July, 1863—Vicksburg and Gettysburg–the Price of Victory

July 19, 2013Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, Historical sites, NSM articles

by Mark Moore, His­to­ri­an and Archivist, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

1863. The third year of the war. The music exalt­ing medal-bedecked glo­ry and the blood­less romance of a quick 90-day war had fad­ed long ago. In its place was end­less, mind­less slogging–the clean­ing of weapons, large and small, march­ing with no dis­cernible purpose—the killing and dying with an equal­ly point­less objective.

General George G. Meade, aka "the old snapping turtle."
Gen­er­al George G. Meade, aka the “Old Snap­ping Turtle.”

This proved to be the rule in the war in the west. The blood­let­ting at Fred­er­icks­burg and Anti­etam, to name two, proved ear­ly on that there would be no quick, dra­mat­ic, glit­ter­ing north­ern vic­to­ries. Chan­cel­lorsville had shown the supe­ri­or­i­ty of some south­ern com­mand­ing gen­er­als so Lin­coln would have to engage on a con­tin­u­ous revolv­ing door of com­mand for the Army of the Potomac replac­ing the use­less Major Gen­er­al Joe Hook­er with fish-eyed Penn­syl­van­ian George Meade, known to his troops as Old Snap­ping Tur­tle. Con­fed­er­ate Gen­er­al Robert E. Lee, on oth­er hand, lost his sec­ond-in-com­mand, his bold­est tac­ti­cian and archi­tect of the vic­to­ry at Chan­cel­lorsville, “Stonewall” Jack­son, to the gun­fire of his own troops in the evening twilight.

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June 1863–Democratic Party Leader Brought Before Military Court

June 11, 2013Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, NSM articles

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

A cartoon printed in England in 1864, showing Lincoln as the Federal Phoenix rising from the flames of American Democracy.
A car­toon print­ed in Eng­land in 1864, show­ing Lin­coln as the Fed­er­al Phoenix ris­ing from the flames of Amer­i­can Democracy.

Ten­sions between nation­al secu­ri­ty and civ­il lib­er­ties are not an unfa­mil­iar top­ic to mod­ern day read­ers. So what led to a for­mer US Con­gress­man from Ohio and poten­tial can­di­date for gov­er­nor to be roust­ed out of his house at 2:30 AM on May 5, 1863 and arrest­ed by the fed­er­al troops?

Although Clement Val­landigham had lost his reelec­tion bid for the House the pri­or year, he was still a lead­ing light for the “Cop­per­heads,” the anti-war wing of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty. He had run afoul of Gen. Ambrose Burnside’s mid-April “Gen­er­al Order Num­ber 38,” which stat­ed that the “habit of declar­ing sym­pa­thies for the ene­my would not be tol­er­at­ed in the Mil­i­tary Dis­trict of Ohio.” Offend­ers would be sub­ject to execution.

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Lincoln movie brings public awareness to Thaddeus Stevens’ important role

May 16, 2013Posted inHistorical events, Historical people

By Pat­ty Con­ly, Pres­i­dent of the Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

For a video of the event, pro­duced by King­dom Access, click here.

screening at Fuller Hall, St. Johnsbury, VT, on May 4, 2013.
A full house at  Fuller Hall, St. Johns­bury, VT, on May 4, 2013, for the screen­ing on Lin­coln and dis­cus­sion on Thad­deus Stevens’ role in the film and Con­sti­tu­tion­al history.
Two students from the Thaddeus Stevens School introduced the evening's program with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, host of the event.
Two stu­dents from the Thad­deus Stevens School intro­duced the evening’s pro­gram with U.S. Sen­a­tor Bernie Sanders, host of the event.

Despite a spec­tac­u­lar spring day in the North­east King­dom and a vast array of events in com­pe­ti­tion, a large crowd was on hand at St. Johns­bury Academy’s Fuller Hall Sat­ur­day evening May 4, for a screen­ing of the recent film Lin­coln.  This free pub­lic event was host­ed by U.S. Sen­a­tor Bernie Sanders, who began the evening by intro­duc­ing three stu­dents from the Thad­deus Stevens School in Lyn­donville. The stu­dents spoke elo­quent­ly, giv­ing a brief sum­ma­ry of the life and times of Lin­coln, Thad­deus Stevens and the peri­od dur­ing the Civ­il War.

Senator Sanders
Sen­a­tor Sanders

Sen­a­tor Sanders told the audi­ence how he became intrigued with the life and career of Thad­deus Stevens, par­tic­u­lar­ly after his first view­ing of the movie. It became appar­ent to him that Stevens was a much more mon­u­men­tal fig­ure in the polit­i­cal issues of the peri­od dur­ing the Civ­il War, of which he was pre­vi­ous­ly unaware.  He found it amaz­ing that a con­stituent who was born, raised and edu­cat­ed in two very small towns in the North­east King­dom of Ver­mont, as well as being from a poor fam­i­ly, could rise to become one of the most influ­en­tial and instru­men­tal con­gres­sion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tives for the abo­li­tion­ist move­ment. Stevens was pas­sion­ate about his cause and deeply ded­i­cat­ed to ensur­ing the pas­sage of the 13th amend­ment to the U.S. Con­sti­tu­tion to abol­ish slavery.

