On Friday my wife and I headed up to Frederick, Maryland to catch a concert with Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman. This was my first visit to Frederick in a number of years and I have to say that I was blown away by the development in the downtown area. We did a little walking [...]
black Confederates
We haven’t heard from our favorite “colored Confederate” researcher in quite some time, but it looks like Earl Ijames will be taking part in an upcoming conference on United States Colored Troops in New Bern, North Carolina. The conference is being sponsored by the New Bern Historical Society and runs from May 6-9. The conference [...]
In the wake of Governor McDonnell’s amendment to his Confederate History Month Proclamation, representatives of the Sons of Confederate Veterans did their best to convince America that slavery and race have little or nothing to do with understanding the war. Actually, the SCV has no problem discussing these issues – in fact, they are obsessed [...]
How about a book deal with Westholme Publishing. That’s right, today I was approached by a representative who wanted to know if I might be interested in writing a book about “black Confederates” and historical memory. We’re talking 80,000 words (roughly 350 pages) on the role of black Southerners in the Confederate army and a [...]
Update: Thanks to TF Smith for the following comment, which I decided to add to the post. He offers some very interesting observations about this image that are worth serious consideration. Your thoughts are much appreciated. Actually, this was obviously a posed studio portrait, and there’s probably a case to be made the weapons – [...]
Looks like the folks at Historic Sandusky in Lynchburg, Virginia have produced a quality film on the battle of Lynchburg. It is scheduled to premier in May, but they have released a two-minute trailer, which you can view here. Like I said, I was impressed with the quality, but I was struck by the failure [...]
A few weeks ago I shared an email I received from a descendant of Silas Chandler, who is one of the most popular “black Confederates.” I’ve been in contact with two descendants and am planning a telephone conversation, which I hope will lead to an announcement of some ideas I have to help bring a [...]
The story of Silas Chandler is one of the most popular black Confederate stories out there on the Web. You can find it featured on the website of the 37th Texas, the Petersburg Express, on blogs, and you can even purchase a t-shirt of Silas and Andrew at Dixie Outfitters. A few weeks ago the [...]
