Join us at Soldiers Monument on Sunday, August 7th, for our next summer opening at the monument. The first and second floors will be open and the grounds are available for picnics.
Virginia Shultz-Charette, local historian and Soldiers' Monument Commission member, will be holding a program at the monument at 2:15 p.m. titled Wide Awakes and the Boys in Blue- Young Men's Political Activism, 1860-1900.
The Wide Awakes emerged in Hartford in 1860 and were instrumental in electing Governor William Buckingham by all of 538 votes! This success spurred them on and encouraged at least 100,000 young men from throughout the North to follow their lead and form clubs to work for the election of Lincoln. The organizations continued this political activism under the name of Boys in Blue after the war to elect Republican Presidents.
Virginia has some interesting information on the Boys in Blue groups in Winsted!
Original source can be found here.
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