More About the Hunley

This article begins….”For nearly 150 years, the story of the Hunley’s attack on the USS Housatonic has been Civil War legend. And it has been wrong.”

Oops.

Well, correcting myths, legends and poor history has been habit around here, so let’s dive in.

In this case it isn’t so much intentionally reporting incorrect history or revising history to make it more interesting –it’s just that we didn’t have all the pieces of the puzzle.  As new pieces are scrutinized from the wreckage we have to adjust the story.... even if it’s been part of the story for over a hundred years.

In this case eyewitness accounts at the time of the attack have been debunked because a piece of the Confederate submarine’s torpedo was found to be attached to its spar. This means the Hunley was much closer to the blast –within 20 feet.

 You can read the whole thing here.

 So far, the part of the romantic part of the story regarding Queenie’s coin has NOT been debunked, and for that I’m very glad.  

You can read THAT party of the Hunley story here, which I wrote in 2009.

Pursuing Goals

Pursuing one’s goals…..a worthy pursuit, right?

Hard work and determination….giving each and every move careful consideration…..making a plan……following the steps….changing course when necessary……

Yes, all of these are strategies to pursue one’s goals, but all too often we get tired of the time it takes to reach our goals. 

That’s when short-cuts come into play.

Take the following words. They represent a short cut……

“The most direct path would be to leave the Oregon route, about two hundred miles east of Fort Hall; thence bearing west south-west, to the Salt Lake; and thence continuing down to the bay of San Francisco.”

It was with those few words the George Donner party made the fateful decision to take a short-cut they found highlighted in the book The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and California. 

The book was written by Lansford Hastings and even though he never met any member of the Donner party, and even though Hastings didn’t exactly promote the short-cut he is forever linked to the disastrous end the Donner party faced.  Some sources state Hastings who had explored the West extensively had never even traveled on the trail.  Other sources mention he had gone down the trail with no incident a few weeks ahead of the Donner party.

Lansford Hastings had written his book in 1844 to entice settlers to California which at that time was held by Mexico. Hastings’ goal was to set up an independent republic and as a result be able to take some sort of office in governance.

Yes, that was Lansford Hastings’ goal to hold a high public office……

The Republic of California or the Bear Republic did exist for a time in 1846, but just for a few days before U.S. soldiers arrived and the annexation process began. 

Yes, that’s why the state flag of California has a bear on it even to this day.

Lansford Hastings still had to meet his goal, however….hence the Hastings Plot.

Ever hear of it?

During the Civil War Lansford Hastings sided with the Confederacy.  Even though he had been living in Arizona for some time he traveled to Richmond late in the war and met with President Jefferson Davis.  He tried to convince President Davis to allow him….on behalf of the Confederate States of America to wrestle California away from the Union and make it part of the Confederacy. The war was over in a year so the plot never amounted to much.

Still……..Lansford Hastings continued to be a man in search of a kingdom…..er…..republic of his own.

It does seem like he had a plan and just kept working those same steps over and over. Doesn’t it? 

In the years following the war Hastings became involved with a group of ex-Confederates who wanted to move to Brazil.  Lansford Hastings traveled to South America, and met with the government there to set up arrangements for the Americans to settle.  He also wrote a guide for those wishing to move there.

Lansford Hastings died while traveling to Brazil accompanying a group of settlers in 1870, and while he never did achieve his goal of a high governmental office Hastings did achieve one thing….

Over 10,000 Confederados. as they are known in Brazil remain there and are descended from the ex-Confederates. Every year they have festivals complete with Confederate flags, Confederate uniforms, hoop skirts, food of the American South infused with that of Brazil.  They also have dances and music their ancestors brought with them….styles from the antebellum period.

Former First Lady Rosalyn Carter’s great uncle was one of the first Confederados in Brazil.  The Carters traveled to Brazil in 1972.

Getting back to Lansford Hastings...He finally got that kingdom, of sorts. He just didn't get to govern over it.

Myths, Memories and Music

On October 2, 1925, the Church Hill section of Richmond, Virginia suffered a great tragedy when a train tunnel caved in at the exact moment a train happened to be in the tunnel.  Several people lost their lives.  

It wasn’t long after the cave-in that a story began circulating describing a blood covered creature with jagged teeth.  Huge patches of decomposing skin were hanging off the creature’s legs and arms.  The tale went on to explain how at the time of the tragic cave-in the creature made his way towards the James River and then to Hollywood Cemetery where he was last seen entering the crypt that belonged to William Worthan Pool.

