On March 31st, the Friends of Grant Cottage held their Annual Meeting at Saratoga Spa State Park. The meeting is held every spring to discuss the financial standing of the Cottage and their achievements from the previous year, as well as news and special events for the upcoming season. [Read more…] about Friends of Grant Cottage Marking 30 Years
Civil War
Fenian Irish Raids On Canada Historian Speaking In NYC
Christopher Klein, author of When the Irish Invaded Canada: The Incredible True Story of the Civil War Veterans Who Fought for Ireland’s Freedom (Doubleday, 2019), is set to share the true story of the Civil War veterans who fought for Ireland’s freedom by launching attacks on Canada, on Monday, April 8 at 6:30 pm at the American Irish Historical Society in New York City. [Read more…] about Fenian Irish Raids On Canada Historian Speaking In NYC
Historic Preservation Progress At Imperiled Civil War Memorial
In a posting here on November 22, 2015 (“An Imperiled Civil War Memorial”), I related the history to that date of the Cattaraugus County Memorial and Historical Building in Little Valley. More than two hundred Civil War veterans attended the dedication of the Memorial and Historical Building in September 1914. The inscription on a plaque above the entrance defined the Memorial as the county’s most significant Civil War monument: “To the memory of its soldiers and sailors in the War of the Rebellion, this building is erected by Cattaraugus County.” [Read more…] about Historic Preservation Progress At Imperiled Civil War Memorial
David Hochfelder on the Telegraph in America
The latest episode of the Capital District Civil War Round Table Podcast features SUNY Albany professor David Hochfelder discussing his book The Telegraph in America, 1832-1920.
The telegraph was a revolutionary technology that had far-reaching effects on American life. Hochfelder talked about Samuel Morse, the use of the telegraph in the Civil War, the rise of Western Union, and the mode of communitcaion’s decline. [Read more…] about David Hochfelder on the Telegraph in America
Civilian View of War: Civil War Round Table in Canton
The next North Country Civil War Round Table is set for Sunday, February 17th, 2 pm at the St. Lawrence County Historical Association. Dr. Thomas Baker, Zacharey Blackmer, and Emma Woolley and will look at the life of John Raymond, a civilian during the Civil War.
John Raymond of Potsdam was not a soldier: he sold lumber and farmed, and was a little too old for enlisting when the Civil War broke out. However, his position as a prosperous merchant allowed and required him to travel, making his surviving correspondence an illuminating source of a civilian’s view of the events unfurling around the country. [Read more…] about Civilian View of War: Civil War Round Table in Canton
Lewis County: What Happened to Eben Rice in Martinsburg
Eben Muir Rice may not be familiar to anyone except descendants of Luther Rice and Ebenezer Muir, but he was familiar with Martinsburg, New York. He lived there in 1860, when James Buchanan was in his final days as President and Southern states were threatening to leave the Union.
Eben was twenty years old, working hard at a new job, writing to his “darling girl” Mary Ann, visiting his relatives, attending church. And he was keeping a diary of his ambitions, passions, tribulations-soul-searching accounts of things he thought no one would ever see. But the value of Eben’s diary extends beyond his own life, for he wrote of the people of Lewis County. [Read more…] about Lewis County: What Happened to Eben Rice in Martinsburg
Charles Darwin and the Civil War Talk Set for Canton
The next North Country Civil War Round Table will feature Jan Wojcik, and has been set for Sunday, January 27th, at 2 pm at the St. Lawrence County Historical Association.
Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859, and American abolitionists, biologists, and Northern politicians immediately found it to provide the first scientific rationale for what had previously been a moral and religious argument: that all human beings had the same ancestry, and that differences in appearance resulted only from different environments. Within a short time, Southern editorials and reviews condemned Darwin for denying their fundamental belief that black slaves were an inferior species to whites. [Read more…] about Charles Darwin and the Civil War Talk Set for Canton
New Book Highlights African American Civil War Service
A new book by independent researcher and author Marjory Allen Perez, Freedom, A Shared Sacrifice! tells the stories of Western New York’s African American Civil War soldiers and their families.
Freedom, A Shared Sacrifice! focuses on soldiers from Western New York who joined black regiments between 1863 and 1865. Beginning with the men who traveled from New York in the spring of 1863 to enlist in the 54th Massachusetts, subjects of the movie Glory, the author documents the history of black regiments raised in the North, as well the soldiers who took part in the epic battle to save the Union and end slavery. [Read more…] about New Book Highlights African American Civil War Service
Latest Capital District Civil War Round Table Podcast
The latest episode of the Capital District Civil War Round Table Podcast features Appomattox National Historical Park historian Patrick Schroeder. Patrick talked about the 5th New York, the Appomattox campaign, and Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House. [Read more…] about Latest Capital District Civil War Round Table Podcast
Albany’s Sheridan Statue Sculptor Daniel Chester French
The latest episode of the Capital District Civil War Round Table Podcast features Harold Holzer discussing his book Monument Man: The Life & Art of Daniel Chester French.
French was “one of America’s most prolific sculptors of public monuments,” who created The Minute Man in Concord, Harvard University’s John Harvard, and the statue of Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial. [Read more…] about Albany’s Sheridan Statue Sculptor Daniel Chester French