BRATTLEBORO — To commemorate the sesquicentennial of the end of the Civil War and Vermont's considerable contribution to the victory of the Union forces over their Confederate foes, American Legion Post 5 wanted to do something special.
That something special: a two-day event on Sunday, May 24 and Monday, May 25, with lectures, a banquet, and a Memorial Day service at the town's Civil War monument on the Common.
On Sunday, starting at 1 p.m., speakers will offer a variety of presentations downtown at the River Garden, the Brooks House, the Gibson-Aiken Center, and the Brattleboro Historical Society's downtown location at the Masonic Building.
Noted Vermont Civil War historian Howard Coffin will give a lecture on the Breakthrough at Petersburg - the climatic battle in Virginia in April 1865 - and the role of the Second Vermont Brigade in winning the fight and hastening the surrender of the Confederacy.
Coffin will also be the guest speaker at the banquet scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Legion home at 32 Linden St.
Other distinguished Vermont historians will give lectures on Civil War topics during the afternoon.
Frank Bryan, professor emeritus at the University of Vermont, will speak on how the war changed Vermont politics, while Castleton State College Professor Andre Fleche will examine the abolition movement.
Other presentations will include a lecture on medical care during the war by Dr. Robert Tortolani and Dr. Peter Gibbons, a talk about the role of women in post–Civil War Vermont by Christine Smith, and a look at Vermont's contribution to decisive battles in the war by Brattleboro Union High School teachers Bill Holiday and Joe Rivers.
Tom Costello, a decorated Marine Corps combat veteran and longtime Brattleboro attorney, is leading the organization of the event.
He believes that the central issues that drove the war - “racism, federalism, liberty, and emancipation” - are still being fought over today, and he marvels at the courage of the young men who left their farms and small towns to fight for a cause larger than themselves.
“There were 315,000 people in Vermont in 1860,” Costello said. “Yet 34,200 Vermonters served in the Union Army, more than 10 percent of the population.”
“And this was a tough war,” he added. “Imagine the kids from Brattleboro going to Virginia, a place they'd never seen before, to fight a war for what? To free the slaves? Preserve the Union?
“What did those ideas mean to a small-town kid from Vermont?”
And Costello was quick to point out the parallels between the Civil War and his war - Vietnam.
Although Vermont gave more per capita in blood and treasure than any other state in the Union during the Civil War, Costello said that - as was the case with Vietnam - the longer that the war went on, the less popular it became.
After two years of fighting the Confederacy, the Union Army had lost tens of thousands of soldiers, and the fervor that people had when the war began in 1861 had faded by 1863. That's when the federal government instituted conscription, when all men between 18 and 35 were subject to the draft.
“Just like Vietnam, the well-connected could avoid military service,” said Costello. “During the Civil War, when the draft began, the rich could buy their way out. There were draft riots in West Rutland in the summer of 1863.”
Then there was Vermont's bloodiest day in the war - May 5, 1864.
That day, the 3,000 men of the First Vermont Brigade held off a Confederate force of 14,000 men in the Battle of the Wilderness, but at a cost of 1,234 men killed, wounded, or missing after 12 hours of brutal combat.
“People died in droves, and a lot of Brattleboro kids died,” Costello said. “That's why the 1864 presidential election was so nip and tuck. If General Sherman didn't take Atlanta, and General Sheridan didn't win the Battle of Cedar Creek, President Lincoln might not have been re-elected.”
In all, 37 Brattleboro men serving with Vermont regiments were killed in action, and another 11 men from town serving with other units were also killed in combat.
Costello said that during Monday's Memorial Day service on May 25 at 11 a.m., 48 students will represent each of these men and tell their stories.
The service will also remember the courage and leadership that turned the tide for the Union at so many junctures of the war.
“What a different country we would have been if not for Abraham Lincoln,” said Costello. “That was the difference between Lincoln and the Civil War and Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam. Would we have won the Civil War if Johnson were president then? Would we have lost in Vietnam if Lincoln were president then?
“Leadership makes all the difference.”