Civil War

Ellen White received her first Civil War vision on Sabbath afternoon, January 12, 1861, in Parkville, Michigan. For about twenty minutes the congregation watched with intense interest this 33-year-old woman. The vision over, she shared briefly what had been revealed to her. (See pp. 486, 487.)MOL 158.7

Her words made a lasting impression (as reported by J. N. Loughborough, an eye-witness): “Men are making light of the secession ordinance that has been passed by South Carolina [Dec. 20, 1860]. They have little idea of the trouble that is coming on our land. No one in this house has even dreamed of the trouble that is coming. I have just been shown in vision that a number of States are going to join South Carolina in this secession, and a terrible war will be the result. In the vision I saw large armies raised by both the North and the South. I was shown the battle raging.”MOL 158.8

Then, looking over the congregation, she continued: “There are men in this house who will lose sons in that war.” ^{51Bio., vol. 1, p. 463.}MOL 158.9

On August 3, 1861, at Roosevelt, New York, Ellen White had her second Civil War vision. It focused on the evil of slavery—the North was to blame for the continuing extension of slavery, and the South for the sin of slavery. She was given a “view of the disastrous battle at Manassas, Virginia” (First Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861), and observed the mysterious confusion in the advance of the Northern army. ^52Ibid.MOL 158.10

Further, she wrote; “I was shown that many do not realize the extent of the evil which has come upon us. They have flattered themselves that the national difficulties would soon be settled, and confusion and war end; but all will be convinced that there is more reality in the matter than was anticipated. Many looked for the North to strike a blow and end the controversy.” ^{53Testimonies for the Church 1:264.}MOL 159.1

What shall we make of these Civil War visions? The Parkville vision occurred three months before the guns fired on Fort Sumter, April 12, 1861. At that time many people believed that there would be no war, but should war begin, it would be short and the North would win in a brief fight. ^{54How shortsighted most everyone was: A few days before the Parkville vision, on December 22, 1860, William H. Seward, secretary-of-state-elect to the Lincoln cabinet, predicted a peaceful settlement of the national crisis within the next sixty days.—Cited in Henry S. Commager, ed., Documents of American History (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1863, 2 vols., 7th ed), I, pp. 366, 369. In mid-February 1861 Thomas R. R. Cobb, Georgia secessionist and committee member preparing the Confederate constitution, wrote: “The almost universal belief here [Montgomery] is that we shall not have war.” Cited in Edward Channing, History of the United States (New York: Macmillan Co., 1905-1925, 6 volumes), Vol. VI, p. 264. Two days before his Inaugural Address of March 4, 1861, Lincoln declared in Philadelphia: “I have felt all the while justified in concluding that the crisis, the panic, the anxiety of the country at this time is artificial.” Cited in Harper’s Weekly, March 2, 1861, p. 135. The Encyclopedia Britannica estimated that the Civil War cost “a total of some $11,450,500,000 for the North alone. But the cost to the South was enormous; $4,000,000,000 cannot be exaggeration. It follows that, up to 1909, the cost of the war to the nation had approximated the tremendous total of $15,500,000,000 ... and the death of probably 300,000 men on each side.” 11th ed., vol. XXVII, p. 710.} (For an extended review of contemporary viewpoints that were in sharp contrast with the predictions of Ellen White, see Appendix O.)MOL 159.2

Ellen White saw it differently. She predicted that war would come and that other States would join South Carolina in seceding from the Union. She saw large armies in brutal combat, and widespread carnage over a long period wherein men would waste away in prison. ^{55Loughborough, RPSDA, pp. 236, 237.}MOL 159.3

Regarding her solemn prediction that some families in her Parkville audience would “lose sons” in the war, Loughborough spoke some time later with the local elder of the Parkville church who had presided over that memorable Sabbath service. The elder identified five families, with a possible five additional families, who had lost loved ones.MOL 159.4

Further, in these visions Mrs. White saw clearly that the main issue was slavery, and that God would permit both the North and the South to be punished until they confronted this issue. Many political and religious leaders saw this only after years of terrible struggle had killed and injured millions. The politics of Washington, interlocked with Southern sympathizers in Northern leadership, had kept the purposes of the war muddied. The Fugitive Slave Acts, ^{56Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793, 1850, and upheld by Supreme Court in 1859: In the Rochester vision Ellen White wrote: “The fugitive slave law was calculated to crush out of man every noble, generous feeling of sympathy that should arise in his heart for the oppressed and suffering slave.” Testimonies for the Church 1:264. “The officers of the Southern army are constantly receiving information in regard to the plans of the Northern army.... Rebels know they have sympathizers all through the Northern army.... The spirits of devils, professing to be dead warriors and skillful generals, communicate with men in authority, and control many of their movements.... 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.... I saw that both the South and the North were being punished.” Testimonies for the Church 1:363-368.} requiring Northerners to return runaway slaves to their masters, is a good example of the political and moral confusion. Note how long it took President Lincoln to decide that it was time to issue the Emancipation Proclamation (on September 22, 1862, effective January 1, 1863). ^{57In an August 22, 1862, letter to Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, President Lincoln wrote: “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.” Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1937), vol. 3, p. 567.}MOL 159.5