Long Island and the Civil War – Queens, Nassau and Suffolk During the War Between the States
Although no battles were fought on Long Island, the Civil War affected every one of the 101,000 people living in current-day Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties. More than 3,000 young men -- white and black -- answered their country’s call to preserve the Union by serving in the army or navy. There were training camps for regiments on their way to the front, Confederate ships marauding within eight miles of Montauk Point, anti-war protests and a little-remembered draft riot in Jamaica in 1863. Local women raised thousands of dollars for Union hospitals, and Long Island companies manufactured uniforms, drums and medicines for the army.
Long Island and the Civil War explores this fascinating story, from the 1860 presidential campaign that polarized the region to the wartime experiences of Long Islanders in the field and at home, and through the last local veteran’s death in 1945 to the history buffs who keep the memory of the conflict alive.
About Bill Bleyer (Long Island, New York Author)
Bill Bleyer was a prize-winning staff writer for Newsday, the Long Island daily newspaper, for 33 years before retiring in 2014 to write books and freelance for magazines and Newsday. He is the author of Sagamore Hill: Theodore Roosevelt's Summer White House (The History Press 2016) and co-author of Long Island and the Civil War (The History Press 2015). He contributed a chapter to the anthology Harbor Voices – New York Harbor tugs, ferries, people, places & more published in 2008. And he was a contributor and editor of Bayville, a history of his Long Island community (Arcadia 2009).
The Long Island native has written extensively about history for newspapers and magazines. In 1999-2000, he was one of four Newsday staff writers assigned full time to “Long Island: Our Story,” a year-long daily history of Long Island that resulted in three books and filled hundreds of pages in the newspaper. He has been published in Naval History, Sea History, Lighthouse Digest, Civil War News and numerous other magazines and in The New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, The Toronto Star and other newspapers. Prior to joining Newsday, Bleyer worked for six years at The Courier-News in Bridgewater, N.J., as an editor and reporter. He began his career as editor of the Oyster Bay Guardian for a year.
Bleyer graduated Phi Beta Kappa with highest honors in economics from Hofstra University, where he has been an adjunct professor teaching journalism and economics. He earned a masters in urban studies at Queens College of the City University of New York.
About Harrison Hunt (Co-Author)
