Random Thoughts on History:

Just Finished Reading

2012-01-26T17:23:00.003-05:00

The idea of the Underground Railroad has fascinated me since I was a boy. In 4th grade I had Indiana history and heard tales of personalities like Levi Coffin and places around my town of Madison that had allegedly hid runaway slaves.

Much of the Underground Railroad's story is built on myth, but fortunately, over the last thirty years or so, serious scholarship has been produced to help us better understand the real story of the trail to freedom.

Dr. J. Blaine Hudson's book brings to light many of the people and places that have been ignored in favor more traditional Underground Railroad stories. Hudson's use of primary sources such as runaway slave advertisements, newspaper articles and court cases shows that much of the success that runaways had was due to their own decisions and ambition for freedom. Free African Americans too have not been traditionally received the credit they deserve for providing hiding places, sustenance, and encouragement to runaways. Whites such as Levi Coffin, Calvin Fairbank and John Rankin certainly risked much to help runaways, but much more often blacks received no white assistance and had to rely on their own wits and perseverance.

Of special interest to me was the author's discussion of the Madison crossing point. Slaves fleeing from central Kentucky often crossed the Ohio River at Madison and received direction and aid from Madison blacks such as George DeBaptist, Elijah Anderson, John Lott, Freman Anderson and Chapman Harris.

Provided in the book was a quote from the Louisville Courier from November 25, 1856 describing Harris. "Chapman Harris, a huge free Negro, black as the ace of spades...is a preacher from some where back of Madison, Ind., where he is said to be an active member of the Freedom Party."

This book is a great read full of wonderful research. On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 4.5.

Occupational Portraits, Part II

2012-01-24T17:58:00.014-05:00

African American Cowboy Nat Love (aka Deadwood Dick), born a slave in 1854 in Tennessee

Weaver holding loom shuttle

Watch maker or repairman

Tinker (tinsmith)

Surveyor

Stone Mason

Brick Mason

Shoemakers

Seamstress or dressmaker

Salesman with samples

Peddler

Minister

Just Finished Reading

2012-01-23T17:32:00.003-05:00

I have had this book on my amazon.com wishlist for several months now, but the price, even for a used copy, only seems to rise. So, I decided to get it through my local library's interlibrary loan program. And, I'm glad I did. Not that it was a bad book, because it wasn't. I really enjoyed reading it, but this collection of twelve essays, had a few that I was not particularly interested in.

As the last part of the subtitle indicates it covered "North American Slavery." That's a lot of ground to cover. Or, on the other hand, it is an easy way to cover a broad range of topics. There were a couple of articles on slave residences in the Caribbean islands and one on slave housing in Rhode Island in the 18th century. These particular articles were well written and interesting, but I would have preferred more coverage of the diverse slave quarters that appeared in the South; I especially would have liked something comparing urban and rural slave quarters.

Another unfortunate aspect of the book I felt was that the only Southern states that the book specifically covered were Virginia and Tennessee. Three articles were on Virginia and one on Tennessee. And, while the Tennessee article was good, it was quite short. I would also have liked an article that explored changes from slave quarters to sharecropping quarters during Reconstruction.

So, in short, I really enjoyed the book, but would have probably sought different articles if I have been editing it. I suppose it is just a case of personal taste.

On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 4.

Occupational Portraits, Part I

2012-01-22T10:23:00.012-05:00

We rarely sees it today, but many people in mid-nineteenth century America, especially those with specialized skills, were proud of their occupations. So proud in fact that they wanted their jobs to be recorded with them in formal portrait photographs. I really can't think of an occupation today, other than sports, where people have their image taken with the tools of their trade or in their occupational garb.

The following are a group of fascinating images from the Library of Congress daguerreotype collection. I'll post more that I found, including some women, in a later post.

Locksmith

Iron foundry workers with mold tampers

Firemen

"Vigilant" fireman

Drovers

Cooper

I am guessing coachman?

Stone carver? Great hat!

Carpenter (notice jack plane on chair)

Blacksmith

Blacksmith on the job at a forge

Just Finished Reading

2012-01-21T08:59:00.005-05:00

I've been lucky with my reading selections the past few weeks. This was yet another book I have had on the shelf for quite a while. Naturally, I had heard of the New Madrid earthquakes many times in past readings of this time period, but I certainly didn't understand the power of those tremors that hit there between December 1811 and February 1812.

The New Madrid fault is located near where the Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri borders meet. The author, Jay Feldman, suggests that the quakes that hit would be rated from 7.0 to 8.0 on the modern Richter scale, which had not been invented at that time. The quakes were felt as far away as the Rocky Mountains, New York City and Washington D.C. The level of natural damage was tremendous. Fortunately, there were not that may built communities in the immediate area at that time. However, the town of New Madrid (in what would become Missouri) was destroyed. And, as the title suggests, the quake was so powerful that the Mississippi River ran backward for a short time. In fact, so much earth was moved that Reelfoot Lake was created in northwest Tennessee.

The author wraps the earthquake story around several sub-stories; each very interesting and obviously happening at the same time as the quakes. I especially liked the story of the first voyage of a steamboat, the New Orleans, from Pittsburgh to the Crescent City. The New Orleans was on the Ohio River when initial quake hit, but fortunately braved the rough waters. The story of how this boat came into existence is quite a tale.

Also intriguing was the story of Thomas Jefferson's nephews, Isham and Lilburne Lewis, who had moved to Livingston County, Kentucky, but had met with misfortune in their new home state. The brothers, in a night of drinking, took out their frustrations on one of their slaves. They tortured and finally decapitated the man with the other slaves watching. The brothers tried to hide their victim by burning him, but the quake toppled the chimney and neighbors eventually discovered the grisly scene. Afraid of being convicted of murder, the brothers chose to commit suicide by killing each other. Something went wrong in the act and only Lilburne ended up dead. Isham would not escape either, although his death came a little later. He was one of a handful of Americans killed at the Battle of New Orleans three years later.

Another key story in the book is Tecumseh's attempt to confederate Indian tribes against white encroachment. He had earlier spoken to Creek Indians in Alabama and prophesied that if they would not lend support, he would stomp his foot and create an enormous earthquake and tumble their village. One can only image what the Creeks thought when the quakes hit.

One error that I noticed in the book was that the author claimed that Lexington was the capital of Kentucky at one point. The capital has been in Frankfort since statehood was granted in 1792.

On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 4.

War's Toll on the Human Body

2012-01-19T17:10:00.003-05:00

Today a colleague at work sent me a link to some tragic images of amputees from the Civil War. I provide the link not to shock anyone, but to remind us of the huge toll our nation's population paid.

Images may be disturbing:

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-amputees-american-civil-war-or-history-amputations-american-civil-war

Just Finished Reading

2012-01-17T17:45:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm off to a roaring start in my 2012 reading. I've already finished four books and the month is only have over. Hopefully I won't burn my self out.

Although it was only published last year, this particular title is one that I have been hearing about for the past few months. I felt fortunate that I was able to find it at our local public library here in Frankfort and that it wasn't checked out. It's only 190 pages, so it didn't take long to finish reading.

After breezing through the preface of the book I was pretty skeptical that the author would be able to put together a quality historical account based on only five letters from Louisville, Kentucky slaveowner Fanny Thurston (later Ballard) to her escaped slave Cecelia (later Holmes, later Larrison).

The story began when on a vacation trip to Niagara Falls in 1846 with Fanny and her father, Cecelia (15 years old at the time) took advantage of her closeness to Canada, slipped away and crossed the river to freedom. There wasn't much that the Thurstons could do about it since Canada was not obligated to return fugitive slaves.

Cecelia eventually moved to Toronto and married, but her husband soon died. In 1861 she then moved to Rochester, New York where she married again. This husband joined a white Civil War regiment as a cook and served to the end of the war. After the Civil War Cecelia and her husband moved to Louisville to be with Cecelia's mother who had remained a slave for the Thurstons and Ballards, but was now free. Fanny, of course, had grown up too. She married Andrew Jackson Ballard, a Louisville attorney, two years after Cecelia ran away, and then in the 1850s the Ballards had five children.

Having so few letters to construct his story around, the author made good use of other primary sources such as city directories, census and tax records. Also, the author benefited from having a short explanatory article that Fanny's son had left in his papers that filled in some cracks in the documented record. This son was Rogers Clark Ballard Thurston, who had a deep interest in history and eventually became the president of the Filson Club (now Filson Historical Society).

The five letters came into Rogers Clark Ballard Thurston's hands when Cecelia in 1899, needing some financial assistance. When Cecilia's husband suddenly disappeared (possibly drowned) and she had difficulty collecting his Civil War pension, she needed money badly and offered to sell them to Thurston. He eventually donated his papers, which included these letters, to the Filson, where remain are today.

Having so little to go on, the author did have to speculate and infer to a certain degree, but I was pleased that at least he made sure to explain why when he did so. I found his chapter on the Civil War in Louisville especially interesting. The story of Fanny's father as a boy witnessing his father being killed in a cornfield by a slave with a knife (around 1800) was fascinating too. No doubt that legacy left an lasting impression on his descendants and shaped their impressions of African Americans.

On a scale of one to five, I give it a 4, so do like I did, check it out.

A Sunday Drive to Simpsonville

2012-01-16T10:19:00.011-05:00

I thought I'd take advantage of a beautiful, sunny (albeit cold) day yesterday to drive over (west) to Simpsonville, Kentucky, site of a true Kentucky tragedy in late January 1865. I traveled to Simpsonville on Highway 60, the old Civil War era road between Frankfort and Louisville. I normally drive via I-64 to avoid all the stop lights and small communities in between when I go that direction, but I hadn't been on that stretch for quite some time so I thought I'd drive it. I was hoping to see some historic houses along the route as well, and I wasn't disappointed as there were a number, especially near Shelbyville.

The incident that happened just west of Simpsonville on January 25, has been labeled a massacre. Sometimes I think that label is inappropriately administered when it comes to events that happen during wartime, but in this instance it appears warranted, especially if indeed, as reported, the soldiers surrendered and were then shot. Regardless, no doubt, it was a tragic event. Here is how the Louisville Journal described what happened in the next day edition:

"A drove of Government cattle, about nine hundred head, was on the way to this city yesterday from Camp Nelson, guarded, by eighty negro soldiers detailed from various regiments. The day being cold, and no danger being apprehended, the soldiers were allowed to straggle along by themselves, while their officers stopped to warm at various houses on the road. One half of the command marched in front of the cattle, while the other portion kept in the rear of the drove. The cattle and the guards were not yet out of sight of Simpsonville when fifteen guerrillas, headed by the desperate Colter, dashed into the town. Three of the negro officers were loafing in the tavern at the time, but they succeeded in making their escape from the outlaws. The guerrillas robbed the citizens of the place of goods amounting to about twelve hundred dollars when they started in pursuit of the negro troops guarding the cattle. They were not long in over-taking them as the citizens of Simpsonville, soon after their departure from the place, heard rapid firing down the road. In about half an hour the guerrillas returned; loaded down with booty, and stated that they had killed twenty-five of the negroes. They gave no further explanation, but moved off in the direction of Shelbyville. A gentleman who was detained at Simpsonville by the outlaws, after they were out of sight, resumed his journey toward Louisville. Not more than half a mile this side of the village [west] a terrible scene was presented to view. The ground was stained with blood and the dead bodies of negro soldiers were stretched out along the road. It was evident that the guerrillas had dashed upon the party guarding the rear of the cattle and taken them completely by surprise. They could not have offered any serious resistance, as none of the outlaws were even wounded. It is presumed that the negroes surrendered and were shot down in cold blood, as but two of the entire number escaped-one of them by secreting himself behind a wagon, the other by running, as he was met several miles from the scene of tragedy, wounded and nearly exhausted. Thirty-five dead bodies were counted lying m the road and vicinity. It was a horrible butchery, yet the scoundrels engaged in the bloody work shot down their victims with feelings of delight.

The cattle stampeded, and as soon as the advance guard learned of what was going on in the rear, each individual in blue made a tall scamper for a place of safety. Colter, ['One Armed' Samuel] Berry and Sue Mundy [aka Jerome Marcellus Clark] were the leaders of the murderous gang. The outlaws were but fifteen in number-one of them a black scoundrel, who boasted on the return of the band to Simpsonville that he killed three of the soldiers. In making the attack, the guerrillas were only armed with navy revolvers. After the wholesale murder, they took good care to secure the arms and ammunition of the slain. The officers in command of the negro troops should be held responsible for the slaughter, for it is certain that if they had been with their men, and enforced a proper discipline, the outlaws would have been whipped with ease.

If the soldiers had not been straggling, Colter would never have ventured to make the attack. A heavy responsibility rests with some one, and we trust that the facts of the case will be fully inquired into by the authorities.

LATEST: A gentleman who left Simpsonville at 8 o'clock last evening, and arrived in the city at a late hour last night, states that the citizens, up to the time he left, had collected and buried fourteen dead bodies of the murdered soldiers. Eight negroes, so severely wounded that many of them will die, were receiving medical treatment. It was thought that several more bodies would be found this morning scattered about the fields, as after they were shot many of the negroes ran in different directions and fell and died. The guerrillas were traveling towards Shelbyville at last accounts."

One of the most interesting things in this short article to me was the mention that a black man rode with the guerrillas and participated in the atrocity. It said, " The outlaws were but fifteen in number-one of them a black scoundrel, who boasted on the return of the band to Simpsonville that he killed three of the soldiers."

Was this man a slave? Was he a free man? What was his allegiance to the guerrillas? What was his motivation to participate in their activities? Did he have a choice? The movie Ride With the Devil comes to my mind.

Today the site of the killings and mass burial of the soldiers is marked with twenty two veterans' headstones, a state highway marker, flag pole flying a United States flag and a P.O.W. flag, and small interpretive podium.

Interestingly, not a stones trow away, Lincoln Institute was founded in 1912. Lincoln Institute was founded in the wake of the Day Law, passed in 1904 in Kentucky, which forbid blacks and whites to be educated together. For more on the Day Lay see:

http://randomthoughtsonhistory.blogspot.com/2009/05/kentucky-historical-wart-day-law.html

Whitney M. Young, probably the school's most famous alumnus was born at Lincoln Institute in 1921. Young, a contemporary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. served as the director for the National Urban League until his death in 1971. For more on Young see: http://randomthoughtsonhistory.blogspot.com/2009/05/personality-spotlight-whitney-young.html

Just Finished Reading

2012-01-15T12:20:00.003-05:00

There are lot of good things to say about this book, but the part I enjoyed the most was the author's research of the early lives of these two women. Mrs. Lincoln's childhood in Lexington, Kentucky, into a home of privilege, set the stage for much of her adult life. The author contends that Mary Lincoln, although well educated and politically astute, never really matured into an adult. Her inability to deal with minor disappointments and her compulsive shopping would cause her problems with her husband and alienated would-be friends. Elizabeth Keckly on the other hand, grew up in slavery in Dinwiddie County, Virginia. She was the daughter of her white owner and a slave mother. During her lifetime Elizabeth did obtain a practical education and could read and write well, but it is interesting to think what someone with her drive could have accomplished if she had been afforded the opportunities that Mary had.

Elizabeth, or "Lizzy" as she was called by friends, lived a remarkable life. From Dinwiddie County she was moved to Hampden and Sydney College in Prince Edward County and then to Hillsboro, North Carolina by her owner and his family members that controlled her life. As a young woman in Hillsboro she became the mother of a son that was fathered by a white neighbor. Eventually she was moved to St. Louis where she purchased her and her son George's freedom. With her earnings as a noted and widely-referred seamstress she sent George to Wilberforce University in Ohio to be educated and she moved to Washington D.C. The light complexioned George passed for white and enlisted in a Missouri regiment when the Civil War broke out and was killed at the Battle of Wilson's Creek in August 1861.

After moving to D.C. Lizzie became seamstress for the politician's wives including Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis' wife. When the Davis family left Washington, and the Lincoln's arrived, Lizzie was introduced to Mary and Mary found her sewing skills excellent and fashionable and hired her for her personal seamstress. The two developed a close relationship over the next four years in the White House.

After Lincoln's assassination, Mary moved to Chicago and was in financial straits when she called on Lizzie to help her sell some of her old dresses and other possessions. The plan ended up in failure as the newspapers took the story and turned on Mary. Shortly after this Elizabeth wrote a book telling her story which offended the immature and touchy Mary and their relationship fell apart, never to be mended.

This book is indeed a "remarkable story" as the subtitle suggests and the author's writing style lends itself to being an very enjoyable and educational read.

On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 4.

Weird Family Portraits, Then and Now

2012-01-14T20:42:00.003-05:00

Then...

...and now.

Miss Civil War Era 2012

2012-01-14T13:17:00.004-05:00

Miss Civil War 2012

1st Runner Up

2nd Runner Up

Courtesy Library of Congress - Prints and Photographs

Bad Hair Day, or Just Bad Hair Style

2012-01-13T17:17:00.003-05:00

Back on May 12, 2010, I posted some photos of some well known politicians of the mid-nineteenth century and their inability to tame their coifs in those particular photos. I ran across this one the other day and had to share it as well.

This is E.W. Morgan in 1859, who was the Kentucky Military Institute Superintendent and also professor of engineering and geology. He was a graduate of West Point.

I think I have to call this one a bad style instead of just a bad hair day. The under chin whiskers and sideburns complete the unique look.

