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Civil War Hub: an Assassin's Hotel to Memorials for Heroes

By Tom Acitelli
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By Tom Acitelli

This week marks the 150th anniversaries of the ends of the battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg, the pivotal confrontations of the Civil War. While Boston was hundreds of miles from Gettysburg—and 1,500, give or take, from Vicksburg—the city and its environs did not escape history. From the inn where John Wilkes Booth stayed a week before he shot President Lincoln to the Beacon Hill alleyway that was a hiding place along the Underground Railroad to the Harbor island that served as a prison for top-level Confederates, here are 15 sites that remind us of the war a century and a half later.


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Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Massachusetts Memorial

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Perhaps the most famous Civil War memorial in the Boston area, thanks to the movie "Glory," the bronze relief by Augustus Saint-Gaudens commemorates the first African-American regiment in the U.S. Army.

24 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108

William Lloyd Garrison Gravesite

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The 275-acre Jamaica Plain cemetery is the final resting place of William Lloyd Garrison, one of the nation’s leading abolitionists, who was very nearly killed by a lynch mob in Boston before the war.

95 Forest Hills Avenue, Boston, MA 02130
(617) 524-0128
(617) 524-0128

Soldiers and Sailors Monument

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The elaborate memorial on Flagstaff Hill, erected in 1877, served as a model for Civil War monuments nationwide (not least because it commemorated ordinary soldiers as well as top officers).

Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Boston, MA

Charles Sumner Statue

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Abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner was beaten to within an inch of his life on the floor of the Senate in 1856 by South Carolina congressman Preston Blair. The beating was a flashpoint for the war, with Southerners praising Blair and Northerners supporting Sumner. (Sumner is buried in Cambridge’s Mount Auburn cemetery.)

Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

Faneuil Hall

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The legendary hall hosted many pre-war and wartime rallies, perhaps none more famous than the one in 1830, when Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster declared, “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!”

Boston, MA 02109

Also featured in:

Charlestown Navy Yard

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The yard was the disembarkation point for tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers headed southward.

1st Avenue, Charlestown, MA 02129

Fort Warren

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The fort on Georges Island was a military prison for high-level rebels, including Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens and Confederate Postmaster General John Henninger Reagan.

Georges Island, Boston, MA

Harvard Memorial Hall

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Completed in 1877, the neo-Gothic hall commemorates those 136 Harvard men who died fighting for the U.S., including two grandsons of Paul Revere.

Cambridge Street & Quincy Street, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138

Holmes Alleyway

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The alleyway was a hiding place along the Underground Railroad, and is near the Museum of African American History.

Smith Court, Boston, MA 02114

John P. Jewett and Company

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The original publisher of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the bestselling American novel of the early 19th century and a leading literary catalyst for the war, had its offices and bookstore here.

117 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02109

The Parker House Hotel

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John Wilkes Booth stayed at the inn (now the Omni Parker House) for two nights a week before shot President Lincoln. He used a shooting range two blocks away for target practice. Abolitionist John Brown, whose 1859 raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Va., would divide the nation further right before the war, also visited the Parker House.

60 School Street, Boston, MA 02108

Tremont Temple Baptist Church

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The first integrated church in the U.S. also hosted the first Greater Boston reading of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. The current building dates from the 1890s.

88 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02108

Joseph Hooker Statue

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Unveiled in 1903, it commemorates Joseph Hooker, who commanded the Army of the Potomac in 1863, declaring, “May God have mercy on General Lee, for I will have none.”

24 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108

Jamaica Plain Monument

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The 27-foot monument was unveiled in 1871 to commemorate the Civil War contributions of the then-Town of West Roxbury.

Centre Street & South Street, Boston, MA 02132

Lincoln - Soldier Monument

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Completed in 1871, the monument on the Cambridge Common includes a statue at the top of a Civil War soldier and a bronze of President Lincoln below.

Massachusetts Avenue & Garden Street, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
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Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Massachusetts Memorial

24 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108

Perhaps the most famous Civil War memorial in the Boston area, thanks to the movie "Glory," the bronze relief by Augustus Saint-Gaudens commemorates the first African-American regiment in the U.S. Army.

24 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108

William Lloyd Garrison Gravesite

95 Forest Hills Avenue, Boston, MA 02130

The 275-acre Jamaica Plain cemetery is the final resting place of William Lloyd Garrison, one of the nation’s leading abolitionists, who was very nearly killed by a lynch mob in Boston before the war.

95 Forest Hills Avenue, Boston, MA 02130
(617) 524-0128
(617) 524-0128

Soldiers and Sailors Monument

Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Boston, MA

The elaborate memorial on Flagstaff Hill, erected in 1877, served as a model for Civil War monuments nationwide (not least because it commemorated ordinary soldiers as well as top officers).

Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Boston, MA

Charles Sumner Statue

Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

Abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner was beaten to within an inch of his life on the floor of the Senate in 1856 by South Carolina congressman Preston Blair. The beating was a flashpoint for the war, with Southerners praising Blair and Northerners supporting Sumner. (Sumner is buried in Cambridge’s Mount Auburn cemetery.)

Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

Faneuil Hall

Boston, MA 02109

The legendary hall hosted many pre-war and wartime rallies, perhaps none more famous than the one in 1830, when Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster declared, “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!”

Boston, MA 02109

Charlestown Navy Yard

1st Avenue, Charlestown, MA 02129

The yard was the disembarkation point for tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers headed southward.

1st Avenue, Charlestown, MA 02129

Fort Warren

Georges Island, Boston, MA

The fort on Georges Island was a military prison for high-level rebels, including Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens and Confederate Postmaster General John Henninger Reagan.

Georges Island, Boston, MA

Harvard Memorial Hall

Cambridge Street & Quincy Street, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138

Completed in 1877, the neo-Gothic hall commemorates those 136 Harvard men who died fighting for the U.S., including two grandsons of Paul Revere.

Cambridge Street & Quincy Street, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138

Holmes Alleyway

Smith Court, Boston, MA 02114

The alleyway was a hiding place along the Underground Railroad, and is near the Museum of African American History.

Smith Court, Boston, MA 02114

John P. Jewett and Company

117 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02109

The original publisher of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the bestselling American novel of the early 19th century and a leading literary catalyst for the war, had its offices and bookstore here.

117 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02109

The Parker House Hotel

60 School Street, Boston, MA 02108

John Wilkes Booth stayed at the inn (now the Omni Parker House) for two nights a week before shot President Lincoln. He used a shooting range two blocks away for target practice. Abolitionist John Brown, whose 1859 raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Va., would divide the nation further right before the war, also visited the Parker House.

60 School Street, Boston, MA 02108

Tremont Temple Baptist Church

88 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02108

The first integrated church in the U.S. also hosted the first Greater Boston reading of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. The current building dates from the 1890s.

88 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02108

Joseph Hooker Statue

24 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108

Unveiled in 1903, it commemorates Joseph Hooker, who commanded the Army of the Potomac in 1863, declaring, “May God have mercy on General Lee, for I will have none.”

24 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108

Jamaica Plain Monument

Centre Street & South Street, Boston, MA 02132

The 27-foot monument was unveiled in 1871 to commemorate the Civil War contributions of the then-Town of West Roxbury.

Centre Street & South Street, Boston, MA 02132

Lincoln - Soldier Monument

Massachusetts Avenue & Garden Street, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138

Completed in 1871, the monument on the Cambridge Common includes a statue at the top of a Civil War soldier and a bronze of President Lincoln below.

Massachusetts Avenue & Garden Street, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138