Union Gen. Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts is commander of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina. Butler is hated among white Southerners for his distinction of authoring the designation of fugitive slaves in Union controlled-territory as “contraband,” an order he had issued in May 1861 while commanding the Department of Eastern Virginia. While prior…
The First Baptist Church of Northampton, Massachusetts burns today. While the building is not entirely destroyed, for the next eighteen months worship services are held in the Northampton Town Hall while the church meeting house undergoes repairs. Meanwhile, the Educational Association of Virginia is formed today in the basement of the First Baptist Church of…
Southern Baptist foreign mission and Indian mission efforts have fallen by the wayside, spiritual casualties of the war. In their place is a now-intense focus on mission work among the Confederacy’s white men serving in the army. Believing they are called of God to save the army in order to save the nation, Baptist leaders…