Courtesy Kentucky Historical Society Digital Collections

Slaves at Mammoth Cave

2012-01-12T18:02:00.004-05:00

A fascinating quick read is Making Their Mark: The Signature of Slavery at Mammoth Cave. This little booklet, (65 pages with numerous pictures) written by Joy Medley Lyons is published by Eastern National, which handles books and souvenirs for the National Park Service.

I remember visiting Mammoth Cave on a family trip when I was a boy. The main thing that sticks in my memory is that they took us into the cave quite a distance and then turned out the lights. It was the darkest place I had ever experienced. I admit, I was so happy when they turned the lights back on. Little did I know back then that Mammoth Cave had such an interesting history; a story that included slave cave explorers and tour guides who must have experienced that dreaded darkness just as I did.

Making Their Mark briefly tells the stories of slave Stephen Bishop who came to work at the cave in 1838 and died of unknown causes in 1857 at the young age of 37. Bishop mapped out much of the cave and was the first person known to travel into many parts of the cavern's tunnels. His graffiti marks still exist in parts of the cave and he was an extremely popular guide with the cave's visitors, many of which mentioned him in their travel accounts.

This little book also tells the story of other slaves such as mixed race slave Materson "Mat" Bransford whose descendants worked taking tourists into the cave into the 20th century. Also, Nicholas "Nick" Bransford is covered. Owned by the same man as Mat, the older Nick was apparently not blood related to Mat. Nick retired as a guide and passed away in 1895.

Another point the booklet makes is that while much of the rest of Kentucky and the nation was experiencing the nadir of race relations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, apparently the settlement around Mammoth Cave was much more colorblind. White, black and mixed race guides lived next door shared games, hobbies and farming secrets and continued to take mainly white visitors into the cave to see nature's wondrous sights that were unimaginable outside the cave.

And, while the book hints at it, I wish the author had explored the idea more that the black and mixed race guides experienced some level of power over whites while in the cave. Since the guides knew the cave and areas that were both dangerous and safe their guests often had to place their lives in the guides' hands. If a black man, especially a slave, had told a white where to step and or to hurry up or slow down outside the cave, they could easily have been reprimanded or even punished, but in the cave, it was the guides' world and guides' rules.

For more on this topic see Mammoth Cave's website:
http://www.nps.gov/maca/historyculture/black-history.htm

An additional article that I highly recommend and that does explore the slave guides' power while underground is:
http://www.southernspaces.org/2010/trying-dark-mammoth-cave-and-racial-imagination-1839-1869#section6

Just Finished Reading

2012-01-09T16:54:00.005-05:00

It has often been said that "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree." But, as Dr. Lindsey Apple explained in The Family Legacy of Henry Clay: In the Shadow of a Kentucky Patriarch, Henry Clay Jr's statement that, "how difficult it is for a young tree to grow in the shade of an aged oak," might be more appropriate.

I count myself fortunate to have become acquainted with Dr. Apple over the past couple of years through working together on Teaching American History grants. Everyone who meets him will agree that he is truly a scholar and a gentleman. And, I think his book is certainly not to be overlooked. It is an interesting read filled with stories of tragedy and of missed opportunities, but it is also of accomplishments and perseverance.

Some of the tragedies the author examines are that Clay had two sons committed to an asylum, and Henry Jr. was killed in the Mexican War. All of Clay's daughters died before he did in 1852. In addition, the family was plagued with mental diseases such as depression and physical ailments such as tuberculosis, plus the stress of living up to the family name that Henry Clay made famous. Also, the second and third generation was particularly divided by the Civil War.

But, there were also generations that would have made Clay as pleased as punch. Sons and grandsons and great grandsons had successes in farming and horse breeding. Numerous Clays bravely served the nation by joining the armed forces. And, possibly the most Henry Clay-like descendant was not a male. Great granddaughter Madeline (Madge) McDowell Breckinridge was a leading Progressive Era reformer and suffragist. But, unfortunately, like so many other Clays, her story too was tragic as she died at the young age of 48 from a stroke after suffering extensively from tuberculosis of the bone. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about Henry Clay and the legacy he left for Kentucky and the United States.

On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 4.25. Well done Dr. Apple.

Cool Random Civil War Era Photograph

2012-01-08T12:54:00.002-05:00

John R. Boyette, 4th Kentucky Infantry (CSA). Killed at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Confederates, often not having standard issued uniforms, had the ability to individualize their look and style more than their Yankee opponents. This Southern soldier sported a rakish hat, long cravat and plaid pants.

Image courtesy of Kentucky Virtual Library

Just Finished Reading

2012-01-06T17:44:00.004-05:00

This is yet another book that I have had on the shelf for quite a while. I'm glad I finally pulled it off and got a chance to read it. Burton does a good job of explaining the evolution of democracy and society in the 1830 to 1900 time period. His writing style is very easy to read. However, I did not appreciate the way the he noted the work. The bibliographic essay unfortunately does not tell me specifically where the author took his evidence (primary and secondary sources) to make his claims. That style referencing in one sense seems lazy, but on the other hand it seems like lot of work to put the bibliography into the essay format. Why not just use footnotes or end notes?

On a 1 to 5 scale, I give it a 3.75.

Brawling Kentuckians in Bleeding Kansas

2012-01-04T17:52:00.004-05:00

I admit it! I love reading nineteenth century newspapers. These rags of the day, whether they are daily, weeklies or tri-weeklies, have the unique ability to give you a quick sense of what life was like by reading the articles and advertisements.

In my last few posts I have been sharing excerpts that I have found from the Lexington Kentucky Observer and Reporter in the 1850s and 1860s. Thanks goes out to the Kentucky Virtual Library for having these online and available for the public to browse.
______

After months of contentious debate the Kansas-Nebraska Act finally passed through both the senate and house of representatives and was signed by President Franklin Pierce on May 30, 1854. Immediately upon passage settlers flooded into the new territories. At odds were those that favored the new lands be left for free labor and those that favored slave labor. Naturally arguments broke out over land disputes and boundary lines, but the free soilers and pro-slavery men brought an increased intensity.

Although no mention is made of the two feuding groups' politics, this November 8, 1854 story in the Observer and Reporter, which was a re-run story that originally ran in the Chicago Tribune, provides an idea of the reign of lawlessness in Kansas. It reads:

"We learn that an affray occurred in Kansas Territory on Tuesday last week, that resulted, it is feared, fatally to two citizens of that Territory. The difficulty was between two Kentuckians and several persons from Platte county, about a claim. The matter was left to a third party to settle, who decided in favor of the Kentuckians. When the decision was proclaimed, the Platte county claimants headed by one Burgess, attacked the other party and cut them up with knives in such a manner that no hopes are entertained of their recovery. The Governor, who is at Leavenworth, had the parties arrested at once, and it is hoped he will use vigorous means to put a stop to such lawless proceedings."

Southern Opposition to Homestead Act

2012-01-01T13:23:00.002-05:00

When Texas annexation was being debated in the 1840s Southerners were very much in favor of the measure because they knew it would allow for slavery's expansion into the new state. Their position quickly changed though when new territories were attempted in the North (Kansas-Nebraska). Southerners understood that slavery had a slim chance of being established in those areas.

The disdain for what would become the future Homestead Act (when it finally passed in 1862 due to the lack of Southern opposition - since they had seceded) is revealed in a short newspaper story that was republished in the Lexington Observer and Reporter on April 11, 1860; just one year before Fort Sumter. It read in full -

"THE HOMESTEAD BILL - The Richmond [Virginia] Whig, in reference to the Homestead bill, which recently passed the House, says:- 'Never was there a more odious and iniquitous bill passed by any deliberative body on earth.' and adds:

Thus under the provisions of this Homestead bill, the public lands, comprising over one thousand millions of acres, and belonging equally to all of the States, are given away to all manner of persons, and for the exclusive benefit of the Northern States. They are given not only to native born, but to all persons who may file a declaration of intention to become citizens at a future date--thus embracing in the terms and benefits of the grant the hundreds of thousands of foreigners who land upon our shores. And thus goes the vast public domain, to the strengthening and enriching of the Northern States, at the expense of the Southern, Virginia included."

Just Finished Reading

2011-12-30T18:23:00.003-05:00

Being on holiday break I have had some time to get in a significant amount of reading. This short book didn't take long; it only has 125 pages or so of text. I enjoyed the book. On the positive side it gave some interesting insight into middle-class white life in antebellum Virginia, however on the negative side, this very narrow topic did not seem to allow the author much room for in-depth research.

On a 5 point scale I give it it 3.5.

Just Finished Reading

2011-12-29T15:33:00.011-05:00

On a scale of 1 to 5 I give it a 4. I highly recommend.

For more information see: http://www.wessyngton.com

http://youtu.be/AWYtzAWQanU

The 15th Amendment

2011-12-28T18:40:00.004-05:00

One of several large commemorative prints marking the enactment on March 30, 1870, of the Fifteenth Amendment, and showing the parade celebrating it which was held in Baltimore on May 19 the same year. The amendment declared that the right to vote "shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Here the parade winds down Monument Street from Baltimore's Washington Monument. In the left distance is the spire of the First Presbyterian Church. Heading the parade are a small troop of black Zouaves, holding rifles across their shoulders. They are followed by several men on horseback wearing top hats and sashes, several floats, and more soldiers. The sidewalks are lined with onlookers, many of them black. Framing the central image are a series of vignettes. At left are portrait busts of the late Pennsylvania representative and champion of black suffrage Thaddeus Stevens, Maryland representative Henry Winter Davis, author of the Wade-Davis Bill, and Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner. At right are busts of distinguished blacks Martin Robinson Delany, Frederick Douglass, and Hiram R. Revels. In the upper left corner of the print is an antebellum plantation scene, where a mustachioed overseer supervises slaves picking cotton. Nearby is an elegant house surrounded by palm trees. Beneath the scene are the words, "We are in bondage. O deliver us!" In contrast, the right hand corner holds a Civil War scene of black troops rushing into battle, with the words "We fought for Liberty, we now enjoy" below. In the center, above the parade scene, appear busts of (left to right) Lincoln, Baltimore jurist Hugh Lennox Bond, abolitionist martyr John Brown, Vice president Schuyler Colfax, and President Ulysses S. Grant. The three busts in the center rest on crossed laurel branches and flags. In the lower corners stand two parade groups of black men wearing Masonic sashes and aprons. They carry banners decorated with allegorical figures as well as the portraits of Lincoln, Grant, and Swiss patriot William Tell and his son. Between these groups are two small scenes: a black schoolroom with the words "Education will be our pride," and a black preacher before his congregation, with the words, "The day of Jubilee has come."

Another of several large prints commemorating the celebration in Baltimore of the enactment of the Fifteenth Amendment. (See also nos. 1870-2 and 1870-3.) A group of black men, on horseback and wearing top hats, sashes, and badges, lead a procession. Behind them follow black soldiers and others carrying American flags and banners with portraits of an Indian brave, a black military officer, and Liberty. A small float with a crowned woman under a canopy also follows. On either side of the picture are two columns, "Education" and "Science," on top of which rest ballot boxes wreathed in oak leaves. The columns are connected by arches with the legend "The Right of Citizens of the United States to Vote Shall Not Be Denied or Abridged by the United States or Any State on Account of Race Color or Condition of Servitude." At left, beside the "Education" column, is a classroom scene where a black man teaches two black children geography. Below this scene is a bust portrait of Frederick Douglass. At right, near the "Science" column, are two black men at work. One, a stonemason, carves a large column. The other, a smith, stands at his anvil. Below this scene is a bust portrait of Mississipi senator Hiram R. Revels. The upper register of the print features portraits of white benefactors. In the center is an oval portrait of Lincoln, framed in oak leaves. It is decorated with an eagle and American flags, and flanked by seated figures of History or Learning (left) and Columbia or Liberty (right) with a shield, Phrygian cap, and sword. At the far left are busts of President Ulysses S. Grant and Vice President Schuyler Colfax, and at far right busts of abolitionist martyr John Brown and Baltimore jurist Hugh Lenox Bond.

Courtesy Library of Congress

Intriguing Commentary

2011-12-24T15:45:00.004-05:00

It is difficult for us in the 21st century to imagine how much race figured into current affair discussions during the mid-19th century. But, when one stops to think about it, it is not so surprising due to the fact that the race based issues of slavery and emancipation dominated politics and society.

In state like Kentucky that had known slavery since even before statehood, emancipation and the Reconstruction era came as a drastic shock. In the same 1868 issue of the Lexington Observer and Reporter mentioned previously another story ran that to me is quite intriguing.

"The other day we drove to Danville in a buggy. About half a mile for Lexington we saw a couple of negroes hunting; our attention was attracted and we determined to count how many armed negroes we might meet. By the time we reached Danville, our count had become thirty seven. The Christmas holidays was not over and it was a fine day for rabbits.

The negroes are perhaps the most universally armed people in Kentucky, and are daily becoming more familiar with the use of weapons."

It somehow seems strange that a conservative newspaper such as the Observer and Reporter would make mention of something as this. I have read numerous primary source reports of the depredations of this period in Kentucky and it not surprising that African Americans would want to arm themselves for protection. Their change in status from valuable protected property (in slavery) to perceived nuisance as freedmen (in emancipation) often meant that there was little legal recourse from racial persecution. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but is the editor perhaps issuing a subtle warning to his readers?

Emancipation Celebration

2011-12-20T18:22:00.003-05:00

I ran across a short but interesting article in the January 4, 1868 issue of the Lexington (Kentucky) Observer and Reporter. It was titled "Negro Celebration" and stated, "On Wednesday last, it being the fifth anniversary of the freedom of the negroes it was celebrated by those in this city and county. Early in the day they formed a column, with music at its head, and marched through our streets until evening, when they proceeded to the Methodist Church (col'd) on Upper street, where they were addressed by [Stephen G.] Burbridge, [James S.] Brisbin and others. We heard of no disturbance at all during the day."

Burbridge controversially served as the commander of the Department of Kentucky during the Civil War and Brisbin organized the 5th US Colored Cavalry, a unit raised and trained at Camp Nelson, Kentucky.

Cool Random Civil War Era Photograph

2011-12-20T18:00:00.001-05:00

Photo courtesy Kentuckiana Digital Library via University of Kentucky

MLK, FDR and WWI Monuments in D.C.

2011-12-14T17:59:00.011-05:00

Out of a mountain of despair, a stone of hope.

A very impressive close up of the sculpture.

If you haven't been to see the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, go check it out the next time you're in Washington D.C. It's pretty impressive.

FDR and me

Fireside chat

Soup and bread line

FDR and his dog, Fala

World War I Monument

USCT Flag Images

2011-12-08T19:13:00.009-05:00

While doing some browsing on the Library of Congress website the other day I ran across some neat photographs of United States Colored Troops (USCT) flags. The images painted on the flags are very striking and I only wish these photographs had been taken in color. The mottoes on the flags tell strong stories of what these men were fighting for.

One Cause, One Country: 45th USCT

We Will Prove Ourselves Men: 27th USCT

Strike for God and [Country?]: 25th USCT

Let Soldiers in War Be Citizens in Peace: 24th USCT

Sic Semper Tyrannis: 22nd USCT

Rather Die Freemen, Than Live To Be Slaves: 3rd USCT

The Story of Harper's Ferry

2011-12-03T19:28:00.003-05:00

Courtesy Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005686713/

The Anti-slavery Harp

2011-11-12T13:44:00.004-05:00

Courtesty Library of Congress - American Memory

Yet Another John Brown Song

2011-11-11T21:10:00.003-05:00

Courtesy Library of Congress - American Memory

Cool Random Civil War Era Photograph

2011-10-13T17:38:00.003-04:00

If you have always thought that braided hair on African American men is a recent fashion, think again. Browsing through the Gladstone Collection on the Library of Congress website I found the above picture of an unidentified man in civilian dress, holding a Remington cap and ball pistol and sporting a white or light colored hat set at a jaunty angle. He also has a pinky ring and what appears to be possibly a rectangle "Eagle" military belt plate and what might be a holster on the right side of the image. Unfortunately the photograph is not dated other than the curator's guess as circa 1860-1870.

To see more interesting photographs in this collection try this link:

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/gld/

Found Another One

2011-10-11T18:04:00.003-04:00

I apologize that I haven't been posting much the past month and a half. I have to admit that I have been preoccupied with college football. It is a seasonal disorder that affects me from September through (hopefully) January. It never fails that when the leaves begin to change, the majority of my thoughts are on any piece of news that I can gather on my beloved Oklahoma Sooners. It has been this way since I became a Sooners fan in 1985. There were the lean years in the 1990s when it was almost too tough to claim to be a Sooner fan, but since 2000 it's Boomer Sooner every Saturday in the fall.

Anyway, back on May 21, I posted about my pet peeve of finding incorrect facts in scholarly works that are supposedly "peer edited" and "vetted properly" to catch such mistakes.

Yesterday evening I finished reading Mastering America: Southern Slaveholders and the Crisis of American Nationhood by Robert E. Bonner, and published by Cambridge University Press in 2009. The book was a gift from a friend who is doing PhD work at Michigan State who found it there on a free book table. I must say I enjoyed the work, and I thought the author brought out some excellent points and made good conclusions, but I was discouraged to find an obvious (at least to me it was obvious) incorrect factual error.

In the acknowledgments section of the book the author thanks a number of named and anonymous readers, both scholars colleagues and staff at Oxford University Press for reviewing the text and making suggestions to improve the book. I have a difficult time believing that all of these supposed experts missed the mistake that struck me. Either they didn't read the book thoroughly or they don't know basic Civil War military history, which could be another post.

