Museums & Historic Sites of Bavaria, Germany

Have you ever been to Munich? Three weeks ago, Tim asked if I wanted to accompany him on his business trip to Munich. Having never been to Germany, I said “YES!"

In this post, you will discover some of the historic sites and museums I have visited while in Munich and the German state of Bavaria.

There will be a forthcoming post about my trip to the Dachau concentration camp. I need some time to digest what I saw and discovered there.

Museum of Egyptian Art (Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst)

Munich blends the past with present-day technologies in its new Egyptian Art Museum.

Multi-lingual touchscreen computers at the center of each room guide visitors through the museum and its collections, which span 5,000 years of art history. These tablets provide historical context for the artwork on display as well as additional information about the pieces in each room.

The most interesting part of this museum was its focus on the creation of Egyptian art.

I have seen many Egyptian artifacts and exhibits in art museums, but I do not recall the emphasis or detailed information about how the artists who lived in each dynasty created their artwork.

In my opinion, the best exhibit was on how Egyptian artists created their cubic art; the large statues we see inside and outside of temples are part of an art form called Egyptian cubism. The exhibit showed small models with lines on them that represented the areas the artist would cut in each phase of his work.

Deutsches Museum

The Deutsches Museum stands as one of the largest science and technology museums in the world. It consists of three branches: a main branch and two branches that contain extensive automobile and airplane collections.

Tim and I visited the main branch, which reminded me of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, but with more how-to information about how the technologies on display work(ed).

We spent four hours or so in the Deutsches Museum and we covered only a fraction of its 11 acres, or 10 miles, of exhibit space.

Tim enjoyed the electrical experiments area the most. The live demonstration of high-voltage apparatus made for a good, if loud, show.

I found the exhibits about the history of the printing press and bookbinding technology the most enjoyable. The evolution of telecommunications exhibit came in a close second because it explained how telephone switchboards and exchanges work(ed).

“Mad" King Ludwig’s Castles

King Ludwig II, the "Mad" King

In 1866, Bavaria entered a war against Prussia and lost. As a result, King Ludwig II saw his power diminish. Prussia took over command of the Bavarian army and Ludwig II lost his sovereignty as a ruler.

Between 1867 and his death in 1886, Ludwig II coped with his loss of power by building a series of castles and palaces that formed a kingdom where he would be the supreme ruler.

Ludwig II’s building projects placed Bavaria in great debt. By 1885, Ludwig II owed 14 million marks. Rather than curb his lavish lifestyle and building projects, Ludwig II continued to plan and build.

On June 12, 1886, a government commission had Ludwig II arrested on charges that he was unfit for rule by reason of insanity. Government officers took Ludwig II to Berg Castle on the shores of Lake Starnberg.

On June 13, Ludwig II and a Dr. Bernhard von Gudden, the chief physican at the Munich Asylum, went for a walk and never returned. A search party found Gudden and King Ludwig II floating in Lake Starnberg. No one knows what happened and whether they suffered from an accident or were the victims of murder.

Tim and I booked a day trip to see two of “Mad” King Ludwig II's Alpine retreats: Linderhof Palace and Neuschwanstein Castle.

Linderhof Palace

In 1869, King Ludwig II decided to turn his father Maximilian II’s hunter's lodge into a palace. Ludwig II modeled his new residence after Versailles as he greatly admired his distant relative King Louis XIV of France.

The rooms contain elaborate and ornate furnishings. Gold and silver gilding, large mirrors, giant porcelain chandeliers, and ornate furniture decorate each of the 10 rooms. You can visit all of these rooms and see their lavish ornamentation in the virtual tour.

Neuschwanstein Castle

King Ludwig II never intended for anyone outside of his inner circle to visit his palaces and castles and yet today Neuschwanstein is one of the most visited castles in the world.

Construction of Neuschwanstein began on September 5, 1869. It was never finished.

King Ludwig II moved into the partially completed castle in 1884, but construction continued only until his death in 1886.

