The US CIVIL WAR (1861-1865)

26th USCT
New York Regiment United States Colored Troops

US POSTAL SERVICE First Issue 150th of the USCT Stamp Dedication

JOIN US in CELEBRATING
Youth Week 
Civil War to Civil Rights

at the AFRICAN BURIAL GROUND & MUSEUM

The 150th ANNIVERSARY OF THE USCT of CAMP PENN- SAT SEPT 21st

Watch Video of the 150th of the USCTs of Camp Penn

Scroll below for Classroom Presentation Info
NY 26th USCT at AFRICAN BURIAL GROUND

150th Anniversary of the 54th at Charleston, SC
Honoring the Gallantry of the Men of the 54th Massachusetts

 

Just a little less than 60 yrs after America's second war of independence, the nation entered into one of bloodiest internal conflicts that would eventually end industrialized slavery as we know it. 

The War Between the States, fratricidal four-year war (1861–65) between the federal government of the United States and 11 Southern states that asserted their right to secede from the Union.

In the mid-19th century, while the United States was experiencing an era of tremendous growth based on a system of slavery economy, a fundamental economic difference existed between the country's northern and southern regions. While in the North, manufacturing and industry was well established, and agriculture was mostly limited to small-scale farms, the South's economy was based on a system of large-scale farming that greatly depended on the labor of black slaves to grow certain crops, especially cotton and tobacco. Growing abolitionist sentiment in the North after the 1830s and northern opposition to slavery's extension into the new western territories led many southerners to fear that the existence of slavery in america--and thus the backbone of the economy--was in danger.

"These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization"-  Confederate States President Jefferson Davis

The War Between the States, as the Civil War was also known, pitted neighbor against neighbor and in some cases, brother against brother. By the time the bloodshed ended in Confederate surrender in 1865, the Civil War proved to be the costliest war ever fought on American soil, with some 620,000 of 2.4 million soldiers killed, millions more injured and the population and territory of the South...and ended chattel slavery. 

"Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to be a free American" Frederick Douglass

The issues of emancipation and military service were intertwined from the onset of the Civil War. News from Fort Sumter set off a rush by free black men to enlist in U.S. military units. They were turned away, however, because a Federal law dating from 1792 barred Negroes from bearing arms for the U.S. army (although they had served in the American Revolution and in the War of 1812). In Boston disappointed would-be volunteers met and passed a resolution requesting that the Government modify its laws to permit their enlistment.

By the end of the Civil War, roughly 179,000 black men (10% of the Union Army) served as soldiers in the U.S. Army and another 19,000 served in the Navy. Nearly 40,000 black soldiers died over the course of the war—30,000 of infection or disease. Black soldiers served in artillery and infantry as well as performed all noncombat support functions that sustain an army, as well. Black carpenters, chaplains, cooks, guards, laborers, nurses, scouts, spies, steamboat pilots, surgeons, and teamsters also contributed to the war cause. There were nearly 80 black commissioned officers. Black women, who could not formally join the Army, nonetheless served as nurses, spies, and scouts, the most famous being Harriet Tubman , who scouted for the 2d South Carolina Volunteers. 

Classroom Presentation Program

(Each presentation offers a living history character, an exhibit of period artifacts, demonstrations and a powerpoint. All presented in a museum quality exposition.

  Sessions run approx 45 min to double periods.)

The Story of ROBERT SMALL ( Grand Production)

Program's Exhibit Case (sample of artifacts)
( contains authentic artifacts from The American Revolution and Civil War)

Option- Learn about the Ironclad Monitor
( Built right here in NYC)
Powerpoint and a table top model of vessel

The Story of the NY 26th USCT

LIST OF CRAFTS AVAILABLE FOR REEANCTMENT
Crafts exhibit offers demos and hands-on activities

• Shipwright, Caulker
• Wax Candle Making
• Net Making
• Gunsmithing- lead ball manufacturing
• Butter Churn
• Apple Press
• Cannoneer
• Block Printing
• Colonial Games

Celebrating the Emancipation 150th at National Grid -Second Floor Gallery

...see touch and feel a Civil War era Steamer Ship Wheel
similar to what might have been on The Planter...
and much more  
A grand program module is also available for encampment
Please send email inquiry for details

The United States Regiment of Colored Troops Marching at the 2nd Inauguration 

of the 44th President of the United States- 

Barack Hussein Obama 

on Martin Luther King Day Jr Day 1/21/2013

The 150th Emancipation

...of Sailor of First Civil War Naval Hero WILLIAM TILLMAN

of Sailor and Civil War Naval Hero William Tillman of New York on the Schooner S.J Waring, an assorted cargo ship bound for Uruguay- Mr Tillman received the prize sum of $6,000 (equivalent to $152,000) for safely returning the vessel, by his heroic physical combat and defeat of Confederate Privateers crew of the "Jeff Davis" who had taken the ship at sea just a few hundred miles off the coast of Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The Civil War was less than four months old.

of Civil War Union Naval Hero AARON ANDERSON
 
Union Naval War Hero and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient-
March 17, 1865 Aaron Anderson, while serving as a landsman in the Union Navy during the Civil War, “carried out his duties courageously in the face of a devastating fire which cut away half the oars, pierced the launch in many places and cut the barrel off a musket being fired at the enemy.” In recognition of his actions, Anderson was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, America’s highest military decoration, June 22, 1865. Anderson was born in 1811 in Plymouth, North Carolina and enlisted in the Navy at age 52. He left the Navy after his term of service expired and little Is known of his post-war life except that he died January 9, 1886.
 

of The NY United States Colored Troops( 20th, 26th, 31st USCT)

at least 4,500 enlisted free black soldiers from NY participated in the Civil War
...stay tuned more to come