Reflections of a High School History Teacher & Civil War Historian

Blogging My Way Through the Past and Present

March 7, 2010

With trimester exams completed I am now looking forward to my spring break week and the opportunity to recharge before the final push toward the end of the year in May. I hope to get in a bit of writing on the Crater manuscript and a solid week of jogging. On Tuesday I head up to Shepherdstown, West Virginia to visit with Prof. Mark Snell’s seminar, “The American Civil War in Memory and Remembrance” at Shepherd University. I first met Mark Snell back in 2005 at the annual meeting of the Society for Military History in Charleston. Mark chaired a panel on the Civil War and memory that I took part on that also included Ken Noe and Keith Bohannon. Since then we’ve remained friends. I very much appreciate Mark’s enthusiasm and support of this blog from the beginning as well as his encouragement of my own research. In addition to teaching history, Mark is the director of the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War at Shepherd University. The Center is currently engaged in a number of projects, but I do want to take a minute to plug their annual conference which will take place this year in Petersburg in June. I am very excited about it since I am once again joining a stellar faculty that includes among others, Earl Hess and Will Greene. Check it out if you have a chance.

Mark has assigned my blog as regular reading throughout the semester and he thought it might be worth having me visit with his students to discuss various issues related to the format and its place in the profession and the broader culture. While I’ve discussed the role of blogging extensively over the years on this site, and even addressed a group of academic historians last year, this will be my first opportunity to engage undergraduates who may not be headed down an academic track. In preparation for that trip I’ve been perusing the archives for a few posts in which I discuss how blogging fits into my career.

What follows is a 2008 interview that I did with a graduate student at the University of Richmond who was enrolled in a Public History course.

1. What motivated you to create this website/blog? What, if anything, inspired or challenged you to create this website/blog?

Answer: I began blogging back in November 2005. At the time there were only two or three Civil War blogs, but it was Mark Grimsley’s Blog Them Out of the Stone Age which inspired me to throw my hat in the ring. What I liked about Mark’s blog was that it introduced a wide spectrum of topics related to military history to a diverse audience. It worked to bridge the divide between more casual readers of military history and scholars working in the field. I’ve tried to do the same thing with Civil War Memory. I see myself as occupying a unique position as both a high school history teacher and Civil War historian. In addition, my interests extend beyond military themes which remains the preoccupation of most Civil War enthusiasts and while I did not have specific goals in mind when I first started blogging I did hope to introduce and discuss questions and issues that are often overlooked in certain circles. These include the topics of memory, race/slavery, social/cultural history and even subjects beyond the Civil War entirely.

[click to continue…]

Tagged as: blogging

{ 0 comments }

Honor, Sacrifice, Discipline, Rage…

March 5, 2010

in Civil War Culture, Civil War Sesquicentennial

and then you get there and realize it’s just a bunch of guys dressed up as soldiers.

Tagged as: Reenactors, Spotsylvania

{ 21 comments }

Waving Goodbye to Earl Ijames

March 4, 2010

in Lost Cause, Public History, Slavery, Southern History

I know many of you out there are looking forward to a day/week without a blog post about Earl Ijames. Many of you are perhaps disappointed with the way I’ve gone about all of this. There is plenty of room to disagree. I want to state up front that my goal has never been to attack Mr. Ijames’s personal character. I have no doubt that Mr. Ijames is fully qualified in his role as an archivist and curator at the North Carolina Museum of History. In fact, I’ve seen his name mentioned a number of times in the acknowledgments section of books focused on North Carolina history. I wish Mr. Ijames nothing but continued success in this area of his career and have no doubt that he will continue to aid scholars and the general public in the goal of better understanding various aspects of North Carolina history.

What I have done is expend a great deal of energy and time challenging Mr. Ijames on what I believe to be fundamentally flawed claims concerning the roles of black southerners during the Civil War, particularly in the Confederate armies. It is not just some of the more outrageous claims made by Mr. Ijames that trouble me, it is the belief that this entire debate is little more than an extension of a deeply-embedded and racist narrative thread that continues to portray slaves as obedient and loyal and works to distance slavery from the Civil War. This particular issue is complex and we desperately need trained scholars to explore it. Mr. Ijames is clearly not that individual. On the eve of the Civil War Sesquicentennial this is something that is too important for an educator, historian and blogger to ignore. I claim no expertise beyond the research that I’ve carried out on a closely related subject as well as my understanding of the relevant historiography. As I have judged Earl Ijames’s research so must my own arguments be judged. That is how this process works. The difference as I see it is that I have taken the extra step to have my research and writing publicly scrutinized while Mr. Ijames has not.