It only added to the story that Mr. Pool’s burial site did not share a birth date…only the year he died….1913. 

He never died?  Seriously?

Somehow the story morphed into a vampire story and the tale of the Richmond Vampire was widely told through the years.   Mr. Pool had lived a very ordinary life before passing away at the age of 80. He moved to Virginia in the 1860s and had clerked for many years in one of the tobacco factories in the area and had last been employed as bookkeeper.

So…..fact, or myth?

Researchers have determined that there was a creature of sorts that day at the cave-in, but he didn’t run off and hide in Mr. Pool’s crypt.   The creature’s name was Benjamin F. Mosby.  He worked for the railroad.   The day of the crash he was working as the fireman which meant he was shoveling coal into the steam tank of the train.   At the time of the accident Mosby was scalded and burned terribly….some sources state “beyond recognition”.   Mosby was taken to Grace Hospital in Richmond.  His burns were too severe though and he passed away the following day. 

So much for the Richmond Vampire, but the tale isn’t the only reason why Hollywood Cemetery is one of Richmond’s most popular tourist attractions.   There are many other reasons, too.

I attended a house concert last Saturday night.   A house concert is a musical performance presented in someone’s home or other private space.  The benefits of a house concert are many….including the fact that a certain intimacy exists between the performers and the audience during the performance.   Think about one of your favorite performers coming to your home and providing a concert for you and a few of your friends, and you get the idea.

I was fortunate enough to bask in the music of Jeff Pike, a personal friend of mine, and Hugo Duarte  as they brought their Frozen Gringo tour through Atlanta along with approximately 30 other people. 

There was lots of great music mixed in with great stories.  

The Frozen Gringos....Jeff Pike and Hugo Duarte....Marietta, Georgia

In fact, one of Hugo Duarte’s stories reminded me about the fascinating cemetery in Richmond, Virginia that overlooks the James River.  The place is so much more than the myth of the Richmond Vampire. It seems that Hugo was in the cemetery late one afternoon after closing time......and he ended up on the wrong side of the locked front gate.

Hollywood Cemetery was established in 1849 from land that had long been known as “Harvie’s Woods.”   The cemetery website states, “The land that is now Hollywood was inherited by  William Byrd, III and was part of his graceful estate, Belvidere, on what is  now Oregon Hill.  After Byrd wasted his fortune on foolish schemes [sounds like a good story there] his land passed through Bushrod Washington and Lighthorse Harry Lee to Colonel John Harvie.”

Hollywood Cemetery with the James River in the background

The name….”Hollywood”…came from the number of holly trees scattered about the property. 

There are so many people buried at Hollywood…important people…historical figures. such as President James Monroe and President John Tyler as well as the only President of the Confederate States of America….Jefferson Davis.

….and then there ARE the 25 Confederate generals resting at Hollywood along with 18,000 Confederate soldiers (see this link).

There are many stories regarding all sorts of sightings of spirts at the cemetery along with the eerie feeling many advise they get while on the property.    

Hollywood Cemetery....it does seem a little spooky.

Hugo Duarte is no different.  His song….Hollywood…recounts his own visit to the property....after regular hours.    In 2007, he sang the song for General Pickett’s birthday along with Eddie Pickett.

I love the words…..

Hey, boys this is Hollywood.  It ain’t home, but It’s home for good.  We’d walk away from here if we could…never come back again.

And later in the song…..

Then General Pickett strode right up to me and in a troubled voice he said, “Ya’ll ain’t learned a damn thing from history….”

Take a listen for yourself…..

I’d have to agree with General Pickett.   We haven't learned anything...yet.

You can see future Frozen Gringo tour dates here.  If you are close by one of their shows I strong urge you to attend. :)

Memorial Day and My 800th Post....

I find it appropriate that this post is my 800th posting for History Is Elementary.

Memorial Day is one of my favorite holidays, so it makes sense I’m writing about it again for post number 800. I knew the milestone post was coming up. I had thought about what I would write. I had even asked friends on Facebook what I should write about, and they came up with several interesting ideas. Then I realized Memorial Day was rapidly approaching…..and I couldn’t go without saying something.

What does Memorial Day mean to you? Cookouts, picnics, trips to the beach, perhaps a sale at the mall, time off from work, a cold beer or two, the Indianapolis 500, a slab of ribs on the grill……

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have a problem with any of those things, but I wouldn’t be the ElementaryHistoryTeacher that I am if I didn’t point out what the original intent behind Memorial Day is.

