- About me
- Cenantua – What and why?
- Cenantua’s pages (bio sketches & so on)
- Citing… this site
One of the arguments I’ve read over the last week or two, is about the fight over monuments. Wait, now… let me be clear. It’s this part of that discussion… Does encouraging discussion of monument removal open a forum that encourages monument removal. Does it, perhaps, even increase the probability that monuments WILL BE removed? […]
September 27, 2014 by Robert Moore
In a rare opportunity (at least it’s been rather rare, for me, in these past two months) this morning, I had the chance to sit in my study… a window open… and enjoy a cup of coffee while I took in all that I could on this early Autumn day. The cool air (a brisk […]
July 13, 2012 by Robert Moore
Not so much a matter of content delivery this morning, and more about a thought that’s been lingering with me for a bit… About a month ago, a friend of mine attended a reenactment, here in the Valley (the Cross Keys/Port Republic event held on… the Cedar Creek battlefield). When he had an opportunity to talk […]
September 13, 2011 by Robert Moore
There’s something that struck me long ago, while watching Last of the Mohicans (the newest version), but not necessarily in relation to that time period. Specifically, I’m talking about the marking or remarking of graves of Civil War soldiers. We see it often, in instances where folks, today, wish to mark the graves of people […]
April 2, 2011 by Robert Moore
Today IS April 2, and that chirping would be the sound of crickets in the absence of a proclamation, as yet, by Governor Bob McDonnell. Yet, despite the proposed redirection toward a “Civil War in Virginia Month” (formerly known as Confederate History Month/CHM), the CHM recognition continues by many who are inclined to continue in […]
March 23, 2011 by Robert Moore
I’m really jumping the gun here, because I should be holding this story in reserve (sure, why not… pun intended) until 2014… marking the 150th anniversary of the establishment of Virginia’s Confederate reserve units. Still, I brought it up the other day (in “WYSIWYG Confederates?”) , so I figured that I would pick-up from where […]
March 21, 2011 by Craig Swain
There is a TV spot discussing the causes of the Civil War recently introduced in some localities. The Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans created the ad and it is one of twelve running. Thus far the only place I’ve seen a web copy of the ad is on Facebook (here). While those […]
March 20, 2011 by Robert Moore
Pardon the silence for the last week. A few unavoidable matters over the past week set posting back a bit, but let me see if I can get things moving once again… What are WYSIWYG Confederates? Well, in Web development, WYSIWYG is an acronym for “What you see is what you get”, and, in some […]
March 2, 2011 by Craig Swain
So explain this: Why is it “Stonewall Jackson taught us what the pause that refreshes really was”? Why not have a painting of Uncle Billy giving the boys a pause somewhere near Atlanta (the home of Coca-Cola, BTW) in between barn burnings? After all the victor gets to write the history….
February 27, 2011 by Robert Moore
Considering relatively recent discussion in the blogosphere (and mentions elsewhere, on the Web) regarding compensated emancipation and colonization of freed blacks, I thought I’d offer some thoughts of my own, but based on something that I found over a year ago. While I haven’t conducted that much research on the topic, I believe an article […]
February 19, 2011 by Robert Moore
Yes, you read that correctly. Give me a little time, and I’ll set the stage… As many who follow this blog know, one of my favorite areas of study is western Maryland… most especially, the Clear Spring and Conococheague Districts in Washington County. Likewise, I spend a good deal of time researching the men from […]
February 6, 2011 by Robert Moore
Once again (as can be seen in my post from Friday), I’ve been perusing the Valley of the Shadow site. My focus in that post on Friday was on the two papers in Staunton, Virginia, at this particular time (the first week of February), 150 years ago. One of those papers happened to support secession, […]
January 23, 2011 by Robert Moore
We’ve seen a couple reenactments lately, and they haven’t been reenactments of battles. The slave auction reenactment, I think, was high impact. It continues to make an impression on YouTube, but honestly, there are a couple of videos available, and the best is one (=>see a post from a few days ago, in which I […]
January 20, 2011 by Robert Moore
As the anniversary of each state’s vote to secede goes by, I see a tweet or two announcing the fact, but little discussion about the same. Occasionally, a newspaper article or editorial appears in a state newspaper’s online edition. Pretty much, it seems at times as if the states seceded… and that was it. They […]
January 15, 2011 by Robert Moore
I’m picking-up from where I left off in my last post… Regarding some of those who opposed secession, and continued to do so… it didn’t necessarily mean that they were ready to go to war against their neighbors and friends, in defense of their position. Instead, many preferred to be left alone. They simply didn’t […]
