St. Simons Lighthouse, Built in 1807. Fort Brown was nearby.
Georgia Baptists’ Christian Index today publishes a letter from a Georgia Baptist army missionary stationed at “Camp Brown (near Savannah).” The camp in question may have been south of Savannah and north of St. Simons Island. The Confederate’s Fort Brown at St. Simon’s Island, about sixty miles south of Savannah, weeks earlier was abandoned when confronted with encroaching Union naval forces. Another Camp Brown was located in Smyrna, Georgia, and named after the Georgia governor. The coastal fortification may also have been named after Governor Joseph Brown.
Christian nationalism is front and center in this letter from Camp Brown, written by a Baptist who — unlike his faith forbears — believes that governments should honor the Christian Sabbath as a special day of the week:
The news at this point is rather unimportant, at least there are no startling developments, such as attract the attention of the people in times such as these. The impression is gaining ground, that we shall yet have to meet the enemy at this point. I have no doubt but their more mature policy is to overwhelm us by their vast numbers, and thus weary us out in any given engagement by their continued reinforcement of fresh troops.
In a religious point of view, our armies are in a wretched condition. Many are doing what they can to arrest the tide of vice that threatens to ruin our soldiers, but their efforts meet with resistance from various sources.–There are bad men everywhere, but when they are thrown together in the army–I mean the most ostensible–are drunkenness, vulgarity, gaming, and profanity–either of which utterly unfits a person for society, and all combined in one, is truly a horrid sight. Yea, I neglected to mention the great sin of all, Sabbath breaking.
We have been for years, emphatically a nation of Sabbath breakers; that and other sins, have brought down upon us the direst of all temporal calamities. Our once happy country, is now a vast battle-field, in which the thunder of cannon, and the stirring strains of martial music are often mingled with the prayers and curses of those who offer their lives on the altar of their country’s honor.–We are striving for rights that we must and will have, through the mercy of God, and yet we habitually and presumptuously violate the command: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” The heaviest curses that ever fell on any nation, were for the violation of this command. Yea, with all these startling events before our eyes, our armies have their reviews, inspection of arms, and perform various other duties that make us obnoxious to the curse of heaven. When, oh, when, will our leaders learn that the Sabbath is the Lord’s, and that the habitual violation of its sacred hours, by a community or a nation, makes that people object of God’s displeasure?
Source: Fort Brown, St. Simon’s Island (link and link); Camp Brown, Smyrna (link); S.D.E., “Inklings of Camp-Life,” Christian Index, March 25, 1862; St. Simons lighthouse image (link)
