This will be my final post as a Cosmic American. The monicker has run its course and alas, it is time to change directions. This is not to say that I have given up on the blogosphere. Far from it. Indeed, I think still, as I have for some time, that this particular medium is a vital component to the intersection of academic and public history. But it is time for a change of focus. As I move more towards my scholarly work concerning American commemorative cultures and national identities, I feel a change in my Internet presence is necessary. So those of you who will undoubtedly be on pins and needles until I have written something new, you will be able to access the new site HERE.

So what will become of Cosmic America? For now…nothing. Many of the posts and exchanges here are well worth keeping online. I will also continue to maintain the CA Facebook page. In time, these posts will be stored for reference (yours and my own) elsewhere. But there will be no further Cosmic America Civil War blog posts. Ever.

I have greatly enjoyed being a part of the Civil War online community and will continue to make my contributions as a Civil War historian here and there. The new site – currently in development, will be much broader. In a sense, I am simply casting a wider net – and doing so under a different name.

Stay tuned…and as always,

Peace,

Keith

Greetings All, this week, in my course on Reconstruction at UCR, we discussed a few scenes from Gone With the Wind. The discussion included Hattie McDaniel’s portrayal of Mammy as well as a few notes on the actress herself. She was a fascinating woman off the screen – a outspoken supporter of civil rights, she once lobbied the city of Los Angeles to purchase a home in an exclusive all-white neighborhood. We watched her Academy Award acceptance speech for her role as Mammy as well.
What does this suggest to you about race, historical memory, and Hollywood in 1940?

K

History was secreted in the glands of a million historians. we must get out of this banged-up century, some said, out of this cheating murderous century of riot and secret death, of scrabbling for public lands and damn well getting them by any means at all.

Think back, recall our little nation fringing the oceans, torn with complexities, too big for its britches. Just got going when the British took us on again. We beat them, but it didn’t do us much good. What we had was a burned White House and ten thousand widows on the public pension list.

Then the soldiers went to Mexico and it was a kind of painful picnic. Nobody knows why you go to a picnic to be uncomfortable when it is so easy and pleasant to eat at home. The Mexican War did two good things though. We got a lot of western land, damn near doubled our size, and besides that it was training for generals, so that when the sad self-murder settled on us the leaders knew the techniques for making it properly horrible.

And then the arguments:

Can you keep a slave?

Well if you bought him in good faith, why not?

Next they’ll be saying a man can’t have a horse. Who is it who wants to take my property?

And there we were, like a man scratching at his own face and bleeding into his own beard.

Well, that was over and we got slowly up off the bloody ground and started westward.

There came boom and bust, bankruptcy, depression.

Great public thieves came along and picked the pockets of everyone who had a pocket.

To hell with that rotten century!

K

Color? Perhaps. But living? I am not quite certain. I recently had a conversation with my Twitter friend (tweep?) @Hungry4History regarding the merits of colorized Civil War photographs. We agreed that they offer an new look at a familiar subject. One on hand, the images let our imaginations take the helm. The color allows a modern observer to – perhaps – get a little closer to realism. But of course we do this with the full understanding that the colors chosen are left to the discretion of the artist. There is no way of knowing for certain the precise shade of blue a Union soldier’s pants had faded to after a hard campaign. Still, as someone who has more than a passing interest in style – I think it is fun to imagine President Lincoln wearing a dark purple necktie as opposed to the customary black. Hello.

I am also troubled by these images for precisely that reason. We don’t know. So in a sense, these are more like forgeries…or at best, cases of tampering with historical documents. And they never really look quite right – the eyes of the living resemble the eyes of the dead. Like the cold lifeless eyes of a fish staring back at you in the supermarket. These efforts to resurrect the Civil War to a vibrant new life of color are reminiscent of the Ted Turner campaign years ago to colorize classic black and white films. We all remember how that worked out. They were…and still are…quite horrible.

These people are all dead now, some killed in battle, others by disease, and still others of natural causes decades removed from the conflict. But they were quite alive when their images were captured – painstakingly so with the technology of the age. And the black and white stills do offer life. Look closely at their faces. The subtlety of shade and deep texture reveal so much more than you might at first think. The history of the war is written on their countenances in black, white, and every shade in between…in living detail. Does the colorization enhance this notion, or distract us from it?

