471A3--Week 12 Questions/Comments--Tuesday

When I visited the Civil War Memory blog, I didn't notice a "popular posts" sections, so I scrolled through and picked out some posts that seemed interesting to me. "Reality TV Show for Historians," posted on April 2, 2013, stood out the most. Kevin Levin shows a casting call for people who are deemed "history buffs," defined as people who are curious and obsessed with history who can rattle off random facts and be the history guy at trivia nights. Some of the comments seem interested, but maybe they are all just poking fun at the idea. In any case, Barb Gannon's comment captured the situation wonderfully: "We need to think who would share a beach house and start mud wrestling over primary sources." I have to agree with Gannon in the sense that, although there are many reality television shows out there, people are only going to watch things that have some sort of drama. What I found most interesting about this idea though is that almost EVERYTHING has a reality TV show now, but is creating a reality TV show about "historians" taking it a little too far? -Carly W.

From the Fredericksburg NPS blog, I found an entry titled "Indians at Brompton" by Eric Mink. For one thing, I never realized that Brompton was a "hot spot" for photographers during the war. However, what was most compelling to me was the idea of Native Americans fighting during the Civil War. I'm embarrassed to say, it never occurred to me that they did, so I was even more surprised to learn that there were Native American participants on both sides. Obviously, I'm not well-read on the subject on Native Americans' involvement in the war, but I think this blog post sheds light on a subject that, to my knowledge, is not very well covered in Civil War history. It's spurred my interest into learning more. --Carly W.

I liked reading the comments on "H.K. Edgerton Entertains the Old White South One Last Time," mostly because few knew anything about Edgerton. People wanted Levin to focus on more popular things. I think it's good that he followed this topic. It makes people read about it and hopefully incorporates it into conversation about the Civil War. -Hannah

John Hennessy's blog post from July 28, 2011, discusses the property at 1401 Sophia Street, a surviving Civil War home, that was at the risk of being torn down. Although I believe the property was torn down today, the post goes into detail about the importance of preserving historical properties regardless of how important they necessarily at the time. The comments attached to the post show support for Hennessy, most of them agreeing with his post and showing agreement with the fight for preservation. --Carly W.

Like Carly I didn't see the "popular posts" section. The first one under "blogs" was interesting in that it pointed out the misguided memory of the North. Levin's summation was well done, citing the fact that a broader view of the Civil War was needed for the conference, viewing the soldiers as something more then they really were. Both sides, North and South, as we have seen throughout the course have tended to focus on what makes them look good be it patriarchal, chivalrous soldiers in the South, or heroic freedom fighters in the North. - Jason

Of course, the first thing I went to on the NPSFRSP site was cemeteries! I felt like a history preservation major on “Are there soldiers buried in the backyards of Fredericksburg?” PRESERVE ALL THE THINGS! Even the duplicates. Anyways! Since I wasn’t raised in Fredericksburg and hadn’t really heard about Fredericksburg before I moved here (We didn’t learn about the Battle of Fredericksburg—I know… don’t ask me!), I find it incredibly interesting that Civil War history is still being unearthed here. On another article, “Indians at Brompton” I got giddy. Who doesn’t get giddy looking at articles that are about names and places that you personally know or have been? Over all, though, this site is just like that. Why does it exist? Well, because people want to hear about things, places, events, people, that are connected to them. Finding a gravestone in your backyard on Caroline Street… hearing about Brompton and the Marye plantation. Now, I’m not suggesting that the only visitors to this site are from the area, but I have a feeling a number of them have visited here before. Even if the visitors aren’t connected to Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania.. that makes it even more interesting why they are visiting a site built around our area. What interests them about this particular topic or region? -- Brooke

I did not wanna look for popular posts and instead looked for post relevant to our current conversation as well as some fun blogs. So not all of mine are very recent but within a couple years. On October 25, 2010 (2 days before my birthday ) there was a post about Mary Washington ( UMW ) saving land Civil War preserves of the Battle of Fredericksburg including the Wall. Apparently a developer bought up a lot of land off Sunken Hill Rd. by Brompton and Mercer St. to build 4-unit apartments. The National Park Service was unable to compete due to a tight budget and the developer almost started tearing down the remaining wall from the battle before UMW stepped in to buy up the land and help the developer make back his costs elsewhere. The college proceeded later to hand the land over the the NPS. This I thought was an amazing story and one that our history department or at least the historic preservation department should advertise as was in which out school has contributed to the local history. --Matt A.

