Robert Smalls sat at the conference table next to Frederick Douglass as they tried to convince President Abraham Lincoln that African Americans should be allowed to fight for their own freedom. He served five terms in Congress. He ran a newspaper and helped found a state Republican Party.
But first, he had to win his freedom.
posted by Blasdelb
on Feb 15, 2013 -
14 comments
What Did The Rebel Yell Sound Like? (video): 'From the early 1900's through the 1940's, Civil War veterans were filmed, recorded and interviewed at reunions, parades, and other patriotic events where, as the century advanced, they came increasingly to seem like ambulatory trophies from some distant age of heroes.'
posted by the man of twists and turns
on Apr 27, 2012 -
50 comments
Sherman's March and America is a
digital representation of historian
Anne Sarah Rubin's project on how Americans have remembered General William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea in 1864. The funnest part are
the interactive maps. Clicking on the yellow-highlighted pins opens up a video exploring the significance of that spot on the map. Each map represents a different genre of memories of the march (civilian, soldiers, fiction, etc). My favorite is the narrative of the events in Milledgeville, Georgia on the Soldiers Map, featuring plastic toy soldiers and burning cardboard buildings.
posted by marxchivist
on Dec 21, 2010 -
16 comments
Ta-Nehisi Coates has written about his evolving view of the American Civil War (among many other things) on his Atlantic blog for over two years. A reader has now compiled
links for all of them for our reading pleasure. There is also a page of
recommendations that will help a reader find the most often mentioned civil war resources in the discussions.
[more inside]
posted by severiina
on Oct 20, 2010 -
18 comments
Confederate soldier
Richard Kirkland is known as the "Angel of Marye's Heights" for venturing in between the opposing army's lines to give water to his wounded foes. The Union soldiers were mowed down the previous day in a series of futile attacks against the Confederate positions. The story fits in with the narrative of post-war reconciliation and reunion and offers an inspiring tale of humanity amid the carnage of war. There is
a statue at the Fredericksburg battlefield and
a movie in the works.
But did it really happen? One writer takes a look at the records, and
it doesn't seem likely.
[more inside]
posted by marxchivist
on Dec 22, 2009 -
22 comments
The Becker Collection: Drawings of the American Civil War Era "..contains the hitherto unexhibited and undocumented drawings by Joseph Becker and his colleagues, nineteenth-century artists who worked as artist-reporters for Frank Leslie’s
Illustrated Weekly Newspaper observing, drawing, and sending back for publication images of the Civil War, the construction of the railroads, the laying of the trans-atlantic cable in Ireland, the Chinese in the West, the Indian wars, the Chicago fire, and numerous other aspects of nineteenth-century American culture." {
artist biographies /
subject browse} [
via]
posted by peacay
on Sep 9, 2009 -
8 comments
John Tenniel and the American Civil War. Best known for his illustrations for
Alice in Wonderland, John Tenniel also produced political cartoons for the British magazine
Punch. This sites collects 54 of Tenniel's cartoons dealing with the American Civil War. In addition to the cartoons themselves, the site gives an explanation of the symbols and props in each cartoon and places them context with then-current events and issues.
[more inside]
posted by marxchivist
on Dec 3, 2007 -
24 comments
The Valley of the Shadow.
Description: "The Valley of the Shadow is a digital archive of primary sources that document the lives of people in Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania, during the era of the American Civil War...
...The Valley of the Shadow is different than many other history websites. It is more like a library than a single book. There is no "one" story in the Valley Project. Rather, what you'll find are thousands of letters and diaries, census and government records, newspapers and speeches, all of which record different aspects of daily life in these two counties at the time of the Civil War. As you explore the extensive archive and you'll find that you can flip through a Valley resident's Civil War diary, read what the county newspapers reported about the battle of Gettysburg, or even search the census records to see how much the average citizen owned in 1860 or 1870..."
A very interesting way of presenting history and an impressive testament to the web's potential as an educational tool.
posted by talos
on Mar 6, 2004 -
3 comments
