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“Ravaged by Battle…Reborn in Passion”

May 26, 2010 By Kevin Levin 23 Comments

From Wikipedia: Set during the American Civil War, “Rebel Love follows a Yankee war widow who takes an injured Confederate spy into her home out of pity, only to find herself falling in love with him. The film was a finalist in the 1985 USA Film Festival in Dallas. Despite a modest theatrical run, Rebel Love enjoyed a cable release on Showtime and was later distributed on video by Vestron.

All I know is I laughed my ass off! Apparently, this movie fell through the cracks. I couldn’t find it in Gary Gallagher’s recent survey of Civil War movies.

Filed Under: Civil War Culture Tagged With: video

American Confederate Heroes

May 20, 2010 By Kevin Levin 8 Comments

Here’s a nice little Lost Cause tune for ya’ all. I especially love the following lyric from the beginning of the song: “It’s not founded on old politics or race or slavery. Those who see no more than that care not for history.” For some reason poor old Braxton Bragg gets the back of the hand in this tune. Enjoy.

Filed Under: Lost Cause Tagged With: video

“Stonewall Jackson Was Trash Himself”

May 10, 2010 By Kevin Levin 6 Comments

This is one of my all-time favorite Western fight scenes. You just gotta love Jack Palance as “Jack Wilson” in the movie, Shane (1953). I know this is no way to mark the day that Stonewall Jackson died on May 10, 1863, but you can just attribute it to the fact that I am a “low down lying Yankee.”

Filed Under: Civil War Culture, Memory Tagged With: Stonewall Jackson, video

“We Need To Face Life Kind of Like Stonewall Jackson Did”

May 7, 2010 By Kevin Levin 6 Comments

I thought we all deserved a little inspiration at the end of this long week. We should all approach our lives as counterfactual and gain solace in knowing that the world may be much better off had we been accidentally struck down by accident. The message that I took away from this is that had Jackson lived and Lee won at Gettysburg the Confederacy may have succeeded in gaining its independence. In that case slavery would have continued. Jackson’s death clearly served God’s plan: “All is well.” Is that about right?

Filed Under: Civil War Culture, Lost Cause, Memory Tagged With: Stonewall Jackson, video

Road Trip

April 23, 2010 By Kevin Levin 21 Comments

Filed Under: Civil War Culture, Lost Cause Tagged With: Dixie Outfitters, video

“Give a Rebel Yell”

April 15, 2010 By Kevin Levin 3 Comments

If the commemoration of the Civil War Sesquicentennial here in Virginia were to follow the outline of Governor McDonnell’s Confederate History Month proclamation, it would look and sound like this.

[Song by the group, General Lee and the New Confederacy]

Filed Under: Civil War Culture, Civil War Sesquicentennial, Lost Cause, Memory Tagged With: Confederate History Month, video

A Few Minutes With David Blight

April 13, 2010 By Kevin Levin 5 Comments

Many of you know that I am a huge fan of David Blight’s scholarship. Race and Reunion was the book that set me off on my own research projects as well as in shaping the overall theme of this site. Since reading it I’ve come to question parts of Blight’s thesis as a result of studying the work of others and as a result of my own research on the memory of the battle of the Crater. This recent interview touches on a number of issues related to Civil War memory that are relevant to the ongoing debate about Confederate History Month as well as broader questions of remembrance. After yesterday’s post I thought it might be nice to introduce a little thoughtfulness to the discussion.