Today I picked up the most recent issue of Civil War Times (August 2010) which includes my editorial on Governor Robert McDonnell’s Confederate History Month Proclamation. I joined an impressive group that included William Marvel, Susannah Ural, Lesley Gordon, S. Waite Rawls III, Catherine Clinton, Harold Holzer, Harry Smeltzer, and Michael Fellman. I enjoyed reading [...]
Confederate History Month
Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell will mark Memorial Day with an address at the Fredericksburg National Cemetery, which contains the graves of roughly 15,000 Union soldiers. Over at Mysteries and Conundrums, John Hennessy offers a brief history of the earliest Memorial Day observances, which were organized by the town’s African Americans. This continued until the early [...]
As he promised in January Ed Sebesta has petitioned President Obama to discontinue the practice of sending a wreath to the Confederate statue at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day. Actually, this petition goes much further than last year’s in requesting that the federal government “revoke the Sons of Confederate Veterans participation as a recognized [...]
I have been thinking a bit more about yesterday’s post and specifically about the problem that I have in considering counterfactuals that end with a Confederate victory. As I pointed out my difficulty with such scenarios center on the belief that slavery would have continued with a Confederate victory and that the United States would [...]
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 [...]
Apparently a number of my recent posts about Confederate History Month are making the rounds among members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. This happens every once in a while and I end up having to deal with a sharp increase in silly comments and other personal insults. For the most part I am receiving [...]
but probably not in the way that the Sons of Confederate Veterans intended. Today members of the Virginia Assembly in Richmond wore arm bands to commemorate the sacrifices of Virginia’s slaves. From the Virginia Politics Blog: The move was prompted by McDonnell’s proclamation declaring April Confederate History Month. When first issued, the proclamation did not [...]
Update: Robert Moore deconstructs the SCV’s proclamation in Rockingham County and Brooks Simpson offers his own response at Civil Warriors. It looks like the Col. D.H. Lee Martz Camp #10-Sons of Confederate Veterans is not going to allow Gov. Bob McDonnell’s amendment to his Confederate History Month proclamation stop them from grossly distorting the past. [...]
