Capitol District (N.Y.) Round Table Gives $6700 For Antietam

SHARPSBURG, Md. - Once again, the Capitol District Civil War Round Table of Albany, N.Y. (CDCWRT) dug deep into its John Hennessey Preservation Fund, named for the noted historian and preservationist, to give the Save Historic Antietam Foundation (SHAF) a sizeable donation - $6,700.00 for the Signal Tower site.

The CDCWRT was the first organization to give funds to SHAF's ongoing campaign to raise funds to preserve the Signal Tower location made famous by Alexander Gardner's photograph.

The round table has a long history of helping SHAF and other organizations achieve their preservation goals. Since 1990, they have sent $15,000, including the current donation, to SHAF, and have donated $100,000 overall to preservation efforts.

The CDCWRT first learned about the purchase of the Signal Tower site when SHAF board member Dana Shoaf "leaked" news of the impending purchase to Capital District member Sue Knost at last September's Chancellorsville reenactment. She was immediately interested in the project. "Capital District folks are great," says Shoaf. "They put their money where their mouth is when it comes to preservation and are a model for other round tables to emulate in that regard."

The current donation was given in the memory and honor of Norm Sebastian, a CDCWRT member who passed away from kidney cancer this past December at the age of 44. A weatherman on Albany's NBC WNYT, Channel 13, Sebastian was an avid preservationist and willed his books to the round table so they could be sold and raffled for preservation efforts.

Since Antietam was his favorite battlefield, it seemed proper for CDCWRT members to make their Signal Tower donation in his name.

SHAF, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1986 to help protect and preserve land related to the 1862 Maryland Campaign, is still actively seeking funds for the Signal Tower project. It can be contacted at P.O. Box 550 Sharpsburg, MD 21782, (301) 432-2996, or www.shafonline.org.