More than just a mere history of one community, Dominick Reisen's scholarly exploration of Middlefield in Otsego County presents this rural, crossroads hamlet as a case study of the development of small towns in central New York State during the early years of the American Republic, through the Civil War. Reisen tracks the emergence and growth of various businesses and social groups within the community, tracing in great detail the lives of various key figures who made their home in Middlefield. He discusses how external agricultural factors and the great social movements of the era, such as...

More than just a mere history of one community, Dominick Reisen's scholarly exploration of Middlefield in Otsego County presents this rural, crossroads hamlet as a case study of the development of small towns in central New York State during the early years of the American Republic, through the Civil War. Reisen tracks the emergence and growth of various businesses and social groups within the community, tracing in great detail the lives of various key figures who made their home in Middlefield. He discusses how external agricultural factors and the great social movements of the era, such as...

Perhaps the most pivotal event in American history, the Civil War began with the purpose of preserving the Union and ended with the abolition of slavery, costing approximately 620,000 lives in the process. This collection of letters, memoirs, newspaper articles and diary entries, from Otsego County in central New York, was first gathered together in 2005, and has now been revised and greatly expanded for the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.The poignant words of the soldiers who lived through the war portray how these men felt the initial excitement of enlistment, adjusted to...