The Bavarian government ordered the workers to add a roof to the unfinished portions of the castle and opened the building to tourists shortly afterward.

Each room of Neuschwanstein Castle features a mythological tale, which the furniture and paintings in the room help tell.

The castle has a very medieval look, but a modern feel. If you look closely you will see bells and ringers for servants, indoor plumbing, and heating stoves.

Unfortunately, the Bavarian government does not allow visitors to take photographs inside either Linderhof or Neuschwanstein. If you are interested, they offer a virtual tour of the castle.

Residenz Museum

The Residenz once stood as the center of power for the Wittelsbach Family. The Wittelsbachs ruled Bavaria as Dukes (1180-1623), Electors (1623-1806), and Kings (1806-1918).

The Residenz began as Stephen III's Neuveste, a crude castle with a moat surrounding it in 1385. In 1550, the Residenz began to take on its modern appearance. Duke Albrecht V added the Antiquarium hall and ballroom (1568-1571). Duke Wilhelm V added the Grottonhof buildings, which resemble an Italian grotto (1581-1586). Every Duke, Elector, and King of Bavaria added on to the Residenz until King Ludwig I (1824-1848).

As a result of its multi-generational construction, the Residenz contains representations of Baroque, Rococo, and neoclassical art, furnishings, and style.

The Residenz contains hundreds of rooms; you can visit 90 of them during your visit.

The opulence of the Wittelsbach Family is impressive; each room contains pieces of furniture, textiles, dinnerware, religious relics, and artwork owned by the family. However, what I found most interesting is how the Bavarians have reconstructed and interpreted the museum.

The allied air raids of March 1944 destroyed almost all of the Residenz. After the war the people of Munich opted to rebuild its historic buildings as close to the originals as possible. As a result the city looks old, but feels modern.

A tour of the Residenz includes a free audio guide. As you walk through each of the 90 rooms the narrators make sure to point out what part of the room and its furnishings are original and what are reproduction.

Thankfully, the people of Munich were able to save many furnishings and much of the priceless art before the allied bombing commenced. The curators of the museum have used the original furnishings in each room whenever possible. Other rooms contain Wittelsbach Family pieces from elsewhere in Europe or reproductions.

Museum curators also provide visual cues that visitors have entered a reconstructed area of the palace. Instead of real stone and brick, the curators have restored exterior and interior walls with plain, white walls, or (in the case of the exterior) walls painted to look like stone blocks and bricks.

The Residenz is an impressive museum and one that may best be visited over a few days.

Conclusions

I have enjoyed my time in Munich and Bavaria. I have seen many interesting buildings and museums, discovered a history far different from the one I study, and I have really enjoyed sampling the culinary tastes of the region.

Bavarian pretzels are cheap and plentiful and I never knew that so many different kinds of sausage, streusel, and doughnuts existed.

Share Your Story

Where will you visit on your next research trip or vacation?

*Interior photos of Linderhof Palace courtesy of the Bayerische Schlösserverwaltung.

Rethinking French and Indian War Profits

How much money did the merchants of Albany, New York realize from the French and Indian War? In this post you will discover the exciting new information I found during a recent research trip to the American Antiquarian Society and why I am rethinking French and Indian War profits.

Charges of Great Profits

New England merchants and soldiers, New York City merchants, and traders from abroad complained that the merchants of Albany had discriminated against them during the French and Indian War (1754-1763).

They charged the Albanians with excessive taxation and with creating an unwelcome environment. They also claimed that the merchants of Albany had reaped great profits from the war.

Secondary sources about the war contextualize and moderate these assertions. The secondary sources claim that the profits of the war began in London and trickled down to merchants in major American seaports like Boston, Philadelphia, and New York City before they reached inland cities like Albany.

The Business of Military Supply

The War Department requisitioned supplies and contracted with large London mercantile firms to provide them. In turn, the London firms engaged large American houses, like those owned by the DeLanceys of New York City and the Franks of Philadelphia, to receive, acquire, and disperse those provisions.

