Against the backdrop of mounting hardships in the Confederacy, unrest grows even in the nation’s capital of Richmond. Many of the city’s white women, struggling to provide for their families as their husbands and sons march and fight in distant places or are otherwise employed in the war effort, have reached a breaking point. Today…
Today in Union-occupied Alexandria, Virginia yet another African Baptist congregation is formed in the aftermath of the Emancipation Proclamation. The church narrates its beginnings in the following way: During the Civil War, the Union Army occupied the City of Alexandria to prevent the Confederate Army from having a route into Washington, D.C., the capitol. Since…
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…