Baptists of the South routinely criticize the evilness of Confederate Army camp life. Gambling, alcohol, sabbath-breaking and other vices increasingly come under withering condemnation. This week, the Southern Army of the Potomac, under the command of Brig. Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard, is scrutinized in the Baptist press. The date of this first-hand account of…
This week’s North Carolina Biblical Recorder publishes a letter from a correspondent in the 1st Regiment of N. C. State Troops, identified as J. H. F. The correspondence echoes what many other Baptists in the Confederate army are saying: the South’s soldiers, by and large, are far from being Christian men. I am alone in…
The war years heighten a growing concern among many Baptists: alcohol. While most Baptist churches yet use wine (often homegrown) in communion, and few Baptists advocate total abstinence, more Baptist leaders voice disapproval of the widespread use of hard liquor, while local Baptist congregations wage a war upon drunkenness, expelling many male members for overconsumption.…