New York State has announced that it is giving out a grant to the Underground Railroad Consortium of New York State to start developing a trail that those interested in history can follow exploring the escape from slavery. The Consortium is proposing the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad New York Corridor, a 500-mile route that will include most of the state. According to the Consortium: Grant funds will support the development and promotion of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Scenic Corridor in New York State and contribute to efforts seeking State and National Byway and All-American ..read more

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Joseph A. Joel, a Jewish Union soldier, recounted his Civil War celebration of Passover in “The Jewish Messenger“ in April 1866. I saw this referred to in the Smithsonian Magazine today. They commander they got permission for the Passover gathering was Rutherford B. Hayes. When the account was written, Hayes was little known outside of Ohio, but he was “elected” president a decade later. Here is his account: In the commencement of the war of 1861, I enlisted from Cleveland, Ohio, in the Union cause, to sustain intact the Government of the United States, and became attached to the 23rd Regiment ..read more

Now that the Spring has sprung, I am going to take you to some monuments away from the cities. I went to a conference at the University of Virginia last weekend on the Second Battle of Bull Run. Professor Caroline Janney gave a lecture on the two original monuments at Bull Run that I found fascinating. After the conference finished I decided to head to Manassas to see the two monuments. I had seen the First Bull Run monument every time I had visited the park. I think I must have been there at least a dozen times. The Second Bull Run monument I had only hiked to once before. I will cover each m ..read more

On April 20, I attended the University of Virginia Signature Conference on the Second Bull Run in Charlottesville, Virginia. I have already posted on Gary Gallagher’s excellent presentation, now I want to report on John Hennessy’s lecture. I have met John Hennessy in the past, at Spotsylvania on the 150th Anniversary of the Battle and on a walk with Damian Shiels, Harry Smeltzer, and Hennessy on the Irish at the First Bull Run. John was the chief historian at Fredericksburg for the National Park Service and his book Return to Bull Run is the outstanding work on the battle. With such a great we ..read more

This weekend I went down to Charlottesville, Virginia from my Long Island home to hear some nationally recognized experts talk about the Second Bull Run, or, if you are Gary Gallagher, Second Manassas. I will discuss what Gary Gallagher said today on the impact of the battle on the Confederacy. During the week I will tell what the other speakers said. Second Manassas took place from August 28 to 30, 1862 after General Robert E. Lee had stopped George McClellan’s advance on Richmond during the Seven Days Battles in June. With the Union Army of the Potomac almost immobile for nearly two months ..read more

In 2023, the Department of Defense removed the Confederate monument from Arlington National Cemetery. Inscribed on the monument are the words “Vitrix causa diis placuit sed victa Caton.” It translates to, “The victorious cause was pleasing to the gods, but the lost cause to Cato.” Cato was the defender of the old Roman Republic against Julius Cesar and the new Empire. Cato killed himself rather than watch the Republic die. By the time the memorial went up in 1914, Confederate partisans had been pledging their allegiance to the “Lost Cause” for nearly half-a-century. Use of the term “Lost Cause ..read more

Click on the logo to see all our Civil War and Reconstruction sites. One of the most photographed statues of Abraham Lincoln is the recently erected Lincoln at the New York Historical Society. While it is frequently photographed by history-mined visitors to the society, it is often photographed by families visiting the Museum of Natural History across the street. Because it is life-sized, parents love to have their kids stand next to the statue to compare sizes! This is a “statue for the people” of a “Man of the People”! The entity behind the statue is StudioEIS located in DUMBO in Brooklyn, j ..read more

UNDER CONSTRUCTION     The post Frederick Douglass Statue at New-York Historical Society appeared first on The Reconstruction Era ..read more

Rebecca Ritzel has a new article in the New York Times on why movies don’t show Lincoln’s Assassination filmed in Ford’s Theater. Are are some excerpts: Since Ford’s Theater reopened as an active theater in 1968, it has rarely been the scene of a dramatic re-enactment of Abraham Lincoln being shot to death there on April 14, 1865. “Manhunt,” the Apple TV+ series, said it recently asked for permission and was turned down. Robert Redford considered it at one point but was dissuaded, an executive at the theater said. A 1971 docudrama by David Wolper did film critical scenes in ..read more