K

From time to time, as Cosmic Americans know, I ask some sort of little question on Twitter to get the ball rolling toward a conversation. Recently I asked the hypothetical: “Who would you rather have on your side, Grant or Lee…and why?” Kind of a silly question of course, since there are so many other factors to consider when it comes to victory and defeat, but my point was to get people talking about the military prowess of each commander. 

The most interesting thing happened. The votes were unanimously cast for Ulysses S. Grant. This surprised me a little – the Twitter universes is a big place, and surely there have to be some Lee fans out there. But not this time.

A number of things could explain this. One, we are naturally looking at these two men retrospectively and well, we know who won. So yes, we all like to pick a winner.

But I think there is more to it than that. Answers indicated that Lee was overrated both in his time and by subsequent generations…that he was too audacious and unnecessarily bled his army to defeat. Grant, on the other hand, masterfully used the resources that those before him did (or could) not. This suggests to me that myths surrounding both men have changed drastically over the last several decades. 

Others suggested that northern leaning sentiment is slowly taking over the Internet – that perhaps a less technologically savvy older generation favors the Lee camp and thus doesn’t really use social media platforms to speak their minds. I’m not sure if I agree with this – I have seen plenty of web-based pro-Confederate groups who maintain active forums declaring the many virtues of their beloved Robert E. Lee.

At least one person figured that I might have driven the pro-Lee crew away and they just did not participate. After all, besides being a “Yankee metrosexual wearing purple sunglasses” I am also on record as favoring the Union cause…maybe I was just baiting them. (I wasn’t. I am also on record as stating that I think RE Lee was a hell of a soldier) 

I’ll give the Lee crew a chance to weigh in here. But as it stands so far – Grant is a clear winner in the “who would you rather have on your side” contest.

And by the way, the winner of last week’s “Bibliophiles Unite” contest on Twitter was @WeezieWeaver – she figured out after a few helpful hints that the book in question was Marshall W. Fishwick’s Lee After the War published way back in 1963. Well done.

K

K

As you all know by now, i have a strong dislike for counterfactual history. I find it entirely useless, as a matter of fact. So you can rest easy. I am not going to try and construct some “what if” scenario featuring the gentleman from Ohio ascending to the executive office.

But not so very long ago, Senator Wade came within one vote of doing exactly that. During the 1868 impeachment trail of Andrew Johnson, Wade was serving as president pro tem of the Senate. Since the vice president’s seat was vacant, then Wade was next in line should something happen to Andy Johnson. Something…for example…like a conviction in an impeachment trial.

But too bad for Ben Wade. It seemed a few of his fellow republican colleagues thought him a touch too radical for the job. His ascendency would surely have secured his nomination for president in ’68 – and many thought he was too radical to win. What’s more – he was pro-labor and favored a high tariff. This made northern business interests cringe. And what’s worse – I don’t think his colleagues liked him very much at all. I’m not sure how Mrs. Wade felt.

Sure, pleny of people would have loved to sack AJ, but not if it meant filling his seat with Ben Wade. In the end, he missed it by a tad – only one vote short of the 2/3 necessary to make him president.

Some alleged that Senator Ross of Kansas – the deciding vote – may have been helped along by promises from the Johnson camp. Ben “the Beast” Butler launched an inquiry to check in to such matters, but nothing really came of it.

Poor Ben Wade just couldn’t catch a break.

K

K

Each fall semester, the Civil War Era Studies program brings a group of undergraduate students to Gettysburg College, where they are immersed in the study of the American Civil War. From living in a 19th-century mansion to treading the battlefields where America’s fate was decided, The Gettysburg Semester students enjoy a unique experience. As part of the program, they generally take four courses: Interpretation of the Civil War, Field Experience in Civil War Era Studies, and two courses of their choosing. Many students elect to forgo a fourth course and substitute it with a public history internship. In the past, we have had students intern at Gettysburg National Military Park, Antietam National Battlefield, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, the Adams County Historical Society, and the Shriver House Museum. Such hands-on internships and interdisciplinary study help to reveal a multifaceted history and shed light on the men and women who lived it.

Below is a testimonial from Phillip Brown, a veteran of the Gettysburg Semester 2011 who is currently a seasonal park ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park.

