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Now to give you an idea of
what kind of man the good reverend was,
Archibald Thomas Robertson paid tribute to
the abiding strength and wisdom of the
minister in "Life and Letters of John
Albert Broaddus" when he wrote:
Dr. Wm. F. Broaddus was a
minister of great power. He left a deep
impress on religious life in Virginia and
Kentucky. Like most of the Baptist
ministers of his time, he had limited
opportunities for education, yet he added
great industry to his unusual gifts. He
was the warm friend of ministerial
education and for some time acted as agent
for the Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary. He began preaching in Culpeper
at the age of twenty in the early part of
the century. He wrote an autobiography
covering seven large manuscript volumes,
but this was unfortunately burned with his
house at Shelbyville, Ky. Once more he
recorded his recollections, which were
again destroyed in Fredericksburg when the
town was captured by the Federal troops in
1862. In his closing years he again
prepared brief reminiscences which have
been preserved. Virginia Baptists and the
whole South owe Dr. Wm. F. Broaddus a debt
for his bold advocacy of the mission
enterprise against the "Hardshell " or "
Black Rock " element of the denomination,
which was very strong in all Piedmont
Virginia, the Valley and the
Mountains.
According to the testimony
of Lucy Ann Broaddus, an account of his
forced incarceration stated:
On July 29, 1862, while
walking along Main Street, Broaddus was
arrested by the Federals and was taken to
Old Capital Prison in Washington pending
an exchange with Confederate prisoners.
News traveled to the Broaddus home on that
July day and Lucy and a slave, Hattie,
came to bid farewell. In the words of
Broaddus, the farewell was 'a trial I
would fain have escaped.' For the next two
months Lucy Ann sent packages of
provisions to her husband. Eventually he
was released and the welcoming was another
tender scene.
Now on a personal note,
when I first read of this incident, I
immediately judged it unfairly as a
hostage situation, but after discussing
the incident with the NPS folks, I came to
learn that the good reverend was actually
one of 19 people who were abducted in
direct retaliation for the arrest of four
local Unionist citizens who were captured
by the Confederate Army. In other words,
they had every intention of using them as
bargaining chips to negotiate the
surrender of their own people.
Not surprisingly, Rev.
Broaddus looked to his situation as an
opportunity to minister. He therefore
conducted Sunday services amidst the
stockade of Federal prison. Among his
comrades were several fellow members of
the Fredericksburg Baptist Church. In
August, he wrote as if the spirit of Saint
Paul, who had also been imprisoned
unjustly, filled him. He said quote:
This is a beautiful
morning! Oh how I long to be home. I find
myself unconsciously conning a sermon. But
I look around me and see nothing but dark
walls and iron bars for my Sabbath temple.
How long shall this cruel imprisonment
last? Well perhaps I deserve it all or not
having prized liberty as I ought to have
done while I enjoyed it.
One of the people that
Broaddus met while incarcerated was none
other than the famous female Confederate
spy, Ms. Belle Boyd. He remarked that she
was "graceful" and that he could not help
"admiring the spirit of patriotism, which
seems to control her conduct, although
much of romance is no doubt mixed with her
patriotism."
Eventually, the preacher
was granted a temporary parole pass to
travel to the Confederate capital of
Richmond, in order to negotiate a prisoner
exchange. Broaddus was successful in his
mission, arranging for the release of 25
Unionists, whose capture had initiated his
entire ordeal. However, instead of
immediately returning to the stronghold,
the reverend took a detour to his hometown
of Fredericksburg.
He stopped at his beloved
Baptist church to participate in a service
and visit with members of his congregation
until the early hours of the next morning.
Then he surrendered himself to a Union
soldier and requested to be taken back to
the prison in Washington immediately.
Instead of receiving the anticipated
release for himself and his comrades, the
pastor was sent back to his cell, where he
waited for another two weeks before being
set free.
Another contribution
courtesy of Rev. Broaddus was the guiding
hand that initiated the construction of
the new church. This event, however,
resulted in a controversial split between
the black and the white members of the
congregation. After an uncomfortable
period of uncertainly, an amicable
solution resulted in the birth of two
independent churches.
At the time the expansion
was proposed, there were approximately 625
African-American members in the
Fredericksburg Baptist congregation. This
group, made up of both free and slave
blacks, had been granted permission to
attend services on Sunday at the same time
as they attended. In 1854, tensions began
to develop between the two races, and
their separation appeared to be a foregone
conclusion. I myself was very shocked when
I realized how integrated southern
churches appeared to be years before the
war. Unfortunately, none of them would
stay that way following the call to
secession.
A pledge drive was
established to assist in financing the
construction of a newer and larger
building. Despite their limited resources,
and given their social situation, the
minority members were able to raise an
impressive sum of money. In the
congregational minutes book that was dated
for September 28, 1855, it reads that the
congregation's "colored brethren and
sisters" pledged $1,100.
SPACER
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