Nathaniel Crawford, Mercer University President
Nearly two months after the formal beginning of warfare between the United States and Confederate States, young men North and South excitedly prepare to defend their respective countries. Duty, ideology, adventure, honor, and the defense of homeland, family and freedom are some of the reasons that compel soldiers to fight.
In Georgia, Baptist’s Mercer University, recognizing that most of the school’s junior and seniors are headed off to battle, suspends summer commencement services.
Today, Penfield Baptist Church in Greene County meets in conference and grants letters of dismissal to Mercer student W. Davis Holland and recent Mercer graduate James P. Hilldrup. Yet the destinies of the two young men diverge at this point.
Holland, like many of his fellow students, promptly marches off to war. Hilldrup, however, remains on the home front. A favorite student of Mercer President Nathaniel Crawford and ordained to the Baptist ministry in February, Hilldrup assumes the pastorate of nearby Shiloh Baptist Church (Greene County), where he serves for most (if not the entire duration) of the war.
Among Baptist ministers in Georgia, Hilldrup is not an anomaly; many in the central and southern regions of the state remain in the pulpit throughout the war.
Special thanks to Arlette Copeland, Special Collections Assistant, Jack Tarver Library Special Collections at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, for providing the information about Holland and Hilldrup.
