This is a Christmas day unlike any other. The image of the modern, portly Santa Claus as drawn by Thomas Nast is less than two years old. Baptists do not yet celebrate Christmas in a religious sense, as the holiday is considered popish and paganish. Nor is the day celebrated publicly en masse. For some…
On this Christmas Eve mere days after Savannah’s subjugation to the United States, the city’s Second Baptist Church, an African American congregation, long serving as a center of religious, social and political life for black citizens, is abuzz in a new way. Generations of slavery now behind them, black residents bask in their new found…
With Savannah safely in Federal hands, the Union Navy today begins an assault upon Fort Fisher, a Confederate fort guarding the coastal city of Wilmington, North Carolina. The Battle of Fort Fisher lasts for four days. Today the Union attempts to destroy the fort’s walls by detonating a gunpowder-laden ship. This failed effort is followed…