Father’s Flag

What follows is James Southard’s interpretation of his video. 

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Not A Single Former Slave Involuntarily Removed

Here is something to think about from James Oakes’s Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865. It is not hard to understand the flurry of support for colonization during the Civil War.  Notwithstanding the opposition of radical abolitionists, colonization presupposed emancipation, and whenever talk of emancipation arose, so too did talk [...]

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What More Needs To Be Said About Gettysburg?

…apparently very little. With the Future of Civil War History conference right around the corner it should come as no surprise that I’ve had Gettysburg on my mind.  I am also looking forward to a return visit in June for the annual Civil War Institute, which will focus on the battle of Gettysburg.  With the [...]

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The Future of USCTs at Civil War Sites

What follows are a few thoughts in response to the position papers of my fellow panelists, who will join me next week at Gettysburg College to talk about how we interpret the USCT experience on our Civil War battlefields.  It’s a bit rough, but it should give you an idea of some of the things [...]

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When Memory and History Collide

I got a kick out of this short editorial by Kevin Cullen in Danville, Illinois, who recently went looking for information about an ancestor that served in the Confederate army. For years, I imagined Private Cullen riding a magnificent stallion, attacking the Yanks with his saber, carbine and Colt. In my mind’s eye, he wore gauntlets, [...]

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New To the Civil War Memory Library, 03/02

Howard Bahr, The Judas Field: A Novel of the Civil War, (Picador, 2006). William A. Dobak, Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862-1867, (Center of Military History, 2011). Christopher Hager, Word by Word: Emancipation and the Act of Writing, (Harvard University Press, 2013). Harold Holzer and Sara Vaugn Gabbard eds., 1863: Lincoln’s Pivotal [...]

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Confederate Like Me

Earlier this week I received my author copies of the latest issue of The Civil War Monitor, which contains my essay on Confederate camp servants.  As I’ve said before, I am very excited about this particular piece.  It encompasses some of what I am trying to address in the first chapter of my book on [...]

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The Way Home

H/T to Peter Winfrey I highly recommend taking the time to watch this video in its entirety.  It follows a group of black seniors to Yellowstone National Park.  Along the way there is a discussion of why black Americans have apparently lost touch with the history of our national parks, nature and the joys of [...]

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