The site where the east and west sections of the transcontinental telegraph were joined.
The day is marked by two momentous events, one to the West and one to the East. Both impact the war.
Westward, “workers of the Western Union Telegraph Company link the eastern and western telegraph networks of the nation at Salt Lake City, Utah, completing a transcontinental line that for the first time allows instantaneous communication between Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. Stephen J. Field, chief justice of California, sends the first transcontinental telegram to President Abraham Lincoln, predicting that the new communication link would help ensure the loyalty of the western states to the Union during the Civil War.” Indeed, the western states do remain loyal to the Union, their natural resources eventually contributing to the war-time finances of the United States.
Eastward, the formal establishment of the new state of West Virginia, carved out from the state of Virginia, directly and immediately bolsters Union prospects. The popular vote is not even close: 18,408 votes for and only 781 against. Union control of the region, enforced by federal troops, likely contributes to the overwhelming support for the United States. The loyalty of West Virginia to the U.S. helps the Union retain control of the surrounding border states.
While few Baptists are yet present in the western states, Baptists are commonplace in the new state of West Virginia. And despite the popular lopsided vote for Union affiliation, some Baptists – formerly affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention – remain conflicted. By the end of the war, roughly two-thirds of Baptist churches in West Virginia are affiliated with Northern Baptists, and one-third with Southern Baptists. The Baptist General Association of West Virginia (later the West Virginia Baptist Convention), a northern-affiliated entity, is established after the war in 1865. Four years later, the split between the state’s Northern and Southern Baptists is resolved, with both groups uniting as the West Virginia Baptist Convention.
Sources: “Western Union Completes the First Transcontinental Telegraph Line (link); overview of Baptists in West Virginia (link)
