The Rosenbach started early with our Civil War 150th commemoration–our programming began on the anniversary of the election of Abraham Lincoln–but this week marked the 150th anniversary of the opening shots at Fort Sumter.
Citation: Charleston Mercury extra. Charleston, 13 April 1861. AN .C477Join the Rosenbach and other Philadelphia-area history organizations this Saturday for a parade and living history event commemorating the departure of Philadelphia troops in response to Lincoln’s call. The parade will start at 10 AM from the Constitution Center, march to Broad Street, and will proceed to Broad and Washington (the site of the train station that was used to to transport troops south), followed by living history demonstrations at the Broad and Washington site. Full details are on the Philadelphia Civil War History Consortium’s CivilWarPhilly page. I’ll be there with my hoopskirt on to hand out information about the CWHC and Rosenbach, so come out and join me!
We’ll also be running our Civil War hands-on tour this Sunday at 3, so if you want to get up close and personal with Lincoln, Davis, Grant, and Lee, now’s your chance.
In addition to our own programming, I wanted to share a few Civil War tidbits from around the web that have piqued my interest:
- The Disunion Blog from the New York Times follows the war as it unfolds with expert and insightful commentary
- The Washington Post has a great Civil War 150 section, with the House Divided Blog, Tweeting the Civil War, and special coverage of events
- The Smithsonian Magazine has a nice article on Fort Sumter, as well as one on how Americans have commemorated the war in the past
- That a Nation Might Live is a neat weekly podcast about the war from Longwood University
- 901 Stories from Gettysburg provides very in-depth looks at specific artifacts related to that battle
- This blog post from the director of the American Historical Association discusses the new film about Mary Surratt- The Conspirator
Do you have any favorite Civil War websites or stories that we should know about?