Grape & Canister

In the News

Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin appointed a historian, who has defended Confederate monuments, to the state Board of Historic Resources. Ann Hunter McLean makes some questionable claims about the history and memory of these monuments as reported in this piece, but her dissertation on the subject, which she completed at the University of Virginia, looks to be worth reading.

Earlier this past week a statue of Mary McLeod Bethune was dedicated in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol Building. It replaces a statue of Confederate general Edmund Kirby Smith.

The Fairfax City (VA) Council voted to remane fourteen streets and highways that honor Confederate leaders.

Legislation has once again been introduced to end Arlington House’s “Robert E. Lee Memorial” designation. This is the plantation home maintained by the National Park Service on the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery overlooking D.C.

I look forward to visiting Arlington House next week to see the NPS’s new interpretation of the home, Lee’s time there, and especially the history of slavery.

Document of the Week

In 1928 former Confederates and others objected to a resolution passed by the Virginia House of Delegates recognizing Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. The letters contained in this pamphlet are a reminder that reunion and reconciliation was always shaky and never completely dominated the nation’s collective memory of the war.

Around the Web

Historian Gary Gallagher offers a measured response to the question of whether the United States is on the verge of another civil war.

No political issue in 2022 approaches slavery in terms of potential explosiveness, which bodes well for the long-term stability of the republic. More broadly, to compare anything that has transpired in the past few years to the political, military, and social upheavals of the mid-19th century represents a spectacular lack of understanding about American history that is potentially destructive to current political discourse.

Perhaps we should be asking a different question.

New to the Civil War Memory Library

I’ve been reading quite a bit this week about Maj. Gen Francis Channing Barlow. He was friends with Robert Gould Shaw. In fact, Barlow tutored Shaw before entering Harvard after returning home from Europe in 1855. Both men were forced to learn the art of command on the fly and they shared similar ideas about the importance of maintaining strict discipline.

Christian G. Samito ed., “Fear Was Not in Him”: The Civil War Letters of Major General Francis C. Barlow, U.S.A. (Fordham University Press, 2004).

Richard F. Welch, The Boy General: The Life and Careers of Francis Channing Barlow (Kent State University Press, 2003).

The biography is OK, but his letters are incredibly rich and worth reading. Historian Joan Waugh is currently working on a biography of Barlow, which I very much look forward to reading.

Video

History of Confederate Monuments on the South Carolina State Grounds (Presentation by Lydia Brandt)

Historian Michael Burlingame discusses Abraham Lincoln’s relationship with African Americans

Headed to D.C.

As I mentioned before, I will be in D.C. all next week helping out with a teacher development workshop on Reconstruction and Civil War memory. To say that I am looking forward to it would be the understatement of the year. This will be my first in-person teacher workshop since the start of the pandemic. It’s going to be a busy and exhausting week, but I will do my best to share some thoughts about the experience.