So what was my beef you ask? On page 242, in the second full paragraph, the author states that "A similar outpouring of poetry lamented fallen heroes like Francis Bartow and Bernard Bee (the two most prominent casualties of Manassas), the Tennessean Felix Zollicoffer (who was shot by his own men at Cumberland Gap), and Albert Sidney Johnston (who bled to death while commanding the western army at Shiloh in the spring of 1862). Whaaaaaa? The author gets it all right except for the extra information on Zollicoffer. He would have been fine if he would have left out the parenthetical information.

Zollicoffer was not killed at Cumberland Gap. He was killed by the Union's 4th Kentucky Infantry (some claim by then Colonel Speed S. Fry specifically) at the Battle of Mill Springs in Pulaski County, Kentucky; 100 miles from Cumberland Gap. Zollicoffer inadvertently rode his horse into confused battlelines. Some claim that Zollicoffer's nearsightedness and the smoke and rainy fog of the day contributed to his fatal mistake. I had never heard the author's claim that he was killed by his own men, and I knew for sure that he wasn't killed at Cumberland Gap.

How mistakes such as this get missed simply amazes me.

Klan Keeps it Klean...Kinda'

2011-09-19T17:40:00.005-04:00

As I mentioned in my last post I have been searching out sources about the KKK for a teacher workshop on terrorism. I have found a number of things, but one of the most interesting was a pamphlet printed in Frankfort in 1877. This document, titled The Confession of Richard A. Shuck: A Member of the Owen and Henry County Marauders of the State of Kentucky was written as told to author Jesse Fears.

The short work was intended to keep young people from going down the same road Shuck had traveled. Shuck was born in 1851 and came of age in Kentucky during the violent era of Reconstruction (or Readjustment as they called it here in the Bluegrass). When Shuck was about 20 years old he witnessed a murder. He was found out and threatened if he told on the perpetrators and did not join in the group on future depredations.

Throughout the work Shuck relates the numerous murders, beatings and robberies in which the gang was involved. In one of the tales a young man was killed and found to only have $14 on him. Many of the robberies happened along the route of the Kentucky River and the roads that ran near it in Henry and Owen counties. Along with their outlaw ways the group participated as an affiliate of the Ku Klux Klan.

In the section called "Ku-Klux Deviltry," Shuck relates that the KKK of the Reconstruction era did not only harass Republicans and African Americans, but also those whites that they didn't feel were holding up proper community standards. It's kind of ironic that a band of robbers and murderers would be passing judgement on others, but it obviously did.

The short section reads:

"As the reader will no doubt expect to hear of some remarkable thing done by the Ku-Klux, I will quiet their expectations by telling them that but little was done while I was with them, save the whipping of a negro occasionally, and one or two white men who were indolent and would not provide for their families.

While speaking of the Ku-Klux, I will relate one little thing that occurred during one of our raids. We were returning from visiting some negroes on Flat Creek and having notice of a certain lady immediately on our way who kept a very unclean and illy-regulated house, we determined to stop and clean up for her. We were not disappointed in our information relative to the house. We allotted the work in proportion to the number we had in our company. Some were to scour the floor, some the cooking vessels, others the milk vessels, while others were to attend to the washing and cleaning the woman’s face, neck and ears. They procured some corn-cobs and commenced the execution of their allotted work. The lady heartily protested, and begged leave to attend to her person herself; but the boys determined that she should at least once have a clean face and neck. They went to work with their cobs and soon completed their task. In the meantime the other work was progressing, and was soon completed. We then parted with her, leaving her with many good wishes and hope of her future prosperity."

"This Negro Hole"

2011-09-17T11:28:00.004-04:00

I am finding that it is not too difficult to locate sources that describe white Kentucky Union soldiers' disgust at serving with black troops. I have found a few when I was not even looking for them. One source I located recently was in such a place. While looking for some direct comments on the Ku Klux Klan in the Kentucky slave narratives for an upcoming teacher professional development presentation on terrorism, I was surprised to see a short notation from one of the interviewers that said, "Extract from the Civil War diary kept by Elphas P. Hylton, a Lawrence Co. [Kentucky] volunteer in the Union Army." Lawrence Co. is far eastern Kentucky, on the West Virginia border.

The diary entry is from July 17, 1864. Kentucky had largely avoided African American recruitment until the spring of 1864, but when it started, it was full force. By the end of the war only Louisiana had sent more black soldiers into Union service than Kentucky. It wasn't unusual to find opposition to black soldiers in the Union army in 1863 and 1864, racism was prevalent across the North as well as the South, but Kentucky's opposition was particularly vitriolic due largely to it being a state where slavery was legal and where the opportunities were few and far between for African Americans to show what they were capable of in society.

The diary entry reads, "On the 17th of July (1864) I was detailed for picket duty and saw three thousand negro soldiers on grand review, a black cloud to see. On the 18th I was relieved of duty. Here I became dissatisfied as a soldier on account of the negro, negro, negro. On the 23rd we began to get ready to leave this negro hole and on the 24th, to our great joy and gladness, we were sent into camp near Danville."

His choice of words is very interesting. Using the phrase, "black cloud" obviously connotes that he didn't see black troops as a positive for the future. His repetition, "on account of the negro, negro, negro" indicates that he emphasizing this negative point. And, labeling the camp he was in a "black hole" and leaving "to our great joy and gladness" certainly does not show any empathy or liking for his black comrades. I would love to find this diary and see if his opinion of USCT soldiers changed over the rest of his military service, or if he held to his prejudiced statements.

Incendiary Documents

2011-09-16T17:23:00.002-04:00

That slavery was a "hot" topic in America in the mid-nineteenth century is beyond debate. Why, even terms of the day were heated. Those radicals that called for the secession of the southern states in order to protect their rights in slave property were called "fire-eaters." And, abolitionist radicals that agitated for the freedom of the slaves were labeled as "incendiary."

While doing some research recently I ran into a law passed in Kentucky on March 30, 1860 that banned the writing, printing, or circulating of "incendiary documents" in the state. This law was passed at the same time that Kentucky enacted laws to reorganize the state militia and limit the rights of free men and women of color; only a few short months after John Brown was hanged. It is easy to understand that fear of a John Brown type act in the Commonwealth motivated these laws. After Harper's Ferry it was felt that the safety of the public was in jeopardy and anything or anyone that threatened that sacred safety should be removed, banned or restricted in the state.

The law stated, "that if any free person write or print, or cause to be written or printed, any book or other thing, with intent to advise or incite negroes in this State to rebel or make insurrection, or inculcating resistance to the rights and property of masters in their slaves, or if he shall, with intent to aid the purposes of any such book or writing, knowingly circulate the same, he shall be confined in the penitentiary not less than one, nor more than five years."

Kentucky Petitioned Canada?...Well, Sorta'

2011-09-08T18:39:00.002-04:00

Yes...using the Canadian maple leaf is a tad anachronistic for talking about Canada in the mid-nineteenth century, since they were still under the rule of Great Britain, but that's O.K.

So, what in the world would have Kentucky fired up enough in 1859 to make a request of Canada via the federal government? Yep, you guessed it. It was slavery.

On December 19, 1859, in the wake of John Brown's raid, the Kentucky General Assembly passed a resolution that "strongly" urged "the treaty-making power of the government of the United States the necessity of so amending the tenth section of our treaty with Great Britain in regard to fugitives from justice, which was ratified in London, on the 13th day of October, 1842...so as to include in its provisions fugitives from service or labor, so held under the constitution and laws of the United States, or of either of the States."

But, why ask for an amendment of the treaty? Well, the resolution clearly explains why in its opening. "Whereas, The citizens of Kentucky have been for a series of years, and are still subjected to an annual loss involving hundreds of thousands of dollars, by the escape from this State of persons held to service or labor in the State...into the British possessions of North America." In other words, Kentucky was losing major money in slave property by their escape to Canada. The petitioners also explained that the treaty was also needed because "no treaty exists between the government of Great Britain and the United States for the reclamation and extradition of persons so escaping from labor or service."

And, to power it home how necessary this measure was, the petitioners suggested "that the Governor [Beriah Magoffin] of this Commonwealth be requested to forward, under his official seal, a copy of the foregoing preamble and resolution to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress, and a like copy to the President of the United States [James Buchannan]."

If the Kentucky legislature was concerned enough about the loss of slave property, worth "involving hundreds of thousands of dollars" to pass a resolution for their return, then one can safely assume that the number successfully fleeing was significant.

Cherokee Nation Expels Descendants of Tribe's Black Slaves

2011-08-31T17:43:00.003-04:00

I received an emailed article from a colleague at work today that was very interesting. The article explained that recently the Cherokee Supreme Court (they are a sovereign people) ruled that only Cherokees of blood descent are allowed to be members of the tribe and thus benefit financially from the profits they earn from their casino businesses. That means that descendants of former Cherokee slaves who had long been considered official members of the tribe are now not.

Not too many people know that the Cherokees, among many other southern Indian tribes such as the Creeks, Chickasaws and Choctaws held African American slaves. Many of these tribes had become so-called "civilized" to white ways in the early 19th century and that included agricultural slaveholding. When most of these Indians were removed to west of the Mississippi River in the 1830s, they took their slaves with them.

I really want to know more about this topic and there appears to be several good books out there about it. One is pictured here: Ties that Bind: The Story of and Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom, by Tiya Miles. Others include African Cherokees in Indian Territory: From Chattel to Citizens, by Celia E. Naylor, and The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story, by also by Tiya Miles.

To me the relationship between these two groups is fascinating. Here are two of the most oppressed peoples in American history and yet one group was willing to hold the other as slave. I guess it goes to show something that should not surprise any of us; that is that sometimes people are motivated more by economics than by common circumstances.

Here is a link to the article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/25/cherokee-nations-expels-d_n_936930.html

Time's 100 All-time Best Nonfiction Books

2011-08-30T17:50:00.004-04:00

Jumping around a little bit ago on the internet I ran across a list of the 100 top nonfiction books printed in English since 1923 and chosen by Time magazine. Why it says "all-time" and only includes books since 1923 is unexplained. The books were not ranked in any order, but they were separated by different genres such as "War," "Social History," "Sports," etc.

I was pleased to see that there were a number of books that I have in my library or that I have read over the years. Black Boy by Richard Wright is a classic, although I prefer the fiction Native Son. Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown and Notes on a Native Son by James Baldwin made the list, as did Why We Can't Wait by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I remember reading that for my American Studies class as a junior in high school. The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley is also on the list. If you have never read that one, make plans to as soon as you can. You won't be disappointed. Another one that stands out is Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown. Bury My Heart should be required reading for every American.

I wasn't shocked to see a Civil War book listed, but I was a little surprised that it was Shelby Foote's trilogy, Civil War: A Narrative. I figured that if there was a Civil War book on the list it would be James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom. Shelby Foote was an excellent writer...a narrative writer, so comparing him to the more scholarly McPherson is probably a little unfair. Both are good, just different.

If you are interested in checking out the list, here's the link:

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,2088856,00.html

1850 Kentucky Bill of Rights

2011-08-25T17:43:00.006-04:00

While doing some poking around online researching for a work project I found the Bill of Rights for the 1850 Kentucky Constitution.

Like other states, Kentucky has gone through its fair share of constitutions. The commonwealth's first one came in 1792, when the bluegrass state became the #15 state in the Union. It was rewritten in 1799, again in 1850 and then lastly in 1891.

Article 13 of the 1850 constitution is the document's Bill of Rights, of which there are 30 sections. But, it was the first four sections that really caught my attention.

The Bill of Rights begins: "That the general, great, and essential principles of liberty and free government may be recognized and established, WE DECLARE-" Nothing earth shattering there...sounds very American.

"1. That all freemen, when they form a social compact, are equal, and that no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive, separate public emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of public services." At least it says "freemen" are equal. I wonder what free men of color in Kentucky in the 1850s would have thought about that statement.

"2. That absolute, arbitrary power over the lives, liberty, and property of freemen exists nowhere in a Republic, not even in the largest majority." In other words. you can't take our property away from us, even if you are in the majority.

"3. The right of property is before and higher than any constitutional sanction; and the right of an owner of a slave to such slave, and its increase, is the same, and as inviolable as the right of the owner of any property whatever." Property is preeminent! Is it clear when we say property that we mean slaves are our property?

"4. That all power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority , and instituted for their peace, safety, happiness, security, and the protection of property. For the advancement of these ends, they have, at all times, and inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform, or abolish their government, in such manner as they think proper." If that is not a statement of states rights I don't know what is. John C. Calhoun couldn't have made a stronger statement. However, Kentucky never thought it proper to alter, reform or abolish their government when their property was threatened fourteen years later, during the Civil War.

Civil Rights Bus Tour - Day 5, July 15, 2011

2011-08-17T16:49:00.017-04:00

Our last day of touring was an amazing day in Memphis, Tennessee. Our first stop was another site that was not on our original itinerary, but I'm glad it was added. Mason Temple is the location of the Church of God in Christ's world headquarters and the location that Dr. King gave his last public speech on April 3, 1968.

It was here that Dr. King gave his "Mountaintop" speech. In the speech King seemingly prophesied his death. "I've been to the mountaintop...I've looked over and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you...." Absolutely haunting! The next day he was killed on the hotel balcony where he was staying.

A historic photo of King at Mason Temple on April 3, 1968.

One of my favorite stops was to the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. Stax recording studios was started in an old movie theater. Stax was named for a white brother and sister team, Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, who began the studio. It would become the recording home of such musical stars as Issac Hayes, Otis Redding, the Staple Singers, Wilson Pickett, Booker T. and the MGs, and Sam and Dave.

The original music studio was torn down, but the museum and a youth music academy now keep the Stax story alive. Stax was an integrated label from the beginning and the music it produced almost magically seemed to break down racial barriers.

The Ike and Tina Turner exhibit.

The iconic Soul Train. The museum featured a huge screen that showed clips of the famed TV show with a dance floor in front that made you feel like you were a personal guest of show host Don Cornelius.

The Isaac Hayes exhibit. I was loving the gold platform shoes.

Isaac Hays's macked out Caddy.

Lunch was at Rendezvous, a Memphis landmark. The BBQ was excellent and the atmosphere even better.

Our last stop of the day was to the Lorraine Motel, which now serves as the National Civil Rights Museum. The museum has an impressive gallery that holistically covers the movement.

A wreath hangs on the balcony outside of Room 306 where Dr. King was killed.

The museum also owns the former boarding house across the street that was rented and used by convicted killer James Earl Ray.

Many people overlook why Dr. King was in Memphis when he was killed. He was there supporting the city's sanitation workers during a strike for better working conditions. On March 28, a demonstration had turned violent when looters broke windows of stores along the march route. Over 280 people were arrested and one man was killed.

One of the moving forces in Memphis that supported the sanitation workers was Rev. Samuel Kyles. In the picture above Rev. Kyles collects money in symbolic garbage cans at Mason Temple.

Dr. King was on the way to Rev. Kyles's home for supper when he was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. Rev. Kyles was beside Dr. King when the bullet struck.

While at the museum we were fortunate to get to meet and hear Rev. Kyles (center) recount spending the last minutes of Dr. King's life by his side.

Civil Rights Bus Tour - Day 4, July 14, 2011

2011-07-29T18:55:00.020-04:00

Our first stop on day four was to Selma, Alabama. Selma, like Montgomery to the east, is on the Alabama River and based its economy on cotton for decades. We first visited the National Voting Rights Museum, which recently moved to its current location. The museum is a good example of how a local community is taking control and preserving its history without waiting for funds or outside help. Their aim is to honor the "foot soldiers" of the movement; those that didn't necessarily gain notoriety but stood up for their rights and what was right.

The museum has an amazing set of photos of the three marches that were planned to go from Selma to Montgomery. On February 18, 1965 Jimmie Lee Jackson was killed by an Alabama state trooper while trying to protect his mother during a voting rights protest. The first march was led by Hosea Williams and attempted on March 7, 1965 in protest of Jackson's death. The marchers were met by Sheriff Jim Clark's deputized citizens and when the marchers stopped to talk to the police they started being shoved and beaten. Seventeen of the marchers were hospitalized and the day went down in history as "Bloody Sunday."

The second march was organized by Dr. King and took place on March 9, 1965. 2500 people participated but it was stopped by a federal court order. King didn't want to disobey the federal order since he knew that federal authorities were his only possible protection.

On March 16, a federal judge ruled in the protesters favor and the third march went off on March 21. The marches made it to the steps of the state capitol in Montgomery on March 25. That night Viola Liuzzo, a white woman from Detroit who came to Alabama to help the voting rights effort was shot by members of the Ku Klux Klan while driving African American marchers back to Selma.

In the above photo Sheriff Clark's police patrol outside of Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, which we next visited.

Brown Chapel AME Church is a unique place, as it can make the rare claim of having both Dr. King and Malcolm X speak there during the movement. Malcolm X spoke there on February 4, 1965, only weeks before he was killed in New York City on February 21, 1965. Brown Chapel is situated in a neat kept housing project neighborhood.

A monument to Dr. King, James Reeb, Jimmie Lee Jackson and Viola Liuzzo at Brown Chapel.

Our group on the historic steps of Brown Chapel

At the National Voting Rights Museum was a political election card for Sheriff Jim Clark (pictured above) with nightstick and cattle prod. It included a poem of sorts that stated:

Jim Clark Says

"NEVER"

Never be afraid to do what's right

Always be willing to stand and fight

Never be overcome by Socialism

For the next thing that follows is Communism

Never be overcome by Federal Control

Stand for States Rights true and bold

Never let true justice be forgotten or

Overrun in our Dixie Land of Cotton

Never be afraid of the Leftist Block

Stand true and firm like Gibralter's rock

Never dim the glow of bright true light

Always lead us through the restless night.

