The Church of the United Brethren in Christ officially organized in 1800, making it the first denomination born on American soil, rather than transplanted from Europe. Twenty years later, they became one of the first denominations to take a strong stand against slavery. While other church groups compromised in order to expand into the South and accommodate slave owners, the United Brethren never wavered from their abolitionist mindset. They steadfastly denounced slavery and forbid members to own slaves. Many United Brethren members, including a bishop and college president, helped smuggle slaves to freedom as part of the Underground Railroad. When the Civil War began, United Brethren had been staunchly abolitionist for 40 years. Not surprisingly, they threw their support fully behind the Union. They saw it as an opportunity to, once and for all, end slavery. Erie Conference, in northwest Pennsylvania, provided the title for this book, as they called people to pray for an end to “the blighting curse of slavery.” To this day, debates rage about the causes of the Civil War and the motives of soldiers on both sides. For most Northerners, the war was, at least initially, about preserving the Union and defeating treason. But for the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, it was always about slavery. They commonly called it “the slaveholders’ rebellion.” The United Brethren denomination's highest governing body, General Conference, met every four years. The entire Civil War occurred between sessions of the General Conference. The 1861 meeting began one month after the attack on Fort Sumter, and the 1865 meeting occurred one month after the surrender of Robert E. Lee. In between, 620,000 American soldiers died. Thousands of United Brethren men served in the Union Army, and hundreds of them died. This book tells the stories of many of these persons. This is not a book about the Civil War, per se, but about United Brethren people amidst the war. There are so many stories to tell. A United Brethren minister was the chaplain in Libby Prison, and participated in the war's most famous prison escape. - A future minister served aboard the USS Monitor. - United Brethren men rode with George Armstrong Custer during the Civil War, and one died with him at the Little Big Horn. - Famed explorer Henry Morton Stanley was nursed back to health by a United Brethren family. - We tell the stories of seven Medal of Honor recipients. - UB men served as officers in Colored regiments. - UB colleges saw scores of men drop out to enlist in the army. - United Brethren men fought in the Hornet's Nest at Shiloh, stormed rebel defenses at Fredericksburg and Vicksburg, and defended Cemetery Ridge and Little Round Top at Gettysburg. - A United Brethren minister was the first person killed during the bloody raid on Lawrence, Kansas. So, so many stories to tell.