In 1960 or so, Professor Perry C. Van Arsdale was helping his 7-year-old granddaughter researching the Santa Fe trail. He found his granddaughter's textbook to have some number of errors.
He set off to create a map of pioneer history (prior to the 1900's), using his own knowledge and information from judges, sheriffs, and descendants of historical figures. This was his start in creating
the Pioneer New Mexico map, which would contain 300
towns that no longer exist,
old trails of all sorts (including the three historic Santa Fe trails and various
camel routes), locations of minor squabbles and major battles, and because he couldn't fit everything on the maps, he also included
extensive notes in the corner of the map.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Apr 27, 2013 -
17 comments
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
On Dec 11, 1862 the Union Army was pinned on the Northern shore of the Rappahannock River at
Fredericksburg, unable to cross the river and invade the town. This desperate situation led to two decisions by General Burnside of the Union Army that ultimately had wide ranging effects not just on the outcome at Fredericksburg, but on how the US would conduct war in the future.
[more inside]
posted by COD
on Dec 11, 2012 -
40 comments
“If ever men should celebrate the day with the rapt ardor of devotees, it is the soldiers of the Union,” bent on “saving the Union of the revolutionary fathers from destruction.”
The residents of Fredericksburg VA didn't celebrate Independence Day in 1862. It was no longer their Independence Day. However, just across the river, within both sight and sound of the residents of Fredericksburg, the Union Army threw a raucous celebration, complete with fireworks, artillery salutes, mule races, a greased pole, and a greased pig.
posted by COD
on Jul 4, 2012 -
10 comments
150 years ago, a primitive Internet united the USA. "Long before there was an Internet or an iPad, before people were social networking and instant messaging, Americans had already gotten wired. Monday marks the 150th anniversary of the completion of the
transcontinental telegraph. From sea to sea, it electronically knitted together a nation that was simultaneously tearing itself apart, North and South, in the Civil War. Americans soon saw that a
breakthrough in the spread of technology could enhance national identity and, just as today, that it could vastly change lives."
posted by homunculus
on Oct 23, 2011 -
49 comments
How Slavery Really Ended in America On May 23, 1861, little more than a month into the Civil War, three young black men rowed across the James River in Virginia and claimed asylum in a Union-held citadel.... [T]the laws of the United States were clear: all fugitives must be returned to their masters. The founding fathers enshrined this in the Constitution; Congress reinforced it in 1850 with the Fugitive Slave Act; and it was still the law of the land — including, as far as the federal government was concerned, within the so-called Confederate states. The war had done nothing to change it. Most important, noninterference with slavery was the very cornerstone of the Union’s war policy. President Abraham Lincoln had begun his inaugural address by making this clear, pointedly and repeatedly. “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists,” the president said. “I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” [more inside]
posted by caddis
on Apr 2, 2011 -
95 comments
The Long Recall is a daily news aggregator chronicling the buildup to the U.S. Civil War. The daily posts
are "digests of the news and commentary that an intelligent American might have had accessible 150 years ago."
posted by lalex
on Dec 1, 2010 -
11 comments
Disunion One-hundred-and-fifty years ago, Americans went to war with themselves. Disunion revisits and reconsiders America's most perilous period -- using contemporary accounts, diaries, images and historical assessments to follow the Civil War as it unfolded. Updated every Monday.
posted by OmieWise
on Nov 2, 2010 -
39 comments
Perspective Matters. The exact same moment in history (the arrival of Union troops in Fredericksburg VA in 1862), as described by a white woman resident of the area, and a black slave. It would be an understatement to say they had diverging viewpoints.
posted by COD
on Jul 10, 2010 -
27 comments
In 1865, after the end of the Civil War, Col. P. H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee, wrote to his former slave, Jourdon Anderson, asking him to return to work for him. In reply,
Jourdon Anderson told Colonel Anderson exactly where he could stick his offer. This letter was part of The Freedmen's Book (
full download in many different formats) which was distributed to those freed after and during the Civil War, so that they would know stories of other freedmen who had done well, including Touissant L'Ouverture, Phillis Wheatley and Frederick Douglass. The book was put together and published by Lydia Maria Child, abolitionist, women's rights activist, Indian rights campaigner and all around awesome person. She became famous in her own time for her cookbook
The Frugal Housewife, but today her best known work is Over the River and Through the Woods. The Freedmen's Book was part of an effort by abolitionists after the war to educate freed slaves. The American Antiquarian Society has a great website about that movement,
Northern Visions of Race, Region and Reform, which has plenty of
primary sources and images galore.
posted by Kattullus
on Apr 22, 2010 -
92 comments
About 2% of the US population died while serving in the military during the US Civil War, roughly equivalent to about six million people today. A few years after the war the best selling book at 100,000 copies was
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps'
The Gates Ajar, which deals mainly with heaven and what exactly happens there. Spoilers follow.
[more inside]
posted by shothotbot
on Jan 27, 2010 -
29 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
Reenacting slavery at Chickamauga National Military Park. When a reenactor put his knapsack on the ground, the person portraying his slave picked up his knapsack and "moved it before I could say a word. I instantly knew that I had an opportunity to demonstrate the institution's cruelty here, and so I did not acknowledge his act, did not thank him for it, did not make eye contact, did not stop my talk. My own cruelty -- even to make a teaching point to the audience -- made me shudder inside."
[more inside]
posted by marxchivist
on Sep 24, 2008 -
34 comments
Lost Cause [
WaPo, bugmenot] History museums are a repository for public memory, but also a nation's mirrors, reflecting self-image. When our views of history shift, museums that fail to change are likely to fail in general. Today's Washington Post reports on the struggle and decline of the
Museum of the Confederacy, contrasting it with the
American Civil War Center, nearby geographically, worlds away in philosophy.
posted by Miko
on Apr 4, 2007 -
18 comments
The Battle of Antietam is the single bloodiest single day battle American history. Historically told in
words, the battle illustrated in
pictures [
SVG required] shows jostling strategies that resulted in a loss of over 20,000 troops in 13 hours.
posted by pedantic
on Apr 30, 2004 -
7 comments
Giuseppe Garibaldi, who united Italy in the 1860s,
was asked by Lincoln to lead the army during the US Civil War. Garibaldi said he would if Lincoln officially declared that the aim of the war was to end slavery. Lincoln replied that he couldn't at that time, and so Garibaldi
moved on to other things. But what if Giuseppe had gotten involved? The Papacy would clearly
have denounced the North (indeed, the pope was the only world leader to recognize the Confederacy). The French hated him; the English loved him. Had he led the Federal troops, would France have jumped in on the side of the South? Would England have then jumped in on the Union side to counter? A whole different world history, perhaps, hanging on a yes/no question.
posted by ewagoner
on Aug 12, 2003 -
12 comments
The other reparations movement. According to this article, Jack Kershaw, of Memphis, Tennessee wants to file a lawsuit which seeks redress for grievances with the federal government for gross violation of international law during the War Between the States, especially during Sherman's March to the Sea (some call it a
myth). Kershaw is a
board member of the
League of the South, a
non-racial Southern secessionist movement located in Alabama). Can a
small secession movement which publishes a magazine called the
Southern Patriot and sports a Confederate flag everywhere be taken seriously by mainstream America? I personally don't think Kershaw has a snowball's chance in hell of winning such a suit, but the idea is interesting, especially if one is trying to trace the origins of America's practice of ignoring international law and just conduct in war, which seemed to start with the un-Civil War. What do you think?
posted by insomnyuk
on Aug 19, 2002 -
45 comments