Often provisions contracts between London merchants and large American firms charged American merchants with acquiring perishable foodstuffs closer to the front. Sometimes the American firms engaged trusted contacts in settlements closer to the front lines to fulfill their agreements for perishables and to deliver London-sent goods to locally stationed commissaries. More often, they sent factors (usually junior partners) inland to facilitate their military contracts.

Available records make it impossible to quantify how much profit Albany merchants made during the French and Indian War.

Scattered documents show goods that some Albany merchants imported during the war. They also provide a glimpse of how much money the British Army spent in Albany to hire laborers, build bateaus, and provide other services. For example, in 1758, John Bradstreet needed 1,500 bateaus for the campaign against Ticonderoga. He infused £19,251:15:1/2 into the Albany economy by purchasing lumber, naval stores, and labor to build them.

How Much Did Albany Merchants Profit from the War?

Although available documents make it impossible to quantify how much Albanian merchants profited from the war, I have never doubted that some of them must have made a fortune.

However, a recent research trip to the American Antiquarian Society has prompted me to rethink my assumption. My trip to the AAS put me into contact with the letterbooks of Cornelis Cuyler, one of Albany’s wealthiest merchants.

Cornelis Cuyler made his money the old-fashioned way: inheritance, marriage, and business.

The eldest surviving son of Johannes Cuyler and Elsie Ten Broeck, Cuyler inherited both the family fur trade business and the elite status that came with the “ancient” Albany-based names of Cuyler and Ten Broeck. He became a third-generation fur trader, a trade that required him to interact with Mohawk and other Haudenosaunee or Iroquois peoples and travel into “Indian Country.”

Cuyler’s efforts and keen sense of the trade enhanced the family business and wealth, as did his marriage to Catharina Schuyler, the youngest daughter of Albany Mayor Johannes Schuyler and Elsie Staats Wendell Schuyler. (Schuyler, Wendell, and Staats are also surnames that belonged to elite Albany families.)

Cuyler’s letterbooks provide ample evidence that he understood the fur trade and how to leverage his familial connections to trade in Albany and abroad; Cuyler knew how to buy (or trade) for furs, where and when to sell those furs (London or Amsterdam), and how to use the proceeds to purchase English and Dutch manufactured goods, or goods from the West Indies, who to contact to smuggle the Dutch goods into New York, and how to sell them at a profit in Albany.

Cuyler's letterbooks reveal that knowledgeable and established Albany merchants profited early in the war, but not after 1756.

In 1755, Cuyler purchased £100* worth of textiles, clothing, and metal goods to sell to British soldiers, colonial militiamen, or for use in the fur trade. Additionally, Cuyler discussed how he provisioned sick and wounded soldiers at Lake George, advanced money to representatives from various colonial war committees, and rented property to an out-of-town commissary.

I have not been able to locate Cuyler’s account books, but his letters show someone with few complaints until April 1757.

On April 7, 1757, Cuyler wrote to his relative and factor in Boston, Jacob Wendell, “Every thing here is @ Present Stagnated.”

On the same day, he wrote to his eldest son Philip in New York City, “Everything here is Stagnated with us” and that all of the profit went “to the People from New York” who “Supplys the Regulars Troups.” Cuyler commented on the unfairness of the situation: the merchants of New York City made all the money “& we have all the Burdon. I have at present 6 men & an Officer Billeted upon me that is Besides the Officers Servant.”

Cuyler’s letters reflect frustration at the military supply system. Unable to make money in military supply, Cuyler and his son invested in risky privateering ventures. Cuyler disliked the risk associated with privateering, but he invested in one or two ships anyway; he held a 1/16th share of one privateer.

Conclusions

Cornelis Cuyler’s letterbooks provide evidence that the people of Albany profited from the war, but not necessarily to the extent that the accounts of New England and foreign merchants have led us to believe.

Albany merchants who wanted to get rich from the war invested in risky schemes like privateering because partnerships with New York City firms did not always work out.

