Chaplain

  The role of Chaplain in the volunteer army of the Civil War was an important one.  Most of the men came from God-fearing homes and the Chaplain more often than not was a local minister who answered the call of his Country but in the role of the minister to the men.  The Chaplain had easier contact with home than the men and thus was able to more easily transfer news from home to the troops and vice versa. 

  The earliest Chaplain of the 9th Ky was a Munfordville, KY Baptist minister named Rush who resigned and apparently angered many men.  The area from which the 9th Ky formed was undergoing transitions from the old Calvinist and Campbellite traditions to the Stonite way of belief so some of the animosity may have come from that as men argued various doctrines among themselves as well as against their Chaplain.  South-Central KY and Middle TN were very involved in the Restoration Movement of Christianity in the decades before the Civil War, and this continued during the war years. It is hard to say today just why Rush and the men were at odds, but the fact that the Regiment did enjoy (or perhaps tolerate) a Chaplain within its rank is without dispute.   

  Today's 9th Ky enjoys a couple of members that dabble as chaplains when not fighting in the ranks. Doug Dickerson is a minister in real life so he enjoys participating as chaplain. Noah Fletcher is a young member that is interested in church assemblies & has also decided to add the chaplain role to his kit to demonstrate when not fighting as a Pvt.