The Shenandoah Valley’s Delegates to the 1861 Virginia Secession Convention

I realized that I should have included this with my earlier posts about the vote for secession in the Shenandoah Valley. This is a record of the vote from Virginia’s Secession Convention. Keep in mind that these votes were made on April 4 and April 17 respectively. The public vote on secession did not come [...]

An obsession with the American Civil War?

Yes, and some people just don’t get it. I mean, I know there are a lot of people out there who understand just what I’m getting ready to say, but I think most people just don’t understand “us.” What does it mean to be obsessed with the Civil War? This is no simple discussion when [...]

“Recalling” Ford’s Theatre - a personal indulgence in Civil War “memory”

I didn’t learn about Edwin Arthur Emerson until about a year or so ago. I think the thing that most intrigued me was that, while I had been fascinated with the soldier family members who had served in the war, I did not realize that I had a family member present, on stage, on 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 [...]

Anxious for secesh; not so anxious to fight

No, it wasn’t a standard feeling of those who voted for “secesh,” but I do think it’s worth mentioning (especially in the wake of the quick analysis of the referendum numbers) that some who were anxious for secession and likely voted for it in the referendum, weren’t so eager to defend the very “cause” [...]

Number of voters in the Shenandoah Valley, 1856-1861

The following table specifies the number of votes cast in the three elections from 1856-1860 and the referendum vote on secession in 1861. I’ll comment more on this later. However, with a quick glance at the difference between numbers of voters in 1860 and 1861, in most cases (Rockingham and Shenandoah counties being the exception) [...]

Southern Unionist Claims for the Shenandoah Valley

While the referendum vote on secession for the different counties of the Shenandoah Valley may reflect one thing (most especially to someone who doesn’t look beyond raw numbers), deeper probing into other numbers brings about a need to investigate even further. That said, the following is submitted for consideration in combination with my post from [...]

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 [...]