I found the piece about Dan Horn "Benefits of Southern Slavery" truly appalling. Like Levin this kind of disinformation is scary. He tries to justify slavery as being justified by the Bible and that the Southern Christians were better for the slaves than the pagans in Africa. Being a preacher, and not a historian, who does Horn turn to to justify his position - none other than Robert E. Lee. He then finds an African Baptist preacher who says that Africans were enslaved because of God's judgment of them. This kind of stuff makes Jubal Early seem reasonable. The Conan O'Brien (total farb) reenactment skit is hilarious! - Jason

A couple pieces of information I found intriguing from the information parts of NPS.org were on the battle of Fredericksburg page and the Gettysburg page for the 150th anniversary. On the Battle of Fredericksburg page, I found a fun piece of information that the term 'sideburns' was coined after the facial hair of General Ambrose Burnside. just thought that was interesting how the Civil War left remnants of itself in our language. Also, npr.org/gett is creating a Gettysburg blog on April 12 for the 150th anniversary of the war. Thought this would be interesting to look back on before the end of the semester and maybe participate in. --Matt A.

I thought that the Saturday Night Live skit with Civil War was pretty interesting. (It was on the Civil War site) It was interesting to see how the Civil War portrayed in yet another way. It goes back to the discussion we had last week with the movies and how the audience only sees what is portrayed on the screen. I think that this sketch is VERY skewed but it was interesting to see that point of view now having the knowledge that I have gained about the war and the memories and portrayals. –Kayle P

“A Confederate Hospital in Fredericksburg, and the Women Mobilize-1861” was one of the posts I read from the NPSFRSP website. It talks about how during occupation the Tobacco factory was used as a military hospital. The ladies of Fredericksburg took it upon themselves to cater to these wounded soldiers passing through. They really put in a lot of effort to make sure that the hospital was running smoothly. I liked this article firstly because of the picture along with it. I like to see old pictures of Fredericksburg. Another reason why I liked this post was because it exemplified the changes that were necessary during war, like turning the tobacco factory into the hospital. At the end, I was sad to learn that this old building was torn down in the late 19th century and that I wasn’t going to be able to drive by it and check it out. –Ana Y.

I thought the blog post about the reality show for historians was quite intriguing. It would definitely be a show that I would watch. I thought it was funny how the one tweet from John Hennessy would compare it to Jersey Shore. Although I think this would probably be a funny show, I think it would do a tremendous disservice to a lot of historians, and could possibly give us a bad name. As most people love to believe everything they see on TV, if the show was bad, it would/could discredit us and make us look less professional. –Ana Y.

From the NPS blog, I looked at a post that was about men being photographed getting water in Fredericksburg. I thought that even though this post was so simple, it was still really interesting. There are so much that these pictures can tell us and the fact that they were taken during the war and in this region it just really cool! Love history that is in our own backyard! –Kayle P

Like a few have mentioned, I didn't see a "popular posts" section on the Civil War Memory blog...So on the NPS blog, I found the "Digging Mannsfield" extrememely interesting. It talks a lot about how many Civil War era homes are no longer standing, especially the larger more grand mansions of the time. The NPS conducted a huge dig on the property and uncovered so much history that should have never been lost. --Mary O.

The "From Heroes to Survivors" post on the Civil War Memory blog brought up an interesting topic of how the incorporation of atrocity stories with the previous history of the war could change how people view the civil war and those that fought in it. The commentators make a good point that for some Americans it is easier to acknowledge and accept atrocities in civil wars outside the US because of American exceptionalism and the concept that the Civil War was "brother against brother". I think that American exceptionalism plays a major role in how people remember the Civil War (in other ways than just atrocities) and was surprised to not have heard it mentioned before. -Cameron F.

As I was searching through the CW-Memory blog I stumbled upon a video of Conan O'Brien visiting and participating with Union Civil War reenactors. Conan is easily one of my favorite comedians, so I was excited to see what the video would be like. He has hilarious interactions with the Union reenactors. The reenactors remain in character the whole time even though Conan is being typical Conan. I think it shows just how dedicated the CW reenactors are to staying in character even though it seems that COnan is purposely antagonizing them. Popular media exposure such as Conan only strengthens the intrigue and interest about the CW. After watching that clip, it makes me want to check out a reenactment battle sometime.-- George H

The NPS blog had an interesting post that included a quote by Walt Whitman speaking about the horrors of the Chancellorsville Battlefield and the wounded men. "Then the camp of the wounded—0 heavens, what scene is this ?—is this indeed humanity—these butchers’ shambles? There are several of them. There they lie, in the largest, in an open space in the woods, from 500 to 600 poor fellows—the groans and screams—the odor of blood, mixed with the fresh scent of the night, the grass, the trees—that Slaughter-house!" Just some powerful words that describe what he saw that day. It was followed up with some gruesome pictures of wounded men as well. It was a pretty cool blog post that stood out to me, especially since I actually visited the Chancellorsville Battlefield earlier today and got relatively lost on one of the trails there.-- George H

An NSP post from December 31, 2012, details the fleeing slaves in the county and city. It mentions how some of them stayed for various reasons, one of them being that they expected the Union would triumph, so why bother risking your life for a certain release shortly. It's interesting to see the juxtaposition of old and new on a format like a blog; it makes me wonder what Lee and Grant would have though of how we discuss the Civil War today! - Carly B.

