Some five weeks after the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, the ripples of the South’s defeat continue to spread. Today Jacob Elliot, a lawyer and Texas Baptist, hears rumors of the surrender of the Trans-Mississippi Department of the Confederate Army: “May 19: — Mr. S. Williams reports that the…
The Second Baptist Church of St. Louis, Missouri is the host of the 33rd anniversary meeting of the American Baptist Home Mission Society. Those gathered celebrate the end of the war. In his opening address, host pastor Galusha Anderson rejoices that “as an evidence of the new era on which we have entered, a convention…
While officially over, the war continues winding down in many respects. In the North, the United States government is in the midst of a military commission trial of the conspirators in Lincoln‘s assassination, while President Andrew Johnson and Congress are engaged in the beginning stages of the difficult task of reforming Southern state governments, the…