The new year continues to go badly for the Confederacy. Murfressboro, Tennessee is now occupied by federal troops. Meanwhile, Nashville, Tennessee has been occupied by Union forces since February 24. Today, the United States military confiscates the city’s First Baptist Church for use as a hospital. Church pews and other furniture are removed. Soon, other…
The news of the Emancipation Proclamation has now spread throughout the North, as well as much of the South. Southern whites–including Southern Baptist newspaper editors–largely ignore the news, knowing that Abraham Lincoln‘s words are effectively meaningless as long as the Confederacy exists. Some Southern slaves hear whispers of a freedom announced from far away, hoping…
While momentum has shifted to the Confederacy in the wake of the recent, successful repulsing of the Union offensive against the nation’s capital of Richmond, much of Tennessee remains under Union control. In response to the U.S. presence in Tennessee, Confederate Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest for several weeks has been conducting calvary raids in…