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May 1863–North Star takes a shot at its hometown boy

May 4, 2013Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, Historical sites

The Efforts of Union Generals in the Eastern Theatre Comes to Naught and the North Star Takes a Shot at Its Hometown Boy

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

May 9, 1863 North Star–Radicalism

Noth­ing is more com­mon now, when every­thing depends on a unit­ed North, than for the Rad­i­cals to ful­mi­nate their extreme abo­li­tion notions – ignor­ing both the Con­sti­tu­tion and the Union. Their lead­ers in Con­gress have bold­ly pro­claimed this sen­ti­ment. “Who,” shout­ed the Abo­li­tion­ist Bing­ham, Ohio mem­ber of Con­gress, at the last ses­sion, “in the name of God wants the Cot­ton States, or any oth­er State this side of perdi­tion, to remain in the Union, if slav­ery is to con­tin­ue.” Thad­deus Stevens has uttered, if pos­si­ble, still more extreme sen­ti­ments. It tells the whole sto­ry. They do not want and do not mean to have the Old Union. It is a direct assault upon the loy­al­ty of the Bor­der States, which have fur­nished thou­sands of troops for the Fed­er­al army – of States which have ever claimed the right to reg­u­late their own inter­nal negro pol­i­cy. But the Rad­i­cals make no dis­tinc­tion between those slave states which remain true to the Old Flag, and those which have fought against it so long. Were the seced­ed states to lay down their arms to-day, and pro­pose a full return to loy­al­ty and the Union, these men would say “No” to their sub­mis­sion. And what is more, this class of rad­i­cals has always want­ed, in some way or some­how, to dri­ve off the slave states.

***

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Saving history, one building at a time

May 4, 2013Posted inDanville Green, Historical sites

Masonic Hall Renovation Goes Forward on Danville Green

By Sharon Lakey

The Masonic Hall graces the Green in Danville.
The Mason­ic Hall graces the Green in Danville.

It takes a com­mit­ment to keep a town’s his­to­ry alive, and Danville’s Masons of Wash­burn Lodge #92 appear to be in it for the long haul. The big, brick build­ing on the Green has been their home since 1894, but it has been a grace­ful pres­ence there since 1831.

At first glance, the build­ing looks like a church, so it makes sense when one learns that the Calvin­ist Bap­tists, who formed in 1792, built it for their con­gre­ga­tion at a cost of $3,100. One of the found­ing mem­bers in the Calvin­ist Bap­tist Church in Danville was Charles Sias, the first cap­tain of the first mil­i­tary com­pa­ny in town. In our Society’s his­tor­i­cal records, a note reads that in the church a “revival took place from 1833 to 1836” but also relates “the church dis­ap­pears from the min­utes of the Danville Asso­ci­a­tion in 1852.” The build­ing stood emp­ty until the Wash­burn Lodge pur­chased it as their new home in 1894.

The Masons, of course, have their own inter­est­ing his­to­ry that dove­tails with the build­ing. Just before the Bap­tists built their church on the Green, Danville became the hotbed of the Anti-Mason­ic move­ment, and the old North Star led the charge. Danville’s William Palmer, the first and only gov­er­nor in the nation to run on the Anti-Mason­ic tick­et, was elect­ed Gov­er­nor of Ver­mont in 1831, the same year the church was built.

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It’s time for a Thaddeus Stevens postal stamp!

April 25, 2013Posted inHistorical people, News from Choate-Sias house

Stamps–Telling great tales in the smallest of spaces

By Sharon Lakey

Don Gallagher, A Stamp for Stevens volunteer
Don Gal­lagher, A Stamp for Stevens volunteer

Don Gal­lagher is a man on a mis­sion; he thinks it is the right time to get Thad­deus Stevens on a first class for­ev­er stamp. But he needs a lot of help to fur­ther the cause. He came by the Choate-Sias one day last week and shared his enthu­si­asm for the project. “Now, since the movie Lin­coln has been released, a lot more peo­ple are inter­est­ed in Thad­deus and the role he played in the pas­sage of the civ­il rights amend­ments,” said Don.

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Arlene Hubbard–Danville’s oldest woman

April 25, 2013Posted inHistorical people, North Danville
Arlene Hubbard is Danville's reigning oldest woman at 101 years old.
Arlene Hub­bard is Danville’s reign­ing old­est woman at 101 years old.

By Dale Lynaugh

Arlene was born in Kir­by, VT on Sep­tem­ber 20, 1911 to Carl and Maude Ailes. She lived there until she was three years old and then she and her fam­i­ly moved to St. Johns­bury. Arlene lived in St. Johns­bury for five years, attend­ing Grades 1 and 2 at the Port­land Street School. In 1920, her fam­i­ly moved to North Danville. Arlene con­tin­ued with her edu­ca­tion in a three room school house in North Danville. She fin­ished grade school, Grade 3 through Grade 8, at the same school, as well as her Fresh­man and Sopho­more years of high school before going to Phillips Acad­e­my in Danville where she fin­ished her Junior and Senior year and grad­u­at­ed in 1929.

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