1840 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 missionary material related to work in Abyssinia; extensive on missions in Africa; The Presbyterian Mission at Allahabad; Correspondence from J. P. Alward of South Africa; Mission at Ambala; The Seaman's Friend Society; Opening for Missions among the Ashantees; American Baptist Missionaries; Missionary Stations in Borneo; Rev. W. P. Buell sails for Siam; Mission Stations in Burmah; Opium being Sold by Christians in China; Report of the Mission Stations in Egypt; Missionary Work in the Feejee Islands [ Fiji ]; State of the Jews in France; Missionary Work in the Friendly Islands; New Order of Hindu Murderers; Missionary Work among the Indians in Texas; among the Iowas and Ottawas; H. Gregory's Accounts of Native Americans; Missions in Java; London Jews' Society; Moravians Missions in Greenland and Labrador; Missions at Mauritius and Madagascar; The Murder of Missionaries; Triumphs of the Gospel in the Navigator Islands; Description of Various Locations in Palestine; Translation of Tracts into Panjabi; Multiple Articles on Missions in the Sandwich Islands [ Hawaii ]; The Murder of John Williams [important early account]; Influence of the Gospel in Tahiti, etc. etc. 

Special accounts of revivals on the mission field, including an account of a spiritual awakening at Krisnaghur; another at Albany, South Africa; account of a "gracious revival" in the Georgian Islands; etc. 

A significant amount of content on slavery, including accounts of African tribes engaged in the slave trade, Sierra Leone; two dollar slaves to be had in Zanzibar; the slave trade depopulating portions of Africa; the West Owes Africa Material and Moral Reparations for the Slave Trade; etc. etc. 

Engravings include of The Temple of Siva at Nassuck; Pagoda and Temple at Gya; Avatars of Vishnu; The Hindu Triad; etc. 

Anonymous. The 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 VIII. Published Monthly Under the Direction of the Executive Committee. New York. Published by Robert Carter. 1840. 328pp.

[Bound With]

Anonymous. The Annual Report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, in the United States of America. New-York. Published for the Board. 1840. 32pp.

A good - copy, bound in half leather; heat damage and dry to spine, lacking spine label; generally solid, with moderate foxing.