John S. Mosby on Slavery and the Cause of the Civil War

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

We all know about John S. Mosby, right? Yep - the storied  "Gray Ghost" commanded the 43rd Battalion, 1st Virginia Cavalry - aka Mosby's Raiders. He was known for lightning raids and quick getaways...in other words he drove the Yankees nuts.

Mosby fancied himself a straight shooter (in more ways than one) and after the war had no problem speaking his mind - even on the controversial subject of slavery.

In a 1907 letter to Samuel Chapman, he wrote, "People must be judged by the standard of their own age. If it was right to own slaves as property it was right to fight for it. The South went to war on account of slavery. South Carolina went to war - as she said in her Secession proclamation - because slavery wd. not be secure under Lincoln. South Carolina ought to know what was the cause for her seceding."

Now if that is not straight to the point I do not know what is. And this from a former Confederate! Now the good people of the South (the white ones, anyway) for the most part looked down on this kind of talk. Mosby had some other problems, too. He supported Ulysses S. Grant for President. This audacious move earned him the title "alien" in at least one southern state - as he informed a Charlottesville acquaintance. I am sure he was called much worse.

Anyway - I'll admit that Mosby was the exception not the rule when it came to former Confederates and their stance on the "slavery as a cause" argument. I just wanted to point out that not all Rebels thought alike.

Peace,

Keith

Civil War Institute 2011 Conference Schedule

[caption id="attachment_750" align="alignleft" width="238" caption="Peter S. Carmichael - Director of the Civil War Institute"][/caption]

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

You all know that this June, I will be traveling to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to attend the Civil War Institute’s Sesquicentennial Conference.  I have been invited to broadcast and report on (via Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Ustream, etc) all the goings on. That means live broadcasts, interviews, reviews, up to the minute commentary…you name it – Gratis from Cosmic America!

If you have yet to register - you can click HERE - also...poke around to find out more about the program. I have included the schedule of events below - just for fun :)

Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College
Sesquicentennial Conference
June 26-July 1, 2011
"Mobilizing for War and the Battle of First Manassas/Bull Run"

Open Schedule as a PDF
Sunday, June 26

1:00 - 5:00 p.m. Registration in CUB Ballroom
2:00 - 4:00 p.m. Early Bird Tour, Chuck Teague
5:30 - 6:45 p.m. Dinner
7:00 - 8:00 p.m. Overview: The War in 1861, Peter Carmichael
8:15 p.m. Ice Cream Social

Monday, June 27

7:45 a.m. Breakfast
8:45 - 10:00 a.m. Prophecy Among Civil War Soldiers: A History of the Future, Jason
Phillips
10:00 - 10:15 a.m. Break
10:15 - 11:15 a.m. The Lessons of War: Abraham Lincoln and the First Year of the War,
Allen Guelzo

11:15 - 11:30 a.m. Break
11:30 a.m. Group Photo, north steps of Pennsylvania Hall
12:15 p.m. Lunch
1:30 - 2:30 p.m. Old Army Doctrine and the Practicalities of Waging War in 1861,
Wayne Wei-Siang Hsieh
2:30 - 3:30 p.m. The North Mobilizes for War, Tim Orr
3:30 - 3:45 p.m. Break
3:45 - 4:45 p.m. The South Mobilizes for War, Mary DeCredico
5:00 - 6:00 p.m. Book Signings
6:00 p.m. Dinner
7:00 - 8:30 p.m. Panel: Turning Civilian Mobs into Professional Armies, Mary
DeCredico, Tim Orr, Wayne Wei-Sian Hsieh,and Jason Phillips

Tuesday, June 28

7:45 a.m. Breakfast
8:45 - 10:00 a.m. The Battle of Balls Bluff and the Committee on the Conduct of the War, Susannah Ural
10:00 - 11:15 a.m. The West Virginia Campaigns of 1861, A. Wilson Greene
11:15 - 11:30 a.m. Break
11:30 - 12:30 p.m. Overview of First Manassas Campaign, Ethan Rafuse
12:30 - 1:30 p.m. Lunch
1:30 - 2:45 p.m. The High Command after First Manassas, Joseph Glatthaar
2:45 - 3:00 p.m. Break
3:00 - 4:30 p.m. Panel: Fighting for the Confederacy,Susannah Ural, JosephGlatthaar, A. Wilson Greene and Gary Gallagher
4:30 - 5:30 p.m. Book Signings
5:30 - 6:45 p.m. Dinner
7:00 - 8:15 p.m. The Real Lost Cause: The Loyal States' War for Union, Gary Gallagher
8:15 p.m. Ice Cream Social

