The December 21st, 2017 Express Newspaper

The Express Newspaper September 15, 2016

Valley Falls Grant for Thompson Mill? – by C. Barton

Valley Falls- the Village of Valley Falls with the assistance of the Hoosic River Watershed Association (HooRWA) and the Rensselaer Land Trust (RLT) has applied to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfield Assessment program for a grant that will test the old Thompson Mill property.

Read the entire article in the 02-25 Express.

The Express Newspaper February 25, 2016

This Month in the Civil War: Cedar Creek – by S. McBride

   Union General Philip Sheridan had been chosen to lead the Army of the Shenandoah in an effort to sever the lifeline sustaining the south, the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, as General Ulysses S Grant put a stranglehold on the Confederacy with the siege of Petersburg and General William T. Sherman closed off Atlanta. In September of 1864, Sheridan had won two major battles at Winchester and Fisher’s Hill.

Read the entire article in the October 16th edition of the Express.

Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley – by S. McBride

General Philip Sheridan had his orders.

  “Give the enemy no rest.  Do all the damage to railroads and crops you can.  Carry off stock of all descriptions, and negroes, so as to prevent further planting.  If the war is to last another year, we want the Shenandoah Valley to remain a barren waste”.

   With these words, Union Commanding General Ulysses S. Grant made it very clear to Sheridan, recently appointed commander of the Army of the Shenandoah, that he expected the bounty of the fertile and productive Shenandoah Valley in Virginia to be destroyed, depriving the Confederate armies defending Richmond and Petersburg of food supplies and livestock.  Grant was determined to bring the American Civil War to an end by whatever means it took.

Read the entire article in the Sept. 11th issue of the Express.

This Month in the Civil War – June, 1864 Cold Harbor to Petersburg- by S. McBride

 

The Union’s Army of the Potomac had suffered a terrible loss of men in May, 1864 in battles at The Wilderness and Spotsylvania Courthouse, but General Ulysses S. Grant was committed to bringing the bloody and costly War Between the States to an end before the year ended. The Confederates had suffered considerable losses as well.  Grant’s plan to prevent Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia from being reinforced as Grant moved his troops toward Richmond was to have diversions in other places. Union General Franz Sigel had fought forces under Confederate General John Breckinridge at New Market in the Shenandoah Valley in mid-May.  Greatly outnumbered, Breckinridge had called up cadets from the Virginia Military Institute, some of them boys as young as 15, and most of whom were killed or wounded.  But they defeated Sigel.

Read the entire article in the June 19th issue of the Express.

 

The Red River Campaign April 1864 – by Sandy McBride

Although Ulysses S. Grant’s army had won a crucial victory at Vicksburg in July of 1863, taking control of trade and travel on the Mississippi River for the Union, the Confederacy had maintained control of the Trans-Mississippi region to the west of the river.  They were able to continue trade through Texas and Mexico, selling cotton to the nations of Europe in exchange for guns, thereby keeping their efforts to gain their independence going.

Grant had been given control of all the Union armies in March, 1864, and he had a plan to end the War Between the States by November.  He would concentrate the bulk of Union forces in the east to go after Robert E. Lee in Virginia and Joseph E. Johnston in Georgia.  He would push them back and force them to give up the fight.

Read the entire article in the April 24th issue of the Express