Grape & Canister
Civil War News, Books, Videos, and an Otis pic
Robert Gould Shaw
After writing roughly 5,000 words in chapter 12 of my biography of Robert Gould Shaw, I finally had to face narrating his death in the assault on Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863. I didn’t think I would get so emotional about it, but guess I should have expected as much given how long I’ve been researching and writing about the man. It’s just a draft so it will likely go through multiple revisions, but it’s nice to know that I am getting close to the end of this project.
Movie Discussion
Don’t forget to mark your calendars for January 14 at 7PM EST, when we will meet to discuss the movie RIDE WITH THE DEVIL. I am really looking forward to watching this movie again and having the opportunity to listen to your thoughts, but remember that you need to be a paid subscriber to participate.
In Memoriam: Reid Mitchell
This past week I learned the sad news that historian Reid Mitchell has passed away. Mitchell wrote two books that helped to invigorate the study of Civil War soldiers by the early 1990s. If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend reading Civil War Soldiers and The Vacant Chair: The Northern Soldier Leaves Home.
Quick story about Reid. My first experience participating in an academic conference was as a graduate student at the University of Richmond in 2002. My adviser thought it would be a good idea for me to present a paper at the UofR conference and somehow it got accepted, but I had no idea what would take place during a typical academic session. Turned out that Reid not only chaired the session, but also commented on the papers at the end.
He eviscerated my paper. It was quite a shock and blow to my ego, but he did it in a way that minimized the public embarrassment. I remember having a wonderful conversation with him afterwards and a few weeks later he sent along comments that went way beyond what he prepared for the conference.
We stayed in touch afterwards and eventually connected through Facebook. He regularly commented on my early blog posts through private messages. Unfortunately, we lost touch after he left academia and moved out of the country. Reid was an incredibly smart and eccentric individual. In addition to history, he wrote poetry and I recently learned that he published a memoir, which I may pick up at some point. RIP.
News
The city of Alexandria, Virginia would like to change the names of streets that honor Confederate leaders. Residents hope to minimize the price tag by rededicating some of the streets.
While it seemed to most people who spoke up Thursday were in favor of getting rid of the connotations of some of these street names, they wanted more of a rededication instead of completely changing these names for fear of the financial impact.
We shall see if this works as a solution.
Baltimore’s Confederate monuments are headed to Los Angeles as part of an art exhibit.
The four statues sent to Los Angeles are the Lee-Jackson Monument formerly located in Wyman Park Dell; the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument that once stood on Mount Royal Avenue; the Confederate Women’s Monument on West University Parkway; and Mount Vernon’s Roger B. Taney Monument.
Glasgow, Scotland’s Grand Ole Opry has decided that it will no longer display the Confederate flag.
During an emergency meeting on Monday, they voted, narrowly and by secret ballot, to uphold the decision banning the flag, 50-48.
That’s right, the vote was that close.
Spartanburg County, South Carolina would love to see a large Confederate battle flag removed off I-81.
New to the Civil War Memory Library
Frank J. Cirillo, The Abolitionist Civil War: Immediatists and the Struggle to Transform the Union (Louisiana State University Press, 2023).
Timothy B. Smith, Albert Sydney Johnston and the Civil War in the West (Louisiana State University Press, 2023).
Videos
Stephen Cushman explores Mark Twain and the popularity of Civil War memoirs during the postwar period.
I really love this “Civil War: Then and Now” series from the American Battlefield Trust.
Otis
Otis hopes all of you are having a great weekend.
Congratulations on that writing milestone! I can't imagine you'd get to that chapter and not become emotional. You've spent a lot of time with him, his legacy. I hope the revisions good smoothly. Keep up the good work.
In 2023 it's hard to remember how much Reid Mitchell's first two books changed the trajectory of understanding Civil War soldiers. We all live in a world he crafted. I did not know him well, but he was the sort of person who once wrote me out of the blue to tell me that he liked something I wrote. The memoir, which really just deals with his difficult last years in China, is harrowing and uplifting at the same time, and like all his work incredibly well written. He wrote some fine poetry too.