Empire for Union provides an overview of the enormous contributions of New York State to the Civil War, both on the battlefield and on the home front. This exhibition considers the shifting and assorted political and economic realities throughout the state during the war and focuses on the role of New York troops in the general course of the war and on the daily realities of a soldier’s life.

Drawing on the New York State Military Museum’s expansive collection of Civil War artifacts, Empire for Union presents a broad overview of the Civil War and focuses on subjects and themes such as Col. Elmer Ellsworth, Zouaves, weaponry, New York manufacturing, ethnic units, battlefield medicine, and camp life.

Among the more than one hundred artifacts in the exhibit are original uniforms, muskets, uniforms, battle flags, a Union POW jacket, a draft wheel, the coat of a 12-year old bugler, and a cloth stained with the blood of Abraham Lincoln.