The reorganization of the Southern states continues. Today U.S. President Andrew Johnson appoints James Johnson (1811-1891) as provisional governor of Georgia. Johnson remains in office for most of the rest of the year, guiding the state through the initial stages of repealing Georgia’s Ordinance of Secession and formally abolishing slavery. On this same day, Virginian…
Confederate soldiers who survived the war are settling back into home life. Many of those who are Baptists return to their home churches this month. In Georgia, the Harmony Primitive Baptist Church in Pike County and the Houston Factory Baptist Church of Houston County each extend “the right hand of fellowship” to returning soldier members.…
The post-war exodus of former slaves from the South to the North is already in progress. They follow paths trod by hundreds of thousands who fled to freedom during the war. In Indiana, Evansville, just across the Ohio River from Kentucky, is a top destination for freedmen from the South. Today former slaves who have…