Cranford's Rebel Colonel and July 4

July 4, 1863 -- exactly 150 years ago yesterday -- was a good day for the Union during the Civil War. Robert E. Lee's battered army was in retreat from Gettysburg, and Vicksburg -- the all-important Rebel stronghold on the Mississippi River -- finally fell to General U.S. Grant. Samuel H. Lockett, the Confederacy's West Point-trained engineering officer, had designed and supervised Vicksburg's defenses, so instrumental in denying Grant his prize for many months. Twenty years later, Colonel Lockett and his family would live in Cranford while he designed the pedestal and foundation for the Statue of Liberty, and his two sons attended Rutgers College. It is an exquisite piece of historical irony that the man who spent four years of his life attempting to tear apart the United States, and limit the freedom for some, would later design the underpinning of the Nation's most enduring symbol of freedom for all. On July 4 of this year, the Statue of Liberty reopened after surviving Superstorm Sandy, at least in part due to the engineering efforts of Cranford's rebel colonel.