Looking forward… and the thought of analyzing Southern Loyalist Claims

It might seem like I have laid aside my focus on Civil War “memory,” but I’ve actually been looking into beginning a run of posts that analyze Southern Loyalist Claims. In fact, what I may do is begin focusing on several regions (small groupings of counties in close proximity) within states and begin comparing the [...]

Comparing say… a grouping of counties from Alabama with the Shenandoah Valley

I certainly believe that each area, no matter whether it be in Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina or in any of the states that made up the Confederacy, should be examined based on distinctive differences (demographics, slave population, etc.), taking each county and/or area, one at a time.
So far, I’ve just focused on the Shenandoah [...]

Coercion and the vote for secession

I can’t help but think of that scene in Gods & Generals when it came to the vote for secession in Rockbridge County, Virginia. Some may remember it, where the actor playing William Nelson Pendleton announced the vote and that there had been only one vote against secession in the county (after which, a person [...]

“Do you love this country?!” - disturbing reflections on Civil War “memory”

Just last fall, I was at a reenactment where I encountered one of my old friends. Now, I need to set the scene, so bear with me.
Historically (funny word to use in this context considering the nature of Civil War “memory”), I have worn gray at reenactments. I reenacted Confederate maybe once or twice [...]

“Building blocks” of Civil War “memory”

In yesterday’s post I mentioned some personal connections to the Civil War. Specifically, I recounted a story that I had learned, not through family stories but through a newspaper clipping that I found in scanning through the records of the Page News & Courier (Luray, Virginia). Reflecting on this, and since I am quite interested [...]

Responsible Confederate flagging of graves

This might seem petty to some, but this is just one of those items that gets under my skin. It’s just one of my those “stickler” issues that I have as an historian.
Just about every morning, I drive by Woodbine Cemetery in Harrisonburg, Virginia and I notice the seven star First National Confederate flag that [...]

More evidence to chip away at the myth of Confederate nationalism

After exchanging a couple of e-mails with a friend last night, I mentioned a genealogical website that I thought looked like it had potential. I gave the trial version of Footnote a try about a month or so ago, but it seemed to have slow response time (it may have had something to do with [...]

On Black Confederates

I’ve been enjoying Kevin Levine’s blogging about Black Confederates lately and I particularly enjoyed his post Black Confederates: The Standard Formula.
I don’t really think much of the position that some in the SCV and neo-Confederates (yes, I recognize a difference between the two, though at times, people from the two sets are one-in-the-same under the same neo-Confederate ideology) have taken regarding [...]

The need to lay aside animosities for dead men - a clarification

Kevin made a good point yesterday and I should have been more clear. When I see the word “traitor,” my problem is with the way that it is used within a body of work - the context in which it is used. If it is a part of discussing things within historical context, then I [...]

The need to lay aside animosities for dead men

While I clearly have grievances with the way some people like to distort history for modern agendas, I think that there should be a cut-off point between being aggravated with people today and bashing people of yesterday. To some degree, it reminds me of modern political campaigns where mudslinging runs rampant in an effort to [...]