With a Rebel Yell

I keeping with yesterday's theme - Civil War veterans' commemoration (a subject that I will always be ready will and able to discuss at length) today I offer a reunion of Confederate veterans...having at the Rebel yell. You will note that one veteran comments: "We don't have much left but we will give you what we've got." Well, I would say that they do a mighty fine job. Try to imagine thousands of these guys (much younger versions, of course) yelling all at once. It would certainly scare the you-know-what out of me.

Something we should also keep in mind: this event recalls a spirit of elan and fraternity and even looks fun and entertaining...note - I cannot tell with precision when the film was shot (early 30s?) but this version was released in 1962, during the centennial. But decades prior to the event pictured these men were involved in some pretty grim work. What they saw and did we can never really understand - try as we might.

Peace,
Keith

Lt. Colonel Allen Allensworth - a Significant First

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

Allen Allensworth was born into slavery in Kentucky in 1842. Like many others, the Civil War brought an opportunity to escape to Union lines. Allensworth took this opportunity and joined with the Union hospital Corps after escaping to an encampment of the 44th Illinois Volunteer Regiment - a unit camped near Louisville. In 1863, he joined the US Navy, where he was soon promoted to Captain's Steward serving on the Gunboat Queen's City.

After the war, he pursued a life of preaching, married, and eventually returned to the Army as the Chaplain of the 24th Infantry Regiment - the Buffalo Soldiers - holding the rank of Captain, he was among the few black officers in the Army. By the time of his retirement in 1906, he had reached the rank of Lt. Colonel - the first black man to do so.

Allensworth is quickly becoming a point of great interest to me. After his retirement, he moved to Los Angeles, California and worked to develop a black community north of Bakersfield. The town of Allensworth, founded in 1908, was meant to be entirely self sufficient - free from racism, and free from the travails of the post Reconstruction South. Sadly, the town failed. The problem - no water. Allensworth returned to Los Angeles where, in 1914,  he was ingloriously killed in a motorcycle accident. He is buried in the GAR plot at Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles. 

Allensworth is among several men in my current study of Union veterans who moved west after the war. Did Allensworth develop an identity as a westerner? What sort of identities was he dealing with in a post-Union victory United States that helped inform a possible western outlook? Several identity layers may indeed surface - racial, sectional, gender, class. We shall see - I am planning several trips to the archives including a road trip to the remnants of what was once Allensworth, California.

One thing that is great about this project - it turns out that Los Angeles has a much richer Civil War connection than I had previously thought.

Peace,
Keith

John Neff's Honoring the Civil War Dead (his take on) the Problem of Reconciliation

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

And what a perfect morning it is - the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and the helicopters are circling overhead. It is a beautiful day in Los Angeles.

Given my tendency to reflect on my work of the past several years, I thought it appropriate to discuss one of my favorite books on the issue of national reconciliation in the wake of civil war (sheesh - that would make a great book subtitle!).

John R. Neff is one of the few (and I mean few) who go against the grain by suggesting that all was not so benignly reconciliationist (for better or worse) during the post war decades - especially in terms of commemoration. Sure, as he admits, there were a great deal of spread-eagle, but alas, issue-free reconciliatory efforts/movements/gestures...or whatever you choose to call them...

...but what of those who persistently reminded citizens of the more troubling memories of the war years? What of those memories that did not fold neatly within the confines of the current understanding of reconciliation? Where do they fit in the commemorative ethos? Neff’s book, Honoring the Civil War Dead: Commemoration and the Problem of Reconciliation examines those outside the reconciliation framework defined by most scholars. Basking in the light of the “cause victorious,” Neff argues, many of the Union veterans mourning their fallen comrades harbored bitter resentment toward their former enemies.

Reasoning that veterans could in no way imagine the memories of their fallen comrades apart from the contentions of war, he suggests their sentiments represent the key challenge to reconciliatory efforts in the late-nineteenth century. This compelling study does more to expose the lingering bitterness than any of its predecessors.

Yet it oversimplifies antagonisms by reinforcing a dichotomy of reconciled versus unreconciled veterans. Analyzing these individuals in terms of stark opposition – those who were committed to reconciliation and those who were not – may indeed be a dead end.

It is this over simplification that I find so troubling - and what I also find to be the hardest thing to overcome when considering this era. But riddle me this - Can one favor....even embrace reconciliation on antagonistic terms? It seems that yes indeed, one can - especially if you were a Civil War veteran.

I have fired more than one warning shot right here on Cosmic America - and have written a (soon to be published) book on the subject. So stay tuned...there will be more to follow.

Peace,

Keith

The Search for Civil War Veterans in Los Angeles Is On!

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

Now - since I have made the decision to write about veterans in the West, I suppose it would be a good idea to find some to write about. First step...cemeteries. I thought I would go after a couple of hard ones first. I found a few at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in, you guessed it, Hollywood (resting place of Cecil B. DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino and lots of other super famous people). There is at least one more at the Westwood Village Memorial Park (resting place of Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, Merv Griffin...really - the list goes on and on). I have got their names, states, and units in order - next step...search the archives and see if they turn up anywhere.

Perhaps the more obvious spot - slated for a trip next week - is the National Cemetery in West Los Angeles. This is on the grounds of the Old Soldiers' Home - aka the Sawtelle Veterans' Home, established in 1887. This cemetery is the resting place of many more Civil War (Union) veterans and a Civil War monument to boot. No kidding. I had lived in LA for decades before I knew there was a Civil War monument here.

Stick around - I'll keep you posted and if you have any leads...I am all ears - especially when it comes to former Confederates. I am certain that some made it here, but few have turned up so far.

Peace,

Keith

The Next Project - Civil War Veterans and Westward Expansion

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

After careful consideration I have decided on the next major project. There were many to choose from, including an analysis of the public reaction to the film The Birth of a Nation, and that one is still on deck.

But I have been thinking about Civil War veterans in the West since my early days in graduate school - when I was concentrating on vets in the East.

So on we go. Those of you who read this blog regularly know that I speak of veterans, national reconciliation, and celebrations of section embedded in their national commitment. In short - northern and southern veterans embraced reunion on respective terms. Any idea that the issues of war were swept under the rug because of some shared racism are simply nonsense (confused? See this post).

My principal question: what happens when we situate these veterans (or perhaps anybody who lived through the war) within a new nationalist context - one that unfolded in the West?

Westward expansion really picked up steam in the latter third of the nineteenth century - former soldiers and their families made their way into this "pristine" part of the country in extraordinarily large numbers. When they made it - they did what you might expect. The talked about their experiences, set up soldiers' homes, built monuments and national cemeteries. I wonder how (or even if) the fact that they were out West made a difference.

For many, the great expanse that was the West of the late-nineteenth century defines America of that age and indeed informs our nationalist culture today. Expressions of nationalism took on a whole new look, feel, and sensibility. I am after the veterans experiential level as the country moved from a North/South to an East/West orientation. What were veterans' contributions to this shift?

Peace,

Keith