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Vermont

“Mr. Lincoln’s Army” Civil War – Army of the Potomac

For the past 150 years, the American imagination has been captured by the epic struggles between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac — Mr. Lincoln’s Army. Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle of the war, and Antietam, the bloodiest single day, were both fought by these two great titans. The Army of the Potomac both suffered and succeeded under the command of both good and bad Generals — George B. McClellan… John Pope… Ambrose Burnside… Joseph Hooker… George G. Meade and finally Ulysses S. Grant. The Army of the Potomac underwent many structural changes during its existence, and this insightful 60-minute, live-action documentary DVD analyzes the various uniforms, Casey’s musket drill, camp life, food, weapons and equipment of the Eastern Theater Union Army Soldiers of the Civil War – Abraham Lincoln’s Army of the Potomac. As well, this documentary film explores several of the hardest fighting and most noteable Infantry organizations of the entire war — The Iron Brigade, The Irish Brigade, The Vermont Brigade, The German Immigrants of the 11th Corps, and The Pennsylvania Bucktails.

Timeline of Vermont: 1500’s – 1600’s

  • (1535) French explorer, Jacques Cartier, first European to explore Vermont
  • (1609) Samuel de Champlain claimed Vermont region for France; discovered lake Champlain
  • (1666) Ft. St. Anne, first white settlement, built at Isle LaMotte

1700’s

  • (1724) British built Fort Drummer, first permanent settlement in Vermont
  • (1731) French built fort at Chimney Point
  • (1759) The French abandoned Chimney Point settlement
  • (1760) Crown Point Military Road, completed east – west across Vermont
  • (1764) Vermont became part of New York, decreed by King George III
  • (1774) Scottish-American Land Company brought Scottish settlers to Vermont
  • (1775) Ethan Allen, Green Mountain Boys, captured Fort Ticonderoga
  • (1777) Battle of Hubbarton, only Battle of Revolutionary War fought in Vermont; Vermont declared independence from Britain; prohibited slavery
  • (1779) Property rights established for women
  • (1780) Last major Indian raid
  • (1785) First marble quarry opened in Dorset
  • (1791) Vermont became 14th U. S. state

1800’s

  • (1805) Montpelier named capital
  • (1812) Vermont volunteers fought British in battles at Chippewa, Lundy’s Lane, Plattsburgh in War of 1812
  • (1814) U. S. gained control of Lake Champlain, stopped British invasion
  • (1823) Champlain Canal opened, created water route between Vermont, New York City
  • (1835) Abolitionist Samuel J. May mobbed during lecture in Montpelier
  • (1837) John Deere patented steel plow; Thomas Davenport patented first electric motor
  • (1849) Vermont’s first railroad completed from Boston to Lake Champlain
  • (1850) Vermont nullified U. S. Fugitive Slave Law
  • (1864) St. Albans attacked during Civil War
  • (1881) Vermont native, Chester Arthur, became 21st President of the United States

Vermont Listeni/vɜrˈmɒnt/ is a state in the New England region of the northeasternUnited States. Vermont is the 6th least extensive and the 2nd least populous of the 50 United States. It is the only New England state not bordering the Atlantic Ocean.Lake Champlain forms half of Vermont’s western border, which it shares with the state of New York. The Green Mountains are within the state. Vermont is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north.

Originally inhabited by two major Native American tribes (the Algonquian-speaking Abenaki and the Iroquois), much of the territory that is now Vermont was claimed by France during its early colonial period. France ceded the territory to the Kingdom of Great Britain after being defeated in 1763 in the Seven Years’ War (also called the French and Indian War). For many years, the nearby colonies, especially New Hampshire and New York, disputed control of the area (then called the New Hampshire Grants). Settlers who held land titles granted by these colonies were opposed by the Green Mountain Boys militia, which eventually prevailed in creating an independent state, the Vermont Republic. Founded in 1777 during the Revolutionary War, the republic lasted for fourteen years. Vermont is one of seventeen U.S. states (along with TexasHawaii, the brief California Republic, and each of the original Thirteen Colonies) to have had a sovereign government in the past. In 1791, Vermont joined the United States as the 14th state, the first outside the original 13 Colonies. It abolished slavery while still independent, and upon joining the Union became the first state to have done so.

