1842 THE 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: Address on the Day of Humiliation Appointed by the General Assembly; The Country and People of Afghanistan; The Mission at Allahabad [Lengthy Series]; On the Children of Missionaries; Mission to the Creek Indians; The Furrukhabad Mission; Mission to the Indians of Iowa; Qualifications of a Missionary Wife; Letters from R. W. Orr of the China Mission [Series]; The Want of Prayer; Dangers of Missionary Work in Indiana; Remains of Primitive Revelation among the Heathen; Missionary Correspondence from the Sandwich Islands [ Hawaii ]; Letters from the Siamese Mission; The Texas Mission; Letter from Dr. Archibald Alexander on Missions; Interesting Results of Itinerating Labors; Domestic Missionary Communications from Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia; etc., 

Special accounts of revivals on the mission field, including awakenings in Orange Co., New York; Halifax Co., Virginia; Monongalia Co., West Virginia; Pickaway Co., Ohio; Rev. W. S. Rogers of Hawaii with a First Hand Account of the Revival on the Sandwich Islands; A Season of Special Revival at the Mission Room Meetings in Philadelphia; Revival in Carroll Co., Tennessee; etc., 

A significant amount of content on slavery, including first-hand accounts of its effects in Africa by missionaries; Slavery and Afghanistan; Christians of Madagascar Sold as Slaves; etc., 

Anonymous. The Missionary Chronicle: Containing the Proceedings of the Board of Foreign Missions and the Board of Missions for the Presbyterian Church: and a General View of the Benevolent Operations. Vol. X...1842. New-York: Missions House. 1842. 384pp.

[Bound With]

Anonymous. The Fifth 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. 1842. 39pp.

A good copy, bound in half leather, generally solid, though a bit dry. Generally bright pages and light to moderate foxing.