The Siege of Petersburg drags on, having turned into a daily, dirt-filled slog in the trenches. Union General Ulysses S. Grant, having time on his hands, tries to dream up new ways to wreck havoc upon the Confederate rail infrastructure that Richmond depends upon. In the days ahead, attempts will be made to do just that.
Meanwhile northward in Indiana, Isaac Young Taulman (1819-1913) joins the Coffee Creek Baptist Church this month.
Born in Columbia, Ohio, Taulman, like his father, became a farmer as a young man. Married and living in Indiana, by the time the Civil War began the couple had seven children. In 1861, at forty-two years of age, Taulman enlisted in the 9th Indiana Legion. Yet his military service proved short-lived. After thirty days, he returned home and tended to his family. Following the war, the Taulman family transfers their church membership to the Marion Baptist Church, where Isaac remains a Baptist for the remainder of his life and is buried in the church cemetery upon his death.
In some respects, the war time pressures upon Baptist males in the North are not as great as those upon white Baptist males of the South. In the North, Taulman and many other older men serve limited time, with many serving no time due to their age. In the South, on the other hand, the Confederacy by the summer of 1864 is desperate enough for new recruits in the face of massive death and desertion in the ranks that men as old as 50 are being conscripted to fight.
The extreme lengths to which the Confederate Army is now undergoing to maintain armies in the field is one indication of the desperate shape of the Confederacy, both militarily and on the home front.
Sources: Jim Taulman, “Isaac Young Taulman, including image” (link); “Confederate States of America: Laws of Congress in Regard to Taxes, Currency and Conscription, Passed February 1864,” p. 29, digitized by Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (link)
