Against the backdrop of looming spring battles, God — and a mysterious God at that — is on the mind of United States President Abraham Lincoln as he issues a statement on this day set aside for “national prayer and humiliation.” Many are the Baptists of the North who embrace their president’s words. A man…
Today a Northern Baptist missionary in France writes a letter to the American Baptist Home Missionary Society, referencing the war between the American states: First of all, will you allow me to say to you again how much your “life-and-death struggle” interests us. Yes, we remember that you are fighting the battle of freedom for…
In Culpeper County, Virginia, site of 18th century Baptist struggles for religious liberty against the Anglican state church, a cavalry battle erupts today as U.S. Brig. Gen. William W. Averell leads 2100 mounted troops across the Rappahannock River to attack Confederate cavalry. Conf. Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee counter-attacks with 800 mounted men, not enough to…