ST. JOHN’S LUTHERAN CHURCH
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Community Sacrifice
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During the Civil War, about two hundred mem¬
bers of St. John’s Lutheran Church served in at
least eight Confederate army units. The units
included companies in the 8th, 20th, 33rd, 52nd,
and 57th North Carolina Infantry regiments, as
well as a company in the 1st North Carolina Cav¬
alry. Church members were engaged in at least
194 different skirmishes, battles, and campaigns.
These included Manassas, Mechanicsville, Freder¬
icksburg, Chancellorsville, Winchester, Peters¬
burg, and Appomattox Court House, Virginia;
Confederate Reunion in front of St. John's Schoolhouse. ca. 1905
Courtesy Ellen Eich
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Charles¬
ton, South Carolina; Harpers
Ferry, West Virginia; Antietam,
Maryland; and numerous battles in
the eastern part of North Carolina.
The 2nd Regiment Detailed Men,
with members of the congregation,
served as guards in the prisoner-
of-war camp in Salisbury.
Approximately a hundred
Civil War veterans are buried in the
St. John’s cemetery. The congrega¬
tion lost about one hundred men
to wartime deaths. Most of the dead
were buried on the battlefield or
in prisoner-of-war camps. Here in
Cabarrus County, women, children,
and the elderly found operating their farms and
meeting the daily obligations of life stressful with
so many of their men away in the army. Sacrifices
and challenges on and off the battlefield trans¬
formed the St. John’s congregation, and it took
the members many years to recover.
St. John’s Lutheran Church, ca. 1880 - Courtesy The St. John’s, Archive
St. John’s Lutheran Church was organized by 1745 as Dutch Buffalo
Creek Meeting House. The present sanctuary was constructed in 1845.
Revolutionary patriots who fought at the Battle of Moore’s Creek
Bridge in North Carolina, Camden in South Carolina, and in several
other actions are buried in the older part of the cemetery. The grave¬
yard also contains the remains of pioneers, bishops, pastors, and
former slaves. The first full-time Lutheran pastor in North Carolina,
German native Adolph Nussmann, is buried here.
