One of the largest meeting rooms in Richmond is the sanctuary of the African Baptist Church. Accordingly, the church is often rented out for large city functions and events. Today, a crowd assembles at the African Baptist Church to hear Confederate President Jefferson Davis give a public speech, a discourse that proves to be among…
In the middle of the bitter winter cold, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, embedded in the trenches near Petersburg, writes to the Confederate Secretary of War in the nearby Southern capital of Richmond. The subject is army desertion. “I have endeavored to ascertain the causes [of the] alarming frequency of desertions,” the general writes. Lee…
This is a Christmas day unlike any other. The image of the modern, portly Santa Claus as drawn by Thomas Nast is less than two years old. Baptists do not yet celebrate Christmas in a religious sense, as the holiday is considered popish and paganish. Nor is the day celebrated publicly en masse. For some…