471A3--Week 14 Questions/Comments--Thursday

I think the Civil Warriors comments are right on the mark about the Governor’s proclamation. After reading his proclamation, my first thought was, REALLY? ALL Virginians were Confederates? They ALL supported the Confederacy? This is the first remark that Civil Warriors makes, “Apparently the governor thinks all Virginians during 1861-1865 were Confederates. That would reveal a surprising ignorance on his part.” -- Brooke The Old Virginian Blog infuriated me. “Chaps” commented, “He caved in to political correctness and those who hate our history. So much for common sense and courage.” It’s not politically correct to include blacks in the history of the Confederacy. I can’t even believe this is up for debate. Let’s celebrate an entire state’s history during four terrible years and omit a good portion of the population because hey, they don’t really count anyways. I don’t even know how to respond to this in an academic way. -- Brooke Oh, it get better! “Chaps” continues on to say, “Requiring that ‘slavery’ [Wait… why is that in quotations? Is he implying it wasn’t slavery? What.the.heck.] be mentioned everytime the Confederacy is talked about continues the Northern narrative that the WBTS [You’ve got to be kidding me…] was only about slavery and that the Confederacy and those who fought for it, including my ancestors, were irredeemably evil. It dishonors those who served in defense of their homes.” Noooope. Any person with a basic background in Civil War history or even US History should know that plantation and slaveholders were a minority. -- Brooke Brooke, I couldn't even read some of what was said. As soon as it starting screaming of ignorant ideology I shut down and move on. It keeps me from becoming emotionally charged about it. -Jason I really want to know which paragraph was added to the proclamation. Someone went to the trouble of adding a paragraph to try and improve the reception of the proclamation (I'm assuming) so I want to know which paragraph was added. –Kayle P. "all Virginians can appreciate the fact that when ultimately overwhelmed by the insurmountable numbers and resources of the Union Army, the surviving, imprisoned and injured Confederate soldiers gave their word and allegiance to the United States of America" After spending this entire semester learning about Lost Cause ideologies and the push to change the history of the war into a reconciliation, nobody REALLY lost story, I was kind of upset that in 2010 the Governor of Virginia was still, basically, preaching Lost Cause ideology. I'm from Virginia, and I think that Confederate soldiers really did fight for a cause they believed in, but to say that they just automatically went back and gave their allegiance to the US is a little far fetched to me (at least that's how I interpreted it). --Carly W. Carly W., I was a little surprised by the wording of the original proclamation. One thing to keep in mind is that at that level it is hard to know exactly how much he knew was in the proclamation. There are numerous proclamations for just about everything. I think that instead of bending over backwards to try to appease all interests the governor has now created a proclamation so long that many probably won't read it. At first I didn't catcht he title change. I thought the issue was the wording, but I suppose it was more about intent. What exactly do we want to "commemorate"? I can also assure you that most Virginians didn't embrace the Union after the war. In researching Mosby he was vilified for taking a pro-Union stand, so much so that he left Virginia and didn't return for about 16 years. - Jason

I looked at the Virginia 150 celebration site and saw that one of the programs was the ability to “walk in their footsteps.” On the page, you choose which side you want to walk and then you can choose a specific regiment. I thought this was kind of cool and well thought out. For many people who may not know a lot about what a soldier on one of the sides did, this is a good idea for familiarization. There are even video tutorials. I also thought the legacy project was cool too. It’s interesting how much thought is put together to commemorate this event and how this furthers the memory of the war. –Ana Y. Ana I was literally about to say the same thing lol. I tried out the "walk in their footsteps" page and was pleasantly surprised with how detailed and easy it was to access. It is definitely a great tool for a teacher looking or online sources when teaching their students about the Civil War. I also took a look at some of the past events. They had an event at Harpers Ferry and had all the details available which was nice to see. They included a good slideshow of the event and a video of the panel discussion.- George H Civil Warriors response to McDonell's proclamation was pretty entertaining to me. Some reason I enjoy reading some snarky attitude when a particular person or group do a critique. In this case, the attitude was really apparent. "Finally, governor, you conclude that “this defining chapter in Virginia’s history should not be forgotten, but instead should be studied, understood and remembered by all Virginians, both in the context of the time in which it took place, but also in the context of the time in which we live.” Here we agree.  But all Virginians should learn the history of all Virginians who were part of Civil War Virginia.  That would include you." This made me laugh a bit then the final line of not angering a fan boy was pretty funny too. I guess it doesn't matter what the topic is, if someone doesn't agree with your work, there is always going to be someone that bashes it.-- George H I was really surprised by the Governor's proclamation. It sounded like something that would be brought up 60 years ago, not today! I agree with Robert Moore on the Cenantua blog that it tries to simplify the Civil War into black and white sides. Just because Virginia was part of the Confederacy doesn't mean everyone in the state was for it. It would be like saying since Virginia's electoral points went to Obama in the election, all Virginians must have voted for him. I just can't believe he made that proclamation, he must have known the backlash it would entail. -Cameron F.

I enjoyed reading Moore's post because I found it refreshing to, finally, not see one extreme or the other. I think it's important for Virginians to focus all Civil War heritage, not just the Confederate views. We're leaving out many vital components of the Civil War if we continue to pick and choose at exactly what we want to commemorate. --Carly W.

I actually found the nuance in the McDonnell document to be very interesting in light of everything else we've studied in this class. I'm not really sure how I feel about it, but it's been intriguing to watch the progression of how people struggle with accepting the Confederacy to make those who idolize it and those who hate it get along. I don't know if it really works, though. - Carly B.

The comments really just frustrated me. Perhaps because it's been all semester that I've been studying interpretations and the fact that I'm not actually much of a Civil War enthusiast, but it all seems a little pointless, with the same debates happening year after year. I'm all for remembering history, but I'm thinking that I'm of the opinion that it's gone a little bit too far. - Carly B.

I too was really annoyed with the idea that everyone in Virginia supported the Confederacy. It's hard to really be interested in anything that was said after that because once you hear one thing that is completely inaccurate, you don't really believe anything else said after that. --Kelly F