In Union-controlled Tennessee, formerly enslaved African Americans, many of them Baptist, are publicly expressing their sentiments to the state’s politicians, including Governor Andrew Johnson. African American attorney John Mercer Langston, born a slave, is one of the most prominent voices. On January 2, he addressed some 3,500 Unionists, 3,000 of them black, declaring that the…
Today in the far West a clash between Indians and U.S. soldiers takes place. In the Battle of Julesburg some 1,000 Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota Indians, seeking revenge for the Sand Creek Massacre less than two months earlier, defeat a small contingent of 60 soldiers and 50 civilians. In the weeks following, the victorious Indians…
Elijah J. Marrs of Company L, 12th U.S. Colored Artillery, is keeping a written record of his time in the service. Born a slave in January 1840 in Shelby County, Kentucky, in his youth Marrs converted to the Baptist faith, the denominational choice of most Christianized slaves in the South. Learning to read and write…