Making the walk across the bridge was a moving experience for me; much like being on a Civil War battlefield.

This historic photo shows marchers crossing over the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

A historic photo of "Bloody Sunday." The bridge can be seen in the background with clouds of tear gas.

Near the site of "Bloody Sunday" three monuments have been placed to honor some of those that fought for voting rights: Hosea Williams, John Lewis, Amelia Boyton Robinson and Marie Foster.

I couldn't resist snapping a picture of a genuine Alabama cane brake. This one was across Highway 80 from Essie's Place, where we ate a wonderful down home lunch.

Much of the rest of the day was spent traveling through west Alabama and into east Mississippi. We went through tornado ravaged Tuscaloosa. The damage was beyond belief where the twister touched down.

We finally found our way to Oxford, Mississippi, home of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) and William Faulkner. The courthouse square is your ideal southern setting. There are at least three bookstores in the numerous businesses around the courthouse so obviously I was in heaven. After having supper at City Grocery we headed on to Memphis.

This plaque on the Lafayette County, Mississippi Courthouse is a great Faulkner quote...a sentence that runs on forever.

A southern courthouse square would not be complete without the ubiquitous Confederate monument.

Civil Rights Bus Tour - Day 3, July 13, 2011

2011-07-26T17:33:00.019-04:00

We arrived in steamy Montgomery, the capital city of Alabama, on Tuesday evening. We had amazing accommodations at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Montgomery that made our two night stay very comfortable. My room window provided a great view of the Alabama River (above). The Alabama River is one big reason Montgomery grew in the 1820s and 1830s and became the capital of the state in the 1840s. Cotton grown in the interior of the state was often brought to Montgomery where it was traded and transported down this waterway to Mobile (Cotton City), which was probably only second to New Orleans as a port of export for the fluffy fiber that fed the state's economy.

The first stop in our site-packed Wednesday was not originally on our agenda, but our lead scholar, Dr. Gerald Smith suggested adding it due its great historical significance to the city and the Civil Rights Movement.

Holt Street Baptist Church was where the Montgomery Bus Boycott was organized and where a young Dr. King was chosen as the leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association. On December 5, 1955, Dr. King made his debut in the movement. That night the church was filled to overflowing as he addressed the crown with a short speech in what was originally intended to be a one day boycott. It ended up lasting 381 days.

Today Holt Street Baptist Church is empty and is quickly decaying. The congregation has moved into a different and more commodious location, but fortunately, does have intentions on preserving this historic landmark.

Our second stop was a view of the King parsonage on South Jackson St. It was here on January 31, 1956, that a bomb exploded that did not injury King's wife Coretta and young daughter Yolanda. Montgomery blacks rallied to the house and vowed revenge, but King advised to continue in their pursuit of a nonviolent strategy. The house was damaged again over a year later when a another bomb was planted near the front porch. Again, fortunately, no one was physically harmed.

Our next stop, the Civil Rights Memorial, commemorates 40 men and women who died advocating for civil rights between the years 1954 and 1968. The memorial, pictured above, was designed by Mya Lin, who also designed the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. The 40 names are carved on a beautiful black granite table as water constantly flows over them. The symbolism is fascinating. On the wall behind the memorial is carved words from one of Dr. King's speeches, "Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream."

Of course a Civil Rights tour of Montgomery would not be complete without a visit to Dr. King's church, Dexter Avenue Baptist. The significance of the black churches in the Civil Rights Movement can not be overlooked was fully evident in our week long tour. As one black man during the Jim Crow Era said, "He turns to it [church] not only for his spiritual wants, but looks toward it as the center of his civilization. Here he learns the price of cotton or the date of the next circus; here is given the latest fashion plates or the announcement for candidates for justice of the peace."

After a lunch on our own we next reconvened at the Alabama state capitol building for a tour. The temperature was pushing 100 degrees at this point in the day, so I was happy to be in the air conditioned building. Our guide, an African American gentlemen who participated in the famous march from Selma to Montgomery as a young man mentioned that we were in the perfect place when I told him we had teachers that were studying "From Civil War to Civil Rights." He also explained that in his opinion there would never be a monument to the famous march on the capitol grounds because then governor George Wallace didn't allow the marchers to touch the capitol property. As the historic picture above shows the marchers made it right up to the capitol steps.

On the grounds are several tributes to the Confederacy. A huge monument to southern soldiers was erected on the grounds as well as the above monument to Jefferson Davis. Montgomery is often called the "Cradle of the Confederacy" as it was here that the Confederate government was formed, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as its president, and this building served as the first capital of the Confederacy, before it was moved to Richmond, Virginia in May of 1861.

This star marks the location on the steps of the capitol building where Jefferson Davis was inaugurated on February 18, 1861.

In the above photo our tour guide tells us why the Alabama state capitol building is the most historically significant state capitol building in the United States. I think he has a good argument!

After our visit to the capitol, we went a few blocks back west to the Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station. Now, thanks to the efforts of the Alabama Historical Commission, this building is restored and protected to interpret the significant events of May 20, 1961 when the Freedom Riders attempted to integrate the public facility. Here the black and white riders were mobbed after their police protection disappeared and they were left to the mercy of their attackers who saw them as being "outside agitators."

A historic photo of Freedom Riders waiting to restart their trip.

It was at the Montgomery fountain square where seamstress Rosa Parks worked in a department store called Montgomery Fair, and outside of which, on December 1, 1955, she got on the bus and went into history. Parks, who had previously studied civil disobedience at the Highlander School in Tennessee, became the test case that civil rights lawyers were looking for. After Parks was warned to give her seat to a white person she refused and when warned that she would be arrested if she didn't move, she said, "You may do so."

A historic photo of 42 year old Rosa Parks being booked in Montgomery for refusing to give up her seat on the bus.

Parks's police finger prints are on display at the Rosa Parks Museum. It was at the museum's present location that the bus stopped and where Parks was arrested. The museum features the story of how the African American community of Montgomery worked to bring about social change. Men and women of all walks of life contributed, and even though the museum features the name of one person, it really honors all the "unsung heroes."

The Rosa Parks Museum also features a children's wing, which offers a magic time traveling bus where one goes back into time to learn where the word Jim Crow originated, as well as meet historic figures such as Homer Plessy, Harriet Tubman, Henry "Box" Brown, among others.

Civil Rights Bus Tour - Day 2, July 12, 2011

2011-07-24T10:15:00.023-04:00

We didn't finish out day one of our bus trip in Tennessee. We actually traveled on into Alabama and our first stop in the "Heart of Dixie" was not at a historic site, but at a travel rest stop.

I saw the above monument while at the rest stop and thought that it was an interesting marker due to its various possible interpretations across Alabama's history. In 1860-61 Alabamians would not have hesitated to declare their intention to defend their "southern rights," while one hundred years later African Americans would state their desire to defend their rights to integrate public facilities and to vote.

We spent our first traveling night in downtown Birmingham. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to pack one of my bags (it was at home on my bed) that had my toiletries, so I had to catch a cab to take me to a drugstore to purchase my necessaries. The cab ride was quite educational. My cabby was an African American man who did not hesitate to express this disdain that downtown had become a virtual ghost town after dark. He explained that it was busy enough during the day with all the businesses, but people for the past 10 to 15 years sought their evening entertainment out of the downtown area which had severely hurt his business. He complained that the University of Alabama no longer played any games at Legion Field in Birmingham and Saturdays in the fall that used to hum with activity were now dead.

Our first stop Tuesday morning was to Kelly Ingram Park. This park, named in 1932 for a local firefighter who the first U.S. sailor killed in World War I, served as a center for civil rights activism during the 1960s.

Prominently displayed in the park are a number of statues and sculptured artwork designed to commemorate Birmingham's role in the Civil Rights Movement. The statue of Dr. King was placed in 1986 and looks across the intersection at 16th Street Baptist Church.

One of the many impressive pieces of sculpture is the one above. It depicts the use of police dogs by the authorities to try to break up demonstrations in Birmingham. Many of the protesters were mere children.

Another piece of artwork gives the visitor the feeling of walking through a gauntlet of police dogs.

Yet another, shows the police tactic of using high pressure water hoses to discourage protesters.

And, yet another shows children jailed for their civil disobedience. The words on it say "I AIN'T AFRAID OF YOUR JAIL."

After spending some time in the park we walked across the intersection to the historic 16th Street Baptist Church. This church was one of the first established in Birmingham by African Americans and the building there now was built in 1911. The events that happened outside the church building, on 16th Avenue, on May 2-3, 1963, are depicted in the previously mentioned sculptures in Kelly Ingram Park.

The above photo is a historic image of the events of May 2-3, 1963 with the church in the background and police forces in the foreground. Notice the wet pavement from the fire hoses and wet clothing on the protesters.

This present-day shot of the church sign can be seen in the top right of the historic photo above and in the photo below.

On September 15, 1963 at 10:22 a.m. a planted bomb exploded outside a side entrance of the 16th Street Baptist Church.

The explosion killed four young ladies; Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, and Carole Robertson, all 14 years old, and 11 year old Denise McNair. The above tablet was placed in their memory near where the bomb exploded. Another girl was injured in the blast, losing an eye and being terribly scarred, she survived. Robert Chambliss was convicted in 1977 for his role in the bombing and died in prison in 1985. Thomas Blanton Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry were convicted in 2001 and 2002 for their roles in the bombing; all three men were affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan.

Another monument in memory of the four young ladies.

We next toured the museum at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute which was just across the street from church and Kelly Ingram Park. The museum had some amazing artifacts including the cell where Dr. King wrote his famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" letter.

Our next stop after a number of miles of driving south and east was to Tuskegee University. Founded in the early 1880s, with help from recent graduate of Hampton Institute in Virginia Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee became known far and wide for it training programs in agriculture, veterinary and engineering programs for African American students. Washington was born a mixed race slave in 1856 in Franklin County, Virginia. After the Civil war Washington moved with his mother and step father to Kanawha County, West Virginia where he worked making salt and in local coal mines before being admitted to Hampton Institute.

Tuskegee still thrives to this day and the National Park Service has established the George Washington Carver museum (pictured above) and maintains Booker T. Washington's former home, "The Oaks."

George Washington Carver was Tuskegee's most famous faculty member. The George Washington Carver Museum is a tribute to the man and his many inventions and discoveries. Carver was born a slave in Missouri during the Civil War (probably 1864) and received his high school education in Kansas and attended college at Iowa State University.

The Booker T. Washington monument on Tuskegee's campus is impressive. It depicts Washington lifting the veil of ignorance from African Americans. The black man holds a book and sits on an anvil and plow. Washington's accommodationist ideas were not appreciated by all African Americans, but he felt that was the most practical manner for blacks to achieve in the "Jim Crow" South.

Booker T. Washington's tombstone. Washington died in 1915.

George Washington Carver's grave at Tuskegee. Carver died in 1943.

"The Oaks," Booker T. Washington's home at Tuskegee was built in 1900 by Tuskegee students and he lived there until his death. Washington became sick while in New York on a speaking tour, but explained that "I was born in the South, I have lived and labored in the South and I expect to be buried in the South." He made it back to his beloved Tuskegee and passed away at his home on November 14, 1915.

Civil Rights Bus Tour - Day 1, July 11, 2011

2011-07-19T17:15:00.012-04:00

It was a real pleasure to join 19 Kentucky teachers on a bus tour of Civil Rights Movement sites through the states of Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. Over the next several posts I will try to highlight some of these sights with images I took along the way and include some historic images as well.

After meeting in Lexington, Kentucky and getting on the bus our first stop after lunch at Neely's BBQ was to Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. I have been to Nashville many times, but I had never been on the campus of Fisk. Fisk has a long history that dates back to the Reconstruction era (1867). It was founded by the American Missionary Association and was named for Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, the Freedmen's Bureau commissioner for Tennessee and Kentucky.

A few short years after the founding of the institution it was in serious debt and was threatened with closing when school treasurer George White assembled a group of student singers, all but two of whom were former slaves and named them the Jubilee Singers. Going on the road they raised funds and helped keep Fisk's doors open to offer a rare chance at education to African American students. The humble monument above is dedicated to the Jubilee Singers and our tour guide explained that it was placed upon a stone foundation that formerly served as a slave auction block in Nashville.

The first building on what would eventually become the established campus was named Jubilee Hall (pictured above), which was built in 1876.

Our tour guide, an Iraq War veteran and graduate of Tennessee State University, told us that the Jubilee Singers not only toured around the United States, but also went to England and sang before Queen Victoria in 1873. It is believed that Nashville's name "Music City" came about when the queen heard the singers and said that they must be from a "musical city."

This beautiful portrait of the Jubilee Singers is proudly displayed in Jubilee Hall.

The architecture of Jubilee Hall is fantastic and the building is now listed as a National Historic Landmark.

One of Fisk's most famous alumni is historian (and one of my heroes) John Hope Franklin. Franklin passed away in 2009, but his legacy is memorialized in the name of the university's library; a very fitting tribute to the scholar. We were told that Dr. Franklin would only accept naming the library in his honor if his wife's name was included as well.

In the Franklin library is this portrait of a young John Hope and Aurelia Franklin on the Fisk campus. A large case in the library's lobby is dedicated to Dr. Franklin and his accomplishments during his long life. If you haven't read his autobiography Mirror to America, please do. I highly recommend it.

Probably the most famous alumni of Fisk is W.E.B. Du Bois. Du Bois graduated from Fisk in 1888 and entered Harvard that fall. He earned a bachelor's degree at Harvard and then studied in Germany before returning and becoming the first African American Ph.D. from Harvard in 1895. In 1909, he along with a group of like minded activists formed the NAACP.

While at Fisk we also visited the "Knowledge Tree." It was here that students came to study before their big tests and where student activists such as Dianne Nash planned civil disobedience actions like the Nashville lunch counter sit-ins and the Freedom Rides.

History abounds at Fisk University. In fact the school is known as the "brain trust" of the Civil Rights Movement. Unfortunately, Fisk's history that is not well known, but it should be. The university is a story of perseverance and accomplishment; overcoming long odds and making a way for future generations to experience and enjoy the benefits of a good education.

Civil Rights Movement Touring with Teachers

2011-07-18T21:40:00.004-04:00

From Lexington Herald Leader; by Merlene Davis

Hope Brown, a teacher at Rowan County High School, has a passion for the civil rights movement.

"That passion made me want to be a teacher," she said.

It's also the reason she is accompanying other Kentucky teachers on a road trip through history, stopping at several sites in the South where significant events took place that thrust racial equality to the forefront of America's psyche during the 1950s and 1960s.

There are 19 Kentucky elementary, middle and high school teachers traveling as a part of "Democratic Visions: From Civil War to Civil Rights," a three-year professional development program for fifth-, eighth- and 11th-grade history teachers in Bath, Carter, Estill, Fleming, Menifee, Montgomery, Morgan, Powell, Pulaski, Rockcastle and Rowan counties.

Democratic Visions, in its final year, is a partnership among school districts, the Kentucky Historical Society, professors at the University of Kentucky and Berea College, and the Kentucky Heritage Council. The program is funded by a grant to Powell County Schools from the U.S. Department of Education's Teaching American History initiative. Similar grants, which are targeted at rural communities, have been awarded to Harlan and Letcher counties in recent years.

Twenty-seven people are on the trip, including UK history professor Gerald Smith; Kathi Kern, director of the UK Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching, who wrote the grant; and Chad Berry, director of the Loyal Jones Appalachian Center at Berea College.

Smith, the lead scholar for this year's program, which is focusing on civil rights, said the group had just left Holt Street Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala., when I called Wednesday. On Dec. 5, 1955, the church was the site of the first mass meeting of the Montgomery Improvement Association, led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., which directed the Montgomery bus boycott.

"When I was given the opportunity to join three years ago, I looked forward to having the ability to see these sites and share in our shared history," said Chip Manley, a teacher at Montgomery County High School. "Even for me it is like walking on holy ground. You can feel the ghosts of history around you and imagine the struggle."

Holt Street Baptist Church has been abandoned and is in serious disrepair, Kern said. "There is no stewardship," she said. "That congregation has moved on."

Still, she said, "This trip is what we have been looking forward to."

Wednesday's tour also included the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church & Parsonage, where King was pastor from 1954 to 1960 and where he began his civil rights odyssey, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, where the group learned more about Rosa Parks and Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, who worked with Parks to help the bus boycott succeed.

The tour began Monday with a stop in Nashville at Fisk University, where the second wave of Freedom Riders originated. The visit to Birmingham on Tuesday included 16th Street Baptist Church, where a bomb exploded Sept. 15, 1963, killing four little girls who were attending Sunday school, and a trip to Tuskegee University to learn more about Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver.

In the coming days, the bus tour will travel to Selma, Ala.; Oxford, Miss.; and finally to Memphis, where they will tour the National Civil Rights Museum and talk with the Rev. Samuel "Billy" Kyles, who was with King when he was assassinated.

Teachers in Democratic Visions receive a $1,000 stipend or three hours graduate credit for full participation; are taught new teaching techniques; and are given books and teaching materials, in-class assistance and travel opportunities.

Smith is the only African-American on the tour. Rebecca Hanly, Teaching American History project director at the Kentucky Historical Society, said she has worked with the grants in Eastern Kentucky since 2002, and of the 150 teachers who have participated, only one was black.

