Grape & Canister

Jul 24, 2022

Back from DC

Last week in Washington, D.C. was hot and exhausting, but the opportunity to work with so many incredibly talented and passionate history teachers has left me reinvigorated. I made some wonderful new friends and I learned a great deal from all of them. Check out the Fords Theatre website if you are interested in taking part in this teacher workshop on Reconstruction and Civil War memory next summer.

This one of the many photographs I took in Arlington National Cemetery. Notice the Washington Monument in the background. This is Section 27 or “Lower Cemetery,” which is the oldest part of the cemetery. Here you will find United States Colored Troops and many formerly enslaved individuals, who flocked to the city during the Civil War. Many of the unidentified graves are simply marked, “Citizen” or “Civilian.” Unfortunately, very few visitors see this section of Arlington.

In the News

Gregory Schneider reminds his readers that even with iconic monuments that have been removed along Monument Avenue, a number of statues/monuments are still standing in the former capital of the Confederacy.

But just across town, a statue of rebel Gen. A.P. Hill still towers over one of Richmond’s busiest intersections.
Outside the State Capitol, whose chambers were emptied of Confederate iconography one night in 2020, Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson still stands in bronze atop a stone pedestal.
To his left along Capitol Square: a statue of Hunter Holmes McGuire, the Confederate doctor who amputated Jackson’s arm and was a lifelong defender of slavery. To Jackson’s right: William “Extra Billy” Smith, who served terms as governor both before and after being a general for the Confederacy.

The A.P. Hill statue will likely be removed in the near future, but the others are on state property and that decision is with the goverenor. Youngkin’s administration has tried to make the argument that removal is tantamount to ‘erasing history,’ but this obscures the fact that a large number of their supporters identify in some personal way with these Confederate leaders.

Here is a story about a Rhode Island high schooler who is helping to highlight Newport, Rhode Island’s African American history.

A few blocks from the cobblestoned downtown thoroughfares and not far from the perfectly preserved Gilded Age mansions that visitors flock to, a mostly empty parking lot catches the eye of Gabrielle Brown.
The high schooler learned during a freshman-year history course that the site is rumored to have once been an enslaved African woman’s bakery. Taken from West Africa and brought to Rhode Island in the 18th century, Charity “Duchess” Quamino became known as the city’s “Pastry Queen” for her catering business that, some say, served George Washington during a local visit — and eventually bought her freedom.
The teen pauses to picture Quamino’s day-to-day routine.

Don’t tell me that kids don’t care about history.

New to the Civil War Memory Library

I finally got around to picking up a copy of Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital by Chris Myers Asch and George Derek Musgrove. I’ve read parts of it before, but it was the perfect book to read last week in D.C. and I used it on a number of occasions to connect historic sites/monuments to the people who were living in the city at the time. Well worth reading.

I also want to give a shout out to Solid State Books where I purchased Chocolate City. It’s a relatively new store. They’ve got a great selection and the staff is incredibly friendly and helpful. Definitely check them out.

Video

I really enjoyed this conversation between historians Garry Adelman and Gary Gallagher about their favorite Civil War movies. Check it out to see if they include your favorite Civil War movie.

Otis

I haven’t forgotten that many of you, who followed me on twitter, would like to see an occasional Otis pic on this site. The big guy is doing his best to survive this most recent heat wave. He spends most of his days dreaming of snowcapped Swiss mountains.