Some war events during the summer of 1862 make little news outside of local circles. One example is the sacking and burning of Germantown, Tennessee, a small community near Memphis. The past two months have witnessed the Federal capture and occupation of the major Tennessee towns of Corinth and Memphis, victories that solidified Union control…
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s Baptist upbringing years ago imprinted upon him the moral and biblical wrongness of slavery. Following Lincoln’s presidential victory in 1860, white Southern Baptists and other Southern white religious and political leaders have made a habit of mocking Lincoln as the “black president,” so certain are they that his ultimate goal as…
Mundane events reveal interesting details of Baptist life in the Confederate capital of Richmond, such as the following news account: Bob, slave of Captain Jackson Warner, hired as nurse at the Baptist Female Institute, was taken in custody, on Saturday, and lodged in prison, by the Military police, for stealing a pocket-book containing $85 in…