Browsing All Posts filed under »“Purified” CW memory«

Were Virginia’s Confederate Reserves a smokescreen of deception?

March 23, 2011 by

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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 […]

WYSIWYG Confederates?

March 20, 2011 by

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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 […]

“The victor gets to write the history …”

March 2, 2011 by

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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….

Recent reenactments and the media

January 23, 2011 by

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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 […]

How all Northerners “then” weren’t really so out of touch with “being Southern”

November 14, 2010 by

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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 […]

It’s 1860. Who do you vote for?

November 2, 2010 by

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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 […]

Reflections…

October 17, 2010 by

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Ah, Sunday morning… a fire is in the wood-stove to cut the morning chill, a warm cup of coffee sits nearby as I sit down to transcribe more of Strother’s recollections for appearance here later this afternoon. As I do so, I wonder why so many are more fascinated with the events on the battlefields […]

… and they were all Southern, alike.

September 21, 2010 by

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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, […]

Confabulation

September 17, 2010 by

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* 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 […]

Organizational affiliated Confederate veterans vice non-organizational Confederate vets

August 19, 2010 by

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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 […]

Imagined “memory” vs. Realized/actual memory

August 18, 2010 by

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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 […]

The Southern connection between WW1 and the Civil War

August 14, 2010 by

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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 […]

A Virginia slave in pursuit of freedom

June 3, 2010 by

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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 […]

What?! No “love” for John Brown?!

May 16, 2010 by

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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 […]

The voice of the Southern people left unheard…

April 26, 2010 by

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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 […]

A snowball effect: the continued propagation of bad history in Confederate History Month in Va.

April 21, 2010 by

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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 […]

Virginia’s John S. Mosby speaks…

April 15, 2010 by

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Something to think about… The South had always been solid for slavery and when the quarrel about it resulted in a conflict of arms, those who had approved the policy of disunion took the pro-slavery side. It was perfectly logical to fight for slavery, if it was right to own slaves. – John S. Mosby, […]

Their own worst enemy

April 14, 2010 by

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Last night, when I was thinking about developing a post about how [many] Confederate celebrationists have essentially made things worse for themselves for not having acknowledged different historical facts in their efforts to “honor” the Confederate soldier, this was posted by Brooks Simpson. What a fine example of how these celebrationists have gone down the […]

… and then there is the history-warping media…

April 13, 2010 by

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While CNN and others challenge the idea of Virginia’s proclamation for Confederate History Month, I think it’s a fine time to point out that many in the media are doing an equal amount of injustice to history as those who want to take Confederate history down the “Moonlight and Magnolias” path. It’s really sad, but […]

Was Appomattox really sad for ALL those who loved the South in 1865?

April 11, 2010 by

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Once again, while reading today’s post by Kevin, I’m compelled to write something longer than a comment to the post. Specifically, there was a comment at Richard Williams’ blog that was reflective of one contemporary person’s opinion of what April 9, 1865 meant to “all of us who love the South.” Well, to be frank, […]

“Good Confederates” by default

April 7, 2010 by

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In the wake of posting about the annual proclamation for Confederate History Month in Virginia yesterday, I have some additional thoughts. First, were Virginians in the Civil War era, by default, Confederates? Absolutely not. Were those who lived throughout the South at the time of the war, by default, Confederates? No. So, why do people […]

A more realistic alternative to Confederate History Month in Virginia… or anywhere else in the South

April 6, 2010 by

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Keying off of both Kevin Levin’s and Brooks Simpson’s posts on Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proclamation (an annual proclamation from the Governor’s office for a number of years back) about Confederate History Month (this year’s is actually modified slightly from last year’s proclamation), I felt the need to toss in a few comments of my […]

Dashing “Won Cause” mythology

April 1, 2010 by

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It’s funny, but Civil War Memory is a double-edged sword. Being a Southerner, I’m used to the heavy dose of Lost Cause mythology, and several years ago, I finally came to the point where I could start to distinguish between myth and reality when it comes to the history of Southern Confederates in the war. […]

“Think of it!” A Confederate reflects on the duties of slaves with the Army of Northern Virginia

September 8, 2009 by

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I recently saw this article come across the Web… and, quite naturally, was taken aback by the claim that these people make regarding the “rebel flag” flying “for freedom” and, of course, that “at least 100,000 blacks… fought in the war,” seemingly in the name of freedom as provided courtesy of the flag. So, when I found […]

Is defining the war as a sectional crisis problematic?

April 20, 2009 by

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I’m thinking through this, but let’s give something some thought… I wonder if looking at the war as a sectional crisis has presented a problem (especially in terms of “historical memory”) in not only defining the people within those sections but understanding just how complex the history of the war really is. The geographical borders laid […]

A visit to the American Civil War Center

April 20, 2009 by

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On Saturday afternoon, I had the opportunity to visit the American Civil War Center, and, as one who is in search of how Southern Unionists are represented in reflections of the Civil War, I began my walk-through anticipating what I might find. While an interesting and different way to present the history of the war […]

Looking beyond Confederate service records and pensions

March 23, 2009 by

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Just a passing thought this morning (and a relatively light post considering I am deep in my thesis right now), but, I’d like to say something quick about questionable loyalties when it comes to Confederate soldiers. I’ve mentioned it before, but from what one finds in a service record and a pension is not “all-revealing.” […]

Southerners “honoring” Southern heritage

February 20, 2009 by

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I just added a link to Greg Rowe’s blog because… he gets it. Through his words I can see that he is one of a growing number of Southerners who, after a long journey, is like me and is still learning to appreciate ALL facets of Civil War-era “Southern heritage” and is not caught up in “selective […]

What is a “true and complete” Southern perspective of the Civil War?

February 17, 2009 by

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If one says he/she is going to present a “Southern perspective” of the Civil War, do you cringe or roll your eyes and say something like, “oh no, here we go?” Is it possible to deliver a non-slanted “Southern perspective” of the war without tripping over all of the perspectives that actually make up THE Southern perspective of […]

Defining Southern Heritage in Civil War Remembrance

February 15, 2009 by

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If modern Confederate remembrance does not come close to accurately capturing the true definition of Southern heritage in the Civil War era, what does? I’ll be posting on this in the coming week. In the meantime, hat-tip to Kevin at Civil War Memory for making us aware of a YouTube clip, and a “well-done” to […]

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