Belatedly, Old Glory rises
In late January 1946, the people of Town Line, New York, raised an American flag to mark the end of the war. But they weren’t noting the conclusion of World War II six months earlier. They were observing the end of the Civil War in 1865.
Located near Buffalo, Town Line assembled 113 of its residents – and a Hollywood actor – to celebrate their hamlet reentering the Union.
Reentering? Does that mean a northern city, located in a region where efforts to abolish slavery were very strong, was part of the Confederacy? It does. For reasons no one in Town Line could remember in the mid-1940s, their ancestors had voted in 1861 to secede from the United States.
After the War Between the States, the village fell into a slumber, never dreaming it was still part of Dixie. In 1945, the residents woke up and decided to hold a “Back-to-the-Union Day.” They even wrote to President Harry Truman to ask what protocol they should follow.
With tongue in cheek, Truman replied, “Why don’t you run down the fattest calf in Erie County, barbecue it and serve it with fixin’s….The dissidents might decide to resume citizenship.”
So the people of Town Line did just that – but with a flare. Someone arranged for actor Cesar Romero to take part, adding a bit of movie glamour to the proceedings. The well-fed voters cast their ballots to rejoin America. Amazingly – and probably jokingly – 23 of them still preferred the Confederacy.
The only rebel to show his face in public was a dachshund that darted among the voters’ legs while wearing a sign that read, “Beat the Damned Yankees.”
A national news service reported that “Romero acted in a semiofficial capacity, having just been made an honorary sheriff of Town Line and charged with ‘protecting’ nearby Tioga creek and its tributaries.” The news didn’t say what he was protecting them from, unless there were still marauding Johnny Rebs in the woods with their Stars and Bars flags.
With the votes counted, the beef eaten and the village restored to both its senses and the Union, a Confederate flag, flown for many months in anticipation of reunion, was brought down its staff. In its place rose the Stars and Stripes, finally back where they belonged.