November 14, 2010 by Robert Moore
It’s bad enough to hear some contemporary Southerners speak of Northerners as if it was still the time of the Civil War, but it’s even worse to hear Southerners speak of the people of the North from the time of the war, as if they could not, in the least bit, identify with the culture […]
November 2, 2010 by Robert Moore
Not the exact date, but today is election day… and on election day 150 years ago, in 1860, a good deal was at stake. So, who do you vote for? Strike that… who would get your ancestors’ votes? Lincoln, Douglas, Breckinridge, or Bell… and why? Without looking, do you know their platforms? After all, a […]
September 21, 2010 by Robert Moore
I’ve said it before… the South does not equal the Confederacy. In fact, Southerness in general is not a reflection of the Confederacy. Southerness existed before the Confederacy… Southerness was and is the culture. Modern Confederateness, on the other hand, is a culture unto itself and is not to be confused as dominant over Southerness, […]
September 17, 2010 by Craig Swain
* Time for a guest post by Craig Swain. I’ve been looking forward to this one since Craig tossed the idea at me. He offers some good points about problems with historical memory, and especially Lost Cause as remembered today by folks who don’t have “memory” of then. As I’ve mentioned a few times… too […]
August 19, 2010 by Robert Moore
I’ve often wondered just what percentage of Confederate veterans actually belonged to organizations such as the U.C.V. More importantly, just how many did not… and why? I know there were some vets who didn’t think much of reunions with their former adversaries (though I cannot recall, at this time, in what sources I’ve seen this […]
August 18, 2010 by Robert Moore
Somewhere in my diminished amount of free time lately, I’ve spent some time investigating the realized/actual memory of Southerners at the time of WW1 and even during the Spanish-American War, and all I can say at this point is that it baffles me when it comes to some, today, who suggest that their comments/”position” are/is […]
August 14, 2010 by Robert Moore
Sure, the circumstances were different… 1861 and 1918 were different times. But were people really all that different? Consider this… if we don’t take time to consider the complicating factors behind how men became part of the two armies (Confederate and the AEF), then it becomes convenient… even easy to reflect merely on numbers and […]
June 3, 2010 by Robert Moore
I just finished reading something about John M. Washington, a slave who spent some time in Staunton, Virginia in the mid-1850s. To me, finding any account of a slave, for any amount of time in the Valley, is refreshing as it adds new dimensions to an understanding of what life was like here. Regretfully, I […]
June 2, 2010 by Robert Moore
I enjoy looking at history from different angles, and I’ve actually been thinking about the Southern Unionists thing in a different way. Interestingly, in a ListServ discussion today (I know, Kevin, I still haven’t learned my lesson), it came to mind once again. It might seem trivial to some, but I don’t necessarily believe it […]
May 16, 2010 by Robert Moore
Just an observation, but May 9 came and went a week ago today with not so much as one post about John Brown. Actually, until earlier this week, I didn’t have a clue that JB was born on May 9 (hmmm, a stubborn Taurus…). Rather, Brown had been defined, at least in my “memory”, by […]
May 7, 2010 by Robert Moore
Kevin’s post earlier this week left me thinking about several things. I think it is an excellent piece about separating our sentiments today, from the sentiments of people from the past… and the complications that historians may find in being objective. I’d like to expand on this more later, in another post, but, for now, […]
April 26, 2010 by Robert Moore
Took a little “virtual walk” among some items in the Valley of the Shadow today and found quite a bit that was of interest, but wanted to throw these out for consideration… all from the Feb. 26, 1861 issue of the Staunton Spectator… The Natchez Courier “Contends that the people of Natchez were not in […]
April 21, 2010 by Robert Moore
It just continues to get worse. As Kevin pointed out in a post yesterday, the S.C.V. camp in Harrisonburg/Rockingham County placed a proclamation in the Harrisonburg Daily New Record. Rockingham isn’t my home county, but I do have ancestry (including one third great grandfather in Co. A of the 58th Virginia Militia, and several cousins […]
April 17, 2010 by Robert Moore
“The War Between the States was fought for the same reasons that the tea party movement today is voicing their opinion. And that is that you have large government that’s not listening to the people, there’s going to be heavy taxation,” Fayard said Monday from his home in Duck Hill, Miss. “And the primary cause […]
July 20, 2015 by Robert Moore
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