Fort Marion, St. Augustine, occupied by Union troops. Photo by Samual A. Cooley

Baptists and the American Civil War: November 23, 1864

The ranks of former slaves-turned-freedmen is growing daily, now numbering well over a hundred thousand. In Union-controlled areas along the Southern sea coast, Northern religious leaders and reformers, hand-in-hand with Federal forces and often financed by philanthropists, provide housing, education and life skills, in addition to assisting their charges in spiritual matters as the former…