Civil War Memory Through Film

Iam in the process of finalizing my elective for the next trimester, which begins after we return from Thanksgiving break.  It’s a course that I am calling Civil War Memory.  Last year I taught it as a straightforward readings course and this year the plan was to use it as a platform for doing some [...]

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South Park Reenacts the Civil War

Episode Summary for The Red Badge of Gayness: “Cartman has visions of glory as he suits up for the Confederacy in the annual reenactment of a Civil War battle, and leads the drunken rebels to defeat the union.” [Originally aired on 11/24/99] If you have twenty minutes and are looking for a good laugh than [...]

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A Civil War Military Historian Who Joined the Military

Yesterday I received an advanced copy of Wayne Wei-Siang Hsieh’s, West Pointers and the Civil War: The Old Army in War and Peace (University of North Carolina Press).  It’s one of those books that I’ve been looking forward to reading for a long time and what little I read last night I can say confidently [...]

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Arlington House, Public History, and Tourism

I am working to finish up an essay on Robert E. Lee’s Arlington House for a collection of essays on Southern Tourism edited by Karen Cox.  The tentative title is, “The Robert E. Lee Memorial: A Conflict of Interpretation”.  My research on this subject has taken a couple of turns since I agreed to be [...]

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Ulysses S. Grant in Command

While looking through some “sexually explicit” images related to the Civil War I came across this interesting collection by artist, Justine Lai.  The artist is based in San Francisco.  Lai has this to say about her first Online exhibit titled, “Join or Die”: In Join Or Die, I paint myself having sex with the Presidents [...]

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Is the Real “Glory” Part of Our History of the Civil Rights Movement?

Just wanted to follow up with a few thoughts that didn’t make it into yesterday’s re-published post.  The pay crisis scene in the movie, Glory, is a significant moment in the film.  When the soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts learn that they will be paid less than white soldiers protest erupts and leads to the [...]

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The 54th Massachusetts Regiment in Myth, Memory, and History

This post was published last year at this time and since my students are preparing essays on the subject I thought I might offer it once again. Today my Civil War classes finished watching the movie Glory, which is still my all-time favorite Civil War movie. Students enjoy the movie in part because of the [...]

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Final Thoughts About John Latschar

As many of you are now learning John Latschar resigned as superintendent of Gettysburg National Military Park.  You can read the story here.  What follows is my first video blog in which I offer some final thoughts about yesterday’s post.  It is meant to clarify some of my remarks, specifically in response to Eric Wittenberg’s [...]

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