Today in Union-occupied Alexandria, Virginia yet another African Baptist congregation is formed in the aftermath of the Emancipation Proclamation. The church narrates its beginnings in the following way:
During the Civil War, the Union Army occupied the City of Alexandria to prevent the Confederate Army from having a route into Washington, D.C., the capitol. Since the Union Army was not in the slave trade, Alexandria became a haven for runaway slaves (then referred to as contraband). These contraband, along with captured Confederate soldiers, were housed in the old slave pen area at 1315 Duke Street. It was here that Shiloh Baptist Church began March 29, 1863, as the Old Shiloh Society when 50 former slaves gathered in a U.S. government mess hall to worship and praise God. When the congregation outgrew the mess hall, it moved to the nearby barracks. Shortly afterward, that building was destroyed by fire. Staunton School temporarily became the next meeting place. The Reverends Charles Rodgers and E. Owens, who were white, and Leland Warring, who was black, served during the first two years.
Not until after the war does Shiloh Baptist obtain its own building:
Under the continued leadership of Rev. Leland Warring, the congregation worked diligently until the first edifice of Shiloh, a neat frame church, was erected on West Street near Duke Street. On September 26, 1865, the new church was dedicated.
Shiloh Baptist Church remains a thriving congregation to this day.
Source: “Founding Our Church,” Shiloh Baptist Church (link)