There simply aren't that many African-American students or teachers in that area of Kentucky, she said. "It's just an interesting side effect," she said.

Manley agreed. "Seeing the experience, the stories and the photos are resources beneficial to not only African-American students, but also white students. This is something for everyone: the fight for justice and to overcome inequality."

The teachers who are participating are an enthusiastic group, Smith said. "You can hear that in their conversations."

It is definitely evident when talking with Rowan County's Brown.

"I'm trying to bring as much passion to the classroom as possible," she said, and nothing brings that home better than a visit to the sites students study in history and social studies classes.

A friend of mine is fond of quoting a Spanish proverb that says, "What the eyes don't see, the heart doesn't feel."

Because 19 teachers have seen for themselves some of the historic sites of the civil rights movements, hundreds of Kentucky students will have a better feel for and tolerance of the struggle for equality.

Of Webster and Whittier

2011-07-04T17:59:00.002-04:00

I don't know how many blog posts that I have started with, "I recently finished reading," but it happens...a lot. Sorry for that, it's just that when I find things interesting I want to share my newly acquired knowledge. So, here goes...

I recently finished reading, At the Edge of the Precipice: Henry Clay and the Compromise that Saved the Nation, by Robert V. Remini, and I am currently reading Shadrach Minkins: From Fugitive Slave to Citizen, by Gary Collison. In these books the authors explained that after Henry Clay had proposed his packaged 1850 compromise, Daniel Webster (who along with Clay and John C. Calhoun made up the "Great Triumvirate") realized the significant importance of the compromise and thew his support behind Clay. Webster made a dramatic oration on the floor of the senate in attempt to assure its passage.

Webster (pictured above) started his March 7, 1850 speech by stating that he came that day, not as "a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American." During the speech Webster explained his support for Clay's compromise and that in particular he approved of a strengthened fugitive slave law. Webster said that he saw that Southerners had a real grievance in that northern states were not holding up their constitutional obligations by returning fugitive slaves to their southern masters. He saw that if this was not remedied this issue could lead to continued strained relations between the sections and that the issue might bring on the worst thing possible...civil war.

Webster's Senate declarations were not well received by northern abolitionists, who, though small in percentage of the northern population, were quite vocal and had excellent access to the press and publications.

One of those disturbed by Webster's remarks was poet John Greenleaf Whittier. Soon after hearing about Webster's speech Whittier wrote "Ichabod," by which he meant "inglorious," or "the glory has departed."

Whittier gave the following explanation for writing the poem:

"This poem was the outcome of the surprise and grief and forecast of evil consequences which I felt on reading the seventh of March speech of Daniel Webster in support of the `compromise,' and the Fugitive Slave Law. No partisan or personal enmity dictated it. On the contrary my admiration of the splendid personality and intellectual power of the great Senator was never stronger than when I laid down his speech, and, in one of the saddest moments of my life, penned my protest. I saw, as I wrote, with painful clearness its sure results, -- the Slave Power arrogant and defiant, strengthened and encouraged to carry out its scheme for the extension of its baleful system, or the dissolution of the Union, the guaranties of personal liberty in the free States broken down, and the whole country made the hunting-ground of slave-catchers. In the horror of such a vision, so soon fearfully fulfilled, if one spoke at all, he could only speak in tones of stern and sorrowful rebuke.

But death softens all resentments, and the consciousness of a common inheritance of frailty and weakness modifies the severity of judgment. Years after, in The Lost Occasion, I gave utterance to an almost universal regret that the great statesman did not live to see the flag which he loved trampled under the feet of Slavery, and, in view of this desecration, make his last days glorious in defence of "Liberty and Union, one and inseparable."

Ichabod

So fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn
Which once he wore!
The glory from his gray hairs gone
Forevermore!
Revile him not, the Tempter hath
A snare for all;
And pitying tears, not scorn and wrath,
Befit his fall!
Oh, dumb be passion's stormy rage,
When he who might
Have lighted up and led his age,
Falls back in night.
Scorn! would the angels laugh, to mark
A bright soul driven,
Fiend-goaded, down the endless dark,
From hope and heaven!
Let not the land once proud of him
Insult him now,
Nor brand with deeper shame his dim,
Dishonored brow.
But let its humbled sons, instead,
From sea to lake,
A long lament, as for the dead,
In sadness make.
Of all we loved and honored, naught
Save power remains;
A fallen angel's pride of thought,
Still strong in chains.
All else is gone; from those great eyes
The soul has fled:
When faith is lost, when honor dies,
The man is dead!
Then, pay the reverence of old days
To his dead fame;
Walk backward, with averted gaze,
And hide the shame!

Random Cool Civil War Photograph 2

2011-06-27T19:02:00.001-04:00

Franklin & Armfield Slave Office

2011-06-24T19:41:00.004-04:00

While in Alexandria, Virginia last weekend I saw listed on a tourist map outside the Metro station a place marked as the "Freedom House." This building is actually the former office of Franklin and Armfield, antebellum slave dealers. It now houses the Freedom House Museum, which was developed by the Northern Virginia Urban League, "to preserve the story of thousands of men, women and children who passed through this place on a harrowing journey to lives of bondage and hard labor in the Deep South." Unfortunately, the museum was closed when we visited.

In the tourist handbook "A Remarkable and Courageous Journey: A Guide to Alexandria's African American History" the following interpretation of the building is provided: "This building served as the headquarters for the slave trade operations of Isaac Franklin and John Armfield, a partnership formed in 1828. Exporting thousands of blacks south, this was one of the largest intrastate slavetrading companies in the country. Enslaved African Americans were housed in 'pens' - walled areas with males to the west and females to the east. In January 1834, J. Leavitt, editor of the New York Evangelist, visited the slave pens. As recounted by Leavitt:

'We were first taken out into a paved yard 40 or 50 feet square, with a very high brick wall and about half of it covered with a roof...He (Armfield) ordered the men to be called out of the cellar where they sleep...they soon came up...50 or 60. While they were standing, he ordered the girls to be called out...About 50 women and small children came in...and I thought I saw in the faces of these mothers some indication of irrepressible feeling. It seemed to me that they hugged their little ones more closely, and that a cold perspiration stood on their foreheads.' During the Federal occupation of Alexandria, the building became a jail for captured Confederate soldiers and errant Union soldiers, as well as housing 'contrabands,' blacks seeking freedom behind Union lines."

Cool Random Civil War Photograph

2011-06-23T17:48:00.002-04:00

Glendy Burke

2011-06-08T19:06:00.004-04:00

Glendy Burk(e) was not only the name of one of Stephen C. Foster's most popular songs, it was also the name of a real steamboat that plied the waters of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.

The side-wheel packet steamer weighed 425 tons and was built by Howard Shipyards in Jeffersonville, Indiana and owned by the firm of Cobb and Nanlove in Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was first launched in 1851, but the Glendy Burke lived a short life. It sank in 1855 near Cairo, Illinois.

The boat was named for Glen D. Burke who was a wealthy merchant, banker, and later, mayor of New Orleans.

The song, published in 1860, is a lively air written in blackface dialect with what are (like many of Foster's songs) somewhat nonsensical lyrics.

De Glendy Burk is a mighty fast boat,

Wid a mighty fast captain too;

He sits up dah on de hurricane roof

And he keeps his eye on de crew.

I cant stay here, for dey work too hard;

I'm bound to leave dis town;

I'll take my duds and tote 'em on my back

When de Glendy Burk comes down.

Chorus:

Ho! for Lou'siana!

I'm bound to leave dis town;

I'll take my duds and tote 'em on my back

When de Glendy Burk comes down.

De Glendy Burk has a funny old crew

And dey sing de boatman's song,

Dey burn de pitch and de pine knot too,

For to shove de boat along.

De smoke goes up and de ingine roars

And de wheel goes round and round,

So fair you well! for I'll take a little ride

When de Glendy Burk comes down.

I'll work all night in de wind and storm,

I'll work all day in de rain,

Till I find myself on de levy dock

In New Orleans again.

Dey make me mow in de hay field here

And knock my head wid de flail,

I'll go wha dey work wid de sugar

And de cane And roll on de cotton bale.

My lady love is as pretty as a pink,

I'll meet her on de way

I'll take her back to de sunny old south

And dah I'll make her stay.

So dont you fret my honey dear,

Oh! dont you fret Miss Brown

I'll take you back 'fore de middle of de week

When de Glendy Burk comes down.

The Bivouac of the Dead

2011-06-07T18:03:00.005-04:00

There are a number of famous people buried in the Frankfort Cemetery. Daniel and Rebecca Boone are there. Vice President Richard M. Johnson is too. Simon B. Buckner and John J. Crittenden are just two of the many Kentucky governors who are there. Although only famous because of his father, Henry Clay, Jr's final resting place is there as well.

Frankfort Cemetery too, is the location of Theodore O'Hara's gave. Who? Theodore O'Hara. You know the guy that wrote the poem "The Bivouac of the Dead;" the poem which graces almost every military cemetery in America. Many people think that particular poem is from the Civil War, but it is actually from the Mexican American War. O'Hara wrote it to commemorate a monument in the Frankfort cemetery to his fellow Mexican American War veterans from the commonwealth.

O'Hara was born in Danville, Kentucky in 1820, but as a youngster his family moved to Frankfort. He was educated at Centre College and St. Joseph's Academy. He briefly studied law but worked in Washington D.C. at the Treasury department before the outbreak of the Mexican American War.

Apparently O'Hara was a firm believer in America's "manifest destiny," as during the war he held officer positions, and in 1850, joined in an expedition to remove Spanish rule from Cuba, where he was wounded in the leg. After his military adventures O'Hara went to writing, as the editor for newspapers in Louisville, Frankfort, and Mobile, Alabama.

Martial spirit must have been in O'Hara's blood, because when the Civil War broke out he joined the Confederate cause and became the lieutenant colonel of the 12th Alabama infantry regiment. He participated in epic Western Theater battles such as Shiloh and Murfreesboro.

After the war O'Hara tried the cotton business but a fire ruined that prospect. His short life ended in 1867, at at age 47, when he died of fever (probably malaria) at Guerrytown, Alabama. He was first buried in Columbus, Georgia, but his remains were eventually reinterred in Frankfort in the 1870s.

The Bivouac of the Dead

The muffled drum's sad roll has beat

The soldier's last tattoo;
No more on Life's parade shall meet
That brave and fallen few.
On fame's eternal camping ground
Their silent tents to spread,
And glory guards, with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead.

No rumor of the foe's advance

Now swells upon the wind;
Nor troubled thought at midnight haunts
Of loved ones left behind;
No vision of the morrow's strife
The warrior's dreams alarms;
No braying horn or screaming fife
At dawn shall call to arms.

Their shriveled swords are red with rust,

Their plumed heads are bowed,
Their haughty banner, trailed in dust,
Is now their martial shroud.
And plenteous funeral tears have washed
The red stains from each brow,
And the proud forms, by battle gashed
Are free from anguish now.

The neighing troop, the flashing blade,

The bugle's stirring blast,
The charge, the dreadful cannonade,
The din and shout, are past;
Nor war's wild note, nor glory's peal
Shall thrill with fierce delight
Those breasts that nevermore may feel
The rapture of the fight.

Like the fierce Northern hurricane

That sweeps the great plateau,
Flushed with triumph, yet to gain,
Come down the serried foe,
Who heard the thunder of the fray
Break o'er the field beneath,
Knew the watchword of the day
Was "Victory or death!"

Long had the doubtful conflict raged

O'er all that stricken plain,
For never fiercer fight had waged
The vengeful blood of Spain;
And still the storm of battle blew,
Still swelled the glory tide;
Not long, our stout old Chieftain knew,
Such odds his strength could bide.

Twas in that hour his stern command

Called to a martyr's grave
The flower of his beloved land,
The nation's flag to save.
By rivers of their father's gore
His first-born laurels grew,
And well he deemed the sons would pour
Their lives for glory too.

For many a mother's breath has swept

O'er Angostura's plain --
And long the pitying sky has wept
Above its moldered slain.
The raven's scream, or eagle's flight,
Or shepherd's pensive lay,
Alone awakes each sullen height
That frowned o'er that dread fray.

Sons of the Dark and Bloody Ground

Ye must not slumber there,
Where stranger steps and tongues resound
Along the heedless air.
Your own proud land's heroic soil
Shall be your fitter grave;
She claims from war his richest spoil --
The ashes of her brave.

Thus 'neath their parent turf they rest,

Far from the gory field,
Borne to a Spartan mother's breast
On many a bloody shield;
The sunshine of their native sky
Smiles sadly on them here,
And kindred eyes and hearts watch by
The heroes sepulcher.

Rest on embalmed and sainted dead!

Dear as the blood ye gave;
No impious footstep here shall tread
The herbage of your grave;
Nor shall your glory be forgot
While Fame her record keeps,
For honor points the hallowed spot
Where valor proudly sleeps.

Yon marble minstrel's voiceless stone

In deathless song shall tell,
When many a vanquished ago has flown,
The story how ye fell;
Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter's blight,
Nor time's remorseless doom,
Can dim one ray of glory's light
That gilds your deathless tomb.

Kingdom Coming

2011-06-02T17:23:00.004-04:00

No matter what President Lincoln claimed in his first inaugural address, some people, both North and South, realized that the Civil War would eventually bring emancipation to the almost four million African Americans held in bondage.

One person that apparently saw the handwriting on the wall was Henry Clay Work. In 1862 Clay published "Kingdom Coming." Work was born in Middletown, Connecticut in 1832, and his father was an antislavery man and apparently passed on his sentiments to the son.

"Kingdom Coming," written in the then popular blackface dialect, now viewed as offensive to many people, is regardless a skillfully written tune that showed that the mere presence of the Union army would aid slaves in their search for freedom.

The lyrics:

Say, darkeys, hab you seen de massa,
Wid de muffstash on his face,
Go long de road some time dis mornin',
Like he gwine to leag de place?
He seen a smoke, way up de ribber,
Whar de Linkum gumboats lay;
He took his hat, an' lef berry sudden,
An' I spec he's run away!

De massa run? ha, ha!
De darkey stay? ho, ho!
It mus' be now de kingdom comin',
An' de year of Jubilo!

He six foot one way, two foot tudder,
An' he weigh tree hundred pound,
His coat so big, he couldn't pay de tailor,
An' it won't go half way round.
He drill so much they call him Cap'an,
An' he get so drefful tann'd,
I spec he try an' fool dem Yankees
For to tink he's contraband.

De darkey's feel so lonesome libing
in de loghouse on de lawn,
Dey move dar things to massa's parlor
For to keep it while he's gone.
Dar's wine an' cider in de kitchen,
An' de darkey's dey'll hab some;
I spose dey'll all be cornfiscated
When de Linkum sojers come.

De oberseer he make us trouble,
An' he dribe us round a spell;
We lock him up in de smokehouse cellar,
Wid de key trown in de well.
De whip is lost, de han'cuff broken,
But de massa'll hab his pay;
He's ole enough, big enough, ought to known better
Dan to went an' run away.

Reading the words does not do the song justice...it truly has to be heard to do it justice. Here's a version by the 2nd South Carolina String Band - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wgpJDGy4Bo

Work wrote a number of other Civil War standards, including "Babylon is Fallen," "Come Home Father," and probably his most well known tune, "Marching Through Georgia." He continued to pen songs long after the war was over passing away in Hartford, Connecticut in 1884.

2011-05-30T09:52:00.002-04:00

In reading Ernest B. Furguson's Ashes of Glory: Richmond at War I ran across quite an interesting quote from Confederate Congressman Warren Akin. Akin wrote to his wife Mary in Georgia about the possibility of enlisting blacks to join the Confederate army. This was in the fall of 1862, way before most people, especially politicians, seriously considered this extreme measure.

Akin fully understood that, "It is a question of fearful magnitude." He wrote, "To call forth the negroes in the army with the promise of freedom, will it not be giving up the great question involved by doing the very thing Lincoln is now doing?" However, if it assured Confederate success and ultimately independence Akin was for it.

But the thoughts related to this important matter troubled Akin's mind. The logic of it did not seem to make sense to him. Warren asked Mary, 'Have you ever noticed the strange conduct of our people during this war?" How people of the Confederacy could oppose a measure that could help win the war seemed to have a hypocritical twist. Akin continued, "They give up their sons, husbands, brothers & friends, and often without murmuring, to the army; but let one of their negroes be taken, and what a howl you will hear. The love of money had been the greatest difficulty in our way to independence - it is now our chief obstacle...."

Of course, the Confederacy would eventually enlist African Americans. But, not until it was a last resort measure, and not until the last weeks of the war. And, not with much success in numbers or effectiveness. Undoubtedly, more slaves ran away from Richmond homes and farms and served in the Union army than ever were armed and enlisted for the Confederacy.

Kentuckian Richard T. Jacob at Cooper Union

2011-05-26T17:46:00.003-04:00

Most students of the Civil War are aware of Lincoln's emergence as a viable Republican candidate for the presidential nomination after his appearance and speech at New York City's Cooper Union Institute in February 1860. But, I am sure fewer people are cognizant of the irony in that a fervid call was made for a change in administrations in the same building just four years later.

In March 1864 several men spoke at Cooper Union in effort to support former commander of the Army of the Potomac George B. McClellan as a Democratic presidential nominee. Septuagenarian and former Andrew Jackson "kitchen cabinet" member Amos Kendall spoke first and wished that his former boss was still around to correct matters between the North and South. "If the Old Chief was alive he would say to the men of the North, mind your own business [slavery agitation]; to the men of the South, submit to the Constitution and the laws [no secession]."

