LITCHFIELD — Minnesota is proud of its Civil War history. It was the first state to provide troops to the Union Army, the 1st Minnesota Infantry was integral to the victory at Gettysburg and, in 1956, the last Civil War veteran, Albert Woolson, died in Duluth at the reported age of 106. That pride and interest in the conflict continues to this day.
The large crowd that converged in Litchfield for a day of lectures and discussions is an example of the enduring importance of the American Civil War.
The Twin Cities Civil War Round Table nonprofit, along with the Round Tables in Rochester, Cannon Valley, Central Minnesota, Hiawatha Valley, Minnesota Valley, Albert Lea and Litchfield, conducted the annual Civil War Symposium on April 27 at the Litchfield Opera House.
During the event, Civil War historians Drs. Chandra Manning and Stefan Lund each gave two presentations on Civil War topics, while attendees browsed a book sale, bid on silent auction items and were able to meet and chat with other Civil War history enthusiasts.
"We're proud to be here in the city of Litchfield," said Tom Hutchinson, Twin Cities Civil War Round Table vice president.
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Manning, a U.S. history professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., started the day with a presentation on what the common soldier, in both the Union and Confederate Army, thought the cause of the war was.
Her book, "What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery and the Civil War" was created through her research of letters written by the soldiers in both armies. What she found was that while they thought differently about why, there was one overarching reason the soldiers fought the war.
The Union soldiers, even if they held racist views about slaves, still felt the institution of slavery had to be stopped because it risked the union of the United States of America, and the union was more important than anything.
For the Confederates, slavery served as the foundation of their entire way of life and their outlook on life, and needed to be protected at all costs.
"They were calling it like it was," Manning said. "Slavery was the cause of the Civil War."
In the afternoon, Manning also talked about the contraband camps that popped up around southern cities that were under the control of the Union Army. These camps were refugee camps of escaped and emancipated slaves, looking for a route to freedom. However, just like refugee camps of today, contraband camps could be hard and dangerous.
Manning said looking at the war as a refugee crisis and the camps as refugee camps was an important exercise when studying the Civil War.
"We see some things about the war more clearly if we use this lens to look at it," Manning said. "We begin to understand a lot more about what the experience of exiting slavery was actually like."
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Lund, a Minnesota-based historian who taught at the University of Virginia specializing in U.S. history, also spoke at the symposium.
He spoke on how press censorship in the South colored how the North thought of those living in the Confederacy, and even why those in the North decided to fight.
"I want to convince you that arguments over the role of free speech in the United States helped explain how Americans came to see each other as an other in the years leading up to the war," Lund said.
His afternoon talk covered how the states that seceded from the union justified their actions to other southern states they were trying to bring along. The book he based his talk around was "Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War" by Charles Dew.
"Slavery and race absolutely are central to the secession movement," Lund said.
In between the morning and afternoon sessions, symposium attendees were able to visit a building in Litchfield that played an important role in the lives of Civil War veterans for many years — GAR Hall.
One of the main reasons Litchfield was chosen as the site for this year's symposium was its historic Grand Army of the Republic Hall, built in 1885 as the official home of the Frank Daggett Post 35 of the National Grand Army of the Republic.
"It is a beautiful facility, one-of-a-kind as far as I know. There are very few that have survived intact from the Civil War era," Hutchinson said. "It is a wonderful thing that it has survived."
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The Grand Army of the Republic was the American Legion of its day, providing a place where Union Army veterans could gather in fellowship and assist veterans' widows and children along with disabled veterans.
At its height in the 1880s, the national organization had more than 400,000 members.
Litchfield's first GAR post was established by Frank Daggett in 1874, but it folded soon after his death in 1876. A new post was started in 1883 and was named in Daggett's honor. The fort-like hall was home to the Litchfield post until the late 1920s.
"They became very involved politically for veterans' rights," said Danelle Erickson, executive director of the Meeker County Museum at the GAR Hall. "Memorial Day is because of the GAR."
Litchfield GAR Hall survived because of the forward-thinking members of the organization when they built it. Early on it was decided to deed the building over to the city, which could then use it for other events and needs, even after the GAR closed down once the last members had died.
The last member of Post 35 was Albert Delany, who died in 1936 at the age of 93.
"Litchfield is going to maintain it forever as a memorial to the Civil War veterans," Erickson said. The hall is now home to the Meeker County Museum, and full of artifacts, photos and mementos from veterans.
Every year, the Twin Cities Civil War Round Table holds an annual symposium, a day of American Civil War education for organization members and the public who wish to attend.
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The mission of the Twin Cities Civil War Round Table is to "promote efforts for education, preservation and restoration related to the American Civil War." This includes holding monthly meetings with lectures by regional and national speakers and historians along with the annual symposium, which is co-held with the various Round Tables in the state.
The group has also been instrumental in funding restoration work on monuments such as the 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment monument at Gettysburg; the replacement of a medallion in a monument at the Chickamauga Battlefield for the 2nd Minnesota Infantry Regiment; and the restoration of the Minnesota Soldiers and Sailors Memorial at Summit Park in St. Paul.
The group also works to preserve the Wood Lake Battlefield from the U.S.-Dakota War in Wood Lake and helped create the Civil War display at the Minnesota Military Museum at Camp Ripley.
The symposium in Litchfield was a great success, according to Hutchinson, thanking the speakers and everyone who attended at the end of the day.
"This has been one of the best symposiums we have ever had," Hutchinson said. "Thank you for making it possible."
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