For weeks, the Civil War has been a common subject of discussion when Baptists gather on Sundays. Whether spoken of from the pulpit or in the church yard, the talk is often animated. No where is this perhaps more true than in the Border States, where loyalties are clearly split and pro-slavery and anti-slavery convictions…
On this Sunday, ten days have passed since the commencement of the war between North and South. Mary Beckley Bristow, an active member of Sardis Baptist Church in Union, Kentucky (a Calvinist congregation), in the pages of her diary writes of her loyalty to the South: I was at Union yesterday; every person I saw…
Outnumbered and out-gunned, Fort Sumter’s Union contingent formally surrenders to Confederate forces after 34 hours of bombardment. In surrendering to Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard, U. S. Maj. Robert Anderson hands over Fort Sumter to the South and is treated well by his southern captors. There are no casualties from the war’s first battle,…