Bethesda Presbyterian Church is a historic church in Russellville, Tennessee, US, that was used as a hospital during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. It is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

History

Bethesda Presbyterian Church was organized in 1832. The church building was completed in 1835. It is a brick building equipped with high-back wooden pews and an "ornate" wooden

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

. As the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

approached, the congregants' sympathies were divided between the Union and

secession Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...

ist sides. The split led the church to suspend activity until after the hostilities ended. Some 25,000

Confederate Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fi ...

soldiers under the command of General

James Longstreet James Longstreet (January 8, 1821January 2, 1904) was a General officers in the Confederate States Army, Confederate general during the American Civil War and was the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Ho ...

arrived at the church in December 1863 to spend the winter, after the Battle of Bean's Station. They remained there until February 1864 and used the church building as a hospital. Military engagements occurred near the church in both October and November 1864. In the Battle of Morristown (also known as "Vaughn's Stampede") in October, Union forces under General Alvan C. Gillem attacked Confederate troops commanded by General John C. Vaughn, causing them to retreat to Carter's Station on the

Watauga River The Watauga River () is a large stream of western North Carolina and East Tennessee. It is long with its headwaters in Linville Gap to the South Fork Holston River at Boone Lake. Course The Watauga River rises from a spring located south to ...

. In the Battle of Bull's Gap (also known as “Gillem's Stampede”) in November, Confederate forces under General John C. Breckinridge and Vaughn prevailed over Gillem's troops, chasing the Union forces westward to a defensive position near

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...

. During one of these skirmishes, a

cannonball A round shot (also called solid shot or simply ball) is a solid spherical projectile without explosive charge, launched from a gun. Its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the barrel from which it is shot. A round shot fired from a lar ...

penetrated one of the church walls, causing structural damage that was repaired by reinforcing the walls with large iron rods. The Union Army used the church as a hospital for soldiers wounded in these operations. Many soldiers from both sides are interred in the church cemetery. Eighty of the wartime burials are unidentified. Worship services resumed after the war ended, but church members could not reconcile their political differences. Confederate and Union supporters sat on different sides of the church, separated by empty pews. In 1871, one group walked out together; they then joined the Presbyterian Church of Morristown. The other group continued to worship at Bethesda Presbyterian Church until 1875, when they closed Bethesda and left to become part of the new Russellville Presbyterian Church.

Modern status

The church was added to the

in 1973. The church building and its

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

are maintained by members of a local chapter of the

Sons of Confederate Veterans The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is an American neo-Confederate nonprofit organization of male descendants of Confederate soldiers that commemorates these ancestors, funds and dedicates monuments to them, and promotes the pseudohisto ...

. In 2011, a pair of local teenagers vandalized the church and its cemetery, breaking windows and defacing gravestones. It currently has a Civil War Trails sign that signifies its usage in the

and a plaque honoring the fallen Civil War veterans.

References

External links

* * {{National Register of Historic Places Presbyterian churches in Tennessee Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee Churches completed in 1835 19th-century Presbyterian church buildings in the United States American Civil War hospitals Buildings and structures in Hamblen County, Tennessee 1875 disestablishments in Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Hamblen County, Tennessee American Civil War cemeteries