The historical marker on Danville Green has been Vermont’s only public acknowledgement of Thaddeus Stevens. Stevens was born in Danville and educated in Peacham.
By Paul Chouinard, President of the Danville Historical Society
On Sunday October 30, The Danville Historical Society and the Danville Chamber of Commerce will honor Thaddeus Stevens in a ceremony for the unveiling of an etching of his portrait that is being presented to the Vermont Statehouse. The ceremony will be held at the Danville Congregational Church and begin at 2:00 PM to be followed by a reception in the Church dining room.
January 10, 2010, Vermont Civil War Historian, Howard Coffin, addressed the Danville Historical Society at its Annual Meeting, focusing on Danville’s involvement in the Civil War. Following delivery of his address, Mr. Coffin suggested that he felt it would be a most appropriate sesquicentennial project for the Danville Historical Society to coordinate an effort to raise funds for commissioning a portrait of Thaddeus Stevens to be presented to the Statehouse for inclusion in its collection of portraits of prominent Vermonters.
It is ironic that in the 219 years since the birth of Thaddeus Stevens that the only memorial in Vermont to his legacy as one of America’s great civil rights advocates is a State Department of Historic Sites marker on Danville Green indicating Danville as the place of his birth. There has never been any public portrait or piece of sculpture honoring the enormous contributions he made on the national level to affect the emancipation of the slaves and to grant them civil rights.
Senator Jane Kitchel was quoted in the Caledonian-Record on July 1, 2011, at a meeting between the Vermont Agency of Transportation and Danville residents and business owners. “Maybe this project is a lot like having a baby. When we get done we’ll be pleased with what we have, hopefully.”
There’s no doubt about the pain. Anyone trying to make it through and around Danville this summer has experienced it. Frustration has sometimes been high, but lately it seems people, at least locally, are waiting for the baby with more stoicism. And while wel’re waiting, there is renewed interest in what the final product is going to look like. Over the past 20-plus years, the collective memory of how this project evolved has dimmed; perhaps a review of how we got here from there is useful. So, a little history…
A photo of a Civil War ambulance crew.
By Gary Farrow, Member of the Danville Historical Society
September of 1861, the Civil War was page two. It wasn’t all that unusual for the North Star to have no Civil War headlines on the front page.
There was one item with political repercussions nationally. A Union General had taken it upon himself to issue a proclamation about slavery. There was also a letter by a Vermont POW and a report about the Danville Company. That month, the reader could also learn about what volunteers were getting for pay.
North Star September 7, 1861
The Vermont Prisoners at Richmond
Letter from Captain Drew
Richmond, VA Aug 19, 1861
Editors of the Free Press:
I am permitted by General Winders, the humane and obliging commander of this post to write you, giving a list of Vt boys confined here, and some information as to our capture. For several days before the battle, I had been sick and on “Sunday the 21st” [A reference to the Battle of Bull Run and its date July 21] was hardly able to move.
By Gary Farrow, Member of the Danville VT Historical Society
One hundred and fifty years ago this month saw the Union reeling from the first major battle of the Civil War; rioting over secessionists in New England; and a spate of activity in Vermont and the Northeast Kingdom devoted to marshaling the troops.
The outcome of Bull Run, fought Sunday July 21, shook everyone from their naive slumber. General McDowell’s 30,000 Union troops marched the 30 miles west of Washington DC to attack an equal number of Confederate troops. Some government dignitaries decided to make a day of it and go and see the battle for themselves.
By Paul Chouinard, President of the Danville Historical Society
Editor’s Note: “Going to see the elephant” was an expression used by enlistees to the Union Army describing the experience of country boys going off to war where they would experience life in ways they could not have imagined.With the Capitol at Washington under threat of invasion by the Confederate Army, Union soldiers transport the United States Government’s standard weights and measures to St. Johnsbury for safekeeping. Caption and illustration from the book Pioneers In Industry Fairbanks, Morse & Co.July of 1861 marked a turning point. War became a grim reality with major battles fought, resulting in serious injuries and loss of life. Men returned home bearing the physical and psychological scars of war. Generally, the reality of war did not hit home until news of local casualties arrived. The first Danville casualty was Charles D. Cook, who was just seventeen years old when he died in the hospital at Camp Griffin, Virginia, of typhoid fever in November of 1861. The optimism which had prevailed at the outset of the war, regarding the fact that union forces would quickly triumph, began to fade.
