“We just don’t make clay people as well as cats.”

June 1, 2016 6:50 PM

Their collection of scale-model battle dioramas includes Fort Sumter, the Battle of the Ironclads and their masterpiece, four years in the making, Pickett’s Charge, 1,900 cat soldiers in all (SLWaPo)
posted by firechicago (28 comments total)

Previously. (One of my all-time favorite posts, and here they are again.) I was just talking about this last weekend with a woman who had visited their museum.

Her husband (actually, MeFi’s own Man-Thing) wrote a very fine book about General George Gordon Meade, and I was reading it and Watership Down at the same time, and started thinking what the Civil War would have been like if fought by rabbits. That made me think of the clay cats, from 15 years ago, and I wondered whatever happened to them. Now – twice in the same week – I know.
posted by LeLiLo at 7:18 PM on June 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

The article is fascinating, and well-written, but it is also about much more than Civil War Tails, perhaps unsurprisingly. Which is a bit of shame because the museum sounds... amazing!

Witness this quote: "And I’ll bet you’re wondering why our name is Civil War Tails. It’s not a typo. We started making soldiers out of modeling clay when we were 11 years old and we have always loved cats, so the first soldiers were cats. In uniform. With beards."
posted by blahblahblah at 7:19 PM on June 1, 2016

These confederate felines will tell you it was all about the right to go outside versus being kept inside, but make no mistake, The War Between The Cats pitted litter mates against one another to end the barbaric practice of declawing.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:42 PM on June 1, 2016 [11 favorites]

I love everything about this. I cannot tell you how much joy this brings me.
posted by teponaztli at 7:45 PM on June 1, 2016 [7 favorites]

I demand more detail photos of The Third Whiskered Infantry crossing the wall at Gettysburg!

Every student of the battle knows after a sharp scrape they were repulsed by Colonel Frisky's Pennsylvania Polecats backed by the Maine Coone Artillery.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 8:24 PM on June 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

LeLiLo: you may be interested in Richard Adam's (author of Watership Down) novel Traveller, which is written from the point of view of RE Lee's horse.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 8:32 PM on June 1, 2016

Adam's followup novel, Cincinattus, about Grant's horse unfortunately wanders into musings about oat rations, frontier policy, and early Republican politics.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 8:34 PM on June 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

I thought what the hell, it's been a long week already, and walked across the street to the dispensary for a gram of some ridiculously strong indica, and then I came back here and packed a bowl before reading this thread, and now I am really uncertain as to whether you are fucking with me about a horse novel called Cincinattus.
posted by brennen at 8:53 PM on June 1, 2016 [10 favorites]

I grew up near Gettysburg and all its wonderful, but now mostly gone secondary attractions and I'm so happy to see somebody is keeping up the crazy. They need an Electric Map - with cats!
posted by lagomorphius at 9:05 PM on June 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

...please tell me the Electric Map is still there.
posted by brennen at 9:16 PM on June 1, 2016

I wish I could have seen this during the brief period of time we went through Gettysburg.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:11 PM on June 1, 2016

Someone with a much better knowledge of the Civil War will have found the pun on scanners that's eluded me, yes?
posted by cromagnon at 1:14 AM on June 2, 2016

Urgh, metafilter was ugly back in that previously link. The posters seem to have borrowed all of their rhetoric from 1900's anti-suffragette propaganda.
posted by Ned G at 1:36 AM on June 2, 2016 [5 favorites]

brennen, looks like it isn't, but as of a year ago its new owner was fixing it up to display it in Hanover.