Yes! These sweet young ladies, two of which I have the pleasure of knowing, have the right idea. Hannah and Claire are the daughters of a couple who are great friends of mine.  Paula and Scott felt it was important to teach their daughters the true meaning and intent of Memorial Day. Their family along with several other people decorated the graves at Marietta National Cemetery where there will be a ceremony today at noon.


I applaud them heartily!

Yes, Memorial Day is the official day to recognize men and women who have died while serving our country in the military.

Originally, Memorial Day morphed from a day that became popular soon after the end of the Civil War that was known as Decoration Day. Not only was it a day of remembrance, but it also served as a day for reconciliation as the North and South tried to heal.

The war dead was remembered by decorating their graves with flowers. On the very first Decoration Day, General James Garfield, future President of the United States, made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery where 5,000 people had gathered to decorate more than 20,000 Union and Confederate graves.

As there are with most things there are a few cities and/or groups who vie for the credit regarding who began the custom of decorating the graves of soldiers…..in the end it only matters that it’s done, right?

Over the years Decoration Day began to include soldiers from other wars and officially the day become Memorial Day when President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the last Monday in May as an official holiday in 1966.

Here are a few more pictures depicting Decoration Day events.

And of course looking back on other Memorial Day postings here at History Is Elementary…..This post is from 2009 and discusses heroes and this post is from 2008 when I was fortunate enough to spend Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery.


Whatever you do today......take a few minutes to remember those brave men and women who answered the call gave their lives in the cause of freedom.

Sometimes a Little Seizure Is Necessary

I have this pair of magnets on my fridge. They don’t really belong to me. I confiscated them years ago from a student. He was throwing them up in the air, and as they whizzed past each other they bumped against each other making clicking and zinging noises as they fell back towards his outstretched hands. Over and over he threw them up in the air. The young man throwing them was a very intelligent student. It was possible for him to comprehend every word I said during those few precious minutes of instructional time, BUT there were students around him that weren’t as fortunate. They were being distracted.

So was I for that matter.

I confiscated them because they were disturbing a lesson….I confiscated them because I was protecting the general welfare of my classroom. I simply grabbed them and kept on going with my lesson without missing a beat. While I continued to talk I took the few steps to the back of them to place them on my desk.

To find out what happened to those magnets and how they could even remotely relate to President Franklin Pierce, the Doughfaces, and a plan to wrest Cuba from the Spanish read the rest of my post at American Presidents Blog.

Moving History Along....Queenie's Coin

What makes a good plot line for a story?

First I think you need interesting characters….people you can care about….people you are willing to invest a few minutes of your time with. Second, you need an interesting backstory…something going on in the background to move the story along …throw in a little true life to the characters and to the events of the back story and gee, you’ve got a genuine blockbuster.

That’s what I look for when I teach history standards. In and of themselves the standards can be a little boring. Teaching in a “just the facts ma’m” kind of format will more often than not lead to a room full of students with glazed over eyes and off task behaviors…doodling, throwing spit balls, reading ahead in the text, repairing make-up, etc.

I look for the details of history that will enthrall others, old and young alike, the quirkiness of history, the stuff of history that make it alive and worth remembering.

The Civil War is a historical topic full of facts and my Georgia teaching standards are quite clear as to what students should know when they tackle that test each April. The Civil War is also a historical topic that is jam packed with great backstories and wonderful, real characters that can be used to motivate students to delve deeper into the content and analyze the context of the times and the motivation behind all of the parties involved.

The story of the CSS Hunley is interesting not just from a naval and technological viewpoint, but since I have to consider my audience and what will drag them kicking and screaming to the historical roundtable, the story of the Hunley is a gem for any serious teacher of history.

Last week for my wordless post I presented the front view of a gold coins that seem simple enough at first glance, but oh….what a story these gold coins have to tell. Homeschooling Granny made a correct assumption that the coins I pictured were indeed the coins given to George Dixon by his sweetheart Queenie Bennett as he left for war.

Highlighting literature is an important part of my teaching style and the book The Story of the H.L. Hunley and Queenie's Coin Edition 1. (True Story) by Fran Hawke and illustrated by Dan Nance (2004) is a wonderful story to share with history students from 9 to 90.

