New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Civil War

Beaten & Burned Out: Welsh Anti-Slavery Hero Robert Everett

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Rev. Robert EverettRev. Robert Everett was a Welsh-American who came to Oneida County, NY in 1823 from Wales. He very quickly became involved in the anti-slavery movement. In 1835, Utica was selected as the site for the first New York State Anti-Slavery Convention.

The meeting was broken up by an angry mob. From Utica Everett was forced to move several times as his church services were often interrupted by people who continued to support slavery. He was physically assaulted while preaching and had his horse injured and home burned down by pro-slavery activists. [Read more…] about Beaten & Burned Out: Welsh Anti-Slavery Hero Robert Everett

Calvin Fairbank: Imprisoned 17 Years For Helping Enslaved People to Freedom

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Calvin Fairbank by artist Melissa MoshettiRev. Calvin Cornelius Fairbank was born November 3, 1816 in Pike, Wyoming County, NY. He began his academic studies at a seminary in Lima, Livingston County, NY, and became a licensed preacher in 1840.  In 1842 he was ordained an elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he graduated Oberlin College in Ohio two years later. At Oberlin he met John Mifflin Brown (1817-1893), a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and an Underground Railroad activist.

Fairbank was a radical abolitionist who not only spoke out against slavery, but actively worked to free as many enslaved people as he could. [Read more…] about Calvin Fairbank: Imprisoned 17 Years For Helping Enslaved People to Freedom

1860: A Southern Tourist Gives Saratoga, Lake George Mixed Reviews

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Saratoga Springs Hotel Life in 1874 (photo by Record and Epler)George Mercer, a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, took a summer trip to Saratoga Springs with a buddy after sightseeing at West Point. He had a pretty good time, but not a great time.

He enjoyed the nightlife, but wasn’t impressed with the ladies; he went boating on Lake George, but complained of the heat. Sounds like today, right? Try 1860. [Read more…] about 1860: A Southern Tourist Gives Saratoga, Lake George Mixed Reviews

Black Adirondack Farmers, Escaped Slaves, Civil War Veterans, Remembered at Union Cemetery

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Curt Stager leads a group of two dozen people in a rendition of John Brown’s Body while playing the banjo in Union CemeteryCurt Stager’s scholarly demeanor cracked on July 4th when he spread three small plastic baggies of soil on three graves of Black Adirondackers at Union Cemetery on state Route 3 in Vermontville, Franklin County, NY.

Stager didn’t know any of these people personally. They all died in the late 1800s. But in researching their lives, Stager, a Paul Smith’s College biology professor, said he’s become immensely respectful of their fights for freedom for all Americans, on the battlefield, or at home. [Read more…] about Black Adirondack Farmers, Escaped Slaves, Civil War Veterans, Remembered at Union Cemetery

Grant Cottage’s Ben Kemp on the Historians Podcast

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The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians Podcast, the guest is Ben Kemp from Grant Cottage in Wilton, Saratoga County, New York, where Civil War general and President Ulysses S. Grant died.

Friends, including Mark Twain, arranged for Grant and his family to live in the cottage for the last weeks of his life. Grant was dying from throat cancer and had lost his family’s money in a fraudulent scheme. [Read more…] about Grant Cottage’s Ben Kemp on the Historians Podcast

Company H: Catskills Soldiers At Cedar Mountain

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28th Regiment MonumentOn Friday, August 8th, 1902, the surviving members of the 28th New York Volunteer Regiment held their annual reunion at the National Cemetery in Culpeper, Virginia.

Among those attending that day were two men from the Sullivan County, NY: John H. Waller of Monticello and William McIntyre of Mongaup Valley. [Read more…] about Company H: Catskills Soldiers At Cedar Mountain

Civil War Battlefield Where New Yorkers Died Being Preserved

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Battle of Chancellorsville with Confederate troops under Stonewall Jackson advancing; also shows Jackson wounded (by Kurz and Allison, ca 1889) courtesy Library of CongressThe 154th New York Infantry Regiment was organized at Albion, Orleans County, NY beginning August 19, 1862 and mustered in for three years service on September 24, 1862 under the command of Colonel Addison G. Rice.

Known as the “Hardtack Regiment,” they were first involved in battle on May 2, 1863, in a clearing west of a crossroads called Chancellorsville, in a largely forested region of Virginia remembered as “The Wilderness.”

The regiment was posted near the home of the minister of a small nearby church. His house was a former barroom, Dowdall’s Tavern. [Read more…] about Civil War Battlefield Where New Yorkers Died Being Preserved

Photographing the Civil War: Mathew Brady at 200

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Transport between decks on steamer by Matthew Brady Mathew Brady was one of the most prolific photographers of the nineteenth century, creating visual documentation of the Civil War period. While Mathew Brady’s exact birth-date in Warren County, NY is unknown (circa 1822 – 1824), this year marks the beginning of the commemoration of Brady’s 200th birthday. [Read more…] about Photographing the Civil War: Mathew Brady at 200

The Disappearance of Civil War Veteran Dudley Goodwin

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Dudley Goodwin Missing Person Notice courtesy Ballston JournalOne hundred years ago a long-standing citizen of Ballston Spa went missing.

Usually known as Dudley Goodwin, his name was sometimes given as M. Dudley Goodwin (which is what appears on his tombstone). According to information on Find-A-Grave, his first name was Madison. He was born in Fulton County, on the second day of April, 1844. A sister was also born in Fulton County, about 1841, but Dudley’s other siblings were born in Saratoga County. [Read more…] about The Disappearance of Civil War Veteran Dudley Goodwin

Ways and Means: Lincoln, His Cabinet & Financing Civil War

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Ways and MeansUpon his election to the presidency, Abraham Lincoln inherited a country in crisis, including a Treasury that had run out of money. Amid the unprecedented troubles of the Confederacy seceding from the Union, Lincoln saw opportunity — the chance to legislate in the centralizing spirit of the “more perfect Union” that had first drawn him to politics.

The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) will host a presentation by Roger Lowenstein on his book Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet on the Financing of the Civil War (Penguin, 2022), on Wednesday, March 9th. In this program, Lowenstein will look at, through a financial lens, the largely untold story of how Lincoln used the urgency of the Civil War to transform a union of states into a united nation. [Read more…] about Ways and Means: Lincoln, His Cabinet & Financing Civil War