This month Samuel Augustus Hayden (1839-1918), Louisiana native and Baptist minister, is released from Johnson’s Island Prison in Ohio. The war interrupted Johnson’s ministerial training as he enlisted in Company B, Sixteenth Regiment, Louisiana Infantry. Fighting in Shiloh (April 1862) and other western theater battles, Johnson rose to the rank of captain prior to being…
Tennessee native William B. Bate (1826-1905) prior to war proved himself as a young man. Following his first job as a clerk on a steamboat, he then served in the United States Army (during the Mexican-American war), started a newspaper, served in the Tennessee House or Representatives, practiced law, served as attorney general for the…
For many if not most southerners, the Civil War is an emotional roller coaster. War-time diaries often capture the emotional nature of the war, as is the case with the diary of Mary Beckley Bristow, a member of the Sardis Baptist Church in Union, Kentucky. The Battle of Shiloh, fought in the neighboring state of Tennessee…