Mississippi Baptist minister Mark P. Lowrey organizes the 32nd Mississippi regiment in north Mississippi and is elected Colonel of the regiment. This represents his second, and an unanticipated, stint of Confederate service. An excerpt from Lowrey’s autobiography speaks of his joining the army for the second time, as well as the days following: I had…
The new year brings both peril and promise to Baptists of a divided nation. In the southern Confederacy, some churches, pressured by the loss of male members, battlefield-wrought devastation, nearness of Union forces, and/or financial struggles, face closure. Such is the case with Tidewater Baptist Church in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. With the Union Navy tightening…
Formed only one year earlier, the Mississippi Baptist Association, meeting at Mars Hill, offers “fervent prayers … to God on behalf of our beloved country,” and adopts a resolution regarding the war: “Resolved, That Saturday before the first Lord’s day in November be recommended to the churches composing this Association as a day to be…