1839 FOREIGN MISSIONARY CHRONICLE. Owned Presbyterian Civil War Union Spy & Saboteur

Own a piece of Presbyterian history deeply associated with the Civil War.

The present missionary annual is excellent in its own right, and the provenance is a snapshot reminding us of the fascinating variety of roles played clergy during the War between the States. 

Boldy signed on the ffep, Wm Blount Carter. That would be William Blount Carter [1820-1902]. He was an American Presbyterian minister who intentionally positioned himself in Tennessee to engage in spy-craft and, ultimately, sabotage against the Confederate and Pro-Slavery cause.

Born in Elizabethton, Tennessee, his entire family were Southern Unionists, his brothers becoming officers in the Union Army during the War. He left Tennessee to study theology at Princeton. He pastored at Rogersville, TN until ill-health forced him to return to Elizabethton. An avid abolitionist, he voted for Fairmont in 1856 and Lincoln in 1860.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, he returned to preaching and offered himself as Chaplain to local churches filled with Confederate troops, all the while listening for information, and engaging in guerrilla warfare against the Southern cause. 

His most ambitious action was that of the Tennessee Bridge Burnings of 1861, thereby cutting off supplies and fresh troop movements to Tennessee. It is thought that he proposed the plan to the Federal Government and that it was approved and ordered by Abraham Lincoln himself. 

By 1862, it was considered too dangerous for him, and he and and others, including Parson Brownlow, etc., were evacuated. 

Contents include: Accounts of Missionary Work in Sierra Leone; Missionary Work in Liberia; Extensive Accounts from the Moravian / United Brethren Missionaries in Greenland; Extensive Memoir of Jan Kapitein - Coranna Chief at Umbukani South Africa; Journal of the Rev. John Wilson at Subathu India; Fine Engraving of a Hindu Temple at Goruckhnath; Discourse - Missions the Chief End of the Church; Extensive Memoir of Early Puritan Missionary to the Native Americans, John Eliot; Missionary Work of the Jews Society, at Siberia; Letter from J. A. Mitchell of the China Mission; On the Naming and Educating of Heathen Children; Krishna and His Attendants [with a fine engraving]; Missions at Ceylon, Polynesia, and the South American Islands; On the Death of J. A. Mitchell of China; Visit of a Missionary to the Indians of Canada [Fine Engraving with Dog Sled, etc.]; Memoir of Abdool Messeeh; History of the New Zealand Mission; Letters from P. Dougherty of the Ottawa and Chippewa Missions; The Piety of Karen Christians; The Effects of Missionaries on the Aboriginees; Continued Persecution in Madagascar; Persecution of Karen Christians; The New Zealand War Expedition [with Fine New Zealand Warrior Boat Engraving]; The Hindu Goddess Kalee [Kali]; Iowa and Michigan Indian Missions; Extensive Series of the Journal of R. W. Orr of China; Memoir of Mowhee - Convert of New Zealand; The Devil of the Bulloms of West Africa [Illustrated]; Reproductions of Various Metal Chinese Types by Missionaries]; Dr. Alexander Duff's Missionary Sermon; Journal of Samuel Farman of the London Jews' Society; Missions among the Sioux Indians; Letter from Bishop Polk of Texas; etc. etc. 

Special accounts of revivals on the mission field, including among the Wyandot Indians, among the Seneca Tribe, Extensive Series on the Revival in Hawaii [more than 5,000 added to the Church; "The revival is without precedent," "We wonder whether anything like this has ever been"], etc. 

A significant amount of content on slavery, including: The Role of the Western Slave Trade in Increasing Tribalism in Africa; Memoir of Hadara - An Abyssinian Youth Sold Into Slavery [slave-ships, etc.]; The Abolition of the Slave Trade at Madagascar; The Bulloms near Sierra Leone sold to Slave-Traders [with a full page associated engraving]; etc.

Various. The Foreign Missionary Chronicle: Containing a Particular Account of the Proceedings of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, and a General View of the Transactions of Other Similar Institutions. Volume VII. Published Monthly Under the Direction of the Executive Committee. New-York: Robert Carter. 1839. 384pp.

[Bound With]

Various. Second Annual Report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, in the United States of America. May, 1842. New-York. Published for the Board. 1839. 44pp.

A good copy, bound in half leather, generally solid, with moderate foxing and occasional stains.