As to why I’ve singled out Mr. Ijames it should be crystal clear. I expect this kind of behavior from the likes of H.K. Edgerton or the Sons of Confederate Veterans and United Daughters of the Confederacy. Both groups have a long history and vested interest in manipulating the past in a way that fits with their preferred view of the antebellum South, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. Yes, I comment on them from time to time, but I honestly do not get worked up about it. On the other hand Mr. Ijames works for a state agency whose stated goal is to preserve and interpret the history of North Carolina for the public. It’s a worthy goal and one that they clearly take seriously. For that reason alone Mr. Ijames must be held to the highest standards of scholarship. I am not a public historian so I am unfamiliar with the protocol for handling these types of cases in institutions such as museums and archives. I would hope that like colleges and universities they are organized in a way that allows for the widest latitude in critical thinking and intellectual creativity. As I stated above Mr. Ijames is no doubt a valuable employee within the Office of Archives and History, but his public presentations, regardless of whether they are sanctioned by his employer deserve to be challenged. The only thing that I expect from his employer is the acknowledgment that his response to my initial request for his presentation was inappropriate. I still find it curious that I have not been contacted. [On the question of institutional responsibility and academic freedom I highly recommend Brooks Simpson's recent post over at Civil Warriors.]

So, what should the consequences be for Mr. Ijames’s claims of expertise in this particular field? That’s not up to me to decide, but for the broader public. I would hope that such behavior prevents Mr. Ijames from being considered for certain promotions within the museum and broader institutional system. As I said before I find it hard to believe that I am the first person to raise these concerns. Clearly, a seasoned scholar like Dr. Jeffrey J. Crow must be aware of the shortcomings of Mr. Ijames’s research in this area. In addition, I would hope that respectable institutions decide not to invite Mr. Ijames to speak on this particular issue, especially as we approach the sesquicentennial.

Finally, I hope I’ve done my part in all of this. I make no apologies for utilizing this format to raise questions and to try to promote the kind of discourse, and hopefully the further research, that this subject so dearly deserves and desperately needs. Yes, certain individuals and groups will ignore my commentary regarding Mr. Ijames, but that pales in comparison with the number of people who will be introduced to him through this site. I’ve done everything I can to raise specific questions about statements made on this blog and in his public presentations. Now we have his own words in a complete presentation on the subject for all interested parties to consider. [see here and here for audio] I have to say that given Mr. Ijames’s challenge/invitation to meet him in a public setting to discuss this issue I am incredibly disappointed by the quality of his presentation. What else can I say other than that I truly expected more than the same tired stories and almost complete lack of analysis that can be found on most websites. But that is neither here nor there, it is up to you to decide. If this is your idea of good history than so be it. It’s not mine.

No doubt, you will see Mr. Ijames mentioned in a future posts, but for now I think we’ve all had enough.

Tagged as: black Confederates, Earl Ijames

{ 4 comments }

Bringing Earl Ijames to You: The Audio Recording

March 3, 2010

in Lost Cause, Public History, Slavery

Here is the audio recording of Earl Ijames’s recent talk in Savannah. The sound quality is pretty good, though there are a few moments where it is difficult to hear what he is saying. I recommend listening with earphones. The recording begins with an account of “Colored Confederates” in the OR. Unfortunately, the recording missed the very beginning of the talk. During the gap in the tape, Ijames introduced himself and talked about the beginning of the Civil War and apparently confused the 13th Amendment with the Crittenden Compromise.

Well, you decide for yourself.

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

You may also be interested in this short presentation on “Colored Confederates in Savannah” by Educator and Preservationist Hugh Stiles Golson. I have not yet had the chance to listen to it.

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Note: Both presentations have been posted for educational purposes only.

Bonus Material

Fellow blogger and NPS Ranger John Hoptak was kind enough to pass this image along from a May 1862 issue of Harpers Weekly. I haven’t seen this particular image in quite some time and not surprisingly you won’t find it on any of those black Confederate websites. It depicts a scene allegedly witnessed by a Union officer through his fieldglass. In it, you can see the Confederate officer forcing his slaves to the front. According to this Union witness, both were ultimately killed.

Tagged as: black Confederates, Earl Ijames

{ 5 comments }

Bringing Earl Ijames to You

March 2, 2010

in Lost Cause, Slavery, Southern History

Update: I now have the audio of this talk. Unfortunately, the files are very large and as it stands I am unable to upload them for your listening pleasure. I will continue to work on this. The talk is literally just a string of individual stories strung together. There is almost no analysis of the documents or the broader issue of slavery and race in the Confederate South.

