Historical News and Views from the Empire State
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
Was the early United States a “Christian nation?” Did most of its citizenry accept God and the Bible as the moral authority that bound them together as one nation?
Scholars have taken a binary stance on these questions. Some argue that early America was a thoroughly religious place and that even those who didn’t attend church were on the same basic page as those who did. While others argue early America boasted an increasingly secularized society.
The next North Country Civil War Round Table, presented by Carol Opdyke and Stan Maine has been set for Sunday, November 18th, at 2 pm, at the St. Lawrence County Historical Association, 3 E. Main Street, Canton, and will focus on John Mills and the letters he wrote to his family during the Civil War.
John R. Mills was born in Canada in 1826 and moved to Gouverneur as a young man, where he married and became a blacksmith. During the Civil War, he served in the 60th NYSV Infantry, based out of Ogdensburg, as a corporal and then a second lieutenant, and despite being wounded and falling ill, he returned home to his family in 1865. [Read more…] about Civil War Letters Subject of Canton Round Table
Two new episodes of the Capital District Civil War Round Table Podcast are now available.
In the October episode, Gerrit Smith biographer Norman K. Dann discussed his book Practical Dreamer: Gerrit Smith and the Crusade for Social Reform. Recorded from Smith’s Land Office in Peterboro, New York, Dann talked about Smith’s activism, philanthropy, involvement in politics, and his relationship with John Brown. [Read more…] about Civil War Podcasts Feature Gerrit Smith, Wartime Romance
A Historic Roadside Marker Dedication at the Cattaraugus Count Civil War Memorial Building has been set for Sunday, November 11, 2018, at 2 pm, at the Cattaraugus County Civil War Memorial Building at the corner of Seventh and Court Streets, Little Valley. [Read more…] about Cattaraugus Civil War Memorial Historic Marker Unveiling
The next St. Lawrence County Civil War Round Table has been set for Sunday, October 28th, at 2 pm. Adam Bollt will present “Distinction Despite Disadvantage: The Story of George B. Swan,” at the St. Lawrence County Historical Association, 3 E. Main Street Canton.
George B. Swan, a successful businessman of the mid-1800s, resided in Potsdam, NY, but hid a secret about his identity. Years after the end of the Civil War and an abundance of personal successes, Swan finally revealed that he was not white, but in fact was mixed race. [Read more…] about The Secret Identity of George B. Swan
The Fort Plain Museum is set to host “Kill Jeff Davis: The Union Raid on Richmond, 1864,” a presentation by Bruce M. Venter, on Thursday, October 18th, 2018 at 7 pm.
The goal of the controversial Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid on Richmond (February 28–March 3, 1864) was to free some 13,000 Union prisoners of war held in the Confederate capital. But orders found on the dead body of the raid’s subordinate commander, Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, point instead to a plot to capture or kill Confederate president Jefferson Davis and set Richmond ablaze. What really happened, and how and why, are debated to this day. [Read more…] about Kill Jeff Davis: The Union Raid on Richmond
The Lincoln Depot Museum has announced the first event of their fall line-up has been set for Thursday, October 18th, 2018 at 7:30 pm. This living history talk will be led by Bill Wienecke, and focus on the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry.
The 5th New York Volunteer Infantry, also known as “Duryée’s Zouaves”, was a volunteer infantry regiment of the Union Army, during the American Civil War, led by Colonel Abram Duryée. Modeled, like other Union and Confederate infantry regiments, on the French Zouaves of Crimean War fame, its tactics and uniforms were different from those of the standard infantry. [Read more…] about Peekskill Talk: The 5th NY Infantry ‘Duryée’s Zouaves’
Civil War Ancestors will be the topic of the next Civil War Roundtable dinner meeting, and set for September 23rd at Sergi’s Banquet Hall on Market Street in Potsdam, beginning at 5:30 pm.
Speaker Derek Maxfield, associate professor of history at Genesee Community College in Batavia, will tell the stories of six men who fought in the Civil War. Three of these men were from St. Lawrence County and served in local regiments, including the 13th NY Cavalry, Co. B., and the 11th NY Cavalry, Co. G. [Read more…] about Potsdam Civil War Ancestors Dinner
Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site is set to host “A Common Sailor’s Life During the Civil War” on Saturday August 18th, from 10 am to 4 pm.
John Dellapenna, a US Navy veteran and US Navy Civil War sailor re-enactor, along “Ships Company,” the premier Civil War navy re-enactment group who serve on board the 1855 sloop-of-war USS Constellation in Baltimore will portray US soldiers and sailors from the Civil War era. [Read more…] about A Common Civil War Sailor’s Life at Sackets Harbor