During the antebellum and Civil War years most, but not all, Southern Baptist ministers harbored loyalties for the Confederacy. Of those who were Unionists, sympathies with the Union remained buried, or at least subdued. James Ryland Kendrick is one such example. Born in Poultney, Virginia in 1821, he graduated from Hamilton Seminary (New York) and…
Today Jacob Eliot, a Baptist layman, lawyer and former slaveowner from Corsicana, Texas, is not entirely happy about the end of slavery. Nonetheless, today he uses his legal position to help four freedmen who apparently had not been his slaves. “I procured license for Joe McCullough and Charlie Thomas, two old freedmen – to get…
Today the last Confederate surrender takes place across the Atlantic Ocean in Liverpool, England, where the CSS Shenandoah, the only Confederate vessel to circumnavigate the globe, lowers her flag for the final time. The Confederate Navy thus comes to an end. Meanwhile, a few days out of Boston harbor aboard the schooner H. P. Russell,…