By the end of the Civil War, 448,000 New Yorkers had enlisted in the armed service, and more than fifty thousand of them had died. While cost of the war was terribly high, they and other Americans had preserved their democratic Union—and four million people had won their freedom.    

Through the earliest commemorations, years of division, and the struggle for civil rights, New Yorkers—like other Americans—have long grappled with the meaning and legacy of the Civil War.