Cuyler’s letters indicate that more often than not New York City merchants like the DeLanceys removed Albany merchants from the profit chain. They hired New York City men or sent their sons to handle the supply contracts.

Cuyler’s letterbooks represent just one source. I plan to look for others, but few account and letterbooks from Albany during the French and Indian War period remain thanks to time and the New York Capitol fire of 1911.

Still, Cuyler’s letters provide insight into why the Albanians resorted to enforcing the ancient practice of “freedoms” (a license that all persons not born in Albany had to purchase in order to conduct trade in the city) and why they petitioned the New York Assembly, Governor, and Council to enact a law that would permit them to tax transient merchants. (The New York Assembly, Governor, and Council passed the requested law.)

Cuyler's letterbooks also suggest that the Albanians guarded their chances to profit because the trials and tribulations brought on by living in close proximity to British Regulars year-round caused many Albanians to feel entitled when it came to profiting from the war. Any profits the Albanians earned came at the price of hosting and housing the British Army.

*MeasuringWorth.com relates that £100 sterling in 1755 was worth approximately $13,500 in 2013.

Drawing of Fort Frederick courtesy of the Albany Institute of History & Art

Getting Access: Massachusetts Historical Society Digital Resources

Do you research or teach United States history? Would you like free, online access to manuscripts, photographs, and objects related to the American Revolution, War of 1812, American Civil War, and other important events through World War I?

In this post you will discover the treasure trove of information and materials included in 10 of the 41 different digital resources offered by the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Brief History of the Massachusetts Historical Society

Founded in 1791, the Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) stands as the oldest historical society in the United States. It operates as an independent research library and makes its vast and impressive holdings available to anyone who cares to stop in or use its online collections.

Regardless of its name, you should think of the MHS as an archive of American history.

The MHS holds the papers of the Adams Family (including those of John, Abigail, and John Quincy Adams), Horace Mann, and other notable Bay Staters. But, its collections extend beyond Massachusetts.

Some of its holdings may surprise you, such as the fact that it has the largest collection of Thomas Jefferson’s private papers. They also have the papers of Francis Parkman, including his Oregon Trail notebooks.

The Digital Resources of the Massachusetts Historical Society

The commitment of the Massachusetts Historical Society to make its records accessible to all has prompted them to dedicate time and funds to creating valuable digital resources.

As of January 2015, the MHS has created 41 digital resources, which stretch in time from colonial North America through World War I.

The resources run the gamut from fully digitized manuscript collections to companion websites that contain highlights from exhibits hosted in the galleries of the MHS. Many of the resources include lesson plans, study questions, and materials for educators.

Below you will find brief summaries of 10 of the 41 digital resources. Each collection title serves as a link to that collection.

(Click here for listings for 39 of the resources and click here to explore the Civil War Manuscript and Photograph collections.)

Silence Dogood: Benjamin Franklin and The New England Courant

James Franklin published The New-England Courant, a newspaper independent of British imperial interests. Franklin published articles and essays that commented on society, current events, and government proceedings in a lively and satirical style. In 1722, James’ 13-year-old apprentice (and youngest brother) Benjamin contributed to the Courant’s commentary using the pseudonym “Silence Dogood.” Benjamin Franklin wrote fourteen "Silence Dogood" essays. This collection offers images and transcriptions of these early Franklin essays as well as full images of the newspapers in which they appeared.

Maps of the French and Indian War

This collection contains digitized maps that depict North America around the time of the French and Indian War (1754-1763). These charts illustrate how both French and British commanders used maps to determine their military strategy. Maps helped officers determine where to attack the enemy and what geographic features and areas they should attempt to hold or acquire.

African Americans and the End of Slavery in Massachusetts

A digital collection of 117 items held by the MHS. These items include manuscripts and early printed works that offer a window into the lives of African Americans from the 17th century through the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts (July 8, 1783).

Perspectives on the Boston Massacre

Read and examine materials that offer a range of perspectives about the Boston Massacre. Materials include diary entries, letters, pamphlets, newspaper accounts, printed depositions, orations, trial notes, seven images, and bullets recovered from the scene. This resources includes a comparison tool that allows you to closely view and compare any two of the seven images of the event.