Throughout our great history men have gone off to serve our country and have received parting gifts from their loved ones. George Dixon was no different.

During the Civil War many soldiers received miniature paintings or photographs of their sweethearts, a handkerchief, scarf, or a tender love letter.

As he left in 1862 to join the 21st Alabama Regiment to serve under General P.G.T. Beauregard George Dixon’s sweetheart, Queenie Bennett, handed him a $20 gold coin. George instantly placed the coin in his pocket where he carried it into war. Can’t you see him sitting around a campfire at night pulling out the coin, turning it over and over in his fingers, thinking of Queenie….thinking of home?

What was given as a token of love actually served many more purposes. On April 6, 1862 at the Battle of Shiloh the coin actually stopped a bullet from injuring his leg. Dixon would have a lasting limp from the injury, but he survived because of the coin.

When he returned to Mobile he had the coin inscribed….Shiloh, April 6, 1862 My life preserver GED…and he continued to carry the coin in his pocket as a symbol of his love and devotion to Queenie as well as to commemorate his experience at Shiloh.

Dixon was unable to return to the battlefield, but continued to serve the Confederacy. He volunteered for another duty working with a new type of weapon the Confederacy was investigating….a new type of boat called a submarine. The Confederates hoped the submarines would allow them to bust the blockade that had blocked Charleston’s harbor as well as several other Confederate harbors.

At this point Fran Hawke’s book takes the interesting love story of Queenie and George and moves it to the sidelines a bit to tell the story of the Hunley. The text explains:

Learning and experimenting as they worked, the men molded iron plates into a sleek shape.

There would barely be room for eight or nine men, sitting on a wooden bench, turning the shaft that moved the propeller.

A long pole was affixed to the front of the submarine. It would hold an explosive, which would be jammed into the hull of an enemy ship.

Then, of course, as stories often do the plot returns to love. After a couple of disasterous tests George shared with Queenie that he was going to request command of the Hunley. He felt certain that the South should use submarines. He stifled any fear Queenie might have regarding his safety by reminding her he carried her gold coin.

George convinced Gen. Beauregard by telling him, “Sir, the Hunley is still in perfect working order. It only sank because the other crews made mistakes…The submarine is temperamental, but she is not a death trap.”

Under George Dixon’s command the Hunley was finally ready to attack Union ships in Charleston Harbor on February 17, 1864.

The book continues with a discussion regarding how the Hunley attacked the 200-foot-long USS Husatonic, and how the Hunley tore a hole in the side of the Union ship and sank her.

Sadly, however, the Hunley never returned to port.

The Confederacy tried to keep the loss of the Hunley secret, hoping that the Union would fear more attacks. Any hope of ending the Union blockade ended with the missing submarine and Queenie’s George.

Over the years quite a few myths surrounded the Hunley and her disappearance.

PT Barnum, a late nineteenth-century circus owner, offered a reward of $100,000 to anyone who could find the Hunley for him to display in his traveling show.

More than 100 years after the Hunley disappeared, famed author, Clive Cussler, arrived in Charleston to begin his search for the submarine. He was a Civil War expert, an underwater archaeologist, and an author. “Shipwrecks,“ he liked to say, “are never where they are supposed to be.” Cussler and his team kept looking, on an off for 15 years.

The Hunley was finally located on May 3, 1995 but it was not raised until August 8, 2000.

The book goes on to detail the painstaking efforts the folks at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston, South Carolina made to excavate the Hunley’s secrets…the propeller shaft, the crew’s bench, the men’s clothes, pipes, pocketknives, canteens, a wallet, a brooch, and a corked bottle. The remains of the crew members were also gathered for a proper buriel.

But what of Queenie’s gold coin?

Maria Jacobsen, the chief archaeologist sifted through the area where Lt. George Dixon would have sat. Through the mud she saw the glint of the lucky gold piece.

The coin is displayed today at the Hunley Exhibit at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center.

Fran Hawke’s book is a perfect addition to any history classroom and can be used with any age group. The story motivates students to learn more about the submarine by drawing them into the tragic love story of Queenie and George, by strategically interchanging the back story and the historical record back and forth in such a way you are totally unaware that you are learning something.

You can see both sides of the coin here.

The website for Friends of the Hunley can be found here

A picture of Queenie and more information can be found here

From Eye of the Beholder to Presenting History Accurately

As a born and bred Southern woman with a long line of dirt poor farmers in my past, and as a teacher and writer of history charged with presenting the truth, I often find myself in the sticky conundrum of a damned if you do and damned if you don’t situation regarding historical events as well as the social/cultural ideals that still haunt and permeate my southern homeland.