On July 1, 1863, the Union Army of the Potomac and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia collided on the outskirts of the small Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg. The collision would quickly evolve into the largest battle of the American Civil War and ultimately cost both sides over 50,000 casualties. In the opening hours of the engagement, elements of the Union Eleventh Corps and the Confederate Second Corps smashed into one another on the campus of Pennsylvania College. Today, that very same institution exists under the name Gettysburg College, and it remains an institution devoted to offering high quality education to students from across the country in a wide range of programs. Given its rich history, it is only fitting that Gettysburg College also boasts an academic department devoted entirely to Civil War Era Studies.

The Civil War Era Studies department, which is run by Dr. Allen C. Guelzo, is much like any other academic department on campus but for one unique feature—it allows students to travel from other colleges and universities to come and be immersed in the Civil War for one semester. In essence, this experience stands as a sort of in-country “study abroad” program, and it is called The Gettysburg Semester. Every fall semester, a select group of students from around the country is privileged to spend time exploring the environs surrounding the hallowed ground of Gettysburg and many other Civil War sites.

I have been interested in the American Civil War in one capacity or another since I was about four years old.  If it wasn’t films such as Glory, Gone with the Wind, or Gettysburg, I found myself in Civil War themed coloring books, children’s novels, or Time-Life series books on the Civil War. While growing up, I tried as hard as I could to be a veritable sponge of all things Civil War, and I soon realized I wanted to spend my entire life doing something involving the Civil War. After visiting numerous battlefields and other National Parks, I decided in the sixth grade that a career in the National Park Service would be my primary career goal.

When I began looking at colleges and universities in 2007, Gettysburg College caught my attention, but as a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, I decided to stay closer to home and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. However, I still wanted the Gettysburg experience, and The Gettysburg Semester afforded me that opportunity. After applying and being accepted into the program, I became a member of the fall 2011 Gettysburg Semester cohort.

Upon arriving in Gettysburg, the first thing that struck me about the program was the living situation. The Gettysburg Semester students are housed in the Appleford Inn, a historic bed and breakfast that dates back to 1867 and which is almost exclusively reserved for Civil War Era Studies minors and history majors. Living in a house full of like-minded people afforded some excellent friendships and professional connections as well. I also found the formal courses that come along with the Gettysburg Semester extremely engaging, and Field Experience in the American Civil War was among my favorites. It is a two part course. On Thursdays, students meet in the classroom, and lectures are given on the military aspects of the war. On Fridays, students take to the field and spend the entire day exploring the battlefields that were discussed in the Thursday lectures. There are few other opportunities like The Gettysburg Semester that allow students to study events at the actual locations where they took place like.

While completing my coursework for The Gettysburg Semester, I had the opportunity to take on an internship with the National Park Service at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.  This is one of the major benefits of The Gettysburg Semester. Gettysburg College has a great relationship with the National Park Service, and this relationship has yielded internships to many Gettysburg Semester students seeking careers in the Park Service. This was one of the features that really attracted me to the program. At Harpers Ferry, I worked in the Education Department and helped students from across the country connect with their nation’s history and enjoy their national park. It was through my experiences at Harpers Ferry and Gettysburg College that I have begun my journey in a career with the National Park Service. Before the semester ended, I received the opportunity to become a Seasonal Park Ranger with Gettysburg National Military Park.

Without my experiences in the Gettysburg Semester and the opportunities the Civil War Era Studies department afforded me, I would have likely never had the opportunity to intern at Harpers Ferry NHP or work at Gettysburg NMP. I would encourage any undergraduate student who is serious about gaining more academic experience in the Civil War to take a look at The Gettysburg Semester being offered at Gettysburg College.

The Semester program is offered every fall with applications being due for next year’s program on March 1, 2013. To learn more about the program visit The Gettysburg Semester Website as well as The Gettysburg Semester Facebook Page.  If you would like to speak personally with me to learn more about my experiences in the program, feel free to contact the Civil War Era Studies office at Gettysburg College.

-Philip Brown

Gettysburg Semester ‘11

I have known others, including one of my graduate school colleagues at UVA, who enrolled in the  Gettysburg Semester and they have all told me that is was a rewarding experience indeed. You can find information and applications HERE.

K