This New York Community Voted to Secede from the US During the Civil War
While debate about the Confederate Battle Flag has been fought across the South, there are very few remnants of the Confederacy in the North, save for this New York community that voted to secede from the Union at the outset of the Civil War.
The hamlet of Town Line in Erie County on the Lancaster/Adlen townline east of Buffalo, voted to secede in 1861. The gesture was symbolic, as the Buffalo News noted in a 2014 article that neither side in the conflict recognized the secession.
It was (President Harry) Truman who played a role in Town Line’s vote to re-enter the Union in 1946, when he responded to a reporter writing a story on the 85-year secession.
The president suggested Town Line have a barbecue and decide among themselves whether to seek readmission, though, truth be told, neither the North nor the South recognized Town Line’s secession back in 1861.
The Sons of Confederacy have placed a historic marker, a rarity on northern soil, at Town Line to recognize the historical oddity.
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