I’ve written here before regarding the yearly pattern of Open House at the beginning of the year when I inevitably have white parents wanting to know if I teach the truth about the Civil War, and I have just as many black parents wanting to know the same thing.

Basically they want to know if I’m going to teach their children whatever it is that they believe regardless of the truth.

Some want to make sure I teach that the issue of slavery and only the issue of slavery caused the terrible split in our country that resulted in so many lives lost and the destruction of so much property….not to mention rifts that continue even to this day.

Others want to make sure I’m someone who really knows the truth…the war was all about economic differences and that damn tariff.

Both sides have a point…both sides are right.


The Civil War was not caused by one single thing, but a list of many different things.

Some get too caught up in the romanticism of the Lost Cause moping about as if they are Ashley Wilkes while others are Big Sam or Pork (refer to Gone With the Wind if these names aren’t familiar to you) still looking for the forty acres and a mule. Those romantic types find it hard to accept and qualify the facts that slave holding was not a charitable occupation taken on by well meaning whites. It was a horrendous and nasty business that resulted in splitting families, forcible rape at times, unwanted and sometimes unaccepted bi-racial children, and a long list of other social by- products that sadly in some cases still exist today.

Not only do we wrangle over how Civil War issues are taught….we wrangle over how they are remembered as well. Some feel those in the South are wrong to erect monuments to Confederate dead….name schools and other buildings after slave owners…while many strongly advocate for their rights to remember Southern officers, officials, and leaders.

While every aspect of an event should be analyzed by students in a history class, at what point do educators move from presenting material to be analyzed in a fair and equal manner to presenting material that is compromised with personal viewpoints or too much information leaning towards one side?

At what point do we sacrifice true and honest historical remembrance for what we think we believe…for what we want to believe….for what might fit a certain modern agenda without thinking about the context of the times?

Finally, I have to ask….when we depend upon those maintaining historical sites to provide locations for students to learn about history where the history actually happened are we making sure those sites present a whole story or are we satisfied with just a story that sounds nice to make some people feel better?

During some recent research I stumbled upon a situation in Georgia during the 1840s that split the United Methodist Episcopal Church into northern and southern factions. The cause of the split was opinions regarding slavery.

The location in question is Oxford, Georgia….a place Dr. Mark Auslander discussed in his paper, Paradoxes of Blood, Law, and Slavery in a Georgia Community (2001). Oxford , as Dr. Auslander refers to it, is the birthplace of Emory University. The grounds are now the home to Oxford College and is a designated “shrine” of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

In his paper, Dr. Auslander, goes on to relate the tale of James Osgood Andrew, first president of the board of trustees of Emory College, who was at the center of the split in the Methodist Church in the 1840s. I have written more about the church split over at Georgia on My Mind in my post The Methodist Split According to Andrew.

From that particular post I relate:

We end up with a clergyman who finds he owns slaves but didn’t purchase them…yet he can’t free them because he will then be in violation of state law and subject to fines and arrest. He could sell the slaves under his ownership, but they might wind up in a worse condition with a with a master who would treat them poorly…as if being a slave wasn’t poor treatment enough. To make matters worse Bishop Andrew then becomes the focus of the split of the Methodist Church.

Bishop Andrew did lead the Southern churches in their split. Later he became the first bishop of the newly formed Methodist Episcopal Church, South. During the Civil War he resided in Alabama and retired from his post in 1866. Bishop Andrew is buried in Oxford, Georgia and is remembered as the namesake for Andrew College in Cuthbert, Georgia.

Dr. Auslander’s paper zeroes in specifically on one particular mulatto slave Andrew inherited when she was twelve years old named Kitty. Today, visitors to Oxford can visit Kitty’s gravesite located in the long segregated white cemetery where many white citizens insist Kitty is the only person of color buried in the cemetery. In fact, the memorial headstone placed there was done by an all white private foundation and is known as “Kitty’s Stone.” Per Dr. Auslander’s paper the stone was updated in the 1990s.

Dr. Auslander relates…..in the standard white version of the story, Kitty was inherited by an unwilling slaveholder….after she voluntarily refused manumission (conditional on transport to Liberia) at age nineteen in 1841 she was allowed by her benevolent owner to reside in a house that he built for her, adjacent to his own house. There, he alledgedly told her, “you may live as free as I am.” In time, the story goes, she married a free African-American man [by the name of Nathan Shell] and bore him three children before her death in the 185os.

