Straight From the Department of Bad Ideas

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

On June 10 1865 - Federal veterans dedicated one of the first (if not the first) monument to the Union dead. Located on Henry Hill at the Manassas battlefield, this comparatively modest structure stands to remind visitors of the sacrifices at both battles decided on that field.

So...that actually seems like a good idea. The bad idea comes into play when we look at exactly how the monument was adorned. The builders needed a few decorations - and (according to a story I heard while visiting this very monument) decided to go with some 2o pound shells. No one thought to check if this was live ordnance, which it was.

BAD IDEA.

[caption id="attachment_1943" align="alignright" width="222" caption="Don't get too close!"][/caption]

Strangely - also...according to hearsay - no one figured this out until 1975 during a restoration effort. From what I understand, when the National Park Service took the shells down for disarming, one exploded and killed a worker. Today, the shells are reproductions.

An interesting story to be sure...I am not sure of its veracity, so I am going to check with my friend Harry Smeltzer - he's the authority on all things Manassas. At least the story, apocryphal or not, provides a good lesson for future monument builders - be wary of live ammunition!

Peace,

Keith

The Silent Sentinel at the Los Angeles National Cemetery

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

Well, I believe that I have found what may be the most unimposing Civil War monument ever. Near the Sepulveda Blvd. entrance to the Los Angeles National Cemetery stands a solitary Union soldier, on top of a rock, at parade rest.

There is nothing particularly remarkable about this statue, except perhaps for the lack of a clear message. There are no inscriptions...and nothing denoting cause or comrades. Without close inspection, one could wonder whether or not this was even a Union soldier. The presence of a small "US" belt plate betrays the soldier's allegiance. But that is all. Does he commemorate Union? Emancipation? Or does he simply stand guard over his fallen comrades, which in this case, happen to be WWII soldiers?

I suspect that his silence speaks to each of us individually - make of him what you will...his very presence will get you thinking.

Peace,
Keith

Bitter? Table for One???

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

From time to time I run across these little gems that I feel I need to share with the world. Here's one I found while perusing the archives at Washington and Lee University's Special Collection Department. Back story:  in 1980 (ancient history...) the good people of Darlington County, South Carolina gathered together to rededicate their Confederate monument - on the centennial anniversary of Darlington's Rebels' original  tribute to their glorious cause.

The speaker for the day was one William Stanley Hoole - a descendant of Axalla John Hoole, a Confederate Colonel of the Darlington Riflemen who was killed at Chickamauga.  Now you might figure Hoole (the speaker...not the dead Rebel) to be one of those reconstructed types. Let's see what he had to say.....

Those gallant men and women believed that it was their right to dispel from their lives the economic modernism of the neighbors to the North and thus preserve their own landed conservatism. They shuddered to think that they should ever be forced to shoulder the yoke of Yankee domination. They wanted nothing more than their own country, a country they could love and be proud of, a separate nation, a confederation, a confederacy embracing a cavalier way of life, unfettered by the austerity of Northern Puritanism.


John Brown’s attack on the United States Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry had convinced the most reluctant Rebel that there was no longer any camaraderie between himself and his Yankee counterpart. As one Southerner [E. Merton Coulter] put it, “Black Republicanism has buried brotherhood between North and South in the same grave with the Constitution."

Our beloved South Carolina, surfeited to the point of nausea by Northern insults and maledictions, as we all know, made the first move toward secession. They simply wanted to be left alone in peace. But the Republican regime in Washington, infiltrated by indecision, deception, and unprecedented machiavelism saw differently. Instead of letting the “Wayward Sister,” as they called our state, go in peace, they seized Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, dispatched addition soldiers, and ignored all appeals for amicable negotiation. These warlike acts at once rendered Fort Sumter a symbol of Yankee domination, an out-right indignity, an international insult, is you please, which could not be overlooked, even by the most ardent seekers of peace.

Yep - he sounds pretty angry, right? But I wonder....is he really "unreconstructed" or just confused? I run across people all the time who claim loyalty to the Union (as did Hoole) - yet pile this sort of inflammatory language high. Many, I find, are very much like their Confederate ancestors. Perfectly willing to embrace the post-war Union, so long as they could commemorate their war on their terms. What do you think?

Peace,

Keith

The Commemoration of Emancipation - In Case You Missed It

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

Yesterday, I had a few words to say about an important Philadelphia landmark - the GAR museum. In keeping with the Philly theme, today I want to talk briefly about a Civil War monument – and the veterans who stood behind its message.

Union veterans held fast to their cause and commemorated their fight to restore the Union and end slavery. Well into the twentieth century, long after Americans were supposed to have marginalized the slavery issue, veterans still deemed their fight a moral rectitude. One significant example of Union veterans’ commemorative efforts during the last days of organized Civil War veteran activity ensconced the meaning of the war from a Union perspective in a very public site of historical memory.

Late in the 1920s, the few surviving members of GAR posts in and around Philadelphia witnessed the dedication of the Keystone State’s Soldiers and Sailors Memorial. Completed in 1927, Hermon Atkins MacNeil’s twin 40-foot pylons were intended as a gateway to Philadelphia’s Parkway Gardens. Eventually moved, they now serve as the ceremonial entrance to the upper Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Conspicuously, although strangely overlooked by scholars, the inscription on one tower recalls a virtuous fight to grant freedom to a race in chains. Looking from the south side of the Parkway, west of 20^th Street, the inscription reads: “In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom for the free.” In the late 1920s, a clearer message could not be found anywhere in the country. Union veterans did not forget the emancipationist cause. And for those who care to look, they continue to remind Americans of their fight on a daily basis.

So if you happen to be heading up the Parkway on the way to the Museum of Art to have a go at recreating the epic scene from Rocky, slow down a bit and have a look at this magnificent memorial.

Peace,

Keith

Rebels in the National Statuary Hall Collection

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

A while back, a Twitter friend  @ZebulonPike1813 sent me a note expressing his concern over the placement of former Rebels in the National Statuary Hall and asked for my thoughts. Well - it has been a long time coming but here you go.

It seems that we have a few Rebel traitors on display. Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Joseph Wheeler all turned their backs on the United States and served the Confederacy and now they represent their states in the National Statuary Hall Collection. I am not surprised - there are those who claim that they have no place in this hall of honor. And you know what....maybe these people are right.

But here is where things get a little more complex. The reasons why these individuals are represented at a national shrine tell us quite a bit about the country's history. Davis, Lee, Wheeler (and other Rebs such as Wade Hampton) were all donated in the 1920s and 1930s - decades emblematic in some ways for a national commitment to reconciliation and unity. Now this doesn't mean the nation had forgotten the issues of the war years as some scholars might suggest, but at least a lot of state and national leaders wanted to project a spirit of harmony.

So I say leave them there - but understand how they got there. I am not in favor of removing any statue or monument depicting Confederates or their cause - simply because we can learn from them. The same goes for the naming of US military installations such as Forts Bragg and Hood - I do not believe that any new forts will be named for Rebels...but the ones that were came into being for a very specific reason: to promote national unity...for better or worse.

My suggestion is to look deeper into the meaning behind the statues instead of removing them - the timing of their placement and the event itself. Surely some folks had plenty to say when these monuments were installed.

I am quite sure that there will be some disagreement here and trust me...I am not in favor of promoting the celebration of Rebels who fought to preserve slavery. I am very concerned, however, in understanding why Americans commemorate the way they do...I seek the intentions - the actions - and the reactions...and then write it all down. Maybe I can get to the bottom of this whole reconciliation thing one of these days...stay tuned. I've got a book coming out on the subject.

Peace,

Keith