Old times not forgotten: Civil War at 150
FILE - In this 1865 photograph made available by the Library of Congress, an African American soldier sits next to a stretcher holding the remains of his comrades who were killed in the battles of Gaines' Mill and Cold Harbor in Hanover County, Va. (AP Photo/Library of Congress, J. Reekie, A. Gardner)By Christopher SullivanAssociated Press / April 2, 2011
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A hush fell over the crowd filling the elegant hall in downtown Richmond, Va. The vote was about to be announced, and a young staffer of the Museum of the Confederacy balanced his laptop across his knees, poised to get out the news as soon as it was official.
Who would be chosen "Person of the Year, 1861"?
Five historians had made impassioned nominations, and the audience would now decide.
Most anywhere else, the choice would be obvious. Who but Abraham Lincoln? But this was a vote in the capital of the rebellion that Lincoln put down,