Today, a father and son – both Baptists – enlist in Company B, Thirty-third Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Marching off to war together, Edward T. Durant (born 1819) and son William E. (born 1843) serve the United States in its time of greatest need. Like many other soldiers, they are common folk: Edward is a farmer-turned-carpenter,…
Today U.S. President Abraham Lincoln declares the 11 states of the Confederacy and southerners “in a state of insurrection against the United States.” Lincoln also deems all commercial trade to states outside the Confederacy as “unlawful” as long as the insurrection continues. Thus, the thriving cotton trade between the South and Border states is severely…
President Abraham Lincoln, a former Baptist who now embodies a more mystical view of God and, due to the unparalleled war the nation is now engaged in, is being transformed into the United States’ theologian-in-chief, issues his first proclamation for a national day of fasting: Whereas a joint Committee of both Houses of Congress has…