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Civil War Quilts - More than needles, thread and fabric

  • Ulysses S. Grant State Historic Site 1000 Mount McGregor Road Wilton, NY, 12831 United States (map)

Diana O’Brien remembers her Greek father, a WW2 veteran, asking her brother if he needed a handkerchief as her brother headed out the door to Vietnam in 1966.  Aside from language issues, her father had no words for the fear and love he felt for her brother.  The handkerchief was his love letter.

During the Civil War, quilts made for soldiers were their own love letters, but were also battleground and medical gear.  Also, there were ways, for mostly mothers, to express the angst in their hearts, and pass the time, until hopefully, their loved ones returned home from the most human costly war in American history.

Diana O’Brien, a Grant Cottage volunteer and award-winning quilter, will tell the unheralded story of Civil War quilts. Professionally made replica Civil War Quilts will be on display, including the most famous of Civil War quilts, the Stickles quilt, now on temporary display at the Bennington Museum.

Earlier Event: August 20
Revolutionary Entertainment: A Magic Lantern Show
Later Event: October 3
Ulysses’s Odyssey: Ulysses S. Grant’s World Tour at the Dawn of American Empire
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A visit to Grant’s Cottage

“Excellent guides who enrich the experience and help you to learn and understand what President /General Grant was going through in the weeks before his passing. History is ever present in our day to day life and it is more so when we get a chance to see it up close and personal. Grant's Cottage is one such place. Beautiful day on the mountain, JFK said" A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers". Grant is a man to honor and remember. So much history to explore and see in up state New York, stop by and experience Grant's Cottage.”

-Catherine F, TripAdvisor Sep 2025

Ulysses S. Grant Cottage
1000 Mt. McGregor Rd.
Wilton, NY 12831

Mailing Address:
Ulysses S. Grant Cottage
PO Box 2294
Wilton, NY 12831
(518) 584-4353     info@grantcottage.org
 

The Friends of the Ulysses S. Grant Cottage is the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which manages the daily operations & programming at Grant Cottage. Your generous support helps us keep history alive as we tell the story of Ulysses S. Grant's time on Mt. McGregor.