I grew up in Maryland and went to Gettysburg a few times as a kid - I didn't remember the Electric Map by name, but seeing a video of it sure brought back some memories. Hope they get it up and running again soon!
posted by teponaztli at 1:39 AM on June 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

Also, after I saw this post, I sent it to someone I know who lives near Gettysburg, and it made their day, along with mine. So thanks for posting it! I find myself really wanting their museum to do well. I love hearing about stuff like this, and if I can ever make it that way I'd love to visit.
posted by teponaztli at 1:44 AM on June 2, 2016

My husband always wants to go back to Gettysburg; now I finally have a reason to go too.
posted by jenjenc at 4:43 AM on June 2, 2016

Ahhh obsession-fueled projects almost always delight with the profound commitment and love people have for their passions. It's impossible NOT to see the joy in these dioramas.
posted by Dressed to Kill at 5:46 AM on June 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

Of course, this happened after a lanky Illinois tabby named Lincoln freed all the black cats.

I just imagine a bunch of cat generals sleeping on the maps in a camp.
posted by nickggully at 5:56 AM on June 2, 2016 [3 favorites]

It's impossible NOT to see the joy in these dioramas.

Well, let's step back a moment and consider. Would the diorama be cute if the conflict involved were, say, Gallipoli? Stalingrad? Omaha Beach? Iwo Jima?

I can have a pretty dark sense of humor, but we are discussing this hallowed ground.
posted by IndigoJones at 6:01 AM on June 2, 2016

Or, failing that, “We’ll get the crazy cat people.”

Listen, my money is just as good as anyone else's
posted by Kitteh at 6:10 AM on June 2, 2016 [4 favorites]

Her husband (actually, MeFi’s own Man-Thing) wrote a very fine book about General George Gordon Meade, and I was reading it and Watership Down at the same time, and started thinking what the Civil War would have been like if fought by rabbits.

It's a more modern conflict, but the deeply odd Apocalypse Meow / Cat Shit One is a thing that exists.
posted by zamboni at 6:36 AM on June 2, 2016

Well, let's step back a moment and consider. Would the diorama be cute if the conflict involved were, say, Gallipoli? Stalingrad? Omaha Beach? Iwo Jima?

Or the Holocaust? Imagine, for example, a comic about the Holocaust where all the Germans are cats, and all the Jews are, IDK, mice. How could that be anything but offensive?
posted by leotrotsky at 6:46 AM on June 2, 2016 [7 favorites]

Count me as kind of disappointed the article strayed away from the Civil War Tails to something more of a bland article on museums in general. It was almost as if an editor said, "Wait, you wrote an ENTIRE article about Civil War dioramas with cats?" " Uh....no, no, did I not include the bit about regular museums?" "No." "I must have sent you the wrong draft, hold on!"

They should do some macro photography of the models and sell the images in a book.

Washington Post editor....you went with 'War Between the States' ? I actually like that description, but generally, Civil War or American Civil War are the preferred nomenclatures.
posted by Atreides at 7:03 AM on June 2, 2016

I prefer "The Slaveholder's Revolt" or "The Treason."
posted by Mr. Excellent at 7:14 AM on June 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

The biggest problem with these "innie" museums is that when the owner runs out of energy or money they vanish. The late, great 24 Hour Church of Elvis is a stark reminder that these sorts of museums are ephemeral. So enjoy them while you can.

As to the tragedy of the Traitor's Revolt? There is the quote from Steve Allen that comedy is tragedy plus time. I don't know if sufficient time has passed, but this is seems harmless, not minimizing the suffering.
posted by Hactar at 7:38 AM on June 2, 2016

As a Yankee who went to school in the south, I always heard it referred to as the "War of Northern Aggression."
posted by AugustWest at 8:38 AM on June 2, 2016

The Civil War + Cats + Folk Art = Everything I've ever dreamed of
posted by Hey Dean Yeager! at 9:07 AM on June 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

I grew up in Maryland and went to Gettysburg a few times as a kid - I didn't remember the Electric Map by name, but seeing a video yt of it sure brought back some memories. Hope they get it up and running again soon!

Now witness the blinking power of this fully operational Electric Map.
posted by lagomorphius at 10:04 AM on June 2, 2016 [1 favorite]