For ten months the Federals have laid siege to Petersburg, facing off against Confederate General Robert E. Lee‘s Army of Northern Virginia. The trenches are all that separate Union forces from the Confederate capital of Richmond, with the siege lines now stretching northward some 25 miles to the edge of Richmond. Defending Confederate forces are…
The coming of spring weather and the overwhelming numbers of Union soldiers in the trenches of Petersburg does not bode well for nearby Richmond. While the winter weather for months dampened Union offensives against the Confederate lines, there is now little to keep the Federals at bay. Confederate President Jefferson Davis, realizing the crisis at…
With freedom so rapidly spreading throughout the South to former slaves, new African Baptist congregations are being established seemingly every week. In some cases, new churches come about long after emancipation, the result of factors including an influx of freedmen and/or the simple passing of time sometimes necessary for a new body of believers to…