With the end of the Civil War in 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Augusta to assist in establishing peace. As slavery's legal and economic defenses collapsed, the Springfield church emerged as a religious, social and political forum for black Augustans. By 1880, Springfield's membership surpassed 1200 congregants. Throughout the Emancipation and Reconstruction eras, Springfield members played leading roles in the formation of the Georgia Equal Rights Association, the establishment of an office of the Freedmen's Bureau, the development of schools, and the publication of the Colored American and Loyal Georgian newspapers. In the aftermath of the Civil War, African Americans in Augusta and around the South gathered in conventions and meetings to deliberate upon the meaning of emancipation and citizenship, and during Reconstruction the Springfield sanctuary served as an important venue for many of these events and programs. On January 10, 1866, thousands of African American residents and the friends of equal justice in Georgia attended a Freedmen's Convention at Springfield Baptist Church to consult together on securing the rights of citizenship for people only recently freed from bondage.