Event
Shadows of Blue and Gray - California Stories of the Civil War, 4th Annual Walk Through Time
On Saturday and Sunday, November 1 and 2, the Pasadena Museum of History and Mountain View Cemetery will present Shadows of Blue and Gray - California Stories of the Civil War. Performances will take place at 11:00 am, 1:00 pm & 3:00 pm under the Tiffany glass-style dome in the entry foyer of the Pasadena Mausoleum at Mountain View Cemetery. The dramatic presentations will spotlight the personal stories of five indelible Civil War-era personalities now interred in Southern California graveyards:
- Thaddeus S.C. Lowe (1832-1913), the scientist and inventor whose efforts as a balloonist gave the Union Army significant advantages of aerial observation and photographic reconnaissance. The first prisoner captured (and then released) by the South, Lowe was the single most shot at man in the war, according to poet Carl Sandberg.
- Bridget "Biddy" Mason (1818-1891), a slave freed in a landmark 1856 California court case who would become one of the wealthiest women of her time in Los Angeles County. With her son-in-law Charles Owen, Biddy founded the still-thriving First African Methodist Episcopal Church in LA.
- Eliza Griffin Johnston (1821-1896), the accomplished artist and diarist who owned the Fair Oaks Ranch, later the home of Benjamin Eaton. Her husband, Confederate Army General Albert Sidney Johnston, was killed in the Battle of Shiloh (1862) and her son died in the 1863 explosion of the steamship Ada Hancock at Wilmington Harbor.
- Ruth Brown Thompson (d. 1904), the daughter of abolitionist John Brown, was active in the anti-slavery cause with her husband Henry Thompson. Although her post-war life in Pasadena was relatively peaceful, she became a reluctant celebrity due to the fame of her brothers Owen and Jason Brown.
- Thomas Foulds Ellsworth (1840-1911), was awarded one of our country's top honors for saving the life of his commanding officer in the Battle of Honey Hill, 1864. He was promoted for his bravery and selected to serve as commanding officer of one of the first regiments of "colored" soldiers, the Massachusetts 55. After the war he and his son ran a successful contracting business in Pasadena.
Lowe, Thompson and Ellsworth are buried at Mountain View Cemetery, where more Civil War veterans (500 Union and 14 Confederate soldiers) are interred than anywhere else in California. "For most Americans, the words California and the Civil War have nothing to do with each other," says Major Robert McGrath of the California Center for Military History. "Yet California played a surprisingly important role in that epic conflict. While a few might know that shipments of gold from California helped keep the Union solvent during the war, almost no one knows that California had more volunteers per capita in the Union Army than any other state. Nor is it generally known that by war's end, California volunteers in the West occupied more territory than did the Union Army in the east."
|
|
 |
LocationMountain View Cemetery
2400 Fair Oaks Ave.
Altadena, CA 91001
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
|
Contact
|
