Reconstruction of the South begins at large today as U.S. President Andrew Johnson issues the Amnesty Proclamation allowing for the restoration of property rights (slaves excluded) to eligible white Southerners who sign an oath of allegiance declaring that “I, _______ _______, do solemnly swear, (or affirm,) in presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth…
With the war over, the faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Greenville, South Carolina, shuttered during most the war, hope to reopen the institution. Success however, is far from assured. Compounding the seminary’s prospects are the reduced fortunes of professor and president James P. Boyce. Wealthy prior the war, during the great conflict…
With the war officially over, hundreds of Confederate soldiers are paroled daily, effectively forgiven for their involvement in the rebellion against the United States and permitted to go home. Among Baptist soldiers paroled this day are F. W. Eason of South Carolina and James Harris of Georgia. Eason, baptized in 1858 by the venerable Basil…