After my brother-in-law and his family went to that education rally last month, as did The Wife, we all, including the Daughter, went to the State Museum, one of my favorite places. My wife and her brother took all the kids to the carousel, and his wife and I actually got to see the exhibits.
A couple of them were about the Civil War. I Shall Think of You Often: The Civil War Story of Doctor and Mary Tarbell is rather interesting.
The pivotal display, one that will also be there until September 22, 2013, was An Irrepressible Conflict: The Empire State in the Civil War. “As the wealthiest and most populous state, the Empire State led all others in supplying men, money, and materiel to the causes of unity and freedom. New York’s experience provides significant insight into the reasons why the war was fought and the meaning that the Civil War holds today.”
Even if you can’t make it to Albany, check out the ONLINE FEATURE created for this exhibition. There’s a section on Antebellum New York; the state did not eliminate slavery until 1827.
The part on the Civil War itself has information on each year of the conflict. The picture above is from the July 1-3, 1863 conflict known as Gettysburg. There were at least 23,000 casualties on each side, with 6,800 coming from New York. Over 3,100 Union and 4,700 Confederate soldiers were killed, with more than 5,000 on each side captured or missing. It was a pivotal, though not decisive, battle in the Civil War.
The third part of the website addresses the Reconstruction.
On November 19, 1863, of course, President Lincoln gave an address at Gettysburg, which, contrary to his prediction, was greatly noted and long remembered.
If you take a visit to the Gettysburg battlefield you may see smack dab in the middle of the Union lines a big monument dedicated to the soldiers from Cherry Valley, New York, of all places. It turns out that Cherry Valley was a major army recruiting center for rural New York, a lot of upstate New Yorkers on that field.
Must have been very interesting !
Roger, Lex and I want to go pay our respects at Gettysburg someday. As for Dan’s comment, where IS Cherry Valley, NY?
That battlefield played a magnificent role in “Remember the Titans.”
I must toddle off to another post now. So glad ot be back, even amidst unpacked boxes, yikes!! Amy
A few days after the Battle of Gettysburg, some of the soldiers who fought there were sent to New York City To put down some of the worst rioting in American history. Whites were murdering Blacks to protest against the war. A dark corner of New York’s past.
Cherry Valley, which is where my wife and I vacationed four weeks after 9/11/2001, is in the northeast corner of Otsego County, which also includes Cooperstown and Oneonta.
happy birthday USA. I hope one day, I will visit Gettysburg