Dr. Auslander explains that there are other tourist hotspots regarding Kitty including …the carefully restored house, in which Kitty alledgedly once lived…renovated by a predominately white local historical society. Both the home and the cemetery are often spoke of , by whites, as the most important historical sites in the county.

In white versions of the story, Kitty refused manumission when it was offered to her in 1841 and was allowed by her master, Bishop Andrew to reside in her own small cottage behind his mansion in de facto freedom. There, it is said, Kitty “looked after” local children, white and black, and treated them with warmth and respect.

Dr. Auslander further relates:

Not surprisingly, African American families in Oxford have a rather different relationship to the Kitty legend. My oldest African American informants recall hearing from the “old people” of the community that Kitty was Bishop Andrew’s coerced mistress, and that Andrew was the covert father of her children, whom he never acknowledged.

Some profess to be bored by the whole business, which they regard as a puzzling (or, at times, offensive) white obsession. Still others critique local white fascination with Kitty and with the restoration of her small house (referred to as “Kitty’s Cottage” by most local whites) as an attempt to paper over the horrors of slavery and evade the full accountability for the city’s antebellum slave-owning history.

Yet for all the manifest contrasts in white and African-American renditions of the narrative, and their strikingly different responses to spaces in which the story is memorialized, are these mythic accounts entirely distinct from one another?

In addition, many African American women and men with whom I have discussed the matter express a desire to see the matter closed, once and for all. A middle aged African American woman sighed, when the Kitty question came up, “Isn’t it time we all talked about something else? We have to get beyond all that”…An older African American man grew very quiet when the conversation briefly turned to Kitty. ….He noted softy, “Sometimes, you know, the dead just need to stay good and buried.”

Finally, Dr. Auslander discusses those in the African American community who are intensely interested in researching, uncovering and broadcasting the “true facts” of the Kitty case [stating that they] find themselves facing fundamental challenges of space and geography. Many note that whites have in effect, colonized the only places where Kitty’s story could be retold, especially her cottage and the supposed gravesite. As one African American woman remarked,”Ok, let’s say we really could prove everything about Kitty and Bishop Andrew, with DNA or whatever. Where in Oxford would we ever get to tell the truth? Put on a display? Where is there? You tell me.”

Since the 1930s, her “cottage” and grave have come to function as veritable pilgrimage sites for thousands of Georgia’s white residents, including weekly busloads of schoolchildren brought in for “educational visits” from throughout the state.

One female tour guide observed to a group of schoolchildren, “You know, Miss Kitty was loved by Mrs. Andrew as if she were her own flesh and blood. And Kitty felt the same way about the Andrew children. That’s the way it was in those days, people just took care of children your age, they could just go in and out of people’s houses like they were in their own, and be fed, and loved and looked after. That’s the way things are supposed to be. But is that how we live now?”

As one white woman noted, “Kitty’s story reminds us how families used to be, and how things still should be.” Since the late 1990s, many local white families have volunteered time, money, and effort to help restore Kitty’s former residence (a process that has so far, has not included any African American residents of the town.)

Somehow I don’t think Kitty’s Cottage is a place I would put on my list of approved field trips for my students unless I prepared them in advance to challenge the docents in their interpretation of slavery regardless of the bonds that might have and did sometimes develop between whites and blacks. I would also prepare my students to challenge statements made based on historical facts to back up so called stories no matter which side was painting the picture.

Where are the letters? Where are the diaries and journals? Where are bona fide interviews?

Most importantly……where are both sides of the issue?

Seen Here, There and Everywhere

I guess one of the advantages of being at home for awhile is that I can finally get caught up with emails and visiting my favorite blogs. I’ve found some interesting things:

Over at the AHA Blog (American Historical Association) reading list was published that included some interesting things—a link to a dicussion regarding the argument comparing academic resources and Wikipedia, a link to a site where you can compare the topography of Washington D.C. from 1791 to today, and for a little chuckle you can read how The Book of Secrets has made it home again to the Library of Congress

Mark Grimsley over at Blog Them Out of the Stone Age has reviewed the book
The Rifle Musket in Civil War Combat by Earl J. Hess. Grimsley states, “No kidding. If you think of yourself as a serious student of military history, this is one book you need to read—sooner rather than later.”

