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Category Archives: Memory
Some Thoughts on the Status of the Lost Cause
The Lost Cause was at first a subject of scholarly inquiry. It then became one of scorn, used at times as a slur. For a serious student of the war, it is a label few desire as its mythology has … Continue reading
Army Posts Since 1860
The names of U.S. Army posts are in the news of late. In an effort to inform the debate, here is some information about how the names and current situation came about, as expressed in three maps.
Posted in Armies, Memory, Personalities, Ties to the War
Tagged forts, indian wars, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, World War I
9 Comments
A Comment on Civil War Monuments
Recent events have raised questions about the preservation of Civil War sites and monuments on National Park battlefields. As some of my Emerging Civil War colleagues and I discussed these potential threats, we decided it was important to say something. … Continue reading
Understanding History Through Addition, Not Subtraction, on Civil War Battlefields
Last Wednesday, I reported on a provision in the Department of the Interior’s 2021 spending bill that would, if approved by Congress and signed into law by the president, remove Confederate statues from national parks. “It’s a top priority of … Continue reading
The Saga of Lt. General A.P. Hill’s Remains Continues
A few weeks back, I forwarded my ECW blog post on Lt. General A.P. Hill’s remains to several of Richmond’s leading officials involved in the removal of the city’s Confederate monuments: Mayor Levar Stoney, Interim City Attorney Haskell C. Brown … Continue reading
BookChat with Cody Marrs, author of Not Even Past
As a big fan of the Civil War in pop culture, I was especially looking forward to Cody Marrs’ new book Not Even Past: The Stories We Keep Telling About the Civil War, which deals with the ways “the story … Continue reading
Posted in Books & Authors, Civil War in Pop Culture, Lincoln, Memory, Politics, Reconstruction, Slavery
Tagged Alice Fahs, Birth of a Nation, BookChat, Cody Marrs, D. W. Griffith, David Blight, Edward Pollard, emancipation, Evelyn Scott, Fire on the Mountain, Gary Gallagher, Gone with the Wind, Johns Hopkins University Press, Jubilee, Lioncoln, Margaret Walker, Mark Twain, Memory, Not Even Past, Reconstruction, Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane, Terry Bisson, The Lost Cause, The Wave, W.E.B. DuBois, William Faulkner
2 Comments
What’s In a (Confederate) Name?
Visitors to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis are engulfed in history. The magnificent grounds on the Severn River (known officially as “the yard”) abound in monuments, plaques, halls, and displays memorializing the nation’s naval heritage. Names of heroes … Continue reading
Writing About History in a Manichean Age
Given current events, I find myself asking how one will be able to write about the American Civil War now and in the future. This question has been brewing in my mind since 2015 when the debate over statues began … Continue reading
Posted in Memory
Tagged civil war memory, Just Cause, Lost Cause, Manichean History, writing
45 Comments
Unintentional Reconciliation – Memorializing the Cavalry Fight at Gettysburg
Though not far from the Civil War’s memorial epicenter, the cavalry battlefield at Gettysburg National Military Park sits relatively undisturbed by the crowds of tourists who come to see the site of the largest ever battle in the Western Hemisphere. … Continue reading
Posted in Battlefields & Historic Places, Memory
Tagged 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry, battlefield monuments, Caroline Janney, Cavalry at Gettysburg, David Blight, David M. Gregg, Gaines M. Foster, George A. Custer, Gettysburg, Gettysburg Anniversary, JEB Stuart, memorials, Pickett's Charge, Reconciliation, William Brooke Rawle
6 Comments
“Stonewall Jackson is Down”
We had bushwhacked our way from the 17th Michigan Monument along Burnside Drive up through the woods to Heth’s Salient—a lesser-known part of the Spotsylvania Battlefield but one worth seeing. Doug Crenshaw and Bert Dunkerly had come up from Richmond … Continue reading