Reading through a lot of the NPS posts, and reflecting on my internship with FAMCC (Fred's Museum), it strikes me as a little sad that our school doesn't do more with our Civil War history. Why isn't there some sort of small exhibit on campus, in Combs or in Monroe, about the history of the campus and the war? It would be really interesting, even just to look at the campus through the ages. What was the land being used for in 1790? In 1830? What was the view from what's now Campus Walk in 1863? (Hint: it wasn't very pretty). What did Monroe look like in 1925? (The platform for the steps wasn't there; the columns started at head height and were supported by tall, square blocks, with a steeper staircase leading to the entrance). It just seems strange to me that a school with such good HISP and History programs and that does good things for the local community (such as buying the land with the stone wall) doesn't take more pride in our campus history.

Post of the the comments that I read in these blog posts were pretty tame for internet comments. That is until I looked at a post on the NPS page posted by John Henessy about how Chancellorsville is often overlooked because of the other battles in the area and that one of the most important lessons to come from the battle was how the storied ability of Lee to hold effect the wars outcome through victory may not have been true. Henessy argues that Lee was unable to change the union war effort even with an important victory at Chancellorsville. Basically he argued Lee's talents went to waste. The streak of good comments ended here when a person blasted Henessy for insulting Lee and saying he hated the confederacy. This shows how important the mythical image of Lee still is in the minds of many people.-Sean

One that I found interesting was the post titled “Boston’s Civil War Memory or Lost Cause.” We have spent a lot of time talking about the memory of the south but have not spent as much time discussing the importance of the abolitionist movement when it comes to ending slavery and the Civil War. Kevin Levin makes a good point by stating that although some tend to remember the North as “heroes” who fought to end slavery and such, for most of the Union soldiers, this was not their reasoning. They were doing their duty to their nation, and Levin makes a good point of reminding us no to get too caught up in the notion that the Union soldiers fought solely to end slavery. –Kelly F.

I think one of the more important parts to the National Park Service blog is the access and exposure of Civil War era photographs. These photos put an image on the words we commonly read about the Civil War. The abundance of old and modern photos throughout the blog give people an idea of the differences between then and now. -- Donald P.

In, "Is There An Official Civil War Memory?" I like his short analyzation of why Blight's, Race and Reunion, has become the popular civil war memory book. Blight puts himself more in the public eye and draws attention to the book. It's pretty simple. -Hannah

I thought Kevin Levin's "Boston's Civil War Memory or Lost Cause," brought attention to an idea I commonly come back regarding Union soldiers and their efforts for the progression of civil rights. "They were citizen soldiers who answered their nation’s call to service.  In the process they saved the Union and by the middle of the war many of the men in the ranks understood that slavery also needed to be abolished. " This quote embodies the perception that white and black Union soldiers fought and died together, "bound to one another through victory, the destruction of slavery, and the shared experience of suffering and sacrifice." I was under the impression that many white Union soldiers were not favorable to the equality of blacks, but this article brought new insight to me. It is interesting to see a new perspective of the Civil War, that counters popular belief. -- Donald Phelps

I think that the post on the Civil War Memory blog "The Future of Civil War History Is Not On the Battlefield" is extremely relevant to our class because Levin argues that alot of focus on preserving Civil War memory needs to go into the internet and blogging world. He uses his experience at a conference at Gettysburg as almost a revelation in which he realizes that the future lies on the internet because more people are spending their time surfing the web rather than wandering battlefields. Even though this might offend and anger old-fashioned Civil War buffs or battlefield enthusiasts, its true: our world is becoming increasingly technological and in order for the memory of the Civil War to remain, it needs to get on the bandwagon. -Cameron F.

I liked reading the comments on "H.K. Edgerton Entertains the Old White South One Last Time," mostly because few knew anything about Edgerton. People wanted Levin to focus on more popular things. I think it's good that he followed this topic. It makes people read about it and hopefully incorporates it into conversation about the Civil War. -Hannah

On npsfrsp, "Lee in 1863- more symbolic than real?," Lee's efforts were met with no "real" success in terms of major changes in swaying things towards the Confederacy. His tactical moves, like some in Chancellorsville were of no use. Lee's popularity was mostly in his success as a moral symbol rather than a military success. Even though he had tactical military plans for such numbers and supplies, he didn't have the backing he needed. One comment bashed the analysis and John Hennessy commented that he just possibly didn't like his point of view. In the last comment about "Lee's inability to convince them to change course," Lee just went with VA when it seceded. -Hannah