BAPTISTS in MIDDLE GEORGIA DURING the CIVIL WAR Except
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BAPTISTS IN MIDDLE GEORGIA DURING THE CIVIL WAR Except where reference is made to the work of others, the work described in this dissertation is my own or was done in collaboration with my advisory committee. This dissertation does not include proprietary or classified information. ______________________ Bruce T. Gourley Certificate of Approval: ____________________ ____________________ David C. Carter Kenneth W. Noe Associate Professor Professor History History ____________________ ____________________ Charles A. Israel George T. Flowers Associate Professor Dean History Graduate School BAPTISTS IN MIDDLE GEORGIA DURING THE CIVIL WAR Bruce Thomas Gourley A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Auburn, Alabama December 19, 2008 BAPTISTS IN MIDDLE GEORGIA DURING THE CIVIL WAR Bruce Thomas Gourley Permission is granted to Auburn University to make copies of this dissertation at its discretion, upon requests of individuals or institutions and at their expense. The author reserves all publication rights. _______________________ Signature of Author _______________________ Date of Graduation iii VITA Bruce T. Gourley was born in Douglas, Georgia to Thomas and Winifred Gourley. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree with majors in English and Christianity from Mercer University in 1988 and a Master of Divinity from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1992. He is married with one child and holds the position of Interim Director of The Center for Baptist Studies at Mercer University, while residing near Bozeman, Montana. iv DISSERTATION ABSTRACT BAPTISTS IN MIDDLE GEORGIA DURING THE CIVIL WAR Bruce T. Gourley Doctor of Philosophy, December 19, 2008 (M.A., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1992) (B.A., Mercer University, 1988) 293 Typed Pages Directed by Kenneth W. Noe Historians thus far have largely portrayed Baptists in the South as uniformly supportive of the Confederacy and Civil War, other than in regional pockets which exhibited widespread Union sympathy. This study focuses on Baptists in middle Georgia, a region not known for widespread Union sympathy, and utilizes local source material in an effort to analyze Baptist voices at the ground level. The records include those of individual Baptists, local churches, regional associations and the Christian Index, the latter a Baptist newspaper headquartered in Macon. Collectively, these sources provide a rich tapestry of Baptist voices emanating from and to Baptists of middle Georgia. Varied and diverse, these voices reflect a complex view of the Confederacy and the Civil War, suggesting that presumed uniformity among Baptists of the South breaks down at the local level. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author would like to thank his parents, Thomas and Winifred Gourley, for providing a wonderful home and modeling a love of books, and his wife, Debra, for her patience and love in the midst of her husband’s academic pursuits. In addition to family, gratitude is expressed to Dr. Kenneth Noe, whose long-suffering guidance in directing this work will not be forgotten, and Dr. Wayne Flynt, for sharing his insights into the larger South. Dr. Walter (Buddy) Shurden is owed special thanks, first for cultivating in the author an initial interest in Baptist history while a college student, and more recently for providing moral support and pointed insight while this dissertation was in progress. Finally, the author is appreciative of the many other teachers, mentors and friends who have impacted his life over the years, and thankful to God for providing a life rich in blessings and joy. vi Style manual used: Kate Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 7th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Computer software used: Microsoft Word 2003. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 1. “A FROWNING PROVIDENCE” ...............................................................................17 2. CHURCH AND STATE REVISITED .........................................................................56 3. A FLEETING HOPE: SOUTHERN BAPTIST ARMY MISSIONS...........................91 4. BAPTIST SOLDIERS: FROM CHURCH TO BATTLEFIELD ...............................145 5. PERSONAL MORALITY AND SPIRITUALITY: PATTERNS IN RACE AND GENDER...........................................................................................................171 6. LOCAL CHURCH RESPONSES ..............................................................................214 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................256 WORKS CITED ..............................................................................................................262 APPENDICES .................................................................................................................276 viii INTRODUCTION Looking backward, Samuel Boykin, prominent nineteenth century Baptist historian and editor of the Macon-based Christian Index during the Civil War, dismissed any Georgia Baptist opposition to the Confederacy in his 1881 History of the Baptist Denomination of Georgia. Following a lengthy recounting of the fervent nationalism of the 1861 Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Savannah, as well as the Georgia Baptist Convention of the same year, Boykin devoted two sentences to the collective voices of Georgia Baptists. “An examination of the Minutes of our various Associations makes it evident that the Baptists of the State were intensely interested in the war, thoroughly loyal to the Confederate cause,” he wrote, “and abundant in prayers for the success of the Confederate cause.” Advocating Lost Cause themes, Boykin, in short, echoed southern apologists of his era. Yet his post-war nationalistic rhetoric signaled a departure from his war-time criticism that many Baptist individuals and churches were insufficiently patriotic.1 In the decades that followed, southern historians of the twentieth century continued to turn to strong post-war rhetoric such as Boykin’s and likewise concluded 1 Samuel Boykin, History of the Baptist Denomination of Georgia (Atlanta: Jas. P. Harrison, 1881), 225- 235. Edward A. Pollard institutionalized the term Lost Cause in his The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War of the Confederates, published in 1866. Jubal A. Early, former Lieutenant General of the Confederate States of America, is credited with popularizing the Lost Cause in a series of articles written in the 1870s for the Southern Historical Society, an organization founded in 1868 to advance southern interpretations of the Civil War. In short, the Lost Cause advocated that a virtuous South, defending states rights and the benign institution of slavery, suffered inevitable loss to superior military forces. This interpretation remained popular well into the twentieth century. 1 that the churches of the South wholeheartedly supported the Confederacy. In the 1950s, James Silver declared that “the Church was the most powerful organization influencing the lives of men and women in the South in the days before and during the Confederacy.” Three decades later and at the forefront of a revival of scholarly interest in religion and the Civil War, David B. Chesebrough examined a small sampling of Southern Baptist source material during the war − selected sermons, associational minutes, state meetings and national meetings − and concluded that Southern Baptists, like other denominations in the South, were indeed unified and enthusiastic in support of the Confederacy as “primary instigators in promoting sectionalism and justifying war.” Maintaining that war might never have happened without the influence of the clergy and churches, Chesebrough further described the nexus of the Southern Baptist mindset during the Civil War era as “cultural tunnel-vision and ardent nationalism mixed with religious passion.”2 Other forays in recent decades into understanding the larger dynamic of Baptists in the larger South during the Civil War have resulted in a nuanced understanding of Baptists during the war years against the background of the largely unchallenged theme of overwhelming loyalty to the Confederacy. While Daniel Stowell concluded that “the vast majority of Baptists in the South supported the Confederacy from the beginning to the end of its brief existence,” Paul Harvey suggests prior theological commitments constrained some Baptist attitudes toward the war. In a study of white Southern Baptist ministers, Harvey traced the rise of white supremacy among ministers during the Civil War era and noted a correlation in increased political activity, contrasted with a pre-war 2 James W. Silver, Confederate Morale and Church Propaganda (New York: W. W. Norton, 1957), 93; David B. Chesebrough, “A Holy War: The Defense and Support of the Confederacy by Southern Baptists,” American Baptist Quarterly 17, 1 (March 1987): 17-31. Chesebrough examined eleven associational meetings, eight state meetings, five sermons, two national meetings, and no local church records. 2 reticence toward political activity because of widespread Baptist support of the separation of church and state. Martin Lyndon McMahone further qualified Harvey’s conclusions in arguing that Baptists in the Civil War era were willing to allow the state to recognize Christianity if no