Wednesday, June 29

7:15 a.m. Breakfast

8:00 a.m. Manassas tours depart campus (6 buses)

First Manassas Battlefield Tours
Guides: Ed Bearss, Ethan Rafuse, Joe Rizzo, Ray Brown, Harry Smeltzer, Jim Burgess, and Greg Wolf [Lunch and Dinner in Manassas]

OR

Gettysburg Program: Special Collections Tour with Director Karen Drickamer and Gettysburg Battlefield Tour with Jennifer Murray

Thursday, June 30

Gettysburg Guides: Scott Hartwig, Troy Harman, John Heiser, Wayne Motts,

Jennifer Murray, Greg Mertz,

and Tim Orr
7:15 a.m. Breakfast
8:00 - 9:00 a.m. Breakout Session #1
9:00 - 9:10 a.m. Break
9:10 - 10:10 a.m. Breakout Session #2
10:10 - 10:20 a.m. Break
10:20 - 11:20 a.m. Breakout Session #3
11:20 - 11:30 a.m. Break
11:30 - 12:30 p.m. Breakout Session #4
12:30 p.m. Lunch
2:00 - 5:00 p.m. Tour Gettysburg Battlefield with Gettysburg Guides
6:30 p.m. Banquet/Raffle/Auction

Friday, July 1

7:30 a.m. Breakfast
9:00 a.m. All participants check out of dorms

An all-star cast, right?? And if you can't make it, you can always check in with me! Hope to see you there (or here)!

Peace,
Keith

Sons of Confederate Veterans, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and the Mississippi License Plate

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

Well, the SCV is at it again. This time, as part of the nation-wide (and indeed, international) effort to commemorate the Civil War sesquicentennial, The SCV has proposed a Nathan Bedford Forrest commemorative license plate for the state of Mississippi (or...if you live in Mississippi - a commemorative "tag").

Now we all know about good ole Nathan Bedford Forrest. Prewar slave trader, Confederate commander behind the infamous Fort Pillow massacre of black Union soldiers, postwar Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and the man who novelist Shelby Foote once called one of the two true geniuses of the Civil War (a distinction shared, according to Foote, with Abraham Lincoln - oy gevalt).

Now the SCV officially denounces all hate groups who use Confederate imagery to promote racism. Fine - but their choice of Forrest as a man worthy of accolades? I am not sure I see how they can get around the whole racist thing on this one. I mean....Forrest????? He was the head of the KKK for goodness's sake! What the hell??

For those of you who are a little irritated (or rather, greatly offended) that Forrest might actually find his way to a Mississippi plate, you may be able to relax a little. When asked to comment on the proposal, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, a Republican, told the Associated Press, "It won't become law because I won't sign it."

So it seems that Mississippi's elected officials have come a long way since the last big Civil War celebration, the centennial between 1960 and 1965. We all know what that state was like in the early 1960s, right? Not such a good place to be raising a fuss about keeping a white "hero" out of sight.

These days the SCV are struggling to keep race and images of slavery out of the commemorative scene and away from the press. They may be struggling in vain - even in Mississippi. Despite their greatest efforts, SCV members may just have to admit that race played a crucial role in the war - and that although they promote "heritage not hate," their cause (with Nathan Bedford Forrest 100% on board) was intricately connected to preserving racial slavery.

Peace,

Keith

PS - thanks to Chris Hall for reminding me about this one!

The Charleston Mercury Defends the Fight for Slavery...in 1865

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

I run across people all the time who try to convince me that the Confederacy was not established to preserve the institution of slavery. Of course I think that is nonsense - so I figured that from time to time I would a post tidbit of primary evidence to illustrate exactly how slavery was the driving force behind secession and war.

