Civil War Sesquicentennial Blogs

Geneal­o­gists need to be his­to­ri­ans. There is no way to under­stand a fam­i­ly his­to­ry out­side of the larg­er con­text of the his­to­ry the fam­i­ly lived through. Geneal­o­gists have a rare oppor­tu­ni­ty over the next few years to wit­ness the sesqui­cen­ten­ni­al (150th anniver­sary) of the Civ­il War. This will be com­mem­o­rat­ed with exhibits, books, web­sites, records releas­es, and re-enact­ments of bat­tles.

In com­mem­o­ra­tion of an impor­tant and painful peri­od in Amer­i­can his­to­ry, sev­er­al groups have set up blogs about the sesqui­cen­ten­ni­al of the Civ­il War:

• New York Times – Dis­union. This well thought-out dis­cus­sion cov­ers the his­to­ry of the Unit­ed States as 150-year anniver­saries pass. It has an excel­lent arti­cle up cur­rent­ly about South Car­oli­na’s seces­sion.
• Nation­al Park Ser­vice — The Amer­i­can Civ­il War … 150 Years Lat­er
• Navy — Civ­il War Navy 150: The offi­cial blog ded­i­cat­ed to the dis­sem­i­na­tion of infor­ma­tion on the his­to­ry, events, and activ­i­ties sur­round­ing the Civ­il War Navy’s Sesqui­cen­ten­ni­al Anniver­sary.
• Appalachia — Share Your Sto­ry: About the Civ­il War in Appalachia (Appalachi­an Region­al Com­mis­sion)
• Lon­don, UK — Amer­i­can Civ­il War

Many states also have blogs or oth­er web­sites com­mem­o­rat­ing the events and detail­ing muse­um exhibits or online col­lec­tions. This is not intend­ed to be a com­pre­hen­sive list. For exam­ple, I have not includes sites that seems to be main­ly about a his­tor­i­cal com­mis­sion, but not about the Civ­il War his­to­ry itself.

• Arkansas —  Arkansas Civ­il War 150 (Arkansas Civ­il War Sesqui­cen­ten­ni­al Com­mis­sion)
• Con­necti­cut — Con­necti­cut & the Civ­il War (Cen­tral Con­necti­cut State Uni­ver­si­ty)
• Illi­nois — Illi­nois Civ­il War 150th Anniver­sary. Being the state from which Abra­ham Lin­coln was elect­ed to the pres­i­den­cy, Illi­nois is bound to have an inter­est­ing site. As of today, the site is expect­ed to launch … any moment: Feb­ru­ary 7, 2011.
• Maine – Civ­il War Sesqui­cen­ten­ni­al (Maine State Archives)
• Michi­gan — Explor­ing Michi­gan and the Amer­i­can Civ­il War (Mich­gan Civ­il War Sesqui­cen­ten­ni­al Com­mit­tee)
• Mis­souri — The Civ­il War in Mis­souri (Mis­souri’s Civ­il War Her­itage Foun­da­tion)
• New Jer­sey — New Jer­sey Civ­il War Sesqui­cen­ten­ni­al (New Jer­sey Civ­il War 150th Anniver­sary Com­mit­tee)
• North Car­oli­na — Civ­il War 150 NC (The North Car­oli­na State Archives)
• Ohio — Ohio Civ­il War 150 (Ohio His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety). The Civ­il War sto­ry in Ohio touch­es almost every com­mu­ni­ty in the state, and this web­site is a place for those inter­est­ed in its vast and fas­ci­nat­ing his­to­ry to come togeth­er around the anniver­sary of that time peri­od. This site con­tains a great set of links, include many to com­mem­o­ra­tions in oth­er states: http://www.ohiocivilwar150.org/links/
• Penn­syl­va­nia – Penn­syl­va­nia Civ­il War 150 (PA Civ­il War 150)
• Ten­nessee — Ten­nessee Civ­il War Sesqui­cen­ten­ni­al (Ten­nessee Civ­il War Sesqui­cen­ten­ni­al Com­mis­sion)
• Vir­ginia — Vir­ginia Civ­il War (Vir­ginia Sesqui­cen­ten­ni­al of the Amer­i­can Civ­il War Com­mit­tee)
• West Vir­ginia — Civ­il War 150 WV.gov (West Vir­ginia Civ­il War Sesqui­cen­ten­ni­al Com­mis­sion)