December 14, 2020

Guest Review: The War Went On: Reconsidering the Lives of Civil War Veterans, edited by Brian Matthew Jordan and Evan C. Rothera

December 14, 2020/ Civil Discourse

The War Went On is the latest in recent scholarship to look beyond the American Civil War of 1861-1865 and instead examine how wartime service affected veterans in the years and decades beyond. Topics run the gamut from political to social history, with inclusions of the fields of economics, memory studies, race, and others. Though not comprehensive, this excellent book explores a range of experiences and offers insight into complicated and diverse groups of veterans.

November 24, 2020

Private Uriah "Duck" Alley: The Story of West Virginia's Last Civil War Veteran

November 24, 2020/ Zac Cowsert

In May 1944, four men stood together for a photograph in the small town of Cameron, West Virginia. On the far left stood Donald Solomon Redd, a veteran of World War II. On his right stood Charles Everett Anderson, a WWI veteran, and Robert Calvin Yoho, who had fought in the Spanish American War. And on the far right side of the remarkable photograph stood 95-year-old Uriah Talmage Alley, affectionately known to many as “Uncle Duck.” Uriah Alley was West Virginia’s last Civil War veteran. The photograph ran in the May 22, 1944 issue of Life magazine, and as the four generational photograph of American veterans suggests, Uriah Alley’s life proved quite a story…

August 17, 2020

Debating Confederate Monuments at the Federal Level

August 17, 2020/ Kathleen Thompson

The conversation over Civil War memory and Confederate monuments is rapidly evolving this year. While many states and communities are making decisions about local Confederate monuments, there has been a lot of discussion recently about proposed legislation now being considered in Congress. H.R. 7608 “State, Foreign Operations, Agriculture, Rural Development, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2021” contains three sections which deal with Confederate flags, Confederate Monuments, and Confederate names.

July 06, 2020

Editorial: West Virginia Must Confront Its Confederate Monuments

July 06, 2020/ Zac Cowsert

In the autumn of 1910, a crowd of thousands gathered on the capitol grounds in downtown Charleston, West Virginia. The women and men, many of whom were Confederate veterans adorned once again in gray, had come from all over West Virginia to witness the dedication of a monument to Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson…Among the crowd, civilians and veterans alike wore “Lily White” campaign buttons. In the early 1900s, the Lily White campaign called for the disfranchisement of African American voters.

The Jim Crow politics intertwined with the history of Charleston’s Stonewall Jackson statue speak to the complicated and racist legacies Confederate monuments often hold. In 1910, West Virginians who turned out to honor Stonewall Jackson’s legacy naturally linked that cause with the disfranchisement of black voters. They understood the relationship between racism and Confederate iconography

June 01, 2020

The Transformation of Gettysburg as a Commemorative Space, 1863-2020

June 01, 2020/ Kathleen Thompson

Gettysburg is a field of monuments. Visitors to the battlefield today see hundreds of monuments marking the field, dedicated to units, individuals, and states. The creation of this commemorative landscape was a process over time, with the first monument placed in 1867 and the most recent in 2013. The first timelapse shows all of the Gettysburg monuments from 1863 to 2020. There are also timelapses for specifically Union and Confederate monuments.

July 13, 2019

Editorial: Nathan Bedford Forrest Day: A Failure of Morality, History, and Politics

July 13, 2019/ Zac Cowsert

Today is Nathan Bedford Forrest Day in Tennessee.

Like many Southern commanders, he enjoys a prominent place in Civil War memory. And however regrettable, the celebration and veneration of Confederate commanders isn’t particularly unusual even today, circa 2019. After all, Tennessee also recognizes Robert E. Lee Day and Confederate Decoration Day.

Yet we cannot divorce military commanders or their abilities from the causes for which they fought, at least not when it comes to deciding who gets a pedestal and who gets a proclamation. Confederate generals chose to renounce their allegiance to the United States to join in a rebellion whose raison d’etre was slavery. They fought for an immoral, terrible cause, the world is a better place because they lost, and they are not worthy of veneration. Why are we still celebrating them?

February 04, 2019

Visualizing the Civil Rights Movement: Kelly Ingram Park, Birmingham, AL

February 04, 2019/ Kathleen Thompson

“Besides commemorating the events of the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham and the lives lost there, the installations at Kelly Ingram Park bring the visitor into the events. They make the viewer part of the action, a reminder of the intense human emotion and struggle that marked the movement.”

