STATEHOUSE NEWS

Ohio Statehouse to join National Park Service event "Bells across the Land: A Nation Remembers Appomattox"
April 2, 2015
 

The Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board (CSRAB) is proud to announce its participation in the National Park Service event “Bells across the Land: A Nation Remembers Appomattox.” On April 9, 1865, Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant met Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to set the terms of surrender of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Bells will ring first at Appomattox Court House at 3 p.m. April 9, 2015. The ringing will commence at the exact time the historic meeting between Grant and Lee in the McLean House at Appomattox ended 150 years ago. To commemorate the symbolic end to the American Civil War the National Park Service and its partners invite communities across the nation to join in this commemoration.

After the ringing at Appomattox, bells across the country will toll. Bells will reverberate from Independence Hall in Philadelphia, from the Old North Church in Boston, from the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, from Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and from battlefields, national park sites, national cemeteries, state capitols, county court houses, town halls, historical sites, universities, schools, homes, churches, temples, and mosques around the nation.

Please join CSRAB in the Museum Gallery of the Ohio Statehouse precisely at 3:15 p.m. EDT for four minutes (one minute for each year of war) of reflection as the State of Ohio commemorates the end of the American Civil War. The 89th Ohio Bicentennial Bell made for “the people of the State of Ohio” will be used for the event. Commissioned in 2003 by the Ohio Bicentennial Commission, all 88 Ohio counties and the Ohio Statehouse received a bell cast by the Verdin Company of Cincinnati.

The National Park Service is encouraging organizations and individuals to share their commemoration experiences at #BellsAcrosstheLand2015. Also, follow the Ohio Statehouse on Twitter @OhioStatehouse--here you will find event photos and information on the upcoming 150th anniversary of the repose of President Abraham Lincoln at the Ohio Capitol April 29.

To view this press release and others, visit www.ohiostatehouse.org.

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