Civil War Hospital
The deaths of Baptist Confederate soldiers now likely number in the thousands, whether from wounds or sickness. With increasing frequency, obituaries are published in Southern Baptist newspapers, often months after the death occurs, such as the following obituary in today’s Georgia Baptist Christian Index.
Died in the army of the Confederate States, at Lynchburg with relapse of Measles, 9th October, 1861, aged 28 years 7 months and five days, ALEXANDER CARLTON. He was a young man of promise. He made choice of surveying as a profession, applied himself closely and at the opening of the war bid fair to be an efficient and skillful surveyor. Alexander C. spent five years practically at his chosen profession in the territory of Kansas, but as soon as his country called he responded by entering his country’s service as a volunteer. Alexander was a true and faithful disciple of Jesus. He left an aged, hopeful widowed mother, several sisters, and two younger brothers, with very many friends to mourn their loss. As a son he was dutiful; as a brother, kind and affectionate; as a friend true and confident; as a Christian true and faithful unto death. His last words were bright and hopeful.
A FRIEND
The formula of mourning the loss of a promising life while praising the young soldier for his faithfulness to God and Confederacy and assuring the bereft mother, is oft-repeated in Baptist newspapers. In such ways the passing of the Christian soldier is glorified as heroic while the ugliness of death — the violent and bloody battlefield scene or the tortured and mangled body in a hospital bed — is veiled behind visions of heavenly glory and eternal bliss for the departed. Many surviving members of deceased soldiers, never able to visit the distant places where their loved ones died in horrible circumstances, mercifully carry to their own graves a comforting if aching image of death and the heavenly abode of their lost sons, husbands and brothers.
Source: “Obituaries,” Christian Index, March 9, 1863