So here is a succinct, straight to the point newspaper article. Now I know that one article does not prove an argument. So stay tuned - I will give you lots and lots. This article  from an 1865 edition of the Charleston Mercury - the day is unknown but it seems like the CSA is very close to the end - is a good place to start. Sorry, no picture of the actual article - so I posted and old page of the Mercury from 1861.

Pay special attention. The author notes slavery explicitly as the cause of the war and the reason to maintain the fight...despite the severe losses endured by the South. Further, alluding to the proposition that blacks be enlisted to fight for the Confederacy, the Mercury takes a firm stand against arming black people. It would only lead to emancipation, notes the author - thus rendering their secession pointless.

I have quoted the article below in full (in italics). Please note that when I quote primary evidence I leave the language, grammar, and spelling exactly as written. I do NOT sanitize for your protection. Therefore, some of you may be offended by the choice of words. Rest assured, these are the words of the AUTHOR OF THE MERCURY, not mine.

In 1860 South Carolina seceded alone from the old union of States. Her people, in Convention assembled, invited the slaveholding States (none others) of the old Union to join her in erecting a separate Government of Slave States, for the protection of their common interests. All of the slave states, with the exception of Maryland and Kentucky, responded to her invitation. The Southern Confederacy of slave States was formed.

It was on account of encroachments upon the institution of slavery by the sectional majority of the old Union, that South Carolina seceded from that Union. It is not at this late day, after the loss of thirty thousand of her best and bravest men in battle, that she will suffer it to be bartered away; or ground between the upper and nether mill stones, by the madness of Congress, or the counsels of shallow men elsewhere.

By the compact we made with Virginia and the other States of this Confederacy, South Carolina will stand to the bitter end of destruction. By that compact she intends to stand or to fall. Neither Congress, nor certain makeshift men in Virginia, can force upon her their mad schemes of weakness and surrender. She stands upon her institutions—and there she will fall in their defence. We want no Confederate Government without our institutions. And we will have none. Sink or swim, live or die, we stand by them, and are fighting for them this day. That is the ground of our fight—it is well that all should understand it at once. Thousands and tens of thousands of the bravest men, and the best blood of this State, fighting in the ranks, have left their bones whitening on the bleak hills of Virginia in this cause. We are fighting for our system of civilization—not for buncomb, or for Jeff Davis. We intend to fight for that, or nothing. We expect Virginia to stand beside us in that fight, as of old, as we have stood beside her in this war up to this time. But such talk coming from such a source is destructive to the cause. Let it cease at once, in God’s name, and in behalf of our common cause! It is paralizing to every man here to hear it. It throws a pall over the hearts of the soldiers from this State to hear it. The soldiers of South Carolina will not fight beside a nigger’ to talk of emancipation is to disband our army. We are free men, and we chose to fight for ourselves—we want no slaves to fight for us.... Hack at the root of the Confederacy—our institutions—our civilization—and you kill the cause as dead as a boiled crab.

So....there you go. Not enough, you say? Stick around - there is much much much more to come.

Peace,

Keith

UVAs Finest Hour - Confederate Battle Flag Beer Pong

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

Naturally, I am very disappointed by the goings on at my alma mater. I think the University of Virginia is a first-rate school...but I also think some of the students there are knotheads - or at least lack any sense of what is or is not appropriate.

Thanks to my Twitter friend, @EmilyHill_Indie for the heads up on this one. From what I can tell, some UVA law students enjoy the moments away from their rigorous course work to play a little drinking game...set up on a table emblazoned with the Confederate Battle Flag. According to reports and comments on this event, no one is sure as to whether or not it was law students or fraternity boys playing this game and then imbibing the "rebellious" adult beverages. I don't think it really matters.

It just seems to me that those who attend a University with more than its share of racist baggage (I have heard of frat members hiring local black children to pick "cotton" in front of their houses during rush week and black-face performances at fraternity parties) should think carefully before dragging out Confederate symbols.

You know boys, that flag is profoundly offensive to a great many people in this country. So put it away. Show a little sensitivity. Besides - aren't finals coming up or something? Don't you have a paper due? Why are you playing beer pong anyway?