Vermont is the leading producer of maple syrup in the United States.  The state capital is Montpelier, which has a population of 7,855 and is the least populated state capital in the country.   Vermont’s most populous city is Burlington, with a 2010 population of 42,417 within its metropolitan area of 211,261.

History – Pre-Columbian

Mount Mansfield, at 4,393 feet (1,339 m), is the highest point in Vermont.

Between 8500 to 7000 BC, at the time of the Champlain SeaNative Americans inhabited and hunted in Vermont. During the Archaic period, from the 8th millennium BC to 1000 BC, Native Americans migrated year-round. During the Woodland period, from 1000 BC to AD 1600, villages and trade networks were established, and ceramic and bow and arrowtechnology was developed. In the western part of the state there lived a small population of Algonquian-speaking tribes, including the Mohican and Abenaki peoples. Sometime between 1500 and 1600, the Iroquois drove many of the smaller native tribes out of Vermont, later using the area as a hunting ground and warring with the remaining Abenaki. The population in 1500 was estimated to be around 10,000 people.

Colonial – See also: List of forts in Vermont

The Old Constitution House at Windsor, where the Constitution of Vermont was adopted on July 8, 1777

The first European to see Vermont is thought to have been Jacques Cartier in 1535. On July 30, 1609 French explorer Samuel de Champlain claimed Vermont as part of New France, and erected Fort Lamotte in 1666 which was the first European settlement in Vermont.

In 1638, a “violent” earthquake was felt throughout New England, centered in the St. Lawrence Valley. This was the first seismic event noted in Vermont.

In 1690, a group of Dutch-British settlers from Albany established a settlement and trading post at Chimney Point 8 miles (13 km) west of present-day Addison.

During Dummer’s War, the first permanent British settlement was established in 1724, with the construction of Fort Dummer protecting the nearby settlements of Dummerston and Brattleboro.

A c. 1775 flag used by the Green Mountain Boys

From 1731 to 1734, the French constructed Fort St. Frédéric which gave the French control of the New France/Vermont frontier region in the Lake Champlain Valley. With the outbreak of the French and Indian War in 1754, the French began construction of Fort Carillon at present-day Ticonderoga, New York in 1755. The British failed to take Fort St. Frédéric or Fort Carillon between 1755 and 1758. In 1759, a combined force of 12,000 British regular and provincial troops under Sir Jeffery Amherst captured Carillon, after which the French abandoned Fort St. Frédéric. Amherst then constructed Fort Crown Point next to the remains of the Fort St. Frédéric, securing British control over the area.

Following France’s loss in the French and Indian War, the 1763 Treaty of Paris gave control of the land to the British. Colonial settlement was limited by the crown to lands east of the Appalachians, and Vermont was divided nearly in half in a jagged line running from Fort William Henry in Lake George diagonally north-eastward to Lake Memphremagog.   The end of the war brought new settlers to Vermont. Ultimately, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York all claimed this frontier area.

On March 20, 1764, King George III established the boundary between New Hampshire and New York along the west bank of the Connecticut River, north of Massachusetts, and south of 45 degrees north latitude. When New York refused to recognize land titles known as the New Hampshire Grants (towns created by land grants sold by New Hampshire Governor Benning Wentworth), dissatisfied colonists organized in opposition, which led to the creation of independent Vermont on January 15, 1777.   In 1770, Ethan Allen, his brothers Ira and Levi, and Seth Warner recruited an informal militia, known as the Green Mountain Boys, to protect the interests of the original New Hampshire settlers against the new migrants from New York.

Independence and statehood – Main article: Vermont Republic

1790 Act of Congress admitting Vermont to the federal union. Statehood began on March 4, 1791.

On January 15, 1777, representatives of the New Hampshire Grants declared the independence of Vermont.  For the first six months of its existence, it was called The Republic of New Connecticut.

On June 2, 1777, a second convention of 72 delegates met to adopt the name “Vermont.” This was on the advice of a friendly Pennsylvanian who wrote to them on how to achieve admission into the newly independent United States as the 14th state.  On July 4, the Constitution of Vermont was drafted at the Windsor Tavern; it was adopted by the delegates on July 8. This was among the first written constitutions in North America and was indisputably the first to abolish the institution of slavery, provide for universal adult male suffrage, and require support of public schools. It was in effect from 1777 to 1791. Slavery was banned again by state law on November 25, 1858.

The gold leaf dome of the neoclassical Vermont State House (Capitol) in Montpelier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermont

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