With the war effectively over, Charleston, South Carolina is transitioning to a new normalcy in which whites and blacks alike enjoy freedom. The work of the United States Christian Commission, a philanthropic-government hybrid organization that assists freed persons in transitioning into a life of freedom, is finished in the southern port city. Baptist minister Charles…
In Evansville, Indiana’s Baptist Lecture Room on Fifth Street and Chestnut Street, twenty-five Baptists gather this day to create a new black Baptist church, one of many formed this month in the wake of the end of the war. Most prominent of those present is Andrew L. Robinson, an antislavery attorney and Baptist layman. The…
More than a month has passed since the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. Some Texas troops, although having learned of Lee’s surrender, have thus far refused to lay down their arms. Today in the Battle of Palmito Ranch they surprise a contingent of Union forces en route…