On this second day of the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in Virginia, Union and Confederate forces set about trying to form their respective lines to the best possible advantage in anticipation of the fighting to come. In the midst of the jockeying for position, Union Major General John Sedgwick is killed by a Confederate sharpshooter. Sedgwick is the highest ranking officer to be killed in the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse.
Meanwhile, far away in New York City, the city’s Christians are celebrating Sunday School. In particular, the occasion is the Anniversary Exercises of the New-York Sunday School Union, a local chapter of the American Sunday School Union. Formed in 1817 in Philadelphia, the ASSU is a Protestant organization comprised of an ecumenical membership list, including Baptist, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, Moravian, Dutch Reformed, Congregational, Lutheran, German Reformed and Friends churches. The layman-led association’s mission is the establishment of Sunday Schools (at this time limited to children as students) independent of any given church, but which, upon formation, are encouraged to affiliate with the church of their choice.
The number of New York City churches participating in the Sunday School Union is quite impressive, especially considering that Sunday Schools are, at this time, far from the norm in many Protestant church circles, including Baptists. The apparent fervency of the members of the organization seemingly belies the fact that a terrible war is yet being waged, although, on the other hand, the education of children is more important than ever as so many fathers have been felled by the war.
Today’s New York Times announcement about the celebration is a who’s who of churches and pastors in the city, including five Baptist congregations:
The Anniversary Exercises of the New-York Sunday School Union will take place Tuesday evening. May 10, in the Reformed Dutch Church, corner Twenty-ninth-street and Fifth-avenue. Speakers; Rev. J.T. Durvea, Rev. Thos. Street, of York, Penn.: Rev. Dr. Eddy, of Philadelphia. The Sunday School will hold their Anniversaries in the afternoon of Tuesday, at 2 1/2 o’clock. The following are the places of meeting and speakers: Brick Presbyterian Church, corner of Thirty-seventh-street and Fifth-avenue, Rev. Thos. Hastings and Rev. Mr. Young; Allen-street Presbyterian Church, New Grand-street, Rev. J.H. Carroll, New Haven. Conn.; Tabernacle Baptist Church, Second-avenue, near Eleventh-street, Rev. C.D. Shaw, Paterson, N.J.: Calvary Baptist, Twenty-third-street, near Fifth-avenue, Rev. J.H. Burtis, Rev. C.D. Murray; Harlem Churches, Rev. Dr. Taylor, Brooklyn; Rev. Dr. Hooker, Boston, and Rev. Dr. Patten, Chicago, Ill.; Northwest-Reformed Dutch Church, Twenty-third-street, Rev. Dr. Howard Crosby, and R.G. Pardee, Esq.; Baptist Church, West Forty-second-street, Rev. B.K. Pearce: Four-teenth-street Presbyterian Church, corner of Second-avenue. Chaplain Merwin, U.S.A., and Lucius Hart, Esq.: Spring-street Presbyterian Church, Richard J. Thorne. Esq.; Eighty-fourth-street Presbyterian Church, Rev. Dr. Hutton; Stanton-street Baptist Church, Capt. Heartt and John Davidson, Esq.; Sixteenth Baptist Church, Sixteenth-street. Rev. Newton Heston and Rev. Robt Lowrey, Brooklyn; Reformed Dutch Church, Washington-square, Rev. Mr. Petuebone, Missionary from Turkey; Reformed Dutch Church, Twenty-ninth-street, corner of Fifth-avenue, Rev. J.T. Durvea, Ralph Wells; Mercer-street Presbyterian, Rev. A.A. Willits, Rev. T.L. Cuyler; Rivington Mission Sunday School, A.A. Smith, Brooklyn, and Rev. T.R. Smith.
Sources: Battle of Spotsylvania Court House (link) and (link); Records of the American Sunday School Union, Billy Graham Center Archives (link); “Local Intelligence.; Sunday, School Activities, New York Times, May 9, 1864 (link)
