‘The Civil War in 50 Objects’ highlights relics from the war that are housed at the New-York Histori

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How New York tried to secede from the Union, the anti-slavery sculpture that Northerners refused to buy and the combat medal black soldiers were never allowed to wear: The little-know relics that show just how divided the nation was during the Civil War

  • ‘The Civil War in 50 Objects’ highlights relics from the war that are housed at the New-York Historical Society
By Michael Zennie
PUBLISHED: 19:47 EST, 3 June 2013 | UPDATED: 20:43 EST, 3 June 2013
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One hundred and fifty years ago, the nation was torn asunder.
The instatement of the first national military draft in American history led to riots in New York City. Confederate General Robert E. Lee had launched an offensive on the Union by marching on Pennsylvania. It would result in a furious battle outside the town of Gettysburg that would claim more than 7,800 American lives - more than have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
Though far removed from modern life, the Civil War cut a deep wound in American society - one that can still be felt today - whether in difficult race relations, questions or class warfare or the political divide between northern states - blue states - and the South - red states.
A new book aims bring the lessons of the Civil War to the forefront by focusing on surviving items that tell the story of the war.
‘The Civil War in 50 Objects’ - published by Viking Press - features documents with political significance, trinkets that held great personal value and souvenirs of historical worth.
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Shocking: These circa-1800 slave shacked were meant to fit a child. They were likely used to chain children down to the boat so that their mothers would not throw them overboard during the lengthy, any deadly, voyage across from Africa to North America
Some of the objects are familiar to the modern eye. Abraham Lincoln’s hand-written tally of the electoral college votes he would receive in the 1864 employs a political map not unlike those broadcast on every TV station on Election Night last year.
Other objects are an anathema to contemporary America. A pair of iron shackles used to bind the hands of a slave child conjures a ghastly image of this nation’s slave-trading past.
‘Looking at relics, looking at things that people touched - famous people, unknown people - brings you much closer to history - even 150 years later,’ the book’s author, Civil War scholar Harold Holtzer told MailOnline.
Each object in the book was carefully selected from the archives of the New-York Historical Society, which houses one of the largest collections of Civil War relics in the nation.
The story that emerges from the objects is remarkably more complex than the grade-school version of Civil War history most Americans envision.
For example, Mr Holtzer says, ‘The North wasn’t all pro-war and all pro-Union and anti-slavery. New York was a divided city and you certainly had New Yorkers on both sides.’

For the rest: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ttle-known-stories-war.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
 
When Lincoln toured the country before his Inaguration he stopped in NYC with little fanfare. Walt Whitman was here and said it was an "ominous silence" in a usual loud and bustling city. Mayor Fernando Wood was a pro Southern supporter and attempted secession of NYC from the Union because of trade rights with the South (many merchants, shippers and buisnesses had dealings with cotton) and he wanted to secede from the State of NY because of overtaxation. Interesting to note, Lincoln never came to NYC again....very informative book that I picked up in a used book shop in OH.
 
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