Annotated Newspapers of Harbottle Dorr Jr.

Harbottle Dorr Jr. (1730-1794) lived in Boston. He owned a store, occasionally served as a town selectmen, and was a member of the Sons of Liberty. Dorr was also an avid reader and collector of newspapers. Between 1765 and 1777, Dorr collected 805 newspapers, which he arranged into four volumes. Of course, Dorr didn’t just read his newspapers, he annotated and indexed them. The Annotated Newspapers of Harbottle Dorr Jr. digital resource offers high-quality images of Dorr’s newspaper and pamphlet collection and his indexes. It also has a search feature that will allow you to search for topics that Dorr indexed.

Siege of Boston

This collections offers more than 300 pages of manuscript materials about the Siege of Boston (1775-1776). This represents more than a dozen individual accounts of those who were either engaged in or effected by the Siege of Boston. These accounts represent the points of view of residents, soldiers, prisoners, and Loyalists.

War of 1812

In honor of the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, the Massachusetts Historical Society has digitized a selection of broadsides, letters, and artifacts about the war.

Boston Abolitionists, 1831-1865

This collection comprises a range of materials held and preserved by the MHS that relate to abolitionists and the abolition movement in Boston. It includes issues of The Liberator as well as the first anti-slavery tract printed in North America, Samuel Sewall’s The Selling of Joseph (Boston, 1700).

The Case for Ending Slavery

This resource uses more than 50 primary sources (letters, diaries, songs, legal notebooks, and photographs) to reveal the complex nature of ideas about slavery and freedom that existed between the 18th and 19th centuries. Materials include lesson plans, study questions, and resources for educators.

Margaret Hall’s World War I Photographs

Massachusetts-native Margaret Hall served in the Red Cross during World War I. Between 1918 and 1919 she served at a canteen near the railroad junction at Châlons, France. While serving at this post, Hall kept a diary and took 294 photographs of the war. She compiled her journal entries, letters, and photographs into a typescript narrative, “Letters and Photographs from Battle Country, 1918-1919.” This resource will allow you to browse all 294 of Margaret Hall's photos as well as 29 additional illustrative items that sheincluded in her typescript.

Conclusion

The Massachusetts Historical Society offers an impressive collection of digital resources that will assist anyone who studies or teaches North American and United States history. Presently, the MHS offers 41 online resources.

The organization’s strong commitment to making its collections accessible to all undoubtedly ensures that it will continue to add to its impressive offerings with each passing year.

What Do You Think?

What is your favorite, free online database?

Additional Highlights from the Fear in the Revolutionary Americas Conference

What role did fear play in the revolutions of North and South America between 1776 and 1865? On Tuesday, November 18, 2014, I contributed a post to The Junto: A Group Blog on Early American History that offered some  highlights from "'Fear in the Revolutionary Americas Conference,'" a one-day conference hosted by Tufts University on Halloween.

In this post I offer you recaps of two more of the papers presented at “Fear in the Revolutionary Americas, 1776-1865.”

“Republics of Saints? Fear and Virtue in the Age of Revolutions”

Nicole Eustace (New York University) believes that we need to study the language and contents of the Federalist Papers to understand the absence of fear in American constitutionalism.

Eustace posited that emotional language provides a key metric that historians can use to assess contemporary perceptions of fear and power. She explored the language of fear and virtue as used by Maximilien de Robespierre and Simón Bolívar to illustrate her point.

Equality, fear, and virtue played important roles in Robespierre’s republicanism.

Robespierre believed that a virtuous society would develop when its members submerged their self-interest in favor of the entire society. The power of self-interest ensured that societies were hard to create.

Robespierre believed that a populace must experience fear in order to become virtuous because only fear had enough power to overcome self-interest.

Like Robespierre, Bolívar believed that only virtuous societies could govern themselves.

