Salem Church

During one of my visits to the Chancellorsville Battlefield (although there are four battlefields within just a few miles of each other, I keep finding myself drawn to Chancellorsville) I took a little side trip over to the Salem Church. It seems that during the Battle of Chancellorsville, my great great grandfathers regiment started off fighting at Marye's Heights in Fredericksburg but ended up at the Salem Church (about 4 or 5 miles from Chancellorsville). So I had to go see where "Grandpa Peter" fought.

This is on the marker at the church:
Spotsylvania Baptists built this church in 1844 and named it Salem, a Biblical word meaning peace. Two decades later, Salem Church was engulfed by war. Initially the church had just 29 members, but by 1859 the number had risen to 77, 20 of whom were black. Black worshippers entered the church through a separate door - still visible to your left - that led to a separate gallery. White members entered through the main entrance, women to the left, men to the right.
The Civil War wreaked havoc on Salem Church. Members returning in 1866 found bloodstained floors, bullet-scarred walls, and more than 100 bodies buried on the grounds. Undeterred, they refurbished the property and resumed worship services here. In time the church's needs outgrew the building, and its members erected a new building next door. They donated the older structure to the National Park Service in 1961.

In today's society, having a separate entrance for the black members of the church is extremely sad....I'm sure it was sad back then also.....but it seems remarkable that in the late 1850's and early 1860's that a church in the south (although not the deep south) actually had a mixed congregation. But then, I'm not that up to date with church histories throughout the 19th century...so I could be way off on these thoughts.

One thing that I noticed about this church was that although it sits right on Rt. 3, its off by itself. You have to do some twisting and turning in order to get to the church and even then, its on a dead end road. I like this. Some of the best historic sites are "off the beaten path"....these are the ones that no one seems to really know about and you have it all to yourself.

The church is a 2 story brick building, but not very big....I can see why they would need to build a new church building....there just wasn't room for it to grow. To me, it doesn't look any different than a 2 story brick house...a large brick house....but a house, nonetheless.

I can see why they would name it Salem (peace) because as I stood there looking at this church, knowing a bit of the history, I still felt peaceful. Some battlefields give me that impression and some still feel like the battle is happening yet. It wasn't that way here at the Salem Church, there was a sadness to the building but very peaceful despite the traffic on Rt. 3.

I look forward to my next trip down that way because one of my stops will definitely be at the Salem Church.