Good Afternoon [from Harry Bradshaw Matthews]:

I am pleased to be writing you this letter as the first action under my
second two-year term as president of the United States Colored Troops
Institute for Local History and Family History. With the continuing support
of members and friends, the future achievements of the Institute will be as
pleasing as those of the past two years. The Institute is now comprised of
more than 100 members for the year 2000, with applications continuing to
arrive. Officers for the next two years include:

Harry Bradshaw Matthews, President (Oneonta, NY)
Stanton F. Biddle, Vice President (Brooklyn, NY)
Elizabeth Hegyesi, Secretary (Great Neck, NY)
Sylvia Cooke Martin, Treasurer (Columbia, MD)

USCT Network Committee
David A. Anderson, Chairman (Rochester, NY)
Stanton F. Biddle
Agnes Kane Callum (Baltimore, MD)
Diane Ciccone (East Windsor, NJ)
John Raymond Gourdin (Columbia, MD)
Elizabeth Hegyesi
Marilyn Nienart (Oneonta, NY)


I also am pleased to inform you that the October Planning Summit 2000,
co-sponsored by the Institute and its sister organization, the American
Society of Freedmen Descendants, is scheduled to occur in Oneonta, New York
from Friday - Sunday, October 6-8. A gathering of invited participants will
join members of the Institute and Society in planning a three-year national
symposium in remembrance of the anti-slavery movement, Underground Railroad,
and the United States Colored Troops.

A highlight of the Summit will be the USCT Civil War Luncheon at Hartwick
College at noon on Saturday, October 7. The event will include the first
public unveiling of  the "USCT Wall of Honor, NY," a standing exhibit
containing the names of the men  and many of the relatives for approximately
2,300 soldiers and  officers of the 20th  USCT and the 26th USCT, federal
regiments organized in New York during the Civil War. The soldiers were from
along the east coast, Canada, and the Caribbean. Mr. Ben  Hawley, an
Institute member and president of the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry
Regiment, will be one of the dignitaries participating in the event.

Persons interested in participating in the Summit planning sessions and/or
attending the luncheon, should contact me. Invitations to the luncheon is
expected to be mail during early September (seating is $15 per person).

                                Sincerely,

                                Harry Bradshaw Matthews, [log in to unmask]
                                President, USCT Institute/
                Associate Dean, Hartwick College
                                http://www.hartwick.edu/usct/usct.htm