GENESEO — The VFW plans to install a permanent plaque commemorating the Geneseo men who fought and died in the Civil War. They are looking to get a plaque made naming all 35 men at the war memorial in Geneseo's Village Park. "The VFW is tracing the war history of the Village," said Mayor Richard Hatheway. "It is important to look back to the 1800's and the Geneseo men who fought." Among Geneseo's Civil War dead is General James S. … [Read more...]
MDAH Awards SUNY Geneseo Professor for Book on Post-Civil War South
GENESEO – The Mississippi Department of Archives and History awarded a SUNY Geneseo history professor with the 2016 McLemore Prize for his detailed study of the American south after the Civil War. According to a press release from SUNY Geneseo, the award recognizes a monograph published by Justin Behrend, associate professor of history at SUNY Geneseo, as the most distinguished scholarly book on a topic in Mississippi history or biography … [Read more...]
GCV&M Takes Visitors to Civil War Battlegrounds
MUMFORD – Genesee Country Village and Museum took its annual trip to 1865 this past weekend with reenactors, costumes and historically accurate vignettes and demonstrations. Visitors strolled through the historic village, which includes some of the the Genesee Valley's best preserved historical houses, on July 18 and 19 as civilians dealt with wartime shortages, mixed school lessons and farm duties with rallies, sewed for soldiers, and cared … [Read more...]
Civil War Battles and President Lincoln Come to GCV&M
MUMFORD – Genesee Country Village and Museum will be a battle ground this weekend for infantry and cavalry as the museum sets their time machine for 1865. According to a press release from GCV&M, visitors will go to exactly 150 years ago, and the historic village will take on the guise of a border town. Re-enactor civilians will be busy with trying to maintain a normal life dealing with the wartime shortages, mixing school lessons and farm … [Read more...]
Rorbachs’ Love Letters Come to Life Onstage at Riviera
GENESEO – The newly renovated and beautifully restored Riviera Theater on Center Street threw its first public event on Valentine's Day as historic and touching letters between Colonel John Rorbach and his young wife, Elizabeth Vance, dating back to the Civil War. The sampled, theatrical reading of these letters, sent from the home front and from the battlefield, drew a packed house to the Riviera to revel in a love story between a colonel … [Read more...]
Timeless Civil War Love Tale to be Relived at County Museum
GENESEO – The Livingston County Museum will host a theatrical staged reading of a collection of Civil War love letters, written in 1862 by local historical couple Elizabeth Vance Rorbach and Colonel John Rorbach. SUNY students Dennis Caughlin and Megan McCaffrey will play the young couple. On Sunday, November 2nd at 2:30 p.m.,Caughlin will be voicing Colonel Rorbach and McCaffrey will be voicing his wife, Elizabeth. Both Caughlin and McCaffrey … [Read more...]
Facebook Makes Civil War Honors Possible
OSSIAN – New headstones are to be dedicated to Civil War Veterans Edwin Luce and his two brothers Worthington Luce and William Luce on Saturday, October 18 at 10 a.m. With the coordination of family members Arthur Gibson and Karen Vitale, a joint effort through the VA program and social media was made to fund raise for the instillation of said headstones. Reaching over half of their required amount in less than a week, the instillation is set … [Read more...]
Livingston Arts hosts conversations about the Civil War
MOUNT MORRIS —Livingston Arts, in conjunction with its current Expressions of the Civil War exhibit, offers two upcoming guest lectures featuring Retired RIT professor Robert Keough speaking about photography in the Civil War era on Jan. 27 at 3 p.m. Keough’s lectures explore the impact of photography during the Civil War. According to a release by Livingston Arts, photography was a newly developed technology and there had only been one war … [Read more...]
New Deal Gallery hosts “Expressions of The Civil War”
MOUNT MORRIS — The New Deal Gallery will host “Expressions of The Civil War” in recognition of the 150th anniversary on Dec. 6 from 5-7 p.m. Photography was in its infancy when the American Civil War began. As soldiers left to fight the war, the early photographers bravely followed them onto battlefields with wagons packed with bulky equipment and chemicals in order to capture the images of death and destruction. It did not take long … [Read more...]