This month the members of Meadow Branch Baptist Church in North Carolina are presented with a certificate of baptism signed by Confederate chaplain (or perhaps army missionary) A. L. Stowe and indicating that three of the church’s soldier sons had been immersed and desired church membership.
Soldiers William H. Trull, Thomas S. Trull and A. W. H. Price had been baptized near Fredericksburg, Virginia on May 20. The Trulls (and perhaps Price) are soldiers in the North Carolina 37th Regiment. Thomas rises to the rank of corporal; William musters out as a private.
The Meadow Branch congregation is pleased to accept the baptisms of the young men, immediately welcoming them into church membership.
Meanwhile, the campaign over Chattanooga continues. Today the Union XX Army Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Alexander M. McCook, along with the Army of the Cumberland’s cavalry, commanded by Maj. Gen. David S. Stanley, break camp at Stevenson, Alabama and cross the Tennessee River en route to Chattanooga. Their mission is to dislodge Confederate forces from Chattanooga. The Tennessee river city remains a focal point of the war for much of the fall season, during which time Confederate army revivals grow, evoking hope among white Christians of the South during difficult times on the battlefield.
Sources: Carolyn Caldwell Gaddy, Jerry L. Surratt, The History of Wingate Baptist Church 1810-2009, Timberlake, NC: Righter Publishing Company, 2009, p. 32 (link); National Park Service Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database (link) and (link); “The Road to Chickamauga,” Alabama Historical Association Marker Program, Dekalb County (link)
