Baptists and the American Civil War: September 20, 1865

Charles Henry Corey (1833-1899)

Charles Henry Corey (1833-1899)

Northern Baptist minister Charles Henry Corey, a representative of the American Baptist Home Mission Society and active in preaching to Union troops and working among freedmen during the war, has in recent months assisted freedmen in establishing churches and schools.

This month the Canadian native Corey returns to Charleston, where he had previously been stationed during the last year of the war, assisting African American Baptists.

Here the newly-married minister, wed to Fannie Sanborn of Seabrook, New Hampshire, settles down for two years. During this time he works among African Americans, helping organize new churches, raising money to construct church buildings, and ordaining ministers.

Other representatives of American Baptists also assist in the work in Charleston and other Southern towns and cities, but Corey is at the forefront. Following his two years in Charleston, he is involved in leadership roles in black theological institutions until his death in 1889, aged 65.

Source: “Charles Henry Corey,” Encyclopedia Virginia (link)