According to Susannah Clifford in Village In the Hills: “There was at least one family in Danville that had relatives fighting on both sides of the battle lines, but in this particular case kinship proved stronger than patriotism. James Davis, son of Bliss Davis, was the only known Danville soldier to see the war from the Confederate side. James went west at age eighteen to live with his uncle in Ohio and then moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to study medicine. When the war broke out in 1861, he joined the Confederate service as an assistant surgeon of the Seventh Louisiana Regiment and later became full surgeon. He served throughout the war and was present at all the major battles in northern Virginia. James cousin, Alexander, who was with the Union army, was wounded at the battle at Savage’s Station, captured by the Confederate army and sent to Andersonville Prison. While in prison, Alexander learned that his cousin was in Richmond, and he wrote to James to let him know of his situation. James immediately set to getting Alexander exchanged and even furnished him with transportation back to his regiment.”
On the home front, local farmers and horse breeders in Danville helped furnish the cavalry with fine horses. Danville’s Merino Sheep and Greenbank’s woolen mill contributed to the war effort, as did most other textile mills in New England, by providing woolen broadcloth for the production of blankets and uniforms. In the autumn of 1861, Greenbank’s mill received federal contracts to manufacture woolen broadcloth for uniforms.
A pair of stirrups made in Fairbanks factory for use by Union cavalrymen in the Civil War. Caption and photograph from Pioneers in Industry Fairbanks, Morse & Co.
Early in 1861, with the city of Washington in grave danger, the official standard weights of the United States Government were moved to St. Johnsbury for safekeeping. E. and T. Fairbanks and Co. began the manufacture of brass stirrups and brass trimmings for the Northern cavalry, as well as of artillery harness irons and curb bits. In addition the officials of the New York branch of E. and T. Fairbanks helped Governor Erastus Fairbanks secure supplies for both infantry and cavalry of the Vermont regiments.
THENORTHSTAR, July 13, 1861
THEPRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
It recommends that Congress provide, by legal means, for “making this contest a short and decisive one;” and the President asks that body to pass an act to raise 400,000 men, and $400,000,000. to prosecute the work. Should Congress grant it, we trust the great power thus conferred, will be wisely used, in crushing rebellion, and giving to this mighty conflict a strictly national and Union-restoring character.
For two days, the Vermont Civil War Hemlocks encamped in Danville during the 2011 Memorial Day weekend. Many attended both the encampment and the Memorial Service held at the Methodist…
The Battle of Big Bethel was a failure for Federal troops. The Vermont Civil War Hemlocks have raised funds to raise a seven foot monument made of Barre granite at the battle site.
By Paul Chouinard, President of the Danville Historical Society
“Going to see the elephant” was an expression used by enlistees in the Union Army describing the experience of country boys going off to war where they would experience life in ways they could not have imagined.
At the outset of the Civil War the stated objective of the North was to maintain the Union. The Confederate States identified “states rights” as their major objective which would give them the right to function independently. Mainstream historians have commonly agreed that: “Everything stemmed from the slavery issue,” as stated by Professor James McPherson, whose book Battle Cry of Freedom is widely judged to be the authoritative one-volume history of the Civil War.
It was not until September 22, 1862, following the bloody Battle of Antietam that Lincoln issued a preliminary Proclamation of Emancipation, which declared that all slaves in states or parts of states still fighting against the United States on January 1, 1863 would from that time on be forever emancipated. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued his final Emancipation Proclamation. However, it did not free slaves in states then in the Union, the Border States, nor certain parts of Virginia and Louisiana that were under Union control. The Emancipation Proclamation did have the effect of clearly identifying slavery as a vital issue of the war for both citizens of the United States and for its allies.
THENORTHSTAR
JUNE 8, 1861
From Fortress Monroe
Great activity is perceived at Fortress Monroe. Troops and ammunition are constantly arriving, the garrison now amounting to thirteen thousand men, and large bodies were moving into the interior, it was thought, with the intention of making for Norfolk by a circuitous route. Up to Thursday evening, slaves were still flocking to the fort. It was discovered that thirty of the slaves belonged to one man in Richmond. He obtained permission to visit the fort to confer with General Butler on the subject of getting his live property back. The General said they came there of their own accord, and could go back with him if they desired it. They were asked if they desired to return with their master. They quickly decided that they preferred to remain with the soldiers in the fort…
