Not to restart the terrible fight, I was wondering if historical
archaeologists find some errors in Ken Burns' presentation on PBS
"Civil War". I just noticed, it's theme "Ashokan Farewell" or whatever
was recorded in the NY Catskills and the series was on while I was
working in the West Point Foundry vicinity in Cold Spring, NY for the
archaeological clearance of the area for remediation of heavy metal
contaminants associated with the Marathon Battery EPA site where
nickel-cadmium batteries were made for Nike anti-missile missiles. We
recovered in part the prototype I believe of the "Swamp Angel"
platform from its grillage, that was used in the bombardment of
Charleston South Carolina in 1863.

I found that the coverage of the so-called NYC "Draft Riots" almost
absurd, as they ended when the tired band arrived from Gettysburg. At
the time $300 got you out of the draft and many in New York City
thought that unfair. It was also perhaps instigated by Southern
sympathizers and agents, attempts were made to burn New York and the
National Guard, which started as the military unit protecting the
young American capital in New York City after the American Revolution
was involved. They were involved in the riots (its also said a
"primitive" hand held machine gun was used to defend a newspaper
press) one of its leaders in courts martial because of actions in it,
and the unit was ordered off in march to protect Washington, D.C., and
disbanded after from Brothers Island in the Bronx, NY out of range
perhaps of further entanglements with the locals. It seemed a little
too brief and too little said in the documentary perhaps.

The reason I bring it up was because on the National Guard units was
on the group of properties I was part of an archaeological study of in
the Bowery. My question is this: Have you ever been asked to evaluate
the history of properties adjacent to buildings to be left out of the
assessment because "they" (and others) have already been found "not to
be significant"? And what would you do if you found information that
makes them significant, e.g., Germania Hall, where Kate Mullaney of
Troy, NY sitting next to Susan B. Anthony, was the first woman elected
to a union in the United States and it was also the location of the
perhaps the previous National Guard unit? It seems "architectural
significance" rules.

George Myers