Via Chris Wehner at Blog 4 History I found this cool site called (formMy Year of Living Rangerously formally Volunteer in the Park). Mannie, the Ranger, works at the Antietam Battlefield site and he has posted The Sunken Road in 55mm….a recreation of The Bloody Lane, September 17, 1862.

JL Bell from Boston, 1775 is doing some great research on Declaration of Independence signer Richard Stockton comparing and contrast primary and secondary sources.

Kevin Levin over at Civil War Memory is once again writing about myth and memory and how they relate to actual events in Southern Heritage and Me. Kevin states, “No doubt, I am often perceived as an outsider whose purpose is to denigrate the people of the South and Southern Heritage. The outright attacks and/or suspicion, however, have only added to my curiosity about the blurred relationship between history and memory as well as the importance that people and certain organizations place on maintaining and defending certain views of the past.”….. “The interesting question, however, is when those modes of remembrance distort the past and serve to fuel our own contemporary values, interests, and insecurities. In other words, at what point do we leave the realm of history and enter the world of mythology and story-telling, and is it possible to achieve a healthy balance between the two? “……”It's not that I am challenging or questioning Southern heritage, it's that I am looking into or questioning one among any number of ways of remembering the past.”

As a Southerner myself I find it often difficult to write about my ancestors or other historical figures and relate their Confederate beliefs without coming myself as as supporter or making it into some romantic mythological tale. It is a fine tightrope I walk in that instance.

Finally, I posted a new entry over at The American Presidents Blog concerning Jimmy Carter and some of the challenges he had to overcome during the 1976 Presidential Campaign.

Family Relations

My family tree is a little odd as I recounted in my post A Conundrum For You many months ago, so I don’t have any reason to cast aspersions against link-ups in other families, but I am highly intriged by them. The picture with this post is of course first cousins as well as husband and wife Ashley Wilkes and Melanie Hamilton from the movie and book Gone with the Wind.

Leaving the first cousin thing aside for the the moment…are Margaret Mitchell’s characters, Ashley and Melanie, based on her real life cousins……one being the infamous Doc Holiday?

Over at Georgia on My Mind I’ve posted The Hollidays, the Hamiltons, and the Wilkes: Real Connections?

I’d love to have you join me over there.

The Town That Forgot the Fourth of July

Taking a quick glance at the Fourth of July events scheduled in the Vicksburg, Mississippi area it looks like any other town. The Clarion Ledger has an entire webpage full of events…..ballooning, gospel music, fireworks… and The Vicksburg Post mentions:

A nine-day schedule of events for Vicksburg’s Fourth of July was announced, ranging from a concert by a Beatles tribute band to the city’s annual fireworks extravaganza.

It has not always been so.

Following their part in the Civil War the city of Vicksburg basically ignored our nation’s birth for several decades and many citizens just simply refused to celebrate it in any shape or form.

To understand why we need to take a look at the Mississippi River and the part it played in the events of the war. The river cut the Confederacy in two. Control of the southern portion of the river was necessary to give easy communication access back and forth between the eastern and western portions of the Confederate States of America. Not only was the river important economically to the South it was also important to the North, and they wanted to regain control.

Many cities along the river---New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Natchez fell easy enough to the Union forces. Vicksburg was different. Vickburg had been termed the Gibralter of the Mississippi River since it was located on 200 foot bluffs that stretched for three miles overlooking a horseshoe bend in the river. Its strategic importance was not lost on Union leaders. Abraham Lincoln called Vicksburg the key, and the war could not be brought to an end without the key in the Union’s pocket.

In May, 1862, David Farragut’s advance ships arrived off the shores of Vicksburg and requested the town’s surrender. The military commander, James Autrey, exclaimed, “No, Mississippians do not know and refuse to learn how to surrender to an enemy.” A few days later Farragut, the future hero of Mobile Bay, was turned away from Vicksburg by a Confederate ironclad. Farragut was simply unprepared to put up any kind of fight.

Finally Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant gave a try at Vicksburg in May, 1863.. He also failed on his first two attempts. On May 19th under Grant’s command, William T. Sherman led his troops in a movement against Confederate forces. Thinking it would go well for them this action cost the Union approximately 1,000 men.

Grant planned more carefully for an attack on May 22nd. This time the entire army took part. Though Grant’s men broke through Confederate lines several times the city did not fall. Union efforts resulted in 4,000 Union dead. It was at this point Grant decided to wait the Confederates out. They along with the citizens of of Vicksburg were hemmed in on all sides by the Union forces.