After Kendall spoke, resolutions were announced, which included one that called the Lincoln administration "imbecile" and ended with the following: "Resolved, That we recognize in Gen. George B. McClellan, qualifications which eminently fit him to be the the deliverer and savior of our country [McClellan's big head must have loved reading this], and we hold it to be the paramount duty of all patriotic citizens and organizations to abandon all disturbing questions [slavery], and rally around him as the destined preserver of our constitutional liberties."

Next up to speak was Kentucky Lt. Governor Richard Taylor Jacob. Jacob was from an influential Kentucky family that had strong political connections. He was a second cousin of former president Zachary Taylor and his sister had married a son of the famous Henry Clay. Jacob himself married a daughter of noted Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton, which also made him a brother-in-law to John C. Fremont, who was the first Republican presidential candidate back in 1856. Jacob had served as colonel of the 9th Kentucky Cavalry (U.S.) until he was elected to his public office in 1863.

The following is what was printed in the New York Times on March 18, 1864:

"Hon. R.T. Jacobs [sic], of Kentucky, was next introduced. He said [Andrew] Jackson once declared that the Union must and should be preserved. If he were present there, he would add the Constitution must and shall be preserved. The speaker alluded to the 'miserable Abolitionists,' which the audience construed to be a reflection on the North, and greeted Mr. Jacobs with groans and hisses, making it difficult for him to proceed with his remarks. After quiet was restored, the speaker commented at length on the affairs of the nation. He said Southern traitors had broken up the Democratic party to destroy the Union. He was willing to wait until Mr. Lincoln committed some overt act, and then he would appeal to the people to sustain the Constitution. He believed the Union was indestructible, and he would stand by it. He was willing to receive the rebels as citizens, with all their former rights, when they came under the banner of the country, but not before. Upon the head of the [Lincoln] Administration rested the misery of the Union men of the South. They had been deceived by false promises. He didn't care anything about the negro. If he [the Negro] went down incidentally with the rebellion, let him go. All he cared for was the preservation of the Constitution. He would not give an inch to the rebellion, neither would be allow a violation of the Constitution. He would appeal to the flag - to his country, to stand by the Constitution. If that was treason, make the most of it. The speaker concluded by saying that he looked forward to the next November election with great hope."

Anthony Banning Norton, an editor of a Texas Unionist newspaper and who had been exiled from the state earlier in the war spoke next. "He thanked God he was reared in the old Whig school, the school of Henry Clay (cheers), in which he was taught the value of the Union, and to stand by it in every difficulty and every emergency, and it was for this reason that while the mad waves of secession rolled about Texas he stood true to the old Union." Norton too praised "Little Mac."

Last to speak was Colonel Max Langenschwartz who claimed, "We had in four years, run up a national debt double what our citizens had in seventy-two years. George B. McClellan must be our next President; and if Lincoln were to ask him why, he would reply, 'Because it is a military necessity.'" Langenschwartz's rhetoric was well practiced, in a different speech at a different time he called on the Republican party to add to polygamy to their emancipation, confiscation and miscegenation so "a man could have a yellow wife from China, a brown wife from India, a black wife from Africa, and a white wife from his own county, and so have a variegated family..."

The meeting ended with cheers for Amos Kendall, McClellan and others.

Obviously Cooper Union did not hold the same good fortune for McClellan as it did for Lincoln four year earlier. But, that didn't mean there wasn't a significant and strong concerted effort in the North to induce a change in administrations prior to the 1864 elections.

A Sunday Stroll in Frankfort's Greenhill Cemetery

2011-05-22T11:42:00.037-04:00

With the upcoming Memorial Day on my mind, I decided to take a rather short walk down Versailles Road to the Greenhill Cemetery here in Frankfort.

Several years ago, before I began studying history seriously, I never thought much about segregation and that in the past people felt the need to separate the white and black races on everything from eating and entertainment facilities to where their bodily remains would rest for time immemorial. Of all things segregated, cemeteries to me seem the most ridiculous. But, nonetheless, custom and tradition determined that Greenhill would be the historically African American cemetery here in Kentucky's capital city.

I had previously posted about the Colored Soldiers Monument at Greenhill back on June 8, 2010, and I drive past it twice everyday on my way to and from work, but ashamedly I had never taken the time to make a personal visit. I suppose I should not have been surprised to see the memorialization that vividly shows the local African American population's contributions the United States military over the years, but I was. I saw headstones for African American soldiers that were involved in every major US combat endeavor from Korea back to the Civil War while I was in Greenhill, but the number of Civil War soldiers stood out to me in particular.

A wayside interpretive marker in Greenhill Cemetery

A memorial marker dedicated by Kentucky State University

The Colored Soldiers Monument - erected 1924 (north elevation)

The Colored Soldiers Monument (west elevation)

The Colored Soldiers Monument (south elevation)

The Colored Soldiers Monument (east elevation)

Howard Anderson, Co. E, 119th United States Colored Infantry

Corporal Alexander Rennick, Co. F., 5th United States Colored Cavalry, Born March 4, 1841

Newton Bush, Co. E., 5th United States Colored Cavalry

Jason Butler, Co. I, 114th United States Colored Infantry

Corporal Morrison Butcher, Co. H, 114th United States Colored Infantry

Lewis Page, Co. F, 5th United States Colored Cavalry

Corporal Lewis A. Smith, Co. G, 117th United States Colored Infantry

Guy Owens, Co. I, 115th United States Colored Infantry

Corporal Frank Johnson, Co. K, 12th United States Colored Heavy Artillery

Corporal Benjamin Brightwell, Co. G, 114th United States Colored Infantry

John Roward, Co. I, 114th United States Colored Infantry

Jason Payne, Co. H, 119th United States Colored Infantry

Henry Starks, Co. G, 114th United States Colored Infantry

George Washington, Co. I, 114th United States Colored Infantry

William Pedrick, Co. F, 113th United States Colored Infantry

Sergeant Conway Madison, Co. D, 116th United States Colored Infantry

Merritt Madison, Co. D, 116th United States Colored Infantry

Isaac Frank, Co. F, 116th United States Colored Infantry

Levi Berry, Co. I, 107th United States Colored Infantry

William Streets, Co. K, 12th United States Colored Heavy Artillery

Harry Johnson, Co. K, 6th United States Colored Cavalry

Henry Rhodes, Co. C, 114th United States Colored Infantry

Edward Mitchell, Co. H, 8th Regiment, United States Volunteer Infantry, Spanish American War

Willie A. Queen, Kentucky Private First Class, US Army, World War I

Kenneth Childs, US Army, World War II

Howard R. Caldwell, Kentucky Private First Class, US Army, Korea

Shouldn't an Editor Catch These?

2011-05-21T20:24:00.004-04:00

Reading as much as I do I often come across references in books that I know are incorrect. It is a pet peeve of mine to see errors, especially when they are in books published by some of the most reputable printers of scholarly works.

For example, I recently just finished reading A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War by Daniel Sutherland, a professor at the University of Arkansas. I had read a number of other works by Sutherland and had heard great reviews on this new book, so I was excited to get started.

The book did not disappoint. It is one of the best books that I have read this year. And, the author makes a great case for his thesis that guerrilla warfare severely weakened support for the Confederate cause by showing that the southern government could not protect its citizens from retaliations by Unionist guerrillas and the Union army.

But, something that also caught my attention, was the couple of errors that I discovered in my reading. The first, one which I found glaring was on page 81. I quote: "Colonel John A. Garfield, future president of the United States, believed Unionists in parts of eastern Kentucky were determined enough by March 1862 to resist the 'small bands of reckless men' who still endangered them." Whaaaaa? I thought it was James A. Garfield. Surely, this must have been a typographical error! Well, maybe it was, but when I checked the index it too listed, "Garfield, John A., 81." Sure, it is only a difference of a few little letters, but isn't this something that an editor should catch before the book is printed?; especially when it is being published by probably the best publisher of scholarly Civil War works around, the University of North Carolina Press?

I found another small error later, toward the end of book. On page 267, it mentions Robert E. Lee's effort to combine forces with Joseph E. Johnston after the fall of Petersburg and Richmond, but in the next paragraph it stated, "Only the combined forces of Lee and Johnson, not scattered partisan bands, could halt the enemy's advance." Uh, it's Johnston, you just said it was Johnston; why now say Johnson?

Not too long ago I came across a reference that was clearly intended to be about Braxton Bragg, one time commander of the Army of Tennessee, but incorrectly named him as Thomas Bragg. Thomas was Braxton's older brother, and for a short time Attorney General of the Confedearcy, but was not a Confederate general.

It is not only names that are often printed incorrectly. Another book I recently read stated in error that the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky occurred on October 16 and 17, 1862. The battle actually occurred on October 8, 1862. Who is proofreading these books?

I am sure that I make my fair share of typos and grammatical errors in writing my blog posts, but I hope that if I do ever find myself fortunate enough to get an article or book published, my editor catches those little mistakes that can prove to be so embarrassing, because, after all, a blog post can be edited once published online, but once something's in print, it's there forever.

A Kentucky Union Soldier in January 1863

2011-05-16T18:31:00.003-04:00

Writing to his sister Jennie on January 15, 1863, while aboard the steamboat War Eagle, on the Mississippi River, Kentucky Union soldier John T. Harrington provided some interesting opinions on the Confederates that were his supposed enemies and his service in Mr. Lincoln's army.

Harrington opened his missive with a description of the horrors of a recent battle, where "one poor fellow received a ball full in the forehead which was right in front of me[.] he turned over, gave a rattling groan and expired." He saw this as fateful providential intervention, "for had he not been perfectly in front of me my head would have received the fatal shot." He continued, "I have seen war in all its horrors." He explained that he had been part of the victorious forces during his service and he had been routed by the enemy because of political generals that should not have been in command.

Harrington's thoughts on combat give us a small glimpse of what combat must have been like, and surely his sentiments were shared by almost all of his comrades, but his comments in the next paragraph caught me off guard and probably caught his sister off guard too. And, they make me wonder if others in the 22nd Kentucky Infantry felt likewise.

"At Arkansas Post I witnessed another kind of fight in which our side triumphed in every particular and finally planted the colors on the works of the vanquished foe, amidst the deafening shouts of a victorious army. Jennie bear in mind these men [Confederates] were overpowered but not conquered. I spent over an hour among them that night and on the word of a soldier they are men and men of the of the days of [17]76 men who have their hearts enlisted in their cause who believe God is with them and even willing to favor and defend them from the hand of oppression."

Some interesting compliments to give to the enemy who just tried to kill him, right? Well, possibly the next paragraph gives some insight into why he bestowed the favors on his foes and considered them patriots similar to those of the Revolutionary War.

"Sister you may think the above a singular expression for a Federal soldier but it is true. I enlisted to fight for the Union and the Constitution but Lincoln puts a different construction on things and and now has us Union men fighting for his Abolition Platform and thus making us a hord of Subjugators, house burners, negro thieves and devestators of private property." Harrington closed with a declaration of faith. "The Lord is with those who love him and I doubt not he will protect in the hour of danger and in time make a breech by which I will escape this thralldom [servitude]."

This letter, as previously mentioned, was written on January 15, 1863. President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1. Could Harrington's views on race and slavery have changed his opinion of his enemies. Did he now find more similarity between his own beliefs ant that of the Confederates rather than those commanding his army? Did the Emancipation Proclamation cause him to reconsider not only what he was fighting for, but what he thought his enemies were fighting for? And, in writinging "in time make a breech by which I will escape this thralldom" did he mean he wished to exit the service now that the Union aims included abolition?

One Woman's Take

2011-05-14T17:25:00.004-04:00

It doesn't surprise me anymore to find letters from Civil War era people to their elected officials. I think that people back then thought that their sentiments would be listened to more than we do today.

Writing from Logan County in southern Kentucky Sue H. Burbridge wanted President Lincoln to hear her concerns even before he officially took office. On January 20, 1861 she wrote:

Dear Sir

The negros have taken up the notion, or rather it has been taught them by beggers and Gipsies, that as soon as you were elected they would all be free. They have commence their work of poisining and Incendiaryism. Now all I want to know is make them know it, so that they may go to work and wait until the next presidential Election to cut up again. I wish you would ask your Estimable Lady how she would like, "just as she gets a good cook for some stragling begger, peddler or fortune teller to come along and pursuade her that some one would give her higher wages on the other side of town. For God sake Dear Sir give us women some assurance that you will protect us, for we are the greatest Slaves in the South.

Respectfully

Sue H Burbridge

It is not known if Abraham Lincoln responded to this woman's fears or even if he read her letter. Knowing Lincoln I would not be surprised if he did both. Letters like this might be one of several reasons he treated the border slave states with kid gloves early in the war.

Her mention of gypsies and peddlers as the cause of trouble with slaves was a common concern among citizens of the slave states. Whether these traveling salesmen and wandering performers were responsible or not, they often drew the wrath of community members concerned with personal safety and maintaining their slaves as property. Peddlers were particularly targeted for vigilante harassment. Treatments of tar and feathers or a ride out of town on a rail were not rare. For the citizens of the slave states the law of self preservation remained primary to any rights bestowed by government and written laws.

A Threat?

2011-05-13T18:47:00.005-04:00

I found the above short note at the Library of Congress. It was sent to President Abraham Lincoln's friend, Kentuckian Joshua Speed, by Kentuckians Joshua F. Bullitt, Charles Ripley and W. E. Hughes and apparently was intended for both Speed and Lincoln, as it says "Care The Prest.," and appears in the Lincoln papers. It goes against my previous thinking that Kentuckians were not contemplating the possibility of emancipation in 1861. It reads:

"There is not a day to lose in disavowing emancipation or Kentucky is gone over the mill dam -"

This appears to be referring to the need for Lincoln and the Republican Party to proclaim that they did not plan to emancipate the slaves of the South and Border slave states in order to keep Kentucky from seceding. Was this a threat? It was sent on September 13, 1861, just days before Kentucky's brief attempt at neutrality ended. Lincoln had clearly stated in his first inaugural address that previous March that, "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." So, I am not so sure. Maybe they wanted another confirmation. It's not real clear to me.

I do know that Bullitt was later arrested by order of the Lincoln administration for conspiring to overthrow the government, so possibly it was a threat.

If anyone has any ideas, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts?

CW 150 at History.com

2011-05-10T17:00:00.003-04:00

The more I see the less I like the programming on History (formerly the History Channel). With shows like Ice Road Truckers and Swamp People, which have almost nothing to do with History per say, I have little reason to spend time on channel 46 of my basic expanded cable.

However, History has somewhat redeemed themselves in my eyes. Last week a teacher on our educator advisory board for the Kentucky Historical Society sent me a link that I had not previously seen on History.com (History's web presence).

This website's designers have developed an excellent and interactive tool that I think both experts and novices, the young or the old, can learn from and enjoy.

On the homepage there are seven choices to learn about; Who They (soldiers) Were, Weapons of War, How They Died, 5 Deadliest Battles, Paying for the War, West Point Warriors, and Civil War topics, which offers another six sets of choices; Technology, Union, Confederate, Battles, Places/Events, and Culture. In these "topics" a number of options are available. For example, in Place/Events topics from Andersonville to West Virginia Statehood are covered; while in Culture, topics from Black Codes to Uncle Tom's Cabin are examined.

Take a few minutes to check it out at the link below:

http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/interactives/civil-war-150#/home

The Union War

2011-05-04T19:39:00.002-04:00

It seems that Dr. Gary Gallagher's new book, The Union War is causing quite a stir among Civil War scholars. In the book Gallagher calls into question several historians' recent interpretations of the main motivation for the North fighting the war.

Naturally, my curiosity was peaked when I started seeing the reviews and comments, so I ordered a copy and made a quick read of it, which wasn't difficult in that, as with most of Gallagher's books, it is well written, and this one was relatively short (162 pages of text).

Here is the work's description that the book jacket provides:

"Even one hundred and fifty years later, we are haunted by the Civil War - by its division, its bloodshed, and perhaps, above all, by its origins. Today, many believe that the war was fought over slavery. This answer satisfies our contemporary sense of justice, but as Gary Gallagher shows in this brilliant revisionist history, it is an anachronistic judgement.

In a searing analysis of the Civil War North as revealed in contemporary letters, diaries, and documents, Gallagher demonstrates that what motivated the North to go to war and persist in an increasingly bloody effort was primarily preservation of the Union. Devotion to the Union bonded nineteenth-century Americans in the North and West against the slaveholding aristocracy in the South and a Europe that seemed destined for oligarchy. Northerners believed they were fighting to save the republic, and with it the world's best hope for democracy.

Once we understand the centrality of union, we can in turn appreciate the force that made northern victory possible: the citizen-soldier. Gallagher reveals how the massive volunteer army of the North fought to confirm American exceptionalism by salvaging the Union. Contemporary concerns have distorted the reality of nineteenth-century Americans, who embraced emancipation primarily to punish secessionists and remove slavery as a future threat to union - goals that emerged in the process of war. As Gallagher recovers why and how the Civil War was fought, we gain a more honest understanding of why and how it was won."

