It is one of the most unusual memorials on any Civil War commemorative landscape North or South. I vividly recall my own loss for words during my first trip to Mount Auburn Cemetery in 2011. It is a stop at the top of my list for next year’s Civil War Memory class and thanks to [...]
Civil War Boston
It looks like next year I will once again be teaching my Civil War Memory course. I’ve already begun to think about readings as well as class visits to Boston. The class was very popular in Virginia and I especially enjoyed our tours of Richmond, including Monument Avenue, Hollywood Cemetery and Tredegar. At this point [...]
Just wrapped up another productive week at the Massachusetts Historical Society with collections related to the 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. There is something to researching real black Civil War soldiers as opposed to deconstructing silly claims about fictitious black Confederate soldiers. The MHS has an impressive collection of correspondence among the unit’s officers. In addition, [...]
Here is an interesting story from my neck of the woods. The Worcester Grand Army of the Republic Board of Trustees voted recently to return three captured Confederate flags to the Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City, N.C. The flags were captured at the Battle of New Bern, in North Carolina on March 14, [...]
A few of my readers have requested that I comment on ongoing and recent exhibits in my new neck of the woods that concentrate on the history of slavery and the slave trade. I assume they are planning family vacations north of the Mason-Dixon Line so I am more than happy to comply. Their requests, [...]
One of the things that I hope my forthcoming book on the battle of the Crater and historical memory does is find a place in a growing literature that challenges the reunion and reconciliation school of Civil War Memory. It’s beautifully expressed by David Blight in Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memoryand [...]
I had a wonderful time at the Civil War Trust’s annual Teachers Conference in Nashville. Garry Adelmann and the rest of the staff did an incredible job of putting together a first-rate group of speakers. It was a bit hectic having to give three talks in two days, but the chance to interact with my [...]
Looks like I’ve stumbled on my first public history scandal surrounding the Civil War since moving to Boston. Before proceeding I should note that I am only vaguely familiar with the tours that are referenced in the article below. On Wednesday I am off to Nashville to give two talks as part of the Civil [...]
