Lottie Moon
The war transforms thousands of churches in the South, one of which is the home church of the woman destined to be the most famous Southern Baptist woman of all time: Lottie Moon (1840-1912).
Today, the Scottsville Baptist Church of Virginia opens its doors–not necessarily by choice–to ill and wounded Confederate soldiers. Impressed by the Confederate Army, the church building, constructed with money donated by Lottie Moon’s parents, is now one building of a complex of four structures in Scottsville that comprise the town’s Confederate General Hospital. The church’s main floor and upper balcony are both utilized, providing room for up to twenty patients. Altogether, the hospital treats 2,236 soldiers in 16 months of operation. Some accounts indicate the church space was a hospice wing of the hospital.
While the use of the church as a hospital is temporary, the church during the remainder of the war years suffers greatly. Although the congregation consisted of almost 250 members (most of whom were slaves, including those of the Moon family) a decade prior to the war, the congregation has no minister during the war years, and almost disbands. The Sunday School, however, manages to remain intact.
Lottie stays mostly at home in Scottsville during the war, becoming a missionary to China in 1873.
The church recovers following the war, and exists to this day.
Sources: “Scottsville Baptist Church,” Scottsville Museum (link); Regina D. Sullivan, Lottie Moon: A Southern Baptist Missionary to China in History and Legend, Louisiana State University Press, 2011 (link); image (link); Scottsville Baptist Church website (link)
