New and Noteworthy---The Civil War In Pennsylvania, An Amazing and Astounding Photographic History

The Civil War In Pennsylvania, A Photographic History, Michael G. Kraus, David M. Neville, and Kenneth C. Turner, Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation, 2012, 312 pp., profusely illustrated, bibliography, index, $35.00.

From the June 17, 1843 photograph of the shops at Numbers 46-52 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia to the July 1935 photograph of a veteran waving good-bye through a train window,  The Civil War In Pennsylvania, A Photographic History is an amazing and remarkable book. The breadth of the images' subjects presented and the details offered within each image is astounding.  The images are rare and their captions are informative. There is a wealth of material culture in this collection:  Civilians and soldiers, architecture and armaments, broadsheets and books, coins, currency and camp life, industry and insignia, and a depth of information that is often rare among sesquicentennial offerings.

In five chapters with 44 sections, the authors have left very few history stones unturned. Preceding from colonial Pennsylvania confronting slavery and concluding with the Keystone State commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, the authors provide a very detailed and very humane story of the the commonwealth and its people.

Every reader will have a list of their favorite and probably previous unseen images. From the antebellum period: the home of William Parker in Christiana, Lancaster County at which a slaveholder was killed and his son was wounded when they were attempting to capture their runaway slaves, and barefoot children at rest from working while skimming petroleum along the bank of Oil Creek .  From the Gettsyburg Campaign:  a very rare image of the Wrightsville bridge over the Susquehanna River before it was burned; the rebuilt Hanover Railroad Bridge that was destroyed by Confederate cavalry, and  an untrimmed printed of the very famous three Confederate prisoners of war at Gettysburg.  From 1863: John Hunt Morgan's raiders posing in a Western Penitentiary cell.

There is no page that readers will not linger over, reading every caption. The Ken Turner Collection, the Library of Philadelphia. the Library of Congress, the Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania, the Krause-Messick Collection, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania collections, the Westmoreland Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania State Archives, Pennsylvania county historical collections and many other corporate and private collections are represented in The Civil War In Pennsylvania, A Photographic History.  Thia immensity of images and the quality of the reproductions in other books would have a prohibitive retail price. Yet The Senator John Heinz History Center and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission have offered this astounding collection at a reasonable price.

150 Anniversary: The Battle of Cedar Mountain, Virginia

The Battle of Cedar Mountain [Cedar Run], took place on August 9, 1862, in Culpeper County, Virginia. Union forces under Major General Nathaniel P. Banks attacked Rebel forces under Maj. Gen. Thomas J.  Jackson near Cedar Mountain as the Confederates marched northward toward Culpeper Court House.  Jackson's force was to deter the Federal seizure of the junction of railroads at Gordonsville.  Fought late in the day  Banks' troops nearly drove the Confederates from the field. Reinforced, the Confederates counterattacked and broke the Union lines. 

On June 26, Major General John Pope received command of the newly created Army of Virginia which were three corps that had been independent until that point.   On the western flank, under Major General Franz Sigel, was positioned at Sperryville located in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  On the eastern flank, under under Major General Irvin McDowell, was located, across from Fredericksburg,  at Falmouth on the Rappahannock River.  The center, under Major General Nathaniel P. Banks, was situated in the northern part of Culpeper County.  A brigade of Banks's corps, Brigadier General Samuel W. Crawford's brigade and Brigadier General John P. Hatch's cavalry, were stationed about 20 miles beyond the Union line, at Culpeper Court House.

General Robert E. Lee responded to Pope's dispositions by dispatching Major General T. J. Jackson with 14,000 men to Gordonsville on July 13 and  later reinforcing with another division of  10,000 men under Major General Ambrose  P.  Hill.  On the morning of August 9, Jackson's army crossed to the Rapidan River into Culpeper County with Major General Richard S. Ewell's division leading.  Brigadier General Charles S. Winder's division followed by Hill's division acting as a reserve.

