To Preserve the Nation: Penn State Altoona’s Seminar Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Loyal War Governor’s Conference will take place September 27, 2012, from noon – 2:30 p.m. in the Misciagna Family Center for Performing Arts.
Jared Frederick, a 2010 Penn State Altoona graduate, will give the introduction. The seminar includes four different speakers who will present on the political, military, and social climate of the country in 1862 and 1863. At 7 p.m., a free screening of the Civil War classic Glory will take place at the Devorris Downtown Center.
The War Governors' Conference took place in the immediate aftermath of Lincoln's preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Spearheaded by Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin, the Altoona, Pennsylvania, conference was meant to aid Lincoln with political support at a time when he desperately needed it. The thirteen state executives present offered firm support in the name of emancipation and also called for 100,000 supplementary troops to help quell the rebellion. The governors pledged that their states would raise the appropriate quota of troops to serve on the front lines. The Loyal War Governors' Conference could be considered one of the great political events of the Civil War era. Its ramifications on the war effort could probably never be fully recounted. In the end, the governors stated that the conference and the Emancipation Proclamation gave "new life, new vigor, and new hopes to the hearts of the people" with a renewed sense of "devotion to the national cause."
Other events centered on the Loyal War Governor’s Conference are scheduled for September
28 – 30 around Blair County. You can find out more by visiting http://blaircivilwar.blogspot.com online.