How Civil War Battles Were Shaped By Geology and Weather

The St. Lawrence County Historical Association will host “The Civil War Between the Mountains: How Geology and Weather Shaped the Battles and Determined the Victor,” a Civil War Round Table set for Sunday, April 24th at 2 pm.

This program will illustrate how weather and geology determined why and how the Civil War was fought — and won.

The Continental geology of the United States created a large land funnel between the Rockies to the West, and the Appalachians to the East. Cold Northern air mixed with warm moist air rising from the Gulf of Mexico. The States that formed the Deep South found their land and climate ideal for raising cotton and tobacco with enslaved labor.

They forced a Civil War to protect their right to use the weather and the land this way — and in the hopes of expanding this right into the lands of the Western Territories secured by the Northwest Ordinance and the Louisiana Purchase, and the War with Mexico.

This program will be led by Jan Wojcik, and will be held both in-person at the Potsdam Museum, Civic Center, 2 Park Street in Potsdam, and virtually via Zoom.

Wojcik has given Round Table presentations on Women in the Civil War; The Battles of Spotsylvania, Appomatox, and Gettysburg; the Recruitment of Formerly Enslaved Men into the Union Army; and the Civil War service by St. Lawrence County soldiers Thomas Hickey and William Elderkin.

For more information or to request a link to the Zoom presentation, email jan.woodchuck@gmail.com or call (315) 212-9109.