This a rather incidental note in Baptist history, but it is a part of a much more significant and, sadly, forgotten piece of American history.
John William Jones was born in Virginia on September 25, 1836. He was born again as a teenager. In 1855 he entered the University of Virginia, and following that, matriculated as the first student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Greenville. South Carolina, intending after graduation to go to China as a missionary. On this day in 1860 John Jones married Judith Helm. After a few months of further education and preparation for the mission field, the plans of the young couple were changed by the War between the States.
John enlisted as a private in the Confederate army, but he was soon appointed as a chaplain and began serving as an army evangelist. Brother Jones later wrote of his ministry under the title “Christ in the Camp.” He with other evangelists were used of God to bring thousands, perhaps as many as a hundred thousand, southern soldiers to a saving faith in Christ. Published in 1887 Jones wrote “Any history of this army which omits an account of the wonderful influence of religion upon it – which fails to tell how the courage, discipline, and morale was influenced by the humble piety and evangelical zeal of many of its officers and men – would be incomplete and unsatisfactory.” “It is believed that no army in the world’s history ever had in it so much of genuine, devout piety, so much of active work for Christ, as the Army of Northern Virginia, under the command of our Christian leaders.” “None but the most severe revisionists in America would dare deny the fact that both General Robert E. Lee and General Stonewall Jackson were born-again believers.” Jones then quoted General Lee, “I can only say that I am nothing but a poor sinner, trusting in Christ alone for salvation.”
On the cover of the volume from which I gleaned this note is a picture of a baptismal service on the Rapidan River where members of the Virginia 13th were being baptized by a man wearing a rebel cap. On shore, beside a Confederate flag, a fiddler was playing “There is a fountain filled with blood.” And across the river, within striking distance is depicted a large company of Union soldiers peacefully watching the event.