At about 5pm, near the end of the initial artillery barrage by both Federals and Confederates, Confederate Brigadier General Charles S. Winder, who had been ill the entire day,  attempted to direct his troops and was struck by a shell. Winder's left arm and side were shredded. He died a few hours later.  The Stonewall Brigade had come up and was then swept aside by Crawford's troops.  As the artillery batteries were on the verge of being captured Jackson ordered them withdrawn.  Taliaferro and Early's troops were devastatingly hit by the Federal volleys and broke.

Jackson rode to that part of the field and came upon the Stonewall Brigade finally being brought up to reinforce the retreating line.  He attempted to brandish his sword but it had rusted in its scabbard. He unbuckled the sword from his belt, waved the scabbard over his head then grabbed a  flag from the retreating color guard. The Stonewall Brigade and portions of other regiments challenged by Jackson launched into the Federal troops.  As other Confederate regiments came forth and as there were no Federal troops in reserve, Jackson prevailed that day. Within three weeks, the battles of Brawner's Farm, Second Manassas and Chantilly would be fought. 

On the 150th anniversary of the battle a seminar was held at Germanna Community College and on the Cedar Mountain battlefield. Topics included the creation of the Federal Army of Virginia and its assigned task, the Stonewall Brigade, the 10th Maine Regiment, and the preservation of the battled.  National Park rangers extensively discussed the battle's action.  Their presentation was in a auditorium during the day and the battled during the evening. 

Text and Images by Civil War Librarian. The top image shows in the foreground the approximate site of the mortal wounding of Winder.  Approximately 100 to 200 yards to the rear of the wayside marker is the location of Jackson's rallying with scabbard and starry banner the troops.

News---Smaller Than 145th, The 150th Antietam Reenactment To Be Held

Two-Day Event On Private Land Near Boonsboro Will Mark 150th Anniversary Of Civil War Battles, Heather Kells, Hagerstown Herald Mail August 8, 2011.

An estimated 4,000 Civil War re-enactors will stage a public re-enactment of the battles of South Mountain and Antietam on Sept. 8 and 9, 2012, on private land near Boonsboro, organizer Chris Anders said at a press conference Monday. The event, called “Maryland, My Maryland,” is being staged by The Southern Division, an all-volunteer re-enactment organization, and will be sponsored by the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Anders said. Re-enactment of the Battle of Harpers Ferry might also be included, he said.

The event will be open to 2,000 spectators per day, and tickets will go on sale soon from the Convention and Visitors Bureau, he said. Tickets will cost $25 for one day or $40 for both days, CVB President Thomas B. Riford said. Those 6 and younger will be admitted free. All proceeds from the event will go to the Central Maryland Heritage League to help preserve and interpret South Mountain State Battlefield and to Brittany’s Hope Foundation, a charity that helps with the adoption of special-needs children worldwide, Anders said. The re-enactment will be held on about 100 acres of land at the foot of South Mountain near the intersection of Alt. U.S. 40 and Md. 67 east of Boonsboro.

“We’re setting up the event to be a very authentic event so people get a true Civil War experience,” Anders said. Anders said he has organized about 20 re-enactments and is a partner in Rear Rank Productions, which specializes in coordinating logistical aspects of re-enactment events, such as water and signs. His caps of 4,000 to 5,000 re-enactors and 2,000 spectators mean the event will be considerably smaller than the Battle of Antietam re-enactments staged in 1997 and 2002, which each attracted about 13,000 re-enactors and as many as 100,000 spectators. Anders said smaller numbers will allow for higher authenticity and better views for spectators.

“The goal is that people actually see what happened in September 1862, what the troops looked like, how they camped, how they fought, not a fantasy world-type representation thereof,” he said. Though the re-enactment commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Maryland Campaign, it is scheduled for several days before the actual dates of the battles to encourage visitors to attend commemorative events at the respective battlefields on the actual anniversary dates, Anders said. The Battle of South Mountain was fought Sept. 14, 1862, for the possession of three mountain passes — Crampton’s, Turner’s and Fox’s Gaps — and resulted in about 6,000 casualties, Riford said.

The Battle of Antietam, three days later on Sept. 17, was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with 23,110 casualties. Dan Spedden, superintendent of the South Mountain Recreation Area, announced at the same press conference Monday that the South Mountain State Battlefield’s sesquicentennial events will include the opening next spring of the battlefield’s first professionally designed museum exhibits.

