“Will the Sec. of Navy please call on me at once.” Thus Lincoln writes from the “Executive Mansion,” signaling the crisis that is Fort Sumter. Meanwhile, in Montgomery, Alabama, the Confederate States of America issues its first currency. Also in Alabama, the Cedar Bluff Baptist Church (in Cedar Bluff, Alabama) meets for its monthly business…
With a Constitution in place, the Confederate States of America elects Commissioners to the Government of the United States of America. Among the Commissioners elected is Martin J. Crawford (1820-1883; illustration) of Georgia, a Baptist. A graduate of Mercer University, Crawford has previously served as a lawyer and judge in Georgia. After the war begins,…
Mary Beckley Bristow, an active member of Sardis Baptist Church in Union, Kentucky (a Calvinist congregation), in the pages of her diary offers personal commentary on the prospects of southern secession: Have been too restless in mind about the situation of this once happy country to even answer the letters of my correspondents. I can…