Grape & Canister
In the News
Many of you will be surprised to hear that the First White of the Confederacy in Montgomery, Alabama received state funding. It’s essentially a shrine to the Confederacy. I’ve been through a number of times with students and plan on bringing a tour through in January 2023.
Staying in Alabama, this week the Montgomery school board finally voted to rename Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis high schools. “In a 5-2 vote, the board approved renaming Jefferson Davis High School to Dr. Percy Julian High School and Robert E. Lee High School to JAG High School, after the first initial of the last names of civil rights activists Judge Frank Johnson, Ralph Abernathy and Robert Graetz...”
Next week the Stone Mountain Memorial Association will choose a company to design the exhibits for its new museum. This is a project that is fraught with challenges and landmines given the controversy surrounding the site itself.
Historian Drew Gilpin Faust reviews Kerri Greenidge’s new book on the Grimke family—one of the many books that I am very much looking forward to reading.
Check out this excellent podcast on the history and memory of the battle of Gettysburg, hosted by historian Adam I.P. Smith.
This piece by historian Scott Hancock on interpreting slavery on the Gettysburg battlefield is a must read.
It turns out that dressing up as a Confederate soldier in a farb-like uniform will not help you win election as governor of Pennsylvania.
And if that weren’t enough, he applauded white nationalists who gathered on the Gettysburg battlefield at the Robert E. Lee monument in 2020.
Confederates never did well in Pennsylvania.
Videos
Historian Gary Gallagher talks about the Library of America’s new edition of Bruce Catton’s trilogy with Chris Mackowski.
Here is Chris Barr, from the National Park Service, discussing the history of Robert Smalls in Beaufort, South Carolina.
New to the Civil War Memory Library
Bruce Catton, The Army of the Potomac Trilogy (Library of America edition, 2022).
Sarah Churchwell, The Wrath to Come: Gone With the Wind and the Lies America Tells (Head of Zeus, 2022).
Andrew K. Diemer, Vigilance: The Life of William Still, Father of the Underground Railroad (Knopf, 2022).
Kerri K. Greenidge, The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in and American Family (Liveright, 2022).
Johann Neem, Democracy’s Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017.
Jon Tracey and Chris Mackowkski, Civil War Monuments and Memory: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspective from the Historians at Emerging Civil War (Savas Beatie, 2022).
Otis
As you might expect, Otis is enjoying the cooler temperatures and he absolutely loves rolling around in the leaves.
Have a great weekend!
Really glad you pointed out that not only is that guy wearing a Confederate uniform, but that it's a FARBY Confederate uniform as well... that fact just makes it even worse.
I had to read it twice to figure out you meant Firdt White House of the Confederacy. I thought that this and the Capital building a few blocks away were both monuments to the lost cause. They have a plaque built into the marble of the capitol building stairway marking exactly where Jeff Davis stood when he took the oath of office.