The exhibits will be in three buildings — the visitors center at Washington Monument State Park, and the hall and lodge at Gathland State Park — and will interpret the Battle of South Mountain, Boonsboro’s Washington Monument, and the life of reporter and Civil War correspondent George Alfred Townsend. The buildings that will house the exhibits are under renovation and will open in April, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in May, Spedden said. South Mountain State Battlefield’s commemorative events will include tours, hikes and living history displays each weekend beginning in June 2012. On Sept. 14 and 15, 2012, the battlefield will have living-history and artillery demonstrations, hikes and real-time battlefield tours, he said.

At Antietam National Battlefield, lectures and symposiums are scheduled throughout 2012, culminating Sept. 9 to 22 with speakers, tours, real-time hikes, Civil War-era music, a family activities tent, artillery and infantry demonstrations, and a Sept. 17 ceremony, said Ed Wenschhof, the battlefield’s acting superintendent.

Text and Top Image Source: Hagerstown Herald Mail August 8, 2011

Top Image Caption: Thomas B. Riford, president of the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau, leads a press conference Monday about the plans for the re-enactment of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam as re-enactment coordinator Chris Anders, left, and Ed Wenschhof, Antietam National Battlefield's acting superintendent and Dan Spedden, superintendent of the South Mountain Recreation Area, listen. (By Ric Dugan/Staff Photographer)

Maryland, My Maryland's website

CWL: The Maryland, My Maryland website states that 1] reenactor registration opens in November, 2011 and 2] Confederate forces have re-branded themselves as States Rights Forces. Looking at #2 is kinda creepy.

Does that mean that the boys in gray will re-write history and out flank Federal forces at the Sunken Road, similiar to what happened at the last Antietam reenactment five years ago? Why can't the Confederates just be Confederates? The Federals are still the Federals. Maybe the organizers couldn't get away with calling the Federal army the Abolitionist army?

CWL---Reading Through the Sesquicentennial

2011 is 1861. Here's a list of books. If you read these in order in twelve months, then 2012/1862 will become more clear. Let's play a little catch up first.

The 1860/2010 Reading List

November: Disunion!, Elizabeth Varon [a history of American secession movements through Spring 1861]
December: Border War, Stanley Harrold [verbal sparring, kidnapping, and murder in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois/Maryland,Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri


The 1861/2011 Reading List
January: A Government of Our Own: The Making of the Confederacy, William C. Davis [creation of the Confederate government]

February: The Baltimore Plot: The First Conspiracy to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln, Michael J. Kline [Lincoln travels to Washington, DC and yes there was a nearly successful conspiracy to assasinate him in Baltimore]

March: Lincoln and the Decision for War: The Northern Response to Secession, Russell McClintock [Lincoln’s motives and strategies]

April: Allegiance: Fort Sumter, Charleston, and the Beginning of the Civil War, David Detzer [Confederate motives and strategies] OR Days of Defiance: Sumter, Secession, and the Coming of the Civil War by Maury Klein


May: Sister States, Enemy States: The Civil War in Kentucky and Tennessee, Kent Dollar, Larry Whiteaker, Calvin Dollar (Editors) [Border State session movements]

June: Rebels at the Gate, Hunter Lesser [Rebel attempt to keep Virginia Appalachian Mountains in the Union]

July: Battle at Bull Run: A History of the First Major Campaign of the Civil War, William C. Davis [first major military battle]

August: Wilson's Creek: The Second Battle of the Civil War and the Men Who Fought It, William Garrett Piston [Missouri’s near secession and the military battle that kept it in the Union]

September: The Grand Design: Strategy and the U.S. Civil War, Donald Stoker [how the generals saw the strategy and tactics of the coming war]

October: A Little Short of Boats: The Fights at Ball's Bluff and Edward's Ferry, October 21-22, 1861, James Morgan [the battle that changed the U.S. congress’ view of the war]


November: Over Lincoln's Shoulder: The Committee on the Conduct of the War, by Bruce Tap [created by Ball’s Bluff this political investigation lasted the entire war and had a huge impact on McClellan, Porter, Hooker, Sickles and Meade]

December: McClellan's War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union, Ethan S. Rafuse [understanding McClellan’s over all notion of what the war was about and how it formed his strategy and tactics]

News---Signing of SC's Secession Ordinance Reenacted

Celebrate Or Commemorate: Debate Rages Over Civil War Anniversary, Wayne Washington, The State, December 16, 2010.

