Cooler but still well above normal this week

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support


      FRAMINGHAM, Mass. (AP) - The gravesite of a Union Army major
general sits largely forgotten in a small cemetery along the
Massachusetts Turnpike.


      A piece of the coat worn by President Abraham Lincoln when he
was assassinated rests quietly in a library attic in a Boston
suburb. It's shown upon request, a rare occurrence.


      A monument honoring one of the first official Civil War black
units stands in a busy intersection in front of the Massachusetts
Statehouse, barely gaining notice from the hustle of tourists and
workers who pass by each day.


      As the nation marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War,
states in the old South -- the side that lost -- are hosting
elaborate re-enactments, intricate memorials, even formal galas
highlighting the war's persistent legacy in the region. 


But for
many states in the North -- the side that won -- only scant, smaller
events are planned in an area of the nation that helped sparked the
conflict but now, historians say, struggles to acknowledge it.


      "It's almost like it never happened," said Annie Murphy,
executive director of the Framingham History Center in Framingham,
Mass. "But all you have to do is look around and see evidence that
it did. It's just that people aren't looking here."


      Massachusetts, a state that sent more than 150,000 men to battle
and was home to some of the nation's most radical abolitionists,
created a Civil War commemoration commission just earlier this
month. 


Aging monuments stand unattended, sometimes even vandalized.
Sites of major historical events related to the war remain largely
unknown and often compete with the more regionally popular American
Revolution attractions.


      Meanwhile, states like Arkansas, Virginia, North Carolina and
Missouri not only established commissions months, if not years ago,
but also have ambitious plans for remembrance around well-known
tourist sites and events. In South Carolina, for example, 300 Civil
War re-enactors participated earlier this month  in well-organized staged
battles to mark the beginning of the war.


      To be sure, some Northern states have Civil War events planned
and have formed commemoration commissions.

In Minnesota, Gov. Mark Dayton signed an order earlier this month establishing a Civil War Commemoration Task Force, which will conduct public educational programs and encourage Minnesotans to participate in programs that help expand appreciation for the Civil War.

 Connecticut's 150th
Civil War Commemoration was set up in 2008 and has scheduled a
number of events and exhibits until 2015. Vermont, the first state
to outlaw slavery, started a similar commission last year to
coordinate activities statewide and in towns.


      And some Massachusetts small non-profit and historic groups are
trying to spark interest through research, planned tours and town
events.

Observers say those events pale in comparison to those in the South.


      That difference highlights Northern states' long struggle with
how to remember a war that was largely fought on Southern soil,
said Steven Mintz, a Columbia University history professor and
author of "Moralists and Modernizers: America's Pre-Civil War
Reformers." 


For Northern states like Massachusetts, Mintz said
revisiting the Civil War also means revisiting their own unsolved,
uncomfortable issues like racial inequality after slavery.


      "We've spent a century and a half turning (the war) into a
gigantic North-South football game in which everybody was a hero,"
Mintz said. "In other words, we depoliticized the whole meaning of
the war. And insofar as it was captured, it was captured by the
descendants of the Confederates."


      Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group open to male descendants
of veterans who served in the Confederate armed forces, boast
30,000 members across the Old South.


      The Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War has 6,000
members.


      Kevin Tucker, Massachusetts Department Commander for the Sons of
the Union Veterans, said some Northern descendants don't even know
they're related to Union veterans. 


"I found out after my father
did some research and discovered that my great-great-grandfather
had collected a Union pension," said Tucker, of Wakefield. "Until
then, I had no idea."


      Mark Simpson, 57, South Carolina commander of Sons of
Confederate Veterans, said his family knew for generations about
his great-great-grandfather's service in the Confederacy. 


"I visit
his gravesite every year and put a flag down," Simpson said. "He
is real to me."


      Mintz said the North has another factor affecting its Civil War
memory: immigration from Italy and Eastern Europe at the turn of
the 20th century. He said those populations, and more recent
immigrants, sometimes struggle to identify with that war compared
to more contemporary ones.


      Then, Mintz said, after the Civil War a number of Northerners
moved West -- and to the South.


      History buffs with the Framingham History Center in Framingham,
Mass., a town where residents say "The Battle Hymn of the
Republic" was first sung, said they are using the sesquicentennial
to bring attention to long-forgotten local Civil War sites and
personalities. 


Included in a planned event is a celebration at
Harmony Grove, site of many anti-slavery rallies where abolitionist
William Lloyd Garrison famously burned a copy of the U.S.
Constitution and called it a "pact with the Devil."


      Today, only a small plaque in front of a house announces the
historic site now surrounded by industrial lots, train tracks and a
motorcycle shop.


      Volunteers also hope to raise around $1 million for Framingham's
dilapidated Civil War memorial building to repair its cracked walls
and leaky ceiling. The building houses a memorial honoring
Framingham soldiers killed in the war and an American flag that
flew over the Battles of Gettysburg and Antietam. Murphy said the
flag was discovered in the 1990s after being forgotten in a case
for 90 years.


      Fred Wallace, the town's historian, said that more importantly,
volunteers wanted to bring attention to General George H. Gordon, a
long-forgotten Union hero from Framingham who was a prolific writer
and organizer of the 2nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. 


"I
don't understand how this man was lost to history," said Wallace,
who has researched Gordon's life and is now writing a biography on
him. "He was in the middle of everything."


      During a recent afternoon, Murphy took a reporter and
photographer to Gordon's gravesite, which she said would be
included in a planned walking tour. But Murphy couldn't locate the
site and a cemetery official needed to comb through maps to find
it.


      Murphy said putting the pieces together of Gordon's life is part
of the fun, even when it surprises residents.


      "When I was told that I lived in what used to be a barn of Gen.
Gordon's horse," 81-year-old Ellen Shaw said, "I was like ...
General who?"


      Since then Shaw has joined history buffs in searching for what
they believe is a marker announcing the gravesite of Ashby,
Gordon's horse in many battles. She hasn't located it on her
property.


      "I hope I find it one day when I'm just walking around
outside," Shaw said. "Then I can say, 'Glad to meet you. Sorry we
forgot about you.'"

Gallery

History

As the U.S. marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, states in the old South -- the side that lost -- are hosting a variety of elaborate events to highlighting the war's legacy in the region. But in the North -- the side that won -- only small events are planned. Historians say the North helped sparked the conflict, but now  struggles to acknowledge it.

In North, Civil War sites, events long 'forgotten'

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox