Handy Toyota

Civil War Reenactment
Taylor Park, St. Albans, Vermont

On July 10, 2010 in Taylor Park in St. Albans, Vermont, just across Handy Toyota's store, the Civil War, one of America's saddest yet most important moments in our young history, was reenacted by a talented group of gentlemen and ladies from the 55th Virginia Infantry (Company D) and the 118th New York Infantry (Company F) Historical Reenacting Unit displayed the tragic events that took place during said War.

For those of you who haven't brushed up on your American history since High School, the Civil War was a turning point in American history surrounded by Government tensions involving Western Expansion and the American dream of Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny was an early American ideology imagined by artist Emanuel Luetze in his famous painting "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way" (1861) that, when distilled, mean that we were literally destined to own the entire middle of North America, i.e. America as it currently stands. In 1845 John L. O'Sullivan wrote an article for the Democratic Party in which the term Manifest Destiny was coined, predicting a "devise destiny" based on equality, rights of conscience, and personal enfranchisement, specifically how it involved Texas and the liberation thereof. It was believed that the inferior race, anything non-Anglo Saxon, was destined to be moved out of the country and the "American Race" would take over their "destined' place in the entire country as it is now.

As one of the most bloody tales in American history, it becomes even more sad when one thinks that 100% of these deaths were American bodies. In every other war in American history, obviously it was us versus them. This war was us versus the other half of us. In fact, at 618,000 deaths, possibly as high as 700,000, the Civil War was perhaps the bloodiest time in our culture.

For all the negatives that this war encompassed, naturally several equally great things were established. For one, it was a turning point for the country as a whole. Before this point, the United States, while united in name, was a group of separate entity states where not even the currency was the same. After Lincoln's death as the country mourned, our descendants were brought together and suddenly the United States was a complete group, still giving separate states their own rights and governments, but branching under a Federal and common ideology. Another obvious, important element being the aforementioned expansion of equal rights.

As mentioned on July 10, 2010, St. Albans, was treated to one of the largest Civil War reenactment groups in the Northeast. Please see below some photos and videos of this excellent event and commemoration of one of the most important parts of our nation's history, regardless of how sad it may have been. And of course, a special thanks to the men and women who took time out of their day to remind us all how lucky we are to live in modern America.

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The Civil War Reenactment