The Baptists of New York City are raising a Home Guard. According to a New York Times article today:
The Baptist Churches of the City are about raising a regiment for the Home Guard. Stanton-street Church is the first in the field, and has already mustered a full company, which meets for drill every Thursday evening, at the Regimental Drill-Room of the Seventy-first Regiment, in Centre-street, near Broome. The Baptists claim to have demonstrated the eminent fitness of their persuasion for a soldier’s life in the career of Gen. HAVELOCK, who, it will be remembered, was a Baptist Minister previous to his entrance into the English Army.
Henry Havelock (1795-1857) was a Baptist and a British General who served part of his military career in India and achieved enough distinction from his military service that statues of the general were erected (and yet stand) in London and Sunderland.
The Stanton Street Baptist Church was founded in 1823, and in 1860 a history of the church had been published.
Baptist soldiers from New York City served in the United States army for a variety of reasons, including patriotism, a sense of duty, and for the cause of freedom for all men.
Source: New York Times article, June 12, 1861 (link); Henry Havelock biography (link); A History of the Stanton Street Baptist Church in New York City (NY: Sheldon & Company, 1860) (link)
