48-Month Civil War history project in The Republican will follow the 150th anniversary from April 2011 to April 2015

This project is also a partnership with the Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History which will incorporate the story of the Civil War into its exhibit on abolitionist John Brown,

A clash of ideas and cultures tore this nation apart 150 years ago this month when the bombardment of Fort Sumter signaled the beginning of the Civil War.

The soldiers whose forefathers fought alongside each other during the Revolution to create this country would soon be taking to battlefields where the casualties on both sides were Americans. By the end of the bloodiest four years in our history, 620,000 would die and a century and a half later all the wounds have yet to heal. Even the name of the conflict is debated the Civil War, the War Between the States, the War of Northern Aggression, the War of Southern Secession.

The Springfield Republican was a major voice during the Civil War and also had a history of opposing slavery as one of the earliest voices of abolition.

The editor of the paper, Samuel Bowles II was one of the founders of the Republican Party. Some say he even named it. He was one of the committee that traveled to Springfield, Illinois, from the 1860 convention to inform Abraham Lincoln he was the partys choice for president.

In the months leading up to the war and the four years of the conflict, The Republican kept its readers informed of the far away battles where the men of Massachusetts fought and died. It also reported the news on the home front, the growth of the Springfield Armory, the only federal arsenal left in government hands after the fall of Harpers Ferry in Virginia, and the everyday events of a community involved in a war that touched everyone.

We at The Republican (yes, still going strong since 1824) are launching a four-year project today to tell the story of how our community coped with 48 months of war, from April of 1861 to April of 1865. On the first Sunday of each month we will run a full page report of what was happening here 150 years ago during that month. The first installment is in this Sunday's paper on Page C 10.

This project is also a partnership with the Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History which will incorporate the story of the Civil War into its exhibit on abolitionist John Brown, a former Springfield resident, whose failed raid on Harpers Ferry helped fan the flames of war in 1859.

The newspaper has loaned the museum the actual wooden board that hung outside the Main Street office of The Republican during the war. Residents would gather in the street and read the war bulletins on that board. It will now be used for the next four years to display the pages run in The Republican that will be changed on the first of each month.

Join us in reliving that era that changed the course of history and that, in the end, provided freedom for millions.