Baptists and the American Civil War: April 24, 1865

Map of Virginia 1860sLincoln‘s funeral train reaches New York, where his remains are placed at City Hall. Some 500,000 persons view the casket at City Hall.

In Washington, word arrives that John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s killer, has been spotted in Virginia. A squad of cavalry is dispatched to track down Booth and his co-conspirator David Herold.

In the former Confederate capital of Richmond this month, Baptist minister A. E. Dickinson, former army missionary in the Confederate Army, begins his post-war life as the new pastor of the Leigh Street Baptist Church in Richmond, one of the city’s largest congregations.

Sources: “With Malice Towards None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition, April 24, 1865,” Library of Congress (link); George Braxton Taylor, Virginia Baptist Ministers: 5th Series, 1902-1914, J. P. Bell, 1915, p. 166-172 (link); “The Death of John Wilkes Booth 1865” (link)