Unlike Robespierre, Bolívar understood virtue as a cultivated trait. He ended slavery in Venezuela in an effort to cultivate virtue among his fellow Venezuelans.

Bolívar viewed slavery as immoral and as virtuous societies did not suffer from failures of morality, he could not build a virtuous society capable of self-governance with the institution of slavery in tact. With slavery abolished, Bolívar hoped to develop a sense of racial equality. He wanted to create a new branch of government dedicated to the cultivation of virtue and morality, but it never materialized.

Robespierre and Bolívar developed their definitions of virtue, virtuous societies, and how to create republican societies partly in response to the “fearless” republicanism of the United States.

Rather than use fear, the authors of the Federalist Papers used sympathy to persuade their fellow Americans to adopt the republicanism proffered by the Constitution of 1787.

Using the language of sympathy Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison described a federal government that would be sympathetic to the people because it understood that self-interest would always overpower virtuous self-denial.

The framers understood that man had vices, but argued that Americans did not need to be perfect in order to govern themselves; the failure of human virtue should not mean the need for the shackles of despotism. Therefore, the government offered by the Constitution limited self-interest by imposing term limits and requiring frequent elections to keep the government sympathetic to the people and their changing needs.

“Wars to the Death: Annihilation and Identity in Spanish America’s Independence Era”

Karen Racine (University of Guelph) offered an overview of the development of the “War to the Death” mindset and its use in revolutionary Haiti and Venezuela.

The phrase “War to the Death” implies that something apocalyptic will happen because one group will live and the other will die. It also describes a fundamental part of the enemy’s identity that must be annihilated.

Racine noted the existence of many examples of “War to the Death” calls to action throughout history and provided the example of Punic Wars to prove her point. Every Roman statesman who discussed the wars ended their speech with “Carthage Must Be Destroyed!”

Racine also acknowledged that over time the West came to link the “War to the Death” ideal to individual martyrdom for national liberation.  Joan of Arc and William Wallace fit this understanding.

Racine argued that fear and annihilation comprised a central and intrinsic part of nation building during the age of Revolutions, especially in Latin America.

During the Haitian Revolution, Jean-Jacques Dessalines told his countrymen that he ascribed to the motto “War to the Death of Tyrants!”

Between January and April 1804, Dessalines led his fellow Haitians in a genocide of the petits blanc, white Haitians. He affected the genocide by using the black islanders’ fear of the whites; Dessalines described white Frenchmen as inhuman and urged his fellow Haitians to erase their footprint from their island.

Similarly, in 1810, Simón Bolívar proclaimed “Down with Tyrants!” He promised to kill any Spaniard or Canary Islander who refused to embrace the independence of the Americas.

Both Dessalines and Bolívar instituted a nationalism of negation among their countrymen because the “War to the Death” ideal rallied support by defining peoples more by what they are not than by what they are.

Conclusions

The eight scholars who presented at “Fear in the Revolutionary Americas, 1776-1865” made a strong case for why historians need to consider the emotional side of the revolutions and historic events we study.

Emotions drive how people act and, as these scholars demonstrated, fear served as a strong motivator, or instigator, of actions during the age of American revolutions.

The Confederate Raid of St. Albans Vermont

Did you know that a unit of Confederate soldiers invaded Vermont during the Civil War? I didn't.

On October 15, 2014, I attended a talk by J. Kevin Graffagnino about the Confederate raid of St. Albans Vermont in October 1864.

In this post you will discover details about the St. Albans Raid as well as the valuable lesson the raid taught Graffagnino about researching and writing history.

Origins of Research

Since November 2008, J. Kevin Graffagnino has served as the Director of the William L. Clement Library at the University of Michigan. Prior to 2008, he held curatorial and administrative posts at the University of Vermont and the Historical Societies of Vermont, Wisconsin, and Kentucky.

As a native Vermonter, Graffagnino became interested in the St. Albans Raid as a child. His work at the University of Vermont and the Vermont Historical Society allowed him to conduct in-depth research about the raid from the Vermont point of view. His position at the Kentucky Historical Society gave him the opportunity to return to the raid and look at it from the Kentucky point of view.

