The War Between the States 1861-1865 devastated lives and families North and South. The Church was no less impacted than the nation and Lutheranism was no exclusion. When a "divided nation" became a reality, denominations also splintered. The Lutheran churches in the secessionist states formed the "Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Confederate States of America" and separated from the General Synod North as it came to be known.In order to facilitate communications among its approximate 70,000 members(one in three Lutherans lived in the CSA), the new Southern church began its own publication in 1861, "The Southern Lutheran." It was published first in Charleston, SC, then moved to Columbia, SC, in 1863.
With the motto, "Endeavoring to Keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace," it focused on everything from evangelism and the inculcation of piety to news stories about the war to poetry and humor. The only significant collection of the newspaper is located at the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, KY, but some copies are also held by Duke University in Durham, NC, and the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC. Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, SC, has microfilm copies of the Louisville collection.
I have read every copy at LTSS and would like to utilize this web site to share some of its sentiments with interested people in the 21st century.
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