While Washington D.C. is alarmed at the news of a possible Confederate invasion (which comes of naught in the days ahead), further to the north this month the pastor of the Hanson Place Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York composes a song that will be long remembered. Robert Lowry (1826-1899) is a Philadelphia native who…
The First Baptist Church West Main Street, Charlottesville, Virginia, an African American congregation, traces its beginnings to March 16, 1863. That was the day that some 800 black members of the Charlottesville Baptist Church petitioned the church’s white leaders to allow them to form their own congregation. Today their request is finally granted, and the…
In an attempt to draw Union forces away from Petersburg, Confederate General Jubal A. Early has for days been ransacking territory behind enemy lines. Now in Maryland, Early’s troops have ransomed Hagerstown and Middletown and hope to take Frederick next. This morning, however, Northern troops on a scouting mission run into a contingent of Early’s…