The St. Alban’s Raid: An Overview

The St. Albans, Vermont raid stands as the northernmost military action during the Civil War.

The raid took place on October 19, 1864 and it was led by a young Confederate calvary officer named Bennett Henderson Young.

The raid had strong Kentucky roots. In addition to Young, many of the Confederate soldiers who participated in the raid hailed from Kentucky.

Although the state government of Kentucky remained neutral throughout the war, many of its residents chose sides: Five times as many Kentuckians joined the Union Army than the Confederate Army.

In 1864, the Confederate Army sent 1st Lieutenant Bennett Young to Canada to reconnoiter the northern landscape of the U.S.

Canada did not take sides during the American Civil War. The country allowed civilians and soldiers from both the Union and the Confederacy to enter its borders to secure supplies or safety.

Young accepted his mission gladly. He wanted to punish New England for its role in the war and for the devastation its Union soldiers had wrought throughout the South. Young did not think it fair that nearly every community in the South lived in fear of wartime violence while most in the North lived without such fear, especially those in New England.

Young focused his attention on the northern borders of Vermont. Vermonters had been among the most vociferous opponents of slavery and the Confederacy.

In October 1864, Young met with Confederate leaders in Toronto. He told them that he intended to attack St. Albans, Vermont, a town in the northwest corner of the state.

Why St. Albans?

St. Albans made a perfect target for three reasons:

1. Railroad Hub: St Albans served as the headquarters for the Central Vermont Railroad. As a railroad hub, the residents of St. Albans were used to seeing out-of-town travelers. This fact would allow Young and his men to infiltrate the town with a minimum of suspicion.

2. Money: As a railroad hub, St. Albans was a relatively prosperous community. Its three banks would have money in its vaults that Young and his men could secure and send back to the Confederacy.

The Confederate Army wanted Young to bring the horrors of the Civil War to New England. Young's attack was designed to unnerve the Yankees and make them live in fear that Confederate raiders might attack them at any moment. However, Young’s primary missions seems to have been to secure financial assistance for the Confederacy.

3. Location: Located in the northwest corner of the state, Young and his men could infiltrate St. Albans and make their way to the safety of Canada in short order.

The Raid

Twenty-two Confederate soldiers took part in the raid, including Young.

The twenty-two men arrived in St. Albans either alone or in pairs over several days. They stayed in different hotels as not to arouse suspicion. Their plan worked, no one in St. Albans suspected their plan.

The raid began at 3pm on October 19, 1864.

The Confederates divided into three different groups and each group entered a different town bank. In each bank, the Confederates raised their pistols and told the tellers and customers that they were Confederate soldiers who had come to take St. Albans and its money for the Confederacy.

The raid lasted 25-30 minutes.

After they robbed the banks, the soldiers rounded up all the horses in town. The rest of the St. Albans residents became aware of what was happening as the Confederates gathered the horses. The residents marched to the town square with their odd assortment of firearms.

A furious firefight ensued.

The civilians shot three of the raiders. The Confederates killed one civilian, an out-of-town visitor by the name of Elias Morrison. Ironically, Morrison had been a Confederate sympathizer.

After the firefight, Young and his men mounted their horses and galloped out of town. As they rode away they threw bottles of "Greek Fire" onto the sides of St. Albans buildings. Fortunately for the residents, the fire mostly smoldered. The only building claimed by Young's fire was an outhouse.

Flight into Canada

Young and his men galloped away with approximately $227,000 in their saddlebags.

Not long after crossing into Canada, Canadian police captured 14 of the raiders and about $90,000 of the stolen money. A Vermont posse apprehended Young.

Upon his arrest, Young claimed combatant status. The Vermonters didn’t care. They threw Young into a wagon and started back to the United States. However, before they made it across the border, Canadian police officers stopped the party and took Young into custody.

