The Last Rebel Outpost

It's 1946.  A movie world premier.  A dog named Damn Yank.  The last remaining town still part of the Confederacy.  A vote to decide whether to re-join the Union after 85 years.  Where does this take place?  Virginia?  Alabama?

Nope.  A small hamlet in Western New York.  Town Line, to be precise, located on the border of Alden and Lancaster.  Also where I lived for all but the first year of my life prior to college.

(Even today the Town Line Volunteer Fire Dept. patch says "Last of the Rebels".) Photo Source.

Thursday I was able to attend a presentation in my home town on the secession of Town Line from the Union in 1861.  A random fact that I never knew about.  Reasons why they seceded are varied, Wikipedia writes "an article in The Buffalo News from 1945 cites discontent with President Lincoln, treatment of Confederate soldiers at a POW camp in Elmira, dissatisfaction of German immigrants with being subject to conscription or war, the interest of self rule or perhaps an incident by some runaway slaves at a local underground railroad stop."

No one really knows why, although the POW camp was actually not yet created in 1861, so that can be ruled out.  I am a fan of the theory that slave hunters had started looking into the Underground Railroad stops in Town Line a bit too closely, so by seceding they could continue to help slaves escape more easily.  The vote was 85 to 40, a pretty decent margin.

5 men from Town Line actually went to fight for the Confederacy, as did 20 for the North.  After the war, the town either forgot or just ignored the fact that they had left the Union, until a newspaper article came out in 1945 amidst the renewed patriotism of WWII.  The first vote to re-join the Union in 1945 failed, but a second vote on 26 January 1946, led by Cesar Ramaro, passed -.  Those against it?  One woman felt it shouldn't be unanimous, so she asked the ladies auxiliary members to vote "no" (she also owned the dog "Damn Yank".)

According the the lecture, the hamlet had a difficult time finding a Confederate flag to raise for the few minutes of the vote, as one had never actually been hung in the town.

I think this is a fantastic story and one that deserves to be more well know.  Who would have guessed that the last Confederate stronghold would be the only town north of the Mason-Dixon line to have seceded?  And that is my hometown.

Further Reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_Line,_New_York

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article547531.ece

http://jamestown.wgrz.com/content/new-york-town-belonged-confederate-states-america

Gress Civil War Draft Registrations

[caption id="attachment_955" align="aligncenter" width="625" caption="Joseph & Michael Gress"][/caption]

In honor of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, I have the newly-found Civil War Draft Registration of my great-great-great grandfather, Joseph Gress:

• Residence:  Eden [Erie County, NY]


• Name: Joseph Gress


• Age 1st, July 1863:  22


• White or colored: White


• Profession, occupation or trade: Farmer


• Married or unmarried: Unknown


• Place of Birth: New York [sic: Germany]


• Former Military Service: [Blank]


• Remarks:  [Blank]

and Joseph's brother Michael:

• Residence:  Eden [Erie County, NY]


• Name: Michael Gress


• Age 1st, July 1863:  25


• White or colored: White


• Profession, occupation or trade: Farmer


• Married or unmarried: Married


• Place of Birth: New York [sic: Germany]


• Former Military Service: [Blank]


• Remarks:  [Blank]

Source (Same for Michael, who is 1 line lower): "U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865," database and images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Apr 2011), Joseph Gress, Class I, Congressional District 30, Erie County, New York; citing Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registrations, 1863-1865. NM-65, entry 172, 620 volumes. Records of the Provost Marshal General’s Bureau (Civil War), Record Group 110. National Archives, Washington D.C.

 

NERGC: Bringing the Civil War to Life through Library Programs & Curriculum Development

After a wonderful lunch sponsored by ProQuest, we moved on to presentation number 4 for Librarians’ & Teachers’ Day: “Bringing the Civil War to Life through Library Programs & Curriculum Development” by Donna E. Walcovy, Ph.D..  12 April 2011 is the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War and librarians, teachers and genealogists will be celebrating with a multitude of programing.  This was a great presentation.  Donna is a very exuberant speaker and brings cool props!

The presentation begun with Donna showing us a sword from Civil War that began to her cousin, President William McKinley – too cool!  She then told a story of buying one neighborhood boy a Civil War Union outfit and play guns.  She then bought the boy across the street the same items for Confederates.  The boys would then play Civil War in the back yard.  What a great way to get children interested in history.

How else can we introduce children and adults to history?  Journals from the time, Civil War paper dolls, CDs and books with songs from the era, create guides to the Civil War in your area (such as road trips or walking tours), literature, computer games, “You Are There: The Fall of Fort Sumter” CD, and, of course, articles in magazines and websites (particularly the NPS site & the Smithsonian).

Imagine being a young girl reading about the Civil War.  Would you rather read a boring text book about the War or a book such as An Uncommon Soldier: The Civil War Letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, alias Pvt. Lyons Wakeman, 153rd Regiment, New York State Volunteers, 1862-1864, about a woman who dressed up as a man and fought in the Civil War?  I know what I would prefer, even to this day.  This is one way to “transport” students back to the time period and showing the relationship between what happened in history and the student.

One recommendation which continues on the theme of access is to let Eagle Scouts use your materials for their projects.

Looking for gravesites of your Civil War soldier?  Check Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War gravesite registration.

The presentation ended with my winning the Ancestry.com cds” Military Records: Civil War Service Records”.  It was a lucky weekend for me!