A couple of weeks ago one of my regular readers mentioned that he would be in town for Earl Ijames’s recent talk on “Colored Confederates” as part of the 21st Annual Savannah Black Heritage Festival. Well, not only did this reader attend the talk, he took detailed notes as well as an audio recording of the presentation. I have not heard the audio yet, but I am going to share the notes. As you will see, it looks like this presentation rests on a great deal of circumstantial and weak evidence. In fact, there is nothing surprising in terms of the kind of evidence that is typically offered in these cases. The inclusion of so many pension records is quite telling. So now we have a list of so-called black Confederates which can be easily checked and examined. Apparently, during the talk Ijames mentioned that Henry Louis Gates Jr. contacted him during the research for the documentary “Looking for Lincoln.” Gates wanted a firm number of “black confederates” to quote in the film. Ijames responded, “only God in his holy archives really knows.” I don’t really know how to respond to such a statement. I have yet to hear from anyone at the North Carolina Museum of History or North Carolina Office of Archives and History re: Mr. Ijames’s unprofessional response to my request for his presentation. Clearly, most of the documents cited in this talk were pulled from the NCDAH. At this point we must assume that Mr. Ijames speaks for both institutions and that these institutions sanction his public presentations. Here are the notes:

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series 1, XVI, Part 1, p. 805
“There were also quite a number of negroes attached to the Texas and Georgia troops, who were armed and equipped, and took part in the several engagements with my forces during the day.”

Jeremiah Day Letter (In NC Archives?)
Manuscript letter dated August 22, 1861 written to North Carolina governor Henry Toole Clark. Day, a free black, writes of two sons “in the army,” and wants the governor to return a younger son conscripted into “service” for the army.

Hawkins W. Carter
A black man from Warren County, NC who claimed in his pension application to “fighting seven days with the Confederacy.”

John W. Venable
Enough said already.

C. M. McKaughan
Pension application filed July 23, 1929 (after mentioning McKaughan, Ijames went into a long diatribe about North Carolina Governor Charles B. Aycock, whose administration “kept blacks” from seeking pensions)

Tarboro Southerner, Saturday April 30, 1864
Notice for free blacks to register for “service.”

Miles Reed
North Carolina Troops Service Record, dated May 24, 1864. Private Reed noted as a “free negro.”

Daniel Brooks
A black man interviewed by the High Point Enterprise on June 7, 1942. (Ijames admitted to getting this information from an SCV member). In the interview, Brooks claimed his master “enlisted” him to “build roads” for the Confederate Army. He also worked on constructing defensive works before the Battle of Bentonville (Ijames claimed this as evidence for black “pioneer battalions” in the Confederate Army).

Lewis Douglas
A black man from Bertie County, NC that claimed in a 1928 pension application to serving as an “office boy” for a Confederate surgeon.

Adam Moore
A black man from Lincoln County, NC who claimed in a pension application dated February 6, 1931, that “I did my best for the Confederate Army.” Furthermore, Moore mentioned officials “press[ing] me into service” to haul gold bullion for the Confederate Treasury. (After this example, Ijames said he “would rather believe Adam Moore than some college professor.” Greeted with applause from crowd).

Rufus Holloway
Quoted by the Raleigh News & Observer on July 24, 1955 as a member of the “slave army.” Worked as a “body servant” for Dr. Tom Holloway.

Isaac High
In a pension application, High recalled his master “sending” him along with three other black men, Wylie Richardson, Porter Hunter, and Abe Dunn, to build obstructions at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. High also worked on earthworks around Raleigh. High wanted the pension since he “own[ed] a farm of 25 acres that has a mortgage of $700 and I can’t pay the interest.” He claimed that during eighteen months of working for the Confederate Army, he “never received any compensation for the work rendered.”

Archibald McLean Letter (In NC Archives?)
In an August 1861 letter to North Carolina Governor Henry Toole Clark, the mayor of Fayetteville, NC discusses slaves working on arms in the former Federal Arsenal and performing “police duties.”

Confederate Veterans Reunion Photograph
Ijames exhibited a photograph dated 1925 from a reunion of the 45^th North Carolina Infantry Regiment, Company C in High Point, North Carolina. He pointed to the dark complexions of three men in the picture as photographic evidence of black Confederates. He referred to one as Sergeant H.L. P. Watson.

Harper’s Weekly
Ijames displayed the infamous “Negro Pickets” sketch from the January 10, 1863 issue of the periodical.

Note: I want to thank my anonymous reader for taking the time to attend the talk and especially for taking such detailed notes that can be used as the basis for further exploration. I think it’s safe to say that a public debate between myself and Mr. Ijames is unnecessary at this point.

Tagged as: black Confederates, Earl Ijames

{ 30 comments }

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →