The Van Wert Baptist Church of Paulding County, Georgia closed its doors in late 1864 due to the battles raging in and around Atlanta. Reassembling in January 1865, the congregation since has struggled. The minutes of a church conference (business meeting) held this day refer to post-war realities. “After the opening of conference as usual,…
Today yet another African American congregation in the South is established. In North Carolina the white Baptist Church of Chapel Hill grants the wishes of black members to start their own congregation. Church minutes record that, “On motion it was unanimously voted that the colored patrons of this church be allowed to withdraw from the…
Sam Richards, an Atlanta businessman and Southern Baptist who fled the city for New York following Sherman’s capture of the city, today arrives back in Atlanta. Like many other middle class white Southerners (of whom there are relatively few, actually) who did not serve during the war, whether having temporarily lived in the North or…