Although the Canadians promised to return Young and his men to the Vermonters the next day, they did not. They opted to keep them in country to face an extradition trial.

The Confederates may have failed at burning down St. Albans, but they succeeded in creating a feeling of panic and worry throughout Vermont. Rumors spread like wildfire throughout the state that Confederates were attacking towns and cities such as Burlington.

Vermonters interrogated hobos and any other unknown persons who entered their town. The state government formed a calvary unit to patrol its borders; the only available men to serve in it were invalid soldiers.

Meanwhile, the Canadians shipped the Confederates to Montreal where a judge would determine whether or not to extradite them back to the United States. In mid-December, the judge decided that he did not have jurisdiction to decide the case. He released Young and his men.

U.S. officials had them rearrested in short order. They asked the Canadians to hear charges of larceny, Young and his men had robbed individuals, an extraditable offense.

The Vermonters did not have much luck in Canada.

By late March 1865, the Canadian courts ruled that the raiders were not in fact eligible for extradition. Graffagnino pointed out that this decision could have been a bit of revenge for how the Vermonters supported the 1838 Patriot rebels against the Canadian government. Whatever the reason, the Canadians set Young and his men free.

Brief Epilogue

The Confederates made away with a large portion of the $227,000 that they stole from the St. Albans banks.

The banks and their account holders lost all but 1/3rd of the money, which the Canadian authorities returned to the town.

Some of the stolen bank notes made their way to the Confederate capital in Richmond, Virginia, but the money arrived too late to do much good. The war ended in April 1865.

Graffagnino and other scholars of the raid suspect that many of the raiders used their proceeds to start new businesses and careers at the end of the war. Although Graffagnino did not give a specific statistic, he related that many of the raiders returned to Kentucky and the South where they became bankers and prominent businessmen.

Between 1865 and 1868, Young wandered around Canada and Ireland; the United States had a bounty on his head. In 1868, he made his way back to Kentucky, settled in Louisville, and opened a successful law practice. He died in 1919 at 75 years old. Today the citizens of Louisville remember him as a soldier, philanthropist and gentlemen.

Lesson From the Raid

Graffagnino closed his hour-long lecture by asking “so what?”

So what has the St. Albans Raid taught him about history and conducting research?

Graffagnino responded that researching the raid taught him how important it is to look at both sides of the story.

During his early career in Vermont, he only looked at the Vermont side of the story. Although he had collected a great many details about the raid, those details became richer during his time in Kentucky.

While working for the Kentucky Historical Society, Graffagnino learned more about Young, his men, and how the southerners portrayed the raid.

Understanding more about Young, his men, and their Confederate views gave Graffagnino a new appreciation for the raid and a fuller picture of what happened.

Conclusion

I admit that I attended Graffagnino’s lecture because I was interested in the content.

As a native New Englander with roots in both Boston and New Hampshire, I had no idea that the Confederates attacked Vermont. This surprising detail prompted me to step out of my historical comfort zone and find out more.

However, I am grateful that Graffagnino related his point about the importance of understanding both sides of the story when you research and write history. It seems like an obvious point, but it is one I have struggled with.

I have spent so much time researching the people of Albany that I almost feel insulted when I read an account by someone who does not understand how the fur trade worked, what it was like for the Albanians to live on the frontier, or to have their city used as a military base throughout each of the four wars for empire.

When I wrote my dissertation, my advisor sent back a few chapter drafts with calls for me to be more sympathetic to outside points of view. I am glad I took his advice.

For example, when I researched the Earl of Loudoun’s quartering practices during the French and Indian War from his point of view, I found that Loudoun disliked billeting his men in the Albanians houses and that he did all in his power to lessen the inconvenience. This was not something that I had read about in the Albanians’ accounts of the affair.

Today, I try to be more even-handed when I research and write about history. It was nice to hear that Graffagnino has also had to work at this part of his craft too. It was also nice to hear him voice a reminder to all of the historians and history enthusiasts in the audience that they should research and write about the past fairly.

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How do you avoid over sympathizing with your historical subjects?