REMEMBERING THE WAR

After 1877, both Northerners and Southerners devoted themselves to reconciling their differences rather than reconstructing society.  They built memorials on battlefields in other states, in town squares, and across the New York landscape to commemorate the heroism and valor of the men who fought.  At the same time, the GAR held “National Encampments” every year through 1949 and supported reunions that brought together Union and Confederate veterans.  Later, Cold War politics and Southern resistance complicated the Civil War Centennial (1961-65), but Civil Rights supporters in New York and elsewhere renewed public interest in realizing the ideals of freedom and justice for which the war was fought.