Peace,

Keith

Confederates Are Not Nazis

[caption id="attachment_721" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Lee and his generals. Traitors yes - Nazis no. "][/caption]

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

Did you ever think that you would see the day when I would defend Confederates? Well...this is not so much a defense as a clarification. Nothing drives me more crazy  than when people flippantly compare Confederates to Nazis. Seriously - it happens all the time...and by people respected in their fields. I suppose understand when people want to make the worst possible connection to a nation founded to preserve slavery - it's just bad history.

For example - Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP and a man for whom I hold a great deal of respect and admiration...not to mention, have shared a few meals with - (he is an excellent and most fascinating dinner companion) has missed the mark in the Confederate/Nazi regard. Having publicly referred to the Confederate flag as a "Swastika" he explicitly connected the governments. The two are not even close.

Many others have made similar comparisons...suggesting that the Confederacy was akin to Nazi Germany due solely to the southern nation's racial policies. Authors such as Peter Kalajian, to site just one example, claim that both societies stood for hate, oppression, wanton murder, and destruction.

Not so fast. Now no one would ever accuse me of standing up for the Rebels, but let's get a couple of things clear. One - the southern states seceded to protect slavery. Two - this, as I see it, was treason. Period. But they were not Nazis. They did not resemble Nazis in any way, shape, or form.

The Confederate States of America was a democratic republic, with a Constitution and a representative government run by elected officials held accountable for their actions. It was a slave holding republic to be sure - just like the United States of America from 1776 to 1865. Just like it. The significant difference - the CSA was a little more clear on the whole "permanence of slavery" thing.

[caption id="attachment_722" align="alignright" width="165" caption="New Georgia state flag proposed by the editorial staff of The Onion - ok, I have to admit....this made me laugh. "][/caption]

Yes I know...whenever a bunch of white supremacist a-holes get together they trot out all kinds of symbols - including the Swastika and the Confederate flag. But what do these guys know? I am not sure that any of them could give you much information on either of the governments they are supposedly representing.

So next time you hear some one make the tenuous comparison between a 19th century democracy and a 20th century Fascist dictatorship - just roll your eyes. Or better yet - ask them to clarify. Exactly how are the two related???

Peace,

Keith

Mysteries Abound - Whatever Happened to the Body of Confederate General Richard B. Garnett?

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

Well, it seems we have a bit of a mystery on our hands. Those of us who are captivated by the Battle of Gettysburg story know that Confederate general Richard B. Garnett was killed in the battle.

Garnett, as you probably know, was a brigade commander in George Pickett's division...and led his troops in the ill-fated Pickett-Pettigrew Assault on July 3rd, 1863. There are a couple of eye-witness accounts of how he was killed.

Apparently, Garnett got within about twenty feet of the famous "angle" on Cemetery Ridge where he was shot in the head while waving his men forward with his hat. Soon after, his courier's horse was also hit and fell on the dead general's body. The courier in question, one Robert Irvine, pulled Garnett's body from under the horse, and managed to retrieve his watch before moving on. This wasn't shady or anything, later Irvine gave the watch to the brigade adjutant - or that's at least how the story goes...

Now this is where things get sort of cloudy. First, there are conflicting reports as to whether or not the general's horse made it back to the Rebel lines. Second, and more important, Garnett's body was never recovered. More than likely, he was buried in a mass grave along with his men.

Which means we have a very probable resting place for Richard Garnett. In the early 1870s, Ladies' Memorial Assocaitions were instrumental in reinterring the Confederate dead of Gettysburg in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery. Bodies were removed from mass graves and brought south (for a fee) where they would have a proper - Confederate - burial.

So many, including military historian Robert Krick,  believe that Garnett is there. Probably, but we cannot be certain. In 1991, the Hollywood Memorial Association just flat out assumed he was there and erected a cenotaph in his honor. Nothing else has ever surfaced concerning Garnett, with one notable exception. Soon after the war, his sword turned up in a Baltimore pawn shop...where it was purchased by former Confederate general George H. Steuart.

So there you have it - mystery not (entirely) solved.

Peace,

Keith