welcome to the ancestral findings podcast this is episode 2 1/8 town
line is a tiny hamlet in upstate New York near the Canadian border that
inexplicably voted to secede and join the Confederacy during the Civil War
today we'll explore this intriguing tale of town line home of the last of the rebel
when you think of the Confederacy the state of New York typically does not come to mind New
York cited solidly with the Union during the Civil War and is a quintessentially northern
state yet a small part of it just one town in fact stood alone during the Civil War declaring itself
as a supporter of the Confederacy and actually voted to secede from the union apart from the
rest of the state it did not officially concede the war and rejoin the United States until the
1940s here is the intriguing tale of town line New York town line is about as far north as you
can get in New York it is located near the top of the state just a few miles from the border with
Canada as you can imagine that is an awkward and really unusable location for a Confederate holdout
during the Civil War what makes it even more unusual is that the town was populated by first
and second-generation German immigrants during the Civil War II errs most of them farmers so
none of them had any personal or economic ties to the south the town even voted overwhelmingly for
Abraham Lincoln during his first campaign for the presidency that is white remains such a mystery
to this day why the men of the town voted 85 to 40 in 1861 to secede from New York and join the
Confederacy the only explanation historians have come up with and it is just a guess is that the
town was sparsely populated and its residents did not want to diminish their already small
numbers which were barely big enough for keeping up their farms to answer Lincoln's call for 75,000
men from the area to be drafted as Union soldiers such a call would have removed virtually every
able-bodied male from town line the secession was largely symbolic but not entirely no US troops
ever came to town line to compel it to return to the Union and the secession was not recognized by
either the Union or Confederate governments the US Post Office still operated there and the citizens
still paid their taxes to the Union government still some men from town line did enlist in the
Confederate Army while others joined the Union Army when it became clear the South was not going
to win the war some Southern sympathizers in town line were driven out of town and chased to Canada
after the Civil War things return to normal in town line and everyone in the government seemed
to forget the town was still technically not part of the United States the town was treated as if
it were however the people of the town remembered their technical and symbolic Confederate past the
personnel at the town fire station wore patches that said last of the rebels until very recently
the town puts on an annual Civil War reenactment where they raise the Confederate flag and wear
gray uniforms which will confuse any visitor to another part of New York the government may have
forgotten about the secession of town line but its residents did not it was only after
World War two when American patriotism was at an all-time high at home that the matter of the
town's nation 'less status came up again world war ii soldiers from town line were not pleased upon
coming home from the war and realizing they were not technically Americans the town put together a
special committee about the matter and wrote to US President Harry Truman Truman didn't seem to
take the issue seriously he wrote back and said they should have a town barbecue and sorted out
themselves in December 1945 the town once again voted on whether they wanted to be a part of the
United States interestingly the faction in favor of rejoining did not gain a majority
in this first vote however the town was starting to make national news based on its Confederate
status after the letter to Harry Truman came to light in the rest of the nation not wanting
to be a national embarrassment the town voted again January of 1946 this vote was attended by
some national celebrities and a big event was made out of it this time the majority voted to
rejoin the Union though 23 voters still voted to remain Confederates these people were genuinely
the last of the rebels at least in a purely legal sense after the second vote the town took down the
Confederate flag that had flown over them for more than eight decades and took the oath of allegiance
to the United States that all former Confederates had to take back in 1865 they were officially part
of the United States once more with a population of only a little more than two thousand town line
residents still take pride in being the only truly northern town to secede from the union
interestingly if not for World War two and the letter to Truman town line might still technically
be an independent city state because no one in the nation much less the government remember
the secession or took it seriously if they did today town line is an interesting historical
curiosity and the real reason for its decision to secede in 1861 is still a mystery nothing in
the existing town records actually show why the town voted to secede there is some speculation
that town records showing the reason for the secession might have been destroyed in the 1940s
out of embarrassment for the towns Act one town resident who was 12 when the vote took place in
1861 went on record saying it was over arguments about slavery but since most Germans at the time
opposed it this seems unlikely this account from a 12 year old is the only first-hand account of
the secession for now and maybe for always the reasons remain a mystery but the town of town
line is still there to remind people what it did if not why have you tried using Google images in
your genealogy research if not it is something you should try it can bring you amazing discoveries
next time I'll show you how to use it and why it is such an important tool to you as a genealogists
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