses That Made America.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
If you want to know about the history of America,
it's important that you know the role that the Bible
played in the shaping of our country. Our founding fathers,
Christian and non Christian alike, were heavily influenced by the

(00:30):
best selling book of all time. Here to share another
story is Robert Morgan, who's the author of one hundred
Bible verses that made America, defining moments that shaped our
enduring foundation of faith. Let's take a listen.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Several years ago, a West Point graduate who is a
friend of mine, drove with me down to Andersonville, Georgia
to visit the National Prisoner of War Museum and to
see the old Confederate pow camp and to see with
my own eyes as I wanted to do, the water
source known as Providence Spring. The story behind the spring

(01:10):
is one of the most remarkable in American history. I
found several accounts of this story by various soldiers who
were imprisoned there at the time. I'm going to share
one as told by a man named John L. Mail
m Ail When the Civil War, Erupted Mail was a

(01:34):
Michigan teenager who enlisted with the Union Army, served bravely
and rose to the rank of lieutenant. During the Battle
of the Wilderness, he was captured and shipped in a
cattle car to this infamous pow camp at Andersonville, deep
in the heart of Georgia, on May twenty third, eighteen

(01:55):
sixty four. The prison was really just an open meadow
of twenty six acres surrounded by a fifteen foot high
stockade fence. Pigeon roosts were manned by guards ready to
shoot any prisoner who crossed the deadline that framed the
interior of the stockade. The fort was built to house
ten thousand prisoners, but Mail found himself crammed among thirty

(02:18):
three thousand, thirty three thousand, starving, exposed men. The only
source of water was a small brook that ran through
the meadow, and this was where the prisoners drank and
washed and used the latrine. Furthermore, it was downstream from
the Confederate camp, and the creek became known as Mail

(02:38):
wrote a vast cesspool on which a boundless swarm of
flies settled down and laid their eggs. Continually the odour
could be detected miles away. A terrible water famine set in,
and the result was that many of the ailing ones
became insane with thirst. Soonhundreds of POW's were dying of disease.

(03:03):
One evening, Mail heard a group of soldiers singing the Doxology,
and he joined them around an old pine stump, on which,
as he put it, was seated an emaciated calvary Sergeant
mister Shepherd of Columbus, Ohio, formerly an honored preacher of
the gospel. In days past he had frequently been called
upon to offer prayer over the remains of some deceased comrade.

(03:28):
And now he led in this old and well known hymn,
the Doxology, to call like minded souls together. Some twenty
five unkept, starving, thirsty men gathered around him and joined
in the familiar strains of the song. What memories of
family worship and old time services in the meeting house

(03:49):
those words called up, Brother Shepherd said, I have today
read in the Book of Numbers about Moses striking the
rock from which water gushed out, and an ample supply
for both men and beast. I tell you that God
must strike a rock here in Andersonville, or we shall

(04:09):
all die of thirst. And if there is no rock here,
he can smite the ground and bring forth water to
supply our desperate needs. On this I am sure. Let
us ask him to do this. Pointing to an uncombed, unwashed,
ragged soldier nearby, mister Shepherd asked, well, the brother from Chicago, pray.

(04:33):
He then successively called on all of his acquaintances, all
of the other soldiers to pray, and all the prayers
were poured out, and the one desire for water. Perhaps
an hour the meeting continued, and then it closed again
with the doxology. The words of the leader were, boys,
when you awaken during the night, offer to God a

(04:53):
little prayer for water. Do the same thing many times tomorrow,
and let us meet in the evening to pray again
for water. Prayers went up among the soldiers for several days.
Then one morning, as they awoke, as Mail said, an
ominous stillness pervaded nature. By mid morning, black clouds began

(05:18):
rolling in and the camp was deluged by a long
lasting cloud burst. Now this is what mister Mail said.
Clashes of thunder broke over our heads, and flashes of
lightning squished around us, as if the air were filled
with short circuits. As the mighty deluge swept through the
clearing west of the prison, we bat our heads in

(05:40):
preparation for submersion. When it came upon us, the sensation
was as if a million buckets of water were being
poured out upon us all at once. When the storm
finally ended, a prisoner near the north gate began shouting,
A spraying, A spraying. Mail later wrote in his Memoirs

(06:02):
Prison Life in Andersonville, the vent of a spring of
purest crystal water shut up into the air like a column,
and fell again in a fan like spray, and went
babbling down the grade. I've read other accounts by prisoners
who describe how during the storm a lightning bolt struck

(06:24):
inside the deadline between where the prisoners were and the
stockade fence, releasing an underground spring, and the spring still
gurgles to this day. If you visit Andersonville, as I did,
you can tour the National Prisoner War Museum and then
walk through the area of the stockade, and then amble

(06:46):
over to a stone shelter and see what is still
called to this day providence spring and read the inscription
on the rock there which says God smote the hillside
and gave them to August sixteen, eighteen sixty four.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to
Robert Morgan. He's the author of one hundred Bible verses
that made America, defining moments that shaped our enduring foundation
of faith. Go to Amazon or wherever you get your books.
The story of the Providence spring here on our American Stories.

(07:29):
This is Lee Habib, host of our American Stories, the
show where America is the star and the American people,
and we do it all from the heart of the
South Oxford, Mississippi. But we truly can't do this show
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(07:50):
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