Eventually wrapping up the Sesquicentennial

It is not over. Not yet. There is still much to do to fulfill the purposes in Michigan of commemorating the Civil War Sesquicentennial. There is the idea of a Michigan monument at Antietam. There is the ongoing work to preserve and promote the Grant Home in Detroit. There is ...

And there is now the beginning of a plan for how to report to the people of Michigan, and to posterity, on the work that has been undertaken over the past years relating to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to serve that came along in the lives of those who have seen the American Civil War as such an important, and ever so, epoch in our Nation's history. Brian James Egen, Chairman of the Michigan Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee, has sent out an invitation along these lines:

Let us submit a report of all the CWS activities that took place over the 150^th. We have website info that is awesome and perfect for the record and would be instrumental in documenting what Michigan did. As much as possible I would like to see every group, unit, museum, city, club, roundtable, etc. submit a list of what activities they did/participated in over the sesquicentennial. I don’t think we would need a huge amount of detail as we can always link back to websites, etc.  I have proposed the idea to the Michigan Historical Commission and they are indeed supportive of the idea. To a person, they recognize all that has been done by you/your groups and others. This would of course be voluntary but most groups have a list or an idea of what they did. I would take on the responsibility of merging them together into a report.

My thought is that we use the rest of this year and the first part of 2016 to collect information and roll this up into the report to be submitted (to the State Archives, State of Michigan, Governor’s Office, etc.) by next summer to coincide with the anniversary of the battle flags being turned into the State under Governor Crapo. Where I do think your assistance will be invaluable, is to spread the word of this effort. 

For anyone reading this blog, feel free to spread the word, to respond to Brian, and to be part of recording history. His email is [email protected]