Jefferson Davis’s Birthday as an Official Holiday

Today is the 200th birthday of Jefferson Davis, which is being celebrated in areas of the South; Alabama in particular. The state government in Mongomery has declared Davis’s birthday an official state holiday. The Sons of Confederate Veterans are planing to hold various ceremonies celebrating the event on June 14.  

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Commericals from the Confederate States of America

These commercials are from the film The Confederate States of America, which is a movie that tackles this question: what may have happened if the Confederacy won the civil war? It is an interesting film and would recommend it for anyone interested in the Civil War.

The Shackle:

Passing:

Runaway:

Confederate Family:

 

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Lee’s Slave Hunters.

I have just come across a Ted Alexander’s 2001 North and South article entitled “A Regular Slave Hunt.” This article highlights a sad and little known aspect of Lee’s Gettysburg campaign. Alexander wrote that in June and July 1863 Confederate forces rounded up hundreds of free blacks and escaped slaves throughout southern Pennsylvania.

Alexander has provided evidence, eyewitness testimony, to show that Confederate forces participated and what amounted to slave hunting. Some of the most disturbing evidence came from Rachel Cormany, who left a detailed account of some of the abductions. Cormany wrote: “[Confederates] were hunting up the contrabands [escaped slaves] and driving them off by droves. O! how it grated on our hearts to have to sit quietly and look at such brutal deeds–I saw no men among the contrbands–all women and children. Some of the colored people who were raised here were taken along–I sat on the front step as they were driven by just like we would drive cattle…One woman was pleading wonderfully with her driver for her children–but all the sympathy she received from him was a rough “March along”–at which she quickened her pace again.” Alexander was not precise about how many blacks were captured by Confederates; an estimate for Chambersburg places its count at 250 and an estimate for York states that a little more than 100 were abducted in this town.

Alexander went on the state that most of the Confederates who participated in these kidnappings were guerrilla forces who “operated on the fringes of Lee’s army.” He did provide evidence that General James Longstreet knew about these abductions and that the famed General George Pickett’s division participated in the kidnappings. Alexander, however, left some rather important questions unanswered. Were the orders to abduct free blacks and escaped slaves general orders or were they issued independently of the high command? To what extent did Lee’s regular forces participate in the kidnappings? We know that Pickett’s division participated, but did others do the same? This is a disturbing aspect of the Gettysburg campaign that deserves to be fully examined, but, unfortunately, Alexander’s article leaves us with more questions than answers.

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Bugs Bunny does the Civil War.

I found this video on the Civil Warriors blog and I thought it was a great example of how the Civil War is remembered. So, enjoy

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That other 200th birthday…Jefferson Davis

All the hoopla surrounding the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln has led some to ask how should we, as a society, remember the 200th birthday of his Confederate counterpart, Jefferson Davis (1808-1889). A recent AP story reported on the struggles encountered by the Confederate president’s descendents in their attempt to comemorate his legacy. (read the story here) At the heart of this issue is the topic of memory. How do we, as a people, remember the past.? It’s not just about remembering, but how people construct the meanings and symbols they apply to history. What average peole say history means is usually much different than how historians explain and assign meanings to the past. Over the past decade or so, professional historians have started to examine historical memory. The most famous example of this scholarship is David W. Blight’s Race and Reunion, which examined the historical memory of the Civil War.

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