New York Today: Searching for the Civil War

Clockwise from left, Metropolitan Museum of Art; American Textile History Museum; New-York Historical SocietyTraces of the war: a painting of a soldier from the triptych “A Bit of War History”; the “Reconciliation Quilt,” made by a Brooklyn woman; and a model of the U.S.S. Monitor.

Updated, 9:48 a.m.

Good morning on this soggy (but eventually sunny) Tuesday.

This is a big week in our nation’s history: in April 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Civil War.

What does the Civil War have to do with New York, you ask?

Plenty, it turns out.

Though Confederate troops advanced no closer than Gettysburg, the war left many traces in the city.

Here are a few you can go see (put together with the help of the Civil War scholar Harold Holzer).

- The triptych “A Bit of War History,” by Thomas W. Wood, at the Met. It shows an ex-slave as a Union enlistee, then as a proud soldier, and finally as a wounded veteran.

- Fort Schuyler in the Bronx, a garrison beneath the Throgs Neck Bridge where Confederate prisoners of war were held.

- A Thomas Nast painting of the march of New York’s Seventh Regiment down Broadway in 1861. It’s at the Park Avenue Armory.

- Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, where more than 5,000 Civil War veterans are buried and a monument stands on Battle Hill.

- The U.S.S. Monitor was built in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Plans for a museum are delayed, but you can see a pre-production model of the ship at the New-York Historical Society.

- Also at the historical society: a new exhibit, “Homefront & Battlefield,” includes the Reconciliation Quilt, depicting Brooklyn farm life during the war. …

- … A charred bible salvaged from the Orphan Asylum for Colored Children during the 1863 Draft Riots …

- … And on yellowed paper covered in slanted handwriting, a contemporary copy of the actual terms of surrender dictated by General Grant.

Here’s what else you need to know.

WEATHER

Bunches of rain this morning, tapering off by lunch time.

Then the sun peeks out and it gets relatively toasty, with a high of 66.

COMMUTE

Subways: Delays on the southbound 1. Check latest status.

Rails: O.K. Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or N.J. Transit status.

Roads: Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect all week.

COMING UP TODAY

- Mayor de Blasio talks to recruits at the Police Academy, at 3:30 p.m.

- Happy 50th birthday, IBM mainframe computer. The company announces the winners of its Master the Mainframe student computing competition at 583 Park Avenue this afternoon.

- The SoHo bakery that gave the world the Cronut reopens at 8 a.m. after being shut on Friday for a mouse infestation.

- The annual ice cream frenzy known as Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops in Manhattan (and many other places). Noon to 8 p.m.

- A protest against the sale and shrinkage of libraries outside the Brooklyn Public Library main branch at 5 p.m.

- “Snownado: Surviving Frozen Science,” a panel on the challenges of polar research, at the New York Academy of Sciences. 6:30 p.m. [$25]

- Bertha Lewis, the former Acorn leader, talks about immigration reform at Grind Broadway, a collaborative workspace in Midtown. 6:30 p.m. [Free]

- Hear why the composer John Cage hated records, as the musician and Cage scholar David Grubbs talks about his new book “Records Ruin the Landscape,” at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn. 8 p.m. [$10]

- The daylong World Whiskies Conference celebrates “the significance of the U.S. market for the global business of whiskies,” at Pier 61 downtown. [$499]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

- Al Sharpton spied on the Mafia for the F.B.I. in the 1980s, according to documents released by The Smoking Gun. [New York Times, Smoking Gun]

- Evidence shows that a man imprisoned since 1989 for a Brooklyn murder was actually in Florida when it was committed. He is being released. [Daily News]

- About half of New Yorkers approve of Mayor de Blasio’s performance so far, a poll found. [New York Times]

- Seven people were injured when shelves collapsed at a dollar store in the Bronx. [New York Post]

- Uber, the summon-a-cab service, now delivers packages in Manhattan, too. [Business Week]

- Scoreboard: Yankees whip Orioles in Jeter’s last home opener, 4-2. Flames consume Devils, 1-0, sending Rangers to playoffs.

AND FINALLY …

New York may not be known as a great soccer town, but it’s a pretty good film town.

Hence the Kicking+Screening Soccer Film Festival, opening tonight at TriBeCa Cinemas.

It includes soccer movies from eight countries, including India, Brazil, Belgium â€" and the United States.

Tonight’s feature, “1905ers: With Heart, Mind, and Soul,” explores “the passion and trials of a semi-professional football fan club in Göttingen, Germany.”

Afterward comes a panel on “Soccer and National Identity.”

And an after-party.

Sandra E. Garcia and Marc Santora contributed reporting.

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A Cream Cheese Type of Flirtation

Dear Diary:

He hopped onto the subway at 79th going downtown, just a stop after mine, and stood opposite me with his back to the door.

Plaid shirt tucked into blue khaki slacks and a nice leather belt, one of those guys who carries his worn-in satchel briefcase across his shoulder and probably works at a successful start-up with a really great graphic logo. He was adorable from his suede oxfords all the way up to the bit of cream cheese on his chin.

I guess I was in a good mood because I smiled broadly and made the universal sign for “you have some cream cheese on your face.”

He smiled back and wiped the wrong side of his face.

I smiled bigger and signed to the other side.

He got it, I nodded affirmatively, and proceeded to ungracefully stare at my feet for the remaining stops until briskly getting off at 59th. Romantic comedies have never been my forte.

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