Huntington Kicks Off Year-Long Commemoration of Civil War’s End

The Town of Huntington will kick off a year-long commemoration marking the 150^th anniversary of the end of the Civil War.

The first event took place on Friday, April 17, with a special reception at the historic Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Building, which was built as a memorial to the 39 Huntingtonians who died in the war.

The reception included unveiling of an exhibit , The Civil War Comes Home-Huntington During the 1860s, installed by the Huntington Historical Society in the Town Historian’s office.  The program also featured selections by the Huntington High School Chorus, readings of Civil War soldiers’ letters by Cold Spring Harbor High School Students and remarks by Town Historian Robert Hughes and by the descendant of a Civil War veteran.

The event was the beginning of a year’s worth of activities planned by a committee, chaired by Huntington Town Clerk Jo-Ann Raia, aimed at providing a comprehensive understanding of Huntington’s involvement in the Civil War. As part of the effort, the Town Clerk’s Archives and the Huntington Public Library invited all Town historical organizations and museums to participate by planning their own events throughout the year. The Town is also creating a page on the Town’s website, www.huntingtonny.gov, to list and update the schedule of events.

“Behind every great achievement there are loss and sacrifices,” Ms. Raia said, “We cannot reverse what happened during the Civil War. What we can do is hold events such as the ones planned by our  organizations  to remember those who in the words of Gen. Ulysses Grant, suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse”.

As for Huntington’s involvement in the war, records in the Town Clerk’s archives show an August, 1862 letter to then-Town Clerk J. Amherst Woodhull, noting. “The undersigned request that a Special Town Meeting be immediately called, to take in consideration the appropriation of moneys to be used in securing our Town quota of recruits for the war, and providing for the families of such recruits…….”

A month earlier, on July 1, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln requested that 300,000 more volunteers join the War. He also asked for an enrollment of all persons between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years old. If the 300,000 quota was not met, a draft from the roll was inevitable.

The Town was required to send 263 volunteers into the field or submit to the draft. In response to the correspondence received by the Town on August 1862, numerous Town meetings were scheduled to secure money to pay bounties to volunteers and provide for their families while in the service.

The Civil War Commemoration Project Committee Members include: Wendy Andersen, Assistant Director, Huntington Historical Society ; John Chicherio, Performing Arts Director, Huntington Arts Council; John Coraor, Town of Huntington cultural affairs director; Nomi Dayan, Executive Director, Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum; Dorothy Dougherty, Program Director, National Archives at New York City; Robert Farrell, Genealogist; Virginia Antonucci-Gibbons, LILRC, Regional Archivist; Gordon Goldsmith, North Shore Civil War Round Table liaison; Robert Hughes, Huntington Town Historian; Heather Johnson, Director, Northport Historical Society; Faith Lieberman, Trustee,  Walt Whitman Birthplace Association; Antonia S. Mattheou, Huntington Town Archivist; Irene Moore, President, African American Historic Designation Council; Jo-Ann Raia, Huntington Town Clerk ; Deanne Rathke,  Director, Greenlawn-Centerport Historical Association ; Michael W. Schantz, Ph.D., Executive Director & CEO, Heckscher Museum of Art; Teresa Schwind, Assistant Director, Huntington Public Library; Cynthia Shor, Executive Director, Walt Whitman Birthplace Association; Brian J. Yudewitz, Esq., Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chamber of Commerce

Below is a list of events scheduled as of now. Persons with questions can call the individual groups or contact Town Archivist Antonia Mattheou at 351-3035 (amattheou@huntingtonny.gov) or Huntington Public Library Assistant Director Teresa Schwind at Teresa_schwind@huntlib.org.

Town of Huntington:

Commemorating the 150^th anniversary of the end of the Civil War

Tours

Tour 1, June 6, from 2:00 – 4:00 pm – S&S, Samuel Bolton’s farmhouses, Walt Whitman Birthplace Association

Tour 2, July 11, from 2:00 – 4:00 pm – S&S, St. John Episcopal Church Cemetery [1 marker], Tom Hogan’s Fire Museum, Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum

Tour 3, August 1, from 2:00 – 4:00 pm   – S&S, Huntington Rural Cemetery

Half Hollow Hills Community Library   Call 631-421-4530 to register. Open to all.

Songs of the Civil War  – September 24, 2:30 pm
Balladeer Linda Russell explores the Civil War through music.  Accompanying herself on hammered and mountain dulcimers, guitar, limberjack and penny whistle, she will bring life to 19th century patriotic anthems, recruiting songs, dance tunes, parlor melodies and soldiers songs of both the Union and the Confederacy

Hechscher Museum of Art  info@heckscher.org

• The “Seating Lincoln” sculpture by American artist Daniel Chester French on view until October

Huntington Historical Society mdeleo@huntingtonhistoricalsociety.org

“The Civil War Comes Home-Huntington During the 1860s” exhibit  @ the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Building                                                          April– October 2015

Huntington Public Library teresa_schwind@huntlib.org

• Civil War exhibit – April– December 2015
• New York and the Civil War – June 10, 7:00 pm

A presentation of New York’s role in the Civil War with reference to Long Island.

Registration is required. Open to all.

•   Civil War Apple Crumb Pie @ the Station Branch – May 8, 1:30 pm
• Civil War Lace necklace @ the Station Branch – May 23, 1:30 pm

Huntington Town Clerk’s Archives www.huntingtonNY.gov

• “For Those Who Served” – exhibiting Civil War documents & artifacts – May-December
• Open House – viewing of Civil War documents housed in the Archives – October 5 – 30, 2:30-4:30 pm

Northport Historical Society  www.northporthistorical.org

Living Historian and Reenactor Diane Fish will guide students in grades two through six as they prepare, cook and taste a variety of authentic dishes from the Civil War period in this very special three-day program.

• Exhibit Opening in June
• Sunday at the Society: Civil War Book Presentation “Long Island and the Civil War: Queens, Nassau and Suffolk during the

War Between the States” Bill Bleyer and Harrison Hunt – October 25 at 2:00 pm

Walt Whitman Birthplace Association www.waltwhitman.org

• The Veteran Experience – May 9, 1:00-4:00 PM.

Four writers offer a Panel presentation of their books: readings & discussion, Q & A, book signing. Moderator and Poet

John Barr (Vietnam), (Dan Levin, WW II, poetry); Doug Anderson, “Keep Your Head Down” (Vietnam); Maurice Decaul

(Iraq)

• Veteran Writers Workshop – June 13, 2:00-4:00PM

Facilitator:  Maurice Decaul (Iraq Veteran) Veterans reflect on their war experience in a supportive writing workshop.

Open to Veterans only, limited enrollment, pre-registration required

• “Drum Taps” – Sept. 26, 2:00-4:00 PM
• Civil War Soldier Stories.

NYU Professor Karen Karbiener, PhD. reads letters written by Walt Whitman for a wounded soldier Erastus Haskell (1844-1863) and shares interviews with the soldier’s descendants living today.

Brian Matthew Jordan, PhD, reads from his book, “Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War” (2015), based on soldiers’ words extracted from letters, recollections and reflections.

Community Readers read from Walt Whitman’s “Drum Taps”, his collection of poems about the Civil War.

Mort Kunstler, Civil War Oil Painter, presents his painting, “Angel of the Battlefield”, depicting Clara Barton and Whitman administering to wounded soldiers.