Civil War

The Green-Wood Restoration and Preservation program

The Green-Wood Historic Fund’s Restoration and Preservation Program is truly cutting edge. No other cemetery in America has as active and as wide-reaching a program.

I was just doing some research on Abigail Hopper Gibbons, whom I knew had served as a nurse during the Civil War. I recently read that efforts were being made to protect the integrity of the house on 29th Street in Manhattan where she, her husband James Sloan Gibbons (who, during the Civil War, wrote the words to that toe-tapper, “We Are Coming, Father Abraham, 400,000 More”), and her children lived.

They were abolitionists and their home was a stop on the Underground Railroad, a place where slaves, on their way to freedom in Canada, sought shelter. I also knew that their home had been sacked by the mob during the Draft Riots of July 1863, when the mob went after blacks and abolitionists. Anyway, I had found an extensive account of her nursing activities, great stuff for our biographical dictionary of those who had served during the Civil War, and it repeated what I had known--that her daughter had accompanied her to the front, and had also worked as a nurse. I checked the cemetery records for the names of all of the individuals interred in that lot, but her daughter’s name was not there.

I recently got another e-mail from Bob McAvoy. I’ve never met Bob, but I’ve certainly gotten a lot of e-mails from him. Bob’s passion is Civil War veterans from New Jersey. Sometimes I think that 7 years is a long time for me to have spent so far searching for Civil War soldiers. But then I remember Bob, who has been going at it for much longer--20 years and counting.

During the first weekend of June, I headed off to the Civil War Preservation Trust’s annual convention in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A great organization--saving battlefield land, hallowed ground, holding its yearly event in the mecca of Civil War towns.

Brought along my t-shirt--the one I had made a few years ago when I led a trip down to Gettysburg for our Civil War Project volunteers, as a thank you to them for their great dedication. The t-shirt list the names, ranks, and regiments of the 20 or so men who were killed at Gettysburg and are interred at Green-Wood. Thought it might be a conversation starter. Little did I know.

Well, we did know that Edwin Bennett was interred at Green-Wood and had served in the Civil War. His obituary in The New York Times told us that much. But we couldn’t find the details of his service. That’s where Sue Ramsey, a truly remarkable researcher, came in. Sue, who lives out in California, loves to research--her idea of a good time is to spend a week in Salt Lake City playing with the microfilm there. One of her passions is the Bodies in Transit records, but that’s another story.

A few weeks ago, in preparing for a tour of Civil War Conderates who are interred at Green-Wood, I came across the story of Gilbert Elliott (1843-1895). It is really quite a remarkable tale: Gilbert, with some training in boat building and some experience as a law clerk, enlisted in 1862 in the 17th North Carolina Infantry and was soon appointed first lieutenant and adjutant.

I have long-known the story of Samuel Chester Reid (1783-1861).

The 150th anniversary of John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry is just a few weeks away.