The seige was off to a horrifying start almost from the get-go when Grant allowed his casualites to lie on the battlefield. They quickly became bloated and blackened in the hot sun. One Confederate soldier remarked, “The Yanks are trying to smell us out of Vicksburg.” Finally, Lt. General John C. Pemberton, the Confederate commander, sent a note to Grant asking him to bury his dead. A truce for two and half hours was granted for this to happen. During this time there was much movement across the lines of battle and much conversation between the Blue and the Gray. Coffee and other necessary items were traded, and mixed card games struck up.

Once the signal was given, however, everyone returned to their proper places, and the seige continued. Over two hundred cannons, guns of the fleet, boats that housed mortars, guns on the Louisana side of the river, and sharpshooters rained fire on Vicksburg night and day.

The seige would last forty-seven days.

In communication with Pemberton, Joseph E. Johnston, the overall commander of Confederate forces in Mississippi, ordered him to withdraw from Vicksburg, but Pemberton did not think he could do so without sacrificing all of his men. Johnson’s had a plan to attack Grant in order to allow Pemberton a chance to escape, but in the end he finally decided it would not be of any benefit and Pemberton found himself surrounded and under seige.

Pemberton’s men were now trapped with inedible food and little munitions. It did not take long for scurvy, malaria, dysentary, and diarrhea to invade the ranks of the Rebels.
It was said that the city was so tightly guarded on all sides by the Union soldiers that even a cat could not escape.

At times the situation inside the town became a contest between citizen and soldier for what little food remained. One man for a time stayed up all night in his garden to keep the soldiers from stealing what little food he had left for his family. Later on speculators would hoarde items in order to get the highest price as the sieged continued.

Citizens were forced to find refuge in caves once their homes were deemed no longer safe from the constant Union bombardment. Some caves were only as large as a fireplace while others could hold as many as 200 people. Larger caves were reinforced with wooden supports, but due to the constant shelling a few did cave in. Many of the caves were dug by slave labor, but a few sources report they were paid sometimes $30 or more depending on the size.

Mark Twain in his book Life on the Mississippi advised, “Sometimes the caves were desperately crowded, and always hot and close. Sometimes a cave would have twenty or twenty-five people packed in it; no turning room for anybody; air so foul, sometimes you couldn’t have made a candle burn in it. A child was born in one of those caves one night. Think of that, why it was like having it born in a trunk.”

The citizens of Vicksburg attempted and more or less succeeded in living as normally as they could under the most impossible circumstances. Some of the larger caves contained rugs, pictures, and pieces of furniture.

Social classes still managed to separate themselves even in the dirt. Many of the town’s elite had their own area of caves that were nicknamed Sky Parlor. There are even stories of a band or two playing in and around some of these “nicer” caves.

It could be very dangerous though and citizens were terrorized minute by minute. Life on the Mississippi, by Mark Twain tells of two citizens who met on the street and shook hands. A shell hit and one of the men suddenly had a hand holding his but the body that belonged to the hand was no longer there. Amazingly less than a dozen citizens were killed. Approximately thirty-six were injured. Many of the town’s ladies and children learned how to sidestep the bombs as they walked the streets to get from one area of town to another.

Union forces stationed on the river had a clear view of the bluffs that they nicknamed Prarie Dog Village because of the constant popping up of heads from the approximately 500 caves.

In a 1976 Time Magazine article Lance Morrow states, “In the seige caves of Vicksburg…Americans were spectacularly shorn of innocence.”

We are able to find out what many citizens were thinking and feeling during this time because many ladies maintained diaries and journals even while living in the caves.

Emma Balfour wrote of the early fighting: “I was up in my room sewing and praying in my heart . . . when Nancy [her servant girl] rushed up, actually pale . . . .” Nancy warned of the falling shells, which sent people “rushing into caves.”

“Just as we got in, several . . . [shells] exploded. . . just over our heads, and at the same time two riders were killed in the valley. . . . As all this rushed over me and the sense of suffocation from being underground, the certainty that there was no way of escape, that we were hemmed in, caged:--for one moment my heart seemed to stand still. Nearly all the families in town spent the night in their caves.”

In the same article Mary Loughborough relates:

On one occasion, I was reading in safety, I imagined, when the unmistakable whirring of Parrott shells told