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Table of Contents:
Chapter
47
: freedmen's aid societies and an act of congress creating a Bureau of refugees, freedmen and abandoned lands
Chapter
55
:
first
appropriation by congress for the bureau; the reconstruction Act,
March
2
,
1867
; increase of educational work
Chapter
60
: opposition to Bureau and reconstruction work became personal; the
Congregational Church of
Washington
Chapter
62
: life in
Washington, D. C.
,
1866
to
1874
; assigned to duty in regular army as commander,
Department of the Columbia
Chapter
63
: in the
Northwest
, among the
Indians
; trip to
Alaska
; life in
Portland, Ore.
;
1874
to
1881
Chapter
64
: superintendent of the
United States military Academy
; commanding
Department of the Platte
,
Omaha, Neb.
Chapter
68
:
French
army maneuvers,
1884
; promotion to
Major General
,
United States army
,
San Francisco
1886
-
88
“ [426] times tried the Congregational form of church organization, but had always failed I Now surely, as slavery is dead we can succeed.” This is the substance of their speech. I assented to their request. It was my own church, and I was glad to cast in my lot with the few courageous souls that were starting the first bona fide Congregational Church at the capital. There seemed to be a general understanding that there should now be no distinctions in our church relationship on account of color. Equal rights in church government, equal for all. Rev. Charles B. Boynton, D. D., then chaplain of the House of Representatives, lately from Cincinnati, the chosen historian of the navy, a man of marked ability, and one who had been distinguished as an “old-line abolitionist,” was called as the first pastor. His son, General H. V. Boynton, of the volunteer army, had come to Washington as a correspondent for the press. He was in daily telegraphic communication with the Cincinnati Gazette, and corresponded with other papers. He then lived at the home of his parents in the city. There was a small church party, after we had grown to fifty or sixty in number, who clung very strongly to New England traditions and church organization. This party often opposed the pastor, but ut first with no noticeable exhibition of feeling, more than is manifested in the usual controversial spirit of our people. There was no important division of sentiment, and I did not take sides with the one party or the other. For a year or more the First Congregational Church greatly prospered. It worshiped sometimes in a hall of the city and sometimes in the hall of the House of Representatives. A large number of the members seriously objected to the latter as a place of worship.
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