My business was to fight the Devil

by Adam Wallace

My Business Was to Fight the Devil is the fascinating story of Adam Wallace, a young Irish Methodist circuit rider who travelled alone from Ireland to Philadelphia and spent eighteen years on the Peninsula during the antebellum and Civil War years. Regional, church and social historians as well as genealogists will find this book packed with exciting treasures. Some will recognize Wallace as the author of The Parson of the Islands, which contains the interesting story of Joshua Thomas, who preached to the British occupation army on Tangier Island during the War of 1812. Thomas became a legend because of his warning the British that if they went to Baltimore they would be defeated. Their defeat convinced the local people that Thomas was a prophet, and shortly before Thomas died he predicted that Wallace would write his biography. Ten years later Wallace was surprised by a strange set of circumstances which sent him back to the same area. During a snow storm that immobilized him for a mo