News from Gettysburg and Vicksburg has spread throughout the South, although thanks to the inefficiencies and shortcomings of communication, the facts are frequently interspersed with supposition and rumors. While yet uncertain of many details about Gettysburg, this week North Carolina Baptists’ Biblical Recorder editor J. D. Hufham breaks the sobering news of Confederate losses at…
Gettysburg’s outcome ripples outward North and South, impacting the lives of countless soldiers, officers, civilians and politicians. One impacted Union officer is Charles H. Banes (1831-1897), a Baptist businessman from Philadelphia and member of the city’s Second Baptist Church. Banes this month is promoted to the rank of major in the Union Army’s Philadelphia Brigade.…
Today the Confederate fortress of Port Hudson, Louisiana, located on the Mississippi River, finally surrenders to sieging Union forces. Rebels are forced to give up due to the unbearable hot summer climate and lack of water and food. The entirety of the Mississippi River is now firmly under control of the United States, separating the…