Thomas W. Olcott

This painting by Walter Launt Palmer, currently on view at the Albany Institute of History and Art, dates from 1878, i.e. 13 years after Appomattox. It shows the interior of the Ten Broeck Mansion in Arbour (or Arbor) Hill, Albany, NY, where the prominent banker Thomas W. Olcott sits reading in his library. Olcott's prosperity is obvious, and this 2017 post by Dr. Kathleen Logothetis Thompson, from the Civil Discourse blog, shows the important behind-the-scenes role he played from Albany in recruiting and supporting Union soldiers during the war. Such prosperity and power exercised by many men like Olcott, is part of the reason why the Union won the war.