July 30, 2018

Secession Documents: Kentucky and Missouri

July 30, 2018/ Kathleen Thompson

Kentucky and Missouri were divided border states. Pro-Confederate governments within both states declared secession and issued formal documents, but neither state officially left the Union and remained with the United States during the war. The divided nature of the border states caused conflict within their borders and men from Kentucky and Missouri fought for both sides of the Civil War.

July 26, 2018

Secession Documents: Florida, Louisiana, Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee

July 26, 2018/ Kathleen Thompson

Five of the Confederate states did not write elaborate explanations of secession, issuing only the legal documents dissolving their connection to the United States.

July 23, 2018

Secession Documents: Arkansas

July 23, 2018/ Kathleen Thompson

Arkansas was the ninth state to secede on May 6, 1861, part of the second wave of secession after Fort Sumter.

July 19, 2018

Secession Documents: Texas

July 19, 2018/ Kathleen Thompson

Texas was the seventh state to secede on February 1, 1861, the last of the first phase of secession and the final of the seven states to formally declare the Confederacy on February 8, 1861.

July 16, 2018

Secession Documents: Georgia

July 16, 2018/ Kathleen Thompson

Georgia was the fifth state to secede on January 19, 1861. It was one of the original seven states to declare the Confederate States of America on February 8, 1861. Georgia gives one of the longest explanations for its secession from the Union.

July 12, 2018

Secession Documents: Alabama

July 12, 2018/ Kathleen Thompson

Alabama was the fourth state to secede from the Union on January 11, 1861. It was one of the original seven states to form the Confederacy on February 8, 1861.

July 09, 2018

Secession Documents: Mississippi

July 09, 2018/ Kathleen Thompson

Mississippi was the second state to secede from the United States on January 9, 1861 and one of the states to declare the formation of the Confederacy on February 8, 1861. The state's declaration of secession provides one of the clearest connections between secession and slavery.

July 05, 2018

Secession Documents: South Carolina

July 05, 2018/ Kathleen Thompson

South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860. Because they were the first to leave they needed to explain to the rest of the states and the world why they were dissolving the Union and defend the legality of secession. South Carolina's declaration of secession includes a defense of states’ rights as the foundation of the legality of secession as well as the grievances with the North that sparked that action.

July 02, 2018

Secession Documents: Introduction

July 02, 2018/ Kathleen Thompson

While secession and the lead up to the Civil War were very complex, conflict over slavery was certainly central to the South’s decision to leave the Union. This is evident from the Southern states’ own words as they issued the ordinances of secession and documents of explanation as they each left the United States to form the Confederacy.

April 18, 2018

The Meaning of the Emancipation Proclamation

April 18, 2018/ Kathleen Thompson

The Emancipation Proclamation changed the course of the war, from protecting the Union to redefining freedom. But far from being the bringer of widespread freedom to all enslaved peoples, the Proclamation was very limited in its power.

March 12, 2018

The Confederate Monument Controversy….in the 1890s

March 12, 2018/ Kathleen Thompson

Confederate monuments are at the forefront of politics and national debate these days as American society grapples with the legacy of the Civil War and its aftermath. While this debate seems new and is situated in a modern society that is opening many meaningful, and sometimes divisive, conversations about history, race, and society, controversy over Confederate monuments is not necessarily new.

February 19, 2018

Historic Site Review: Frogmore Cotton Plantation, Natchez, MS

February 19, 2018/ Kathleen Thompson

In the midst of conversation and debate about how to best interpret slavery at historic sites, I recently visited Frogmore Plantation in Natchez, Mississippi. When my family signed up to take a tour of this working cotton plantation as part of our Mississippi River cruise, I was admittedly excited but with some trepidation. Viewing the experience through the historian’s lens, it could have been enlightening or terrible.

January 22, 2018

Material Culture and the Confederate Monument Debate

January 22, 2018/ Becca Capobianco

Thus we also need to remember that the monuments we build, the sites we preserve, and the places we name are never just about history. They are and have always been about who we imagine ourselves to be in the present and what we want to be, as a community, in the future.

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