First, let me say that I think Gallagher is largely spot-on. Numerous relatively recent histories place emancipation as a motivation for the North fighting the war primary to union. I think to do this, is like Gallagher explains, anachronistic. Union was such a strong idea to most of the people of the United States before the war that the firing on Fort Sumter didn't cause the remaining four states to break away and join the Confederacy; it took Lincoln's call for 75,000 northern volunteers, and thus an expected invasion of the South by federal troops for Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee to sever their cherished bonds of union. And, still after secession, many people in those four states remained sympathetic to the Union cause.

The ideal that the Union offered to Northerners and the Border States brought forth a type of jihad - if that is not too strong of a word - that would not be complete until the Union was restored. The North was going to do everything it had to do in order to keep the country from splitting, and it had the men and means to do it.

All of this is not to say that slavery wasn't the precipitating factor that caused the war. The southern states seceded because they felt threated by a Republican president and thought their best chances of preserving the institution that was the backbone of their society and economy was to leave the Union. If the South had not seceded then the North would not have had reason to fight to keep the Union together; thus no war. It is my opinion that the majority of northern soldiers had little interest in ending slavery other than as a means of helping the Union win the war and restore the Union.

Where I think Gallagher maybe missed in his interpretation (unless I missed it) is at least mentioning that African Americans were active agents in causing the war. Largely it was not the slaves from the states that first seceded who ran away in the antebellum years, but rather those from the slave states that seceded last or not at all (Border States). But it was those Deep South states that cried foul when runaways were not returned, or when caught, put up a fight. Most of the famous rescues and publicized runaway episodes such as Anthony Burns (Virginia), Henry Box Brown (Virginia), John Price (Kentucky), Margaret Garner (Kentucky), Jermain Loguen (Tennessee), the Cynthiana Riot (Maryland), as well as the famous Frederick Douglass (Maryland), came from the upper-South states. But, it was South Carolina, Mississippi and others of the Deep South that claimed that the North was not holding up their part of the Constitution by returning fugitive slaves as a significant reason for breaking the bonds of union. So, in my opinion, the runaway African American slave was an active agent in bringing on the war, and thus an active agent in restoring the Union and ending his bondage.

"Let Justice Be Done!"

2011-05-03T18:14:00.003-04:00

To say the least 1864 was a difficult year for white Kentuckians. Their physical world was being torn apart by raiding guerrillas and their social world was being turned upside down as African Americans flocked to the Union army to enlist.

Not only was the Union army recruiting blacks to join their forces, they were also impressing slaves from both Unionist and Confederate owners. Often making those that didn't want to enlist serve anyway.

A short article appeared in the Frankfort Tri-Weekly Commonwealth on March 4, 1864 under the headline, "Let Justice be Done!" explained the unfair treatment Unionist slaveholders felt they were receiving at the hands of the federal government.

"General [Stephen G.] Burbridge has issued an order extending to the impressment of negroes to other counties than those included in the order heretofore. Now, General, we think it decidedly wrong that the order includes the negroes of loyal as well as disloyal persons. Let the negroes of loyal persons remain with their owners, and impress only the negroes of the rebels and their sympathizers. The necessity of impressing negroes and other property alone rises from the rebellion, and the aiders and abettors of the rebellion are the ones from which the impressments should be made. Let justice be done the Union people, by letting their property alone. Let justice be done the rebels and those who give them aid and comfort, by taking their negroes and property for Government use."

This perceived injustice and hard-handedness toward the loyal people of Kentucky was one of several reasons that the commonwealth came to identify itself more with the Confederate cause after the shooting stopped. Like the people of the Confederate states that seceded over the Union's threats to slavery, those in the slaveholding border states too associated liberty with property, only they felt their best chances to remain slave owners was to stay in the Union, not leave it. The Emancipation Proclamation, although it technically did not effect them, started the slippery slope that ended the institution with the 13th amendment to the Constitution. Enlisting and impressing former slaves were just more nails in the institution's coffin.

My, Major Kalfus How You Have Changed!

2011-04-26T10:42:00.002-04:00

I recently finished reading, The Battle Rages Higher: The Union's Fifteenth Kentucky Infantry, by Kirk C. Jenkins. Although I had read a significant amount about Kentucky's Confederate soldiers, I honestly had not read much about the Union fighting men of the commonwealth. The book provided good background information on how at least a portion of Kentucky's majority Unionist population experienced the war, which I think will be helpful if I continue to pursue my research on white Kentuckians' opposition to black enlistment.

The 15th Kentucky was raised from men that came from a number of different counties. Soldiers from Jefferson, Bullitt, Shelby, Nelson, Hardin, LaRue, Hart, and Spencer, among others, signed up to fight to save the Union. One soldier in particular had an especially interesting story.

Henry Frederick Kalfus was born on April 14, 1832 in Shepherdsville, Ky (Bullitt Co.-highlighted on map above) and was educated at Hanover College (Indiana), and the Kentucky School of Medicine, where he received his medical degree in 1860. He had married Elizabeth Birkhead in 1854, and raised Company D of the 15th Kentucky after the war broke out. He was elected its captain, and was promoted to major of the regiment on October 9, 1862, a day after the unit had fought at the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky.

The 15th Kentucky fought too at Murfreesboro, [Stones River] Tennessee. During the winter battle (Dec. 31-Jan.2, 1862), their young colonel, James Brown Forman was killed. Promotions appeared to be available for almost all of the officers in the regiment, but opposition to President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (to take effect on Jan. 1, 1863) prompted fifteen officers in the regiment to tender their resignations in late January. Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, the army's commander, rejected them all.

In early February, five officers again attempted to resign, but also were rejected by Rosecrans. Kalfus, expecting a promotion was denied when the resignations were rejected and retained his rank of major. Disappointed in the status quo, he wanted out of the service, but he apparently did not want to lose honor by making it look like he resigned due to not being promoted. So, he resigned...but based his stated decision on opposition to the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Louisville Democrat published his stated reason for resigning on March 14, 1863:

"That I am painfully convinced that the war is not prosecuted by the present party in power [Republican] in accordance with the principles and policy under which I enlisted eighteen months ago; that I enlisted to fight rebellion, to fight treason, to fight for a reconstruction [emphasis in original] of the Union as it was, but not for the degradation of the white man to an equality with the negro; and being unwilling to sacrifice my liberty of opinion, and more unwilling to encourage insubordination by the utterance of sentiments while in the service which might be considered inconsistent with good order and proper discipline in the army, and as I could not as conscientiously and as zealously discharge my duties as formerly, I respectfully desire that my resignation be accepted; and moreover, that the service would not suffer, because the vacancies of the regiment were now filled, and a competent senior Captain ready to take my place."

A few days earlier Kalfus helped ensure that his resignation be accepted when he did just what he stated he would not do in his letter to the Louisville Democrat. While working on earthworks, and observing African Americans labor at the task, he said so as to be heard by others that, "I am willing for negroes to be employed for such work as this, but when guns are put in their hand we are all going home." Kalfus was arrested and then given a dishonorable discharge. Col. Beatty, who commanded the brigade the 15th was in, wrote in his diary that Kalfus, "will, I doubt not, be a lion among his half-loyal neighbors when he returns home."

Beatty was correct. Kalfus well knew the sentiments of the majority of his fellow Kentuckians about Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, and thus the possibility of arming African American slaves for combat. The Louisville Democrat wrote about the Kalfus's discharge on March 14. "Had Captain [Major] Kalfus acted with more shrewdness and less honesty he could have withdrawn easily with high honor. Had he resigned on some hypocritical pretense, it would, no doubt, have been more in accordance with official custom and dignity, besides there would have been nothing like treason in the case." Flirting with treason would be in near future for Kalfus.

In August of 1864 Kalfus was arrested for conspiracy with members of the Sons of Liberty to aid the Confederate cause by releasing rebel prisoners and committing terrorist acts in the North. Kalfus was released from incarceration in a prisoner exchange, but upon returning to Louisville found that he was to be arrested again and made his escape to Canada. He returned to Kentucky after the war was over and went back to practicing medicine. He died in Louisville in 1890.

Although the details of the Kalfus story are quite unique, his change in sentiment after the Emancipation Proclamation is representative of a significant portion of Kentucky's white male population, and yet another reason that Kentucky became so identified with the Confederacy after the Civil War was over.

"Only One Killed"

2011-04-23T16:34:00.004-04:00

The following poem was written by Julia L. Keyes (1829-1877), an Alabama woman, after she read a notice in a newspaper during the Civil War under the headline "Only One Killed." It speaks of the disregard for the preciousness of human life that that terrible war brought; a callousness that developed in people, both North and South, with the loss of so many lives.

Only one killed -- in Company B;

'Twas a trifling loss -- one man!

A charge of the bold and dashing Lee --

While merry enough it was, to see

The enemy, as he ran.

Only one killed upon our side --

Once more to the field they turn.

Quietly now the horsemen ride --

And pause by the form of the one who died,

So bravely, as now we learn.

Their grief for the comrade loved and true

For a time was unconcealed;

They saw the bullet pierced him through;

That his pain was very brief -- ah! very few

Die thus, on the battle-field.

The news has gone to his home, afar --

Of the short and gallant fight,

Of the noble deeds of the young La Var

Whose life went out as a falling star

In the skirmish of that night.

"Only one killed! It was my son,"

The widowed mother cried.

She turned but to clasp the sinking one,

Who heard not the words of the victory won,

But of him who bravely died.

Ah! death to her were sweet relief,

The bride of a single year.

Oh! would she might, with her weight of grief,

Lie down in the dust, with the autumn leaf

Now trodden and brown and sere!

But no, she must bear through coming life

Her burden of silent woe.

The aged mother and youthful wife

Must live through a nation's bloody strife,

Sighing, and waiting to go,

Where the loved ones are meeting beyond the stars,

Are meeting no more to part.

They can smile once more through the crystal bars --

Where never more will the woe of wars

O'ershadow the loving heart.

Lest We Forget!

Circular No. 8, March 1, 1864

2011-04-21T18:26:00.002-04:00

While doing some preliminary research on my new area of study - white Kentuckians opposition to black Union army enlistments - I ran across a letter from Kentucky Governor Thomas Bramlette to President Lincoln voicing his opposition and that of the state as a whole.

The first part of the letter reads:

"I see the Provost Marshall General U. S has issued his circular for the enrollment of slaves preparatory for draft. I had hoped that nothing would be done to disturb the confidence and good feeling which was being rapidly established in your Administration of the Government; and that nothing should occur to change a friendly support to an active hostility of your Administration, by those who have already endured much and suffered greatly for their Country. My earnest desire has been to unify the sentiment of my people in harmony with the legitimate measures of the Administration for the suppression of the rebellion. I had hoped for the sympathy and cooperation of the Administration. This hope cannot survive the attempt to inflict this wrong upon us."

Naturally, I was curious about what this circular said, so I referenced The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion - or the O.R. as historians refer to it. On March 1, 1864 the Provost Marshal General's (James B. Fry) Office issued Circular No. 8. It consisted of 6 points:

1. Pursuant to section 24 of the act approved February 24, 1864, amendatory of the act of March 3, 1863, boards of enrollment in districts in which there are any colored persons held to service will without delay proceed to enroll all such persons as are liable to military duty.

2. Enrolling officers will conduct the enrollment in the manner prescribed by existing orders and regulations and such other directions as the acting assistant provost-marshalls-general of the States may give.

3. Enrollment lists will be made upon the printed forms (Nos. 35 and 36), altering the heading to suit, and in the column headed "Former military service" the name of the person to whom service is owed is written.

4. A list, with a recapitulation of the number enrolled, will be made for each sub-district, and as soon as the enrollment of the district is completed these lists will be forwarded to the acting assistant provost-marshal-general for transmission to the Provost-Mashal-General. Copies of the list will be kept in the offices of the district provost-marshal. Those lists by sub-districts will not be consolidated.

5. The provost-marshal will furnish each person to whom the persons owe service a list of those owing service to him who have been enrolled, specifying their names, ages, and date of enrollment.

6. It is made the duty of the acting assistant provost-marshal-general to superintend this enrollment, and to give such orders and directions as may be necessary to make it accurate and complete.

While the other points are largely tedious instructions, the first point obviously is quite significant. It referred directly to the border states of Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland and Delaware. While it also referred to some areas where the Union army occupied territory in the Confederacy, in many of those places, by the time this circular was issued, slavery was in fact dead on on its death bed.

Slavery was not dead in Kentucky. The Bluegrass state, along with her sister border states, was not subject to the Emancipation Proclamation, and men, women and children continued to be bought and sold and worked without compensation.

Slaves serving in the Union army was probably the last thing on Kentuckians' minds in 1861 when hostilities started. But, by 1864 Kentuckians knew that if slaves were allowed to enroll in the Union army, that would be the beginning of the end of slavery in the Commonwealth. The end of the practice of slavery meant the loss of millions of dollars in property and production. White Kentuckians also knew that if blacks were allowed to serve in the military it would be a step toward citizenship and social equality...something that they did not want to consider and something they would not have imagined three short year before.

Governor Bramlette continued his letter by stating:

"We offer freely our own Sons for the defence of the Government. You may call out as many as you choose by draft or otherwise and Kentuckians will obey the call without a murmer

Surely this should satisfy the demands of all whose object is the defence and preservation of our government. If you require a soldier we offer you a Kentuckian.-- Will nothing but a Negro satisfy the Administration? What superiority has the slave over the Kentuckian that he should be prefered? I beg you to pause, consider and weigh well the consequences, before you spring a mine the awakened thunders of which may crash upon the ear of the present and coming generations. Kentuckians will obey willingly any law requiring their services in defence of their Government -- for this they hold to be their duty -- but they will not obey a law violative of their Constitutional rights as Citizens, which dishonors them by preferring the slave to the loyal Kentuckian and which takes private property for public use without just compensation, and without any necessity or excuse. Such law can only be enforced by a hard and dangerous constraint .. Kentuckians will sacrifice every thing for for principle -- but principle for nothing."

Bramlette's claim that white Kentuckians would willing serve the Union army if called on apparently does not hold water. It is true that more Kentuckians served in the Union army than in the Confederate army. Historian Anne E. Marshall, in her book Creating a Confederate Kentucky, claims that between 66,000 and 76,000 men served in the Union army while between 25,000 and 40,000 served the Confederacy." But, of those that served in the Union army, 24,000 were African American soldiers. Marshall also contends that, "Of Kentucky's eligible white males, 71 percent chose not to fight at all." African Americans proved more committed, as "40 percent of Kentucky's able bodied African American males served the Union." Only the state of Louisiana sent more blacks to the Union than Kentucky.

In the spring of 1864, to paraphrase a song from one hundred years later, the times, they were a changin', but most white Kentuckians did not want to see or believe it.

For Bramlette's complete letter go to: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mal:@field(DOCID+@lit(d3136600))

The Last Full Measure at the Library of Congress

2011-04-15T17:36:00.005-04:00

The Library of Congress web site (www.loc.gov) is quickly becoming my favorite place to find primary sources. It is simply amazing how much historic information on almost any subject in America's past can be found over there.

Their Civil War photograph collection has always been top notch, and a first place stop for historians to find illustrations to their texts. But, there has been an recent addition to this fine collection. On exhibit now, not only in their Washington D.C. facilities, but also online, is The Last Full Measure, the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War era photographic portraits. The following is the description that the Library of Congress provides about the collection:

The Last Full Measure: Civil War Photographs from the Liljenquist Family Collection

The Last Full Measure: Civil War Photographs from the Liljenquist Family Collection presents a stunning array of Civil War-era ambrotype and tintype photographs that associates human faces, often startlingly young, with statistics on both sides in this wrenching conflict. This exhibition features portraits of enlisted men in uniform—both Union and Confederate—and serves as a memorial to those who lost their lives during the war by displaying images of 360 Union soldiers in uniform—one for every thousand who died—and 52 rare images of Confederate soldiers—one for every five thousand casualties. More than 620,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died in the Civil War, a greater number of deaths than occurred in all other American wars combined through Vietnam.

Surrounding visitors to the exhibition, these portraits invite quiet contemplation of the human costs of the war and the courage and determination that characterized the people on both sides. The names of most of those pictured have been lost during the passage of time. As it preserves these portraits, the Library of Congress is also using the power of electronic media to recover as much information as possible about these individuals and to add details about their uniforms, hats, guns, swords, belt buckles, canteens, musical instruments, and the other items that surround them. A digital comment book at the end of the exhibition allows visitors to post their thoughts about individual photos and to reflect on the Civil War.

The Last Full Measure also tells the story of the family that has built the powerful collection of Civil War portraits, now numbering more than 700 images, from which this exhibition is drawn. As they continue adding to the collection, Tom Liljenquist and his sons Jason, Brandon, and Christian seek to inspire in others an interest in the amazing personal stories that are at the heart of all history. The Last Full Measure marks the beginning of the Library’s sesquicentennial commemoration of the Civil War, in which three million Americans donned uniforms and countless others provided support on and off the field of battle—each person making a contribution to this defining chapter in the continuing story of the United States of America.

Take a few minutes to browse through this treasure trove of history. The faces of these men and women, both black and white, both Union and Confederate, are the faces of a generation that experienced the most trying time in America's history.

Here's the link: http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/civilwarphotographs/Pages/Default.aspx

On To New Things

2011-04-14T17:39:00.003-04:00

Courtesy Library of Congress-American Memory

Well, I submitted my article, "'Principles Opposed to the Public Peace:' Kentuckians' Reactions to John Brown's Raid" on Tuesday. I certainly do not think I have seen the last of the paper since I am sure more editing will be needed if it is accepted, but I have already started thinking of my next study.

