Today, Presley Barry Womack enlists in Company I, Forty-eighth Illinois Infantry. He serves as a hostler for the officers of the company, and sees action in the battles of Fort Henry and Shiloh.
Born in Wayne County, Illinois in 1830, Presley, a Baptist, has personal childhood memories of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. When Womack was but a lad, his family lived near the future president and the young boy “hauled wood” for Lincoln, who treated him kindly. Now, Womack proudly serves under his commander-in-chief. After the war, he remains loyal to the (Republican) party of Lincoln for the remainder of his life.
Presley Womack is one of many Baptists who enlist in either the Union or Confederate armies this month. Yet Baptist life also carries on apart from the war. In addition to war-related news, commentary and editorials, Baptist papers this month publish many articles concerning doctrines, Bible study, preaching, Sunday School, and practical advice. Of the latter, the Tennessee Baptist offers helpful advice to Baptist mothers, as well as to single women contemplating marriage:
“To Mothers.”
The first book read, and the last book laid aside by every child is the conduct of its mother.
1. First give yourself, then your child to God. It is but giving him his own. Not to do it is robbing God.
2. Always prefer virtue to wealth. The honor that comes from God to the honor that comes from men. Do this for yourself. Do it for your child.
3. Let your whole course be to raise your child to a high standard. Do not sink into childishness yourself.
4. Give not needless commands, but when you command, require prompt obedience.
5. Never indulge a child in cruelty even to an insect.
6. Cultivate a sympathy with your child in all lawful joys and sorrows.
7. Do not expect to make your child perfect.
8. Be sure that you never correct a child until you know it deserves correction. Hear its story first and fully.
9. Never allow your child to whine or fret, or bear grudges.
10. Early inculcate frankness, candour, generosity, magnanimity, patriotism, self-denial.
11. The knowledge and fear of the Lord are the beginning of wisdom.
12. Never mortify the feelings of your child by upbraiding it with dullness; but do not inspire it with self-conceit.
13. Pray for and with your child often and heartily.
14. Let no one interpose between your authority and your child.
15. Feed its mind, no less than its body, with food convenient for it.
16. Encourage all attempts at self-improvement.
17. Let your child be, think, and speak as a child, but encourage it of its own accord to put away childish things.
18. Never deceive, nor break a promise to a child.
19. Reprove not a child severely in the presence of strangers.
20. Remember that life is a vapour, and that you and your child may be called out of time into eternity any day.
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“How to Avoid a Bad Husband.”
Never marry for wealth. A woman’s life consisteth not in the things she possesseth.
Never marry a fop or one who struts about dandy-like, in his silk gloves and ruffles, with a silver cane and rings on his fingers.—Beware! There is a trap.
Never marry a niggard, a close-fisted, mean, sordid wretch, who saves every penny, or spends it grudgingly. Take care lest he stint you to death.
Never marry a stranger whose character is not known or tested. Some females jump right into the fire, with their eyes wide open.
Never marry a mope or a drone, one who drawls and draggles through life, one foot after another, and lets things take their own course.
Never marry a man who treats his mother or sister unkindly or indifferently. Such treatment is a sure indication of a mean and wicked man.
Never on any account marry a gambler, a profane person, one who in the least speaks lightly of God or religion. Such a man can never make a good husband.
Shun the rake as a snake, a viper, a very demon.
Finally, never marry a man who is addicted to the use of ardent spirits. Depend upon it, you are better off alone than you would be were you tied to a man whose breath is polluted, and whose vitals are being gnawed out by alcohol.
This advice is destined to be of greater importance than Baptists now imagine. While Presley Barry Womack, married prior to the war, survives the conflict, returns home to wife Mahala and eventually becomes the father of five surviving children and many grandchildren, many Baptist families are forever ripped apart during the war years. The war elevates the role of Baptist mothers to new levels, as by war’s end many are widowed, left to raise children on their own. With 600,000 less men in America when the war ceases, marriage prospects for many single young women, much less widowed women, turn gloomy. In addition, many families struggle financially, and alcohol abuse becomes an increasing problem among men, a situation reflected in Baptist church records.
Sources: Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Sangamon County, Volume II. Chicago: Munsell Publishing Company, Publishers 1912 (link); Tennessee Baptist articles (link); 1861 Illinois map (link)
