This week’s North Carolina Biblical Recorder publishes a letter written by a North Carolina soldier stationed in Savannah, Georgia, in defense of the southern coastline. The anonymous soldier is confident of southern victory, placing the Union blockade of the Confederate coast in as good light as possible. A native of N.C. spending the winter here,…
Amidst the war, the First African Baptist Church of Savannah, Georgia continues to thrive. Many African Baptists prefer to attend all-black congregations, although even then white ministers maintain a hand in overseeing the operations of such congregations in the South. Savannah’s First African Baptist congregation is comprised of both enslaved and free Africans. The church…
Some Southern Baptist soldiers succumb to illnesses early in the war, leaving the battlefield behind and returning to the home front. Such is the case of Rufus Wiley Phillips, a graduate of Georgia Baptists’ Mercer University. Weeks prior, Phillips, a Junior 2nd Lieutenant in a Lowndes County (GA) unit, was discharged from Confederate service in…