Initially I thought about doing something on one of the United States Colored Troop regiments that was raised in Kentucky, but that would most likely require significant research time at the National Archives in Washington D.C. And, while I am certainly not opposed to spending as much time as possible in the nation's capitol deep in research, it is probably not realistic at this point.

I also thought about working on a string of studies about how Kentuckians experienced other national issues in the 1850s. Starting with the Compromise of 1850 (including the Fugitive Slave Law) and the Nashville Convention and going through John Brown's raid. These studies could be a number of articles that would probably turn into chapters, but obviously a study such as this would require it being book-length. Chronologically, other topics that would be of interest to me in this particular study would be Kentuckians' responses to: Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Kansas-Nebraska Act, The Margaret Garner case, Brooks's caning of Sumner, Bleeding Kansas, the Dred Scott decision, the Lincoln-Douglas debates and end with my work on John Brown's raid. The only problem with this idea is that would require a significant commitment and would take a long time.

But, I believe that I have decided on something different. Piggybacking off of my previous work on Kentuckians' reactions to John Brown's raid, I think I might continue to explore the Bluegrass state and race. After recently reading Anne E. Marshall's Creating a Confederate Kentucky it reminded me of how vehemently Kentuckians opposed African Americans enlisting in the Union army. Although this topic has been touched upon in recent scholarship it doesn't appear that anyone has explored it in depth. Another positive to this particular topic is that there should be no shortage of sources from all across the state and from numerous perspectives.

One primary source I easily found at the Library of Congress is pictured above. Although it is not from a Kentuckian (it is from native Hoosier Ambrose Burnside) it does mention how he thought Kentuckians would respond to the issue of African American enlistments in the Commonwealth. It reads:

The following Telegram received at Washington 320 PM. June 26 1863,

From Cincinnati 2 PM.

Dated, June 26 1863.

Prest Lincoln

I am satisfied from my knowledge of Ky that it would be very unwise to enrol the free negroes of that State It would not add materially to our strength and I assure you it would cause much trouble I sincerely hope this embarassment to the interests of the public service will not be placed in our way Please Answer at once¹

Very Resp'y

A E Burnside

Maj Genl

Shots of Fort Sumter...150 Years After

2011-04-12T17:38:00.012-04:00

Today, in honor of the sesquicentennial of Fort Sumter, I thought I'd share some images that I took while in Charleston last week. Being in Charleston a week before the 150th anniversary of the assault on Fort Sumter was a real special treat. I had been to Charleston three times in the past, but I had never had the time to take a trip out to the historic fort. To say the least, standing on that historic ground was quite a moving experience.

To get out to the fort we had to take a boat ride from Liberty Park at the Aquarium thorough the harbor that lasted about 3o minutes. There was some recorded narration available on both the trip to the fort and on the way back, but when we boarded we went to the lower deck, so we only found that out on the way back.

It was a beautiful day for a cruise out to Fort Sumter. It was breezy, but nice and sunny. The view from the water level deck was amazing. The fort is visible over my left shoulder.

Native Kentuckian, Major Robert Anderson, the U.S. commander, moved his force from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter on December 26, 1860. Provisions ran low for the garrison over the next three months as South Carolina refused efforts to resupply the force. After the bombardment began on April 12, Anderson and his men lasted 34 hours until he finally capitulated.

There were no reported casualties in this the first battle of the Civil War, but Pvt. Daniel Hough was killed instantly when a cannon went of prematurely on shot 47 of a planned 100 gun salute during the surrender ceremony. The 100 gun salute was reduced to 50.

On April 14, 1865, Anderson returned to Fort Sumter to re-raise the flag he had lowered 4 years before. President Lincoln was assassinated later that evening back in Washington D.C.

This shot is from inside one of the surviving casemates. Our interpretive ranger explained that construction on Fort Sumter was started in 1829 by importing granite, much of it from New England, and building an island on which the masonry fort was built. Unbelievably, when the fort was bombarded on April 12, 1861, it still was not fully completed. Most of the masonry work was completed by African American slaves and free men of color and the bricks were made on local plantations. During the bombardment over 3,000 shots were fired at the fort!

The interior of Fort Sumter looks much different than it did 150 years ago. Battery Huger, a Spanish American War era installation now dominates much of the grounds, but it is easy to get a feel for what the fort looked like by viewing the surviving walls.

Michele and I on very historic ground.

It was possible to see Morris Island (about a mile away) quite clearly from Fort Sumter. Morris Island is where the famous 54th Massachusetts (African American soldiers) attacked Battery Wagner on July 18, 1863 and is depicted in the motion picture Glory.

Also clearly visible on the ride back to Charleston was Castle Pinckney. Pinckney was built by the U.S. government in 1810 and named in honor of Revolutionary War hero Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. This fort was the first federal installation in Charleston that fell to South Carolina's forces. During the Civil War this fort held Union prisoners taken at First Manassas for a short time.

On our return to the National Park Service Visitor Center at Liberty Park we had the opportunity go through the excellent exhibits that told the story of this American treasure. I highly recommend taking some time to visit Charleston during the Civil War Sesquicentennial and learn more about this opening round of the war.

Dixie, Where is Dixie?

2011-04-10T09:45:00.001-04:00

Courtesy Library of Congress-American Memory

Hemp for Traitors

2011-04-09T16:02:00.000-04:00

Courtesy Library of Congress-American Memory

NPS: Civil War 150 Website

2011-03-29T19:06:00.001-04:00

http://www.nps.gov/civilwar150/index.html

Kentucky's Neutrality...the Cartoon

2011-03-27T17:44:00.001-04:00

Courtesy Library of Congress

...And That's What's the Matter!

2011-03-24T17:31:00.010-04:00

When Stephen Collins Foster wrote "That's What's The Matter" in 1862 the country was being torn apart by civil war. Foster, a Democrat from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and related to previous President James Buchanan by marriage, had earned much of his living writing songs with slavery themes and often in blackface dialect. But, Foster's choice to side with the Union was probably not a difficult one for him and he doesn't appear to have harbored Copperhead sympathies. His lyrics in "That's What's The Matter" bear this fact out as he pokes fun at the Confederacy and strongly supports the Union war effort.

Author Ken Emerson in Doo-dah! Stephen Foster and the Rise of American Popular Culture explains that, "The song scolds the 'rebel crew' as if they were naughty boys, delights in their comeuppance at Shiloh, and praises the iron-clad Monitor and its true-blue captain, John Ericsson." At this particular time Foster was living in New York City and and according to Emerson "Since it has been built and launched in Brooklyn, the Monitor was a source of special pride to New Yorkers (and perhaps of additional pride to Foster because its guns had been manufactured in Pittsburgh."
The song's lively opening lines are, to me, some of Foster's most catchy.

"We live in hard and stirring times,

Too sad for mirth, too rough for rhymes;

For songs of peace have lost their chimes,

And that's what's the matter.

The men we held as brothers true,

Have turn'd into a Rebel crew;

So, now we have to put them thro',

And that's what's the matter."

The song also apparently carried some significant cultural weight as well, as it's title appeared on the Civil War era envelopes pictured above and below.

If you are interested in seeing a short performance of this song give this link a look and listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zecH1M8sHXw

Kentucky in Minstrelsy

2011-03-20T12:14:00.004-04:00

I have been developing a real interest in antebellum minstrelsy lately and one observation that I have made is that Kentucky comes in for its fair share of mention in these songs. Not that that is rare, as almost all Southern states make an appearance in these tunes, but the Bluegrass State seems to have had a special appeal to the composers. Historian William J. Mahar, in Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture, explains that Virginia far out paced the other slave states mentioned in minstrel songs, but was followed by Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina.

Sometimes the Bluegrass State appears in titles such as the above pictured "Julius From Kentucky," or Stephen Foster's famous "My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night." But, in many more Kentucky is mentioned in the lyrics.

In "Ring, Ring the Banjo," Foster again references Kentucky, but this time instead of reminiscing of Kentucky, one gets the impression that the slave did not have such a good experience:

"Once I was so lucky, my massa set me free,

I went to old Kentucky to see what I could see;

I could not go no farder , I turn to massa's door,

I lub hum all de harder, I'll go away no more."

In "Darling Nelly Gray," written by Benjamin R. Hanby, in 1856, Kentucky is again a happy place for the slave who loses his Nelly to slave traders that take her to Georgia to "toil in the cotton and the cane."

"There's a low green valley on the old Kentucky shore,

There I've wiled many happy hours away,

A-sitting and a-singing by the little cottage door,

Where lived my darling Nelly Gray."

In Clare [Clear] de Kitchen,which dates back to minstrelsy of the early 1830s, Kentucky is mentioned as "old," not so much as old chronologically as old in being familiar and favored. Kentucky's mother state, Virginia, is also referenced :

"In old Kentuck in de afternoon,

we sweep de floor with a brand new broom,

an dis de song dat we do sing,

Oh! Clare de kitchen old folks, young folks,

Clare de kitchen old folks, young folks,

Old Virginny never tire."

Christy's Minstrels turned out "Happy Uncle Tom," in 1853, which refuted Harriet Beecher Stowe's interpretation:

"Oh, white folks we'll have you know,

Dis am not de version of Mrs. Stowe,

Wid her all de darks are unlucky,

But we am the boys from old Kentucky,

Den han de banjo down to play,

We'll make it ring both night and day,

And we care not what de white folks say,

Dey can't get us to run away."

It could be that Kentucky is mentioned so often due to its nearness to many of the composers of these songs. Foster was from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and spent some time working in Cincinnati, and he had relatives in Kentucky. Minstrelsy, especially early on, seems to have followed the flow of steamboat travel, and Kentucky being prominent on both the Ohio and Mississippi River routes, could be another explanation. Uncle Tom's Cabin influenced much of the antebellum era's popular culture, and with much of the book being set in Kentucky, that probably also had something to do with Kentucky often being mentioned.

If you know of other references to Kentucky in minstrelsy I would be interested to hear about them.

Kentucky Union Officer Marcellus Mundy to Abraham Lincoln on Colonization

2011-03-19T18:18:00.003-04:00

Louisville Hotel. Louisville Ky

July 28. 1864

Mr. President.

Will the Government undertake to Colonize the negroes of Kentucky out of the state, if the people of Kentucky will emancipate them? I do not ask this question idly: but with the determination to take the stump as an advocate for emancipation if it be answered in the affirmative. Kentucky is the only loyal state in which the institution holds a tenure that can not be disturbed without manifest wrong and injustice and therefore the more necessity the people should of their own accord dig the root from our soil. If Kentucky emancipates, then will slavery in the United States become eradicated; and she certainly will not be asking too much to ask to have them colonized out of her border when emancipated. We need not discuss the causes which may lead the Kentuckians to adopt emancipation as it is sufficient to know that they are ripe for that policy if the government will render a little judicious aid of the kind I suggest. I will give you in brief the suggestions I have made to some of the leading slave owners of the state: "Our labouring negro men being taken for the army to support the women and children will be a burthen and no profit to us as we will in the future have no market south for our slaves. Negroes can never be valuable to us in Ky when the institution has been destroyed in the south and enmity to the institution lines our northern and eastern borders." And to those to whom I have conversed upon the subject adopt my views and I can safely say that the only drawback to successful emancipation, is a disinclination to have the negro population freed and kept among us, and certainly the government will, to advance a great scheme like this, frought with good, forget whatever prejudice may have been engendered against our state by the impolicy of our representative men and to accomplish the great work in a lawful and constitutional way, hold out her helping hand. As soon as I receive your affirmative reply I will devote my time and energies to this course

Respectfully

M Mundy

[Note 1 Mundy was colonel of the 23rd Kentucky Infantry.]

Courtesy Library of Congress-American Memory

Drew Gilpin Faust on Washington's "Burial of Latane"

2011-03-15T16:57:00.004-04:00

I often walked around Lexington, Virginia when I was completing a graduate fellowship at the Stonewall Jackson House a few years ago. My walks took me by the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery on a number of occasions. At the entrance of the cemetery there is an information board explaining the location of famous people buried there. The cemetery is filled with important Confederates military and civilian personalities such as Jackson, Virgina war governor John Letcher, and poetess Margaret Junkin Preston. Also buried there is William Nelson Pendleton, artillery commander for the Army of Northern Virginia, as well as his son and Jackson aide Alexander "Sandie" Pendleton, who was a wartime casualty. The information panel also explains that there is another individual resting in peace at the cemetery, William D. Washington. Washington produced what may be the most popular Confederate painting to come out of the war, The Burial of Latane.

I recently finished reading renowned historian Drew Gilpin Faust's Southern Stories: Slaveholders in Peace in War. This great collection of essays included an article titled "William D. Washington's Burial of Latane" that contained an interpretation of the work which I found particularly interesting.

As stated above, The Burial of Latane was created during the Civil War (1864) by Virginian William D. Washington. The image first hung in the Washington's Richmond studio, but interest quickly grew in the painting and it was moved to the Confederate Capitol, where a bucket was placed under it to solicit donations to the Confederate war effort.

The image depicts the interment of Lt. William Latane, a cavalryman in J.E.B. Stuart's command, and the sole casualty in Stuart's daring ride around the Union's Army of the Potomac in the spring of 1862. Latane's body was left among strangers when he fell but was carefully laid to rest by loyal lady adherents to the Southern cause and their slaves.

Faust explained the slaves' role in the painting. "Slaves leaning on their shovels here bury no the family silver [to keep it from the Yankees], but a nation's spiritual treasure. And the Confederacy's mission of converting the African is advanced by this graphic enactment before slave onlookers of the drama of Christian sacrifice and redemption, with a white southern man [Latane] in the inspirational role. Washington's work thus forcefully emphasizes this central aspect of southern national purpose. Whites and blacks together affirm their commitment to God and nation in a ritual of community worship."

The black slaves are kept in the shadows to the left while the white women, especially the one center with the Common Book of Prayer are shown as enlightened and blessed. Faust claims that "Working together, the races are at the same time kept carefully apart... Physically linking them is a blond child, a representation of southern innocence and purity, who evokes, in a kind of play on symbols, the many popular prewar illustrations of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Little Eva. Although in Uncle Tom's Cabin Eva dies to redeem the South from the sin of slavery, here she lives to affirm the moral legitimacy of the southern nation's peculiar institution. It is the northern army, not slavery, that bears responsibility for the death this painting illustrates."

Faust explained, "The Burial of Latane embodies the larger Confederate discourse about gender by illustrating its exemplary ritual. Women here enact their roles in Christian sacrifice and celebration; the burial is at once a holy and political communion. Even the clothes of the white ladies emphasize the conjoint religious and political significance of the narrative - two dressed in the black of Christian mourning, the others in the colors of the Confederate flag. And as strangers to the dead Latane, they generalize the particularity of the event to embrace a broader affirmation of Christian and national unity. Latane, like Christ, died for us all."

Faust summarizes the work: "The divergence between the realities of southern civilian life in 1864 and the ideal portrayed by William Washington is both dramatic and significant. In the years after Appomattox, adherents of the Lost Cause came to view the popular engravings of the Latane scene as a touching rendition of the virtues of loyalty and sacrifice the war had called forth. William Washington knew better. His painting was designed as nationalist rhetoric, as a persuasive rationale for continued struggle in the face of erosion of Confederate loyalty all around him. Instead of a paean, it was a plea. Curiously, however, it ultimately became a promise. The postwar engraving of Latane achieved its enormous popularity because it assured a defeated people that the South, like the dead lieutenant, could rise again."

Two years before the painting, the burial scene was captured in verse soon after the event in 1862, and published in the Southern Literary Messenger:

The Burial of Latane

By John R. Thompson

The combat raged not long, but ours the day;
And through the hosts that compassed us around
Our little band rode proudly on its way,
Leaving one gallant comrade, glory-crowned,
Unburied on the field he died to gain,
Single of all men amid the hostile slain.

One moment on the battle's edge he stood,
Hope's halo like a helmet round his hair;
The next beheld him dabbled in his blood,
Prostrate in death, and yet in death how fair!
E'en thus he passed through the red gate of strife
From earthly crowns and palms to an immortal life.

A brother bore his body from the field
And gave it unto strangers' hands, that closed
The calm blue eyes, on earth forever sealed,
And tenderly the slender limbe composed:
Strangers, yet sisters, who, with Mary's love,
Say by the open tomb, and, weeping, looked above.

A little child strewed roses on his bier,
Pale roses, not more stainless than his soul,
Nor yet more fragrant than his life sincere
That blossomed with good actions, brief, but whole.
The aged matron and the faithful slave
Approached with reverent feet the hero's lowly grave.

No man of God might read the burial rite
Above the Rebel--thus declared the foe
That blanched before him in the deadly fight;
But woman's voice, in accents soft and low,
Trembling with pity, touched with pathos, read
Over this hallowed dust the ritual for the dead:

" 'Tis sown in weakness, it is raised in power;"
Softly the promise floated on the air,
And the sweet breathings of the sunset hour
Came back responsive to the mourner's prayer;
Gently they laid him underneath the sod
And left him with his fame, his country, and his God.

Let us not weep for him, whose deeds endure;
So young, so brave, so beautiful, he died
As he had wished to die--the past is sure
Whatever yet of sorrow may betide
Those who still linger by the stormy shore.
Change cannot touch him now, nor fortune harm him more.

And when Virginia, leaning on her spear--
"Victrix et vidua," the conflict done--
Shall raise her mailed hand to wipe the tear
That starts as she recalls each martyred son,
No prouder memory her breast shall sway
Than shine, our early lost, lamented Latane.