Organizers of Civil War anniversary events sought Wednesday to distance themselves from a ball being held Monday to celebrate secession. “I won’t be going,” Charleston Mayor Joe Riley said after a news conference held at the Historic Charleston Foundation’s headquarters on East Bay Street, where the mayor and those organizing events to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War underscored their desire to bring attention to historic events without celebrating the war.

The Secession Ball, organized by the Confederate Heritage Trust and sponsored in part by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, is scheduled to be held on Monday in Charleston’s Gaillard Auditorium. The ball will feature a 45-minute play re-enacting the signing of the Ordinance of Secession before a gathering of party-goers wearing period clothes. With Civil War-related anniversary events planned over the next five years, the ball is the first flashpoint between those who want to celebrate the war and those who want to note its historic significance. Riley said the 150th anniversary of the war is “not a celebration.”

“There’s nothing to celebrate,” Riley said. “It was a huge tragedy.” Riley said he is not concerned the ball will cloud efforts to have inclusive events that do not celebrate the Confederacy. “It’s not a sanctioned event,” he said of the ball. “It’s a private activity. America is a country that recognizes and respects differences.”

Efforts to reach ball organizers Wednesday were unsuccessful. Randy Burbage, listed on the Confederate Heritage Trust’s Web site as its vice president, said when contacted he could not speak for the organization. The National Parks Service and the Fort Sumter/Fort Moultrie Trust, as well as a slew of other groups, are holding a variety of events to commemorate the start of the war. Leaders of those groups emphasized on Wednesday they have no control over the actions of private groups. The Fort Sumter/Fort Moultrie Trust said, in a news release, the Trust “has not supported or contributed to the Secession Ball as the Trust does not see it as part of its mission.”

“One of the stated purposes of the ball is to celebrate a ‘joyous’ occasion when South Carolina seceded from the Union,” said the Trust’s statement. “The Trust cannot join in that celebration as a fair reading of the Declaration of Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina adopted by the Secession Convention shows that the cause for secession rested on the North’s hostility to slavery and its refusal, among other things, to enforce the fugitive slave laws.”

The Trust’s Web site links to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a secession ball sponsor that disputes the Trust’s reading of history. In its press release, the Trust said, “Because we disagree on some points does not mean the Trust cannot find common ground on others.”

Trust president Robert Rosen said his organization wants to “work with groups in a constructive manner,” ensuring all points of view — including Confederate points of view —- have a chance to be aired. Rosen said there is no single set of facts regarding the war, complicating efforts to understand it and making it more important for all sides to be heard. “Who owns the story?” Rosen asked rhetorically. “It’s not one story.”

Before Wednesday’s news conference, representatives of different organizations held a meeting to discuss the logistics of what will be a five-year period of events tied to war’s anniversary. Of the roughly 40 people who participated in that meeting, only a handful were African-Americans. One, Michael Allen of the National Parks Service, oversaw the meeting, repeatedly saying the goal of the events is to educate and bring people together.

He said the upcoming events won’t bear similarities to those in 1961, when the 100th anniversary of the war’s start became a point of Southern nostalgia. “We’re on the road to a different commemoration,” Allen said. Another African-American participant, Janie Harriot, vice chairwoman of the S.C. African American Heritage Commission, thinks the events will be a net positive for the state. “We will come out of this commemoration with a better South Carolina, and we will have some healing as South Carolinians.”

CWL---In a world with more time and more money, CWL would attend this event in a 1860 civilian suit, not a Federal army uniform. If South Carolina's secession ordinance was not read aloud in the auditorium or ballroom, then CWL would distribute copies of it; then go outside the building are read it aloud, without comment.

