This discussion will take place on Twitter on April 19th at 8pm #CWM101
This week we are going to discuss chapter 4 in Caroline Janney’s book, Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation. This chapter focuses on the dedication of some of the first Union monuments, the birth of the GAR and the politics of Civil War memory during Reconstruction.
The chapter’s narrow focus on this Unionist/Emancipationist narrative should not obscure the fact that its early development took place in direct opposition to the Lost Cause, which we will explore in more detail next week. Civil War memory is often framed as North v. South, but Janney clearly demonstrates in this chapter that even in the North there were disagreements over how the war should be remembered and commemorated.
Here are a few questions to guide your reading.
- What challenges did Union veterans experience in promoting and maintaining interest in public commemorations that Confederates veterans did not face?
- How did (white) Union veterans attempt to differentiate between a war for Union and emancipation?
- According to Janney, what was the significance of the GAR in terms of race relations in the North in the late 19th century?
- How did the Border States shape the Unionist narrative?
- How did black veterans challenge the dominant white Unionist narrative that placed union ahead of emancipation?
- How does Janney explain the role that northern women played in promoting the Unionist cause in contrast to their southern counterparts?
- In what ways did the Union cause get wrapped up in Reconstruction politics? To what extent was ‘waving the bloody shirt’ successful as a means to promote the agenda of Radical Republicans?
Further Reading
- Barbara Gannon, The Won Cause: Black and White Comradeship in the Grand Army of the Republic.
- James Marten, Sing Not War: The Lives of Union and Confederate Veterans in Gilded Age America.
- Joan Waugh, U.S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth
Primary Sources
- Song Sheet, “The Old Bloody Shirt”
- Photographs, Grand Army of the Republic
- Photographs, Grand Army of the Republic in Michigan
- Photograph, Emancipation Memorial (aka Freedman’s Memorial)
Just thought I’d pass this on to you. An article from the Economist regarding several streets that had their names changed a few years back, in Hollywood, Florida.
https://www.1843magazine.com/features/confederacy-in-the-hood
Thank you.