Unknown to many at the time, and remaining a little-known historical fact even now, President Abraham Lincoln made a clandestine trip to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in June of 1862 – in the middle of the Civil War. It was Lincoln’s longest journey away from the White House and his only trip to New York State during his entire Presidency.
The President boarded a train in Washington D.C. and got off at the Garrison Depot in Putnam County, taking a ferry across the Hudson River to West Point. During his brief stay, he also toured the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring.
On Saturday, September 2, 2023 at 2 pm, historian and author Anthony J. Czarnecki will talk about why Lincoln visited West Point, what he did during his three-day stay in the Hudson River Valley, and how history was changed as a result of this secret visit to the U.S. Military Academy.
A past-president of the Lincoln Society in Peekskill, NY, one of the nation’s oldest Lincoln Societies, Anthony Czarnecki currently heads the Chartwell Group USA, a criminal justice consulting firm, having retired after 35 years of public service. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Westchester County Historical Society.
This program is part of the Lincoln Depot Museum’s First Saturdays at the Museum Series. Admission is $10, members of the museum are free.
Located by Peekskill Bay on the east bank of the Hudson River, The Lincoln Depot Museum is a 3,000 square foot 19th Century freight and passenger rail depot where President-elect Abraham Lincoln stopped to greet New Yorkers on February 19, 1861 during his inaugural train ride between Springfield, IL and Washington, DC.
The Lincoln Depot Museum is located at 10 South Water Street in Peekskill, in northwestern Westchester County, NY. For more information email LincolnDepotFDN@gmail.com
Photo of West Point in the 1860s provided.
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