In September 2017, I traveled to Sharpsburg, MD (The Antietam Battlefield National Park) for the re-dedication of the Antietam National Cemetery (150th Anniversary Ceremony). A paternal Great-Great-Grandfather William Moegling was wounded at the Battle of Antietam 17 Sep 1862 while fighting as an enlisted corporal with the 97th Infantry Regiment of New York State Volunteers (aka "The 3rd Oneida Regiment" or "Conkling Rifles"). The 97th New York was raised in Boonville, NY with volunteers primarily hailing from Oneida County, Lewis County, and Herkimer County in New York State.
Click HERE for more details courtesy of the New York State Department of Military and Naval Affairs website.
The guest speaker at the 150th Antietam National Cemetery Anniversary ceremony was the expert Civil War author/professor Dr. Gary Gallagher -- a great speaker -- very impressive, funny, interesting, and personally found myself in near 100% agreement with Dr. Gallagher's Civil War positions and thinking. I've recently come across a few of Dr. Gallagher's talks on the Internet at YouTube, they take some time to review. But these talks are highly worth your time for those who wish to be better informed on the hows, whereas, and whys of Civil War leadership and soldiers and why we these eight score+ years later need to remember that difficult 19th centruy rebellion period that nearly made us two countrys. One of Dr. Gallagher's very fine talks is selected here and available on YouTube -- click HERE to view.
On Dr. Gallagher's "the preservation of the union message" as the majority reason for Union soldier fighting, I recall a decade past visiting the grave of another Great-Great Grandfather Private Albert Odell at Bath National Cemetery (in Steuben County, NY), late of the 91st Infantry Regiment of New York State Volunteers. The cemetery plaque on the main soldiers and sailors monument reads "In memory of the Soldiers and Sailors of the War for the PRESERVATION OF THE UNION who died in the New York State Soldiers and Sailors Home." I recall being surprised by the engraved monument plaque statement "...The War For The Preservation Of The Union" -- recall thinking I've never seen this language used on a Civil War monument before. In my experience, the Civil War is most frequently referenced as "The War Of The Rebellion." Of course the union was preserved as a major outcome by the Union in Civil War, but any basic 20th/21st Century student of the war would think it was fought mainly to free the slaves. Not so... and freeing slaves was not the majority cause why those union soldiers pick-up a rifle and killed other men (or to be killed).
