Diary of Private Daniel L. Ambrose: Saturday, January 31, 1863

This morning our new chaplain arrives, the Rev. Mr. Perkins. It is indeed a happy arrival for we have been without one for a long time. This office is now a very difficult one to fill as the soldiers have become so reckless that should the angel Gabriel receive a commission as chaplain to the Seventh, he would give it up as a bad bargain. War is atheistic, heathenish, devilish; qualify it as you may with all that civilization and christianity can do, it is yet the mightiest reaping machine in the harvest of hell. We do not say that God has nothing to do with its running, for we believe that hidden behind the veil of human wrath he directs every move to his own 'glory; but he who drives this terrible instrument is very apt to become like it, being barred as we are from civilization and the refining and ennobling influence of female society.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 139