LATE BREAKING NEWS: SECESSION CELEBRATION EVENTS FOR THE 18TH AND THE 20TH APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN CANCELLED. THE CONFEDERATE HERITAGE TRUST'S CALENDAR VIEWED ON DECEMBER 18 IS LINKED TO A CANCELLATION NOTICE

Top Image Source: South Carolina Gen Web

Bottom Image Source: University of Georgia Library

150th Anniversary Resource---Interactive Time Line

New York Times is offering a interactive time with a link to the Civil War Era editions of the New York times. The timeline begins on October 31, 1860 with the Presidential campaign. Much of the timeline appears to be completed for the entire war with the links to the historic New York Times intact. Also, occassional stories, such as Jamie Malanowski on the topic 'November 7 1860: Lincoln Wins. Now What?'

New York Times Interactive Civil War Time Line

News---Is Celebrating The Civil War's 150th Anniversary PC?

Call the whole thing off?, Allen C. Guelzo, Gettysburg Times, August 31, 2010.

Last August, I did a quick survey of the various plans under way for the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. What was unnerving was how little seemed to be taking shape. Unlike the Civil War Centennial in 1961-1965, no national commission for the Sesquicentennial had been created. Only ten states had formed state Civil War Sesquicentennial commissions, but many of them were low-visibility roosts for political appointees. And all of it was haunted by the gaffes committed during the Civil War Centennial.

One year has clicked us closer to the Sesquicentennial - a year that saw the anniversary of John Brown's Raid and the nomination of Abraham Lincoln for the presidency - and sad to say, we are not much nearer an adequate celebration of the Civil War's 150th than we were twelve months ago. A proposed bill for the establishment of a national Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission remains dead in committee. There are now seventeen states with official state Sesquicentennial Commissions, or which have delegated Civil War Sesquicentennial responsibilities to state historical agencies. But a bill to organize a New York 150th Anniversary Commission is still languishing in the state senate finance committee.

The governor of Mississippi appointed a state "Sesquicentennial of the Civil War Commission," but no funding was forthcoming from the legislature, and the Commission's second meeting in November of 2009 had to be scrapped for want of a quorum. Georgia has had a standing Civil War Commission since 1993, but its activities are geared largely to promoting heritage tourism. The Georgia Historical Society has undertaken an inventory "of existing historical markers that focus on Civil War subjects." But $500,000 which had been earmarked for developing Civil War Sesquicentennial events by the Georgia Department of Economic Development was axed by the Georgia legislature this year, and the Georgia Civil War Commission has no funding available at all for 2011.

The most ambitious state initiatives have been those of Virginia and Pennsylvania. With a $2 million budget, the Virginia "Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission" has created a 2-DVD production, "Virginia in the Civil War: A Sesquicentennial Remembrance," and will unroll the second of its planned seven Signature Conferences next month at Norfolk State University around the theme of "Race, Slavery and the Civil War: The Tough Stuff of American History and Memory." The Pennsylvania Civil War 150 is equipping a 53-foot-long tractor-trailer with a "Civil War Road Show" which will make exhibition stops in all 67 Pennsylvania counties. And both Adams County and Gettysburg College have formed Civil War Sesquicentennial committees.

But even these observances are more a glass half-empty than a glass half-full. The Civil War Centennial had the misfortune to occur at the apex of the Civil Rights Movement, and by trying to limit its gaze to what it supposed would be "safe" subjects - battle re-enactments, the re-union of North and South - the Centennial Commission communicated instead a serene indifference to the racial tensions which were rising all around the nation. The Centennial effectively convinced black Americans that the Civil War was not "their" story, and fostered a sense of what one commentator called "emotional alienation" from Civil War history. That alienation, in turn, convinced many cautious white Americans that the Civil War was either a sleeping dog which would be best left to lie, or that it was going to have to be dramatically re-written to downplay the battle-and-reunion script.

Trying to retro-fit the Sesquicentennial to avoid these shadows has not, so far, worked very well. The first of the Virginia Sesquicentennial Signature Conferences (at the University of Richmond), which tried to focus on John Brown and Harpers Ferry rather than Marse Robert and Jeb Stuart, drew a packed house of 2,000 people - but not more than a handful of African Americans. Ohio's Sesquicentennial Civil War Advisory Committee proclaimed its determination "to include a variety of perspectives and a diversity of viewpoints" in order to "embrace the inclusive story of the Civil War." But the Commission was flummoxed at its July meeting by just how "inclusive" it should be. "Many Ohioans didn't fight for the Union," it was objected, "they fought for or supported the South;" so, commissioners asked each other, "do we want to include this aspect of the legacy?"

There is a much to celebrate in the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. There is also a great deal of anger and disappointment, and in some places, downright contempt. The Civil War re-enactment community mistrusts academic Civil War historians; the academics, in turn, are regarded by the public historians as gate-crashers of their collections and exhibitions; public historians suspect relic and memorabilia dealers of piracy; and the general public seems interested in history only when it's painted-up in bizarre, horror-movie formats. These are all obstacles in the path of a worthwhile Sesquicentennial. But the greatest challenge of the Sesquicentennial will be how to synthesize the Civil War's "old" story of battles-and-reunion with the Civil War's "new" story of race and gender. Until that begins to happen, and until the competing re-enactment, academic, and public empires decide that they all have a common stake in the Sesquicentennial, state legislatures, historical societies, and organizations are likely to take the safe road, and call the whole thing off.

Text Source: Gettysburg Times
Top Image Source: Leisure Travel
Bottom Image Source Kindred Blood

News---Virginia's 150th: Serious, All-Inclusive

Virginia Seeks Balance In Marking Civil War's 150th Anniversary, Rosalind S. Helderman, Washington Post, May 3, 2010.

When Virginia and the rest of the nation set out to mark the 100th anniversary of the Civil War in 1961, the party got off to a rocky start. Intricate plans were made to mark the military conquests of the Confederate and Union armies, but little attention was paid to the experience of individuals -- soldiers, civilians and slaves.

A massive reenactment of the Battle of Bull Run at Manassas was marred by too little water and too few bathrooms. Most jarringly, some adopted the events as an opportunity to celebrate the Confederacy in the face of the burgeoning civil rights movement. At last, President John F. Kennedy called on a 31-year-old historian to take over as the centennial's executive director, refocusing it on sober education.

Virginia has turned to the same man -- James I. Robertson Jr., a history professor at Virginia Tech and a Civil War expert -- to help the state avoid the same kinds of problems as it prepares to mark next year's 150th anniversary of the start of the war. With Robertson's guidance, a commission established by the General Assembly to plan the state's sesquicentennial events has spent four years trying to avoid the impression that they will amount to a celebration of the Confederacy.

There are no Confederate battle flags on the commission's homepage. One of its first events is a scholarly conference titled "Race, Slavery and the Civil War: The Tough Stuff of American History and Memory." Commission members, a bipartisan collection of 15 legislators, historians and others, even shy from the word "celebrate," preferring to use "commemorate" instead. "We're going to make it a serious thing, an all-inclusive thing," Robertson said. Virginia officials hope they can attract tourist dollars from war buffs from across the country during four years of events in the state with more Civil War battlefields than any other. The commission, founded in 2006, is funded through a $2 million annual appropriation from the legislature, as well as private grants. But they are keenly aware that Virginia was the capital of the Confederacy and home to many of its most famous figures. The commonwealth got a reminder of the sensitivities involved when Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) declared last month Confederate History Month, a proclamation he said would bring attention to the 150th anniversary.

McDonnell quickly apologized after facing stinging national criticism for omitting references to slavery. But an amended version that called slavery an abomination did not satisfy those who thought it was still too deferential to Virginia's role in a losing rebellion. At a recent event marking the preservation of a new 85-acre section of the battlefield at Chancellorsville, McDonnell told a crowd that the 150th anniversary will be about more than the Confederacy.

"I think people from all over this country and around the world will come here next year to learn the Civil War battles," he said on a podium set up in front of rolling field that saw a bloody Confederate charge during the 1863 battle. "They will also come to learn of a battle that pitted brother against brother and divided this nation like no other event in American history. They will pause to see the sites, like this one here at Chancellorsville, of the most bloody conflict on American soil. They will also pause to reflect on the fact that this was the war that eliminated the abomination of slavery from American soil."

After the event, McDonnell said the anniversary will provide additional opportunities to preserve battlefields as well as to educate Virginia's children. "I look forward to being a champion for racial reconciliation during that time," he said. One place he might start is at the September conference on slavery at Norfolk State University, which has 1,200 registrants. It will be chaired by James O. Horton, professor emeritus of African American history at George Mason University and an expert on slavery. Horton called the conference "very important to understanding the Civil War, understanding the issues that really shaped the tremendous and heated debates of history."

Slavery plays an important role, too, in a two-disc DVD set that's been produced by the commission and distributed to every school in the state. It emphasizes the experience of soldiers on both sides, African Americans -- free and enslaved -- as well as civilians on the home front. And in February, a 3,000-square-foot exhibit will open at the Virginia Historical Society with an emphasis on telling the Civil War story from all perspectives. After a run in Richmond, the exhibit will tour the state. The commission also has plans for high-tech kiosks at state parks and other sites with information about local battlefields and databases of soldiers who fought there, allowing visitors to track their ancestors. The Library of Virginia will make a major push to digitize newly unearthed Civil War-related letters and diaries.

The commission's work has not been without critics. The Richmond Free Press, a black-owned newspaper, has run several editorials criticizing the commission as a waste of taxpayer money whose work is bound to invite four years of Confederate flag waving. "Most eighth-graders know that Virginia's participation [in the war] was hardly worthy of promoting," publisher Raymond H. Boone wrote last year.

At the same time, members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans say the commission is running a politically correct event that will ignore their ancestors' sacrifices. "I think they're so afraid of offending someone, hurting someone's feelings, that they're just going to do this generic, bland commemoration, where at the end, we know we've commemorated something, but we're not quite sure what," said Frank Earnest, a Virginia Beach resident and chief of the heritage defense for the group.

This article continues at this Text Source: Washington Post

Top Image Source: Robertson

Middle Image Souce: Virginia 150th

Bottom Image Source: Richmond Virginia's 150th

CWL--- John Brown: An Abolitionist Taliban?

Today in Springfield Illinois an American Taliban was arrested beside van-sized bomb parked in front of a federal courthouse.

In David Reynolds' biography of John Brown, the author makes the point that African-American historians have always understood John Brown. It is white historians who see 1) a lunatic, 2) a Bible thumper, 3.) a sociopath 4.) a failure as a family provider, 5.) a psychopath, 6) a dope, 7.) an egomaniacal individual seeking martyrdom 8.) a character who has wandered out of a Flannery O'Connor short story and into history.

Even 150 years removed from the October 16-17 raid on U.S. arsenal at Harper Ferry, it is difficult to understand John Brown's character and motivations. He has always been an enigma to CWL. Currently scholarship is discarding stereotypes of John Brown. David Reynold's biography, John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights, Evan Carton's biography, Patriotic Treason: John Brown and the Soul of America , Jon Stauffer's treatment of radical abolitionists, The Black Hearts of Men: Radical Abolitionists and the Transformation of Race have set the stereotypes of John Brown on their heels.

Take a glace at the Gilda Lehrman Center's October conference on John Brown the last week in October.

How I Wrote John Brown, Abolitionist: A Cultural Biography (David Reynolds)
The Word and the Life: John Brown as Reader

The Wind and the Whirlwind: Can Biography Explain John Brown?

From Armed Propaganda to Creative Suffering: John Brown and Traditions of Expressive Violence

'I'll be John Browned': Abolition in the Southern Imagination

John Brown and the Tradition of Attacking Slavery at the Source

Was John Brown a Terrorist?

John Brown and the Legacies of Violence

Considerations on the Rhetoric of Race War in the Antebellum South

The Harpers Ferry Historical Association and the Harpers Ferry National Park will host a three day event on the anniversary of the raid. At 10pm on October 16 2009, a group will leave the Kennedy Farm where Brown's band was ensconced for 90 days. From the Kennedy Farm marchers will walk the five miles to the arsenal site and its iconic fire engine house building.

In period clothing and with a lantern, CWL will be among the marchers and will be searching for that 'period rush' for which reenactors long. Possibly even a few others on the march may have 'the black heart of abolitionism' pulsing wildly in their chests.