It was 150 years ago this April that the United States Civil War began with the attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. The impact of the war was nationwide, even in states where no actual engagements took place, such as New York. And the war had its impact on Bovina. Over 90 men from Bovina served in the war, with 11 of them dying in the conflict. Thirty-three men eligible for military service applied for an exemption from such service. Bovina taxpayers in 1863, 1864 and 1865 were asked to ante up money for bounties to meet the town's quota of men. The minister of the Bovina United Presbyterian Church took a leave from the church to serve as a chaplain - and suffered serious illness as a result.
Over the next year, I will be doing monthly blog entries related to the impact of the Civil War on Bovina. I'll look at what was going on in Bovina when the war started, the various reasons men gave for exemption from service, those 11 men who died in the service (including two brothers), what happened to those soldiers who survived, and how Bovina voted during the war.
Here's the headstone of Solomon G. Coulter, one of Bovina's Civil War casualties. There are several headstones like this in the Bovina Cemtery. Photo courtesy of Ed and Dick Davidson.
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