The latest post by Ta-Nehisis Coates beautifully captures the frustrations that many African Americans experience when visiting America’s Civil War battlefields and specifically those places where African Americans participated. A recent visit to the Petersburg battlefields, including the Crater, by Coates and his children highlights the continued challenges facing museums, the National Park Service, and [...]
Lost Cause
Are you tired of the continued attack on American culture by liberal academic and public historians who present history in a way that conflicts with your cherished notions of the Civil War and Southern history? Well, head on down to Jacksonville, Florida to the Museum of Southern History. Although it claims to be a museum [...]
For those of you who have never seen the movie, Gods and Generals, here is your chance to view a slightly shorter version. In just under five minutes you pretty much cover all the bases and the inclusion of theme music by Frank Wildhorn adds just the right touch. Now, if you will excuse me, [...]
[Hat-Tip to David Woodbury] This is one of those jaw-dropping stories that makes you wonder about the collective mental stability of our little Civil War community. Apparently, the John Bell Hood Society is troubled by historian Wiley Sword’s characterization of Hood’s personal, intellectual, and battlefield skills. To share this disgust the organization decided to take [...]
It should be no surprised that Dwyer would emphasize the loyal service of tens of thousands of “black Confederates” – or what he describes as “Forgotten Blacks in Gray” - given his analysis of slavery. The author emphasizes this long-standing myth throughout the text and offers his usual service of vague generalizations, meaningless definitions, and [...]
It’s true that you can’t always judge a book by its cover, but you can judge it by the number of black Confederates that are claimed to have loyally served. As a teacher I think it is important to stay up to date on new textbooks and other classroom resources, so with that in mind [...]
Today was the perfect day to drive to Petersburg and hang out at the Crater. I try to get down there at least once a year to recharge the batteries and find those special places where I can lose myself in the past for a few moments. This trip I decided to walk off the [...]
Check out these short videos at Gilder Lehrman’s YouTube site, which include interviews with Gary Gallagher, Ed Ayers, Allen Guelzo, Thomas Bender, and Ira Berlin. Search the full list of videos and you can view interviews with James and Louis Horton and David Blight. They can be used in the classroom, though they range in [...]
It’s difficult to deny that the image of women in the work of contemporary Civil War artists tells us much more about the individual artist than the reality of women’s lives or the way those lives were transformed during the Civil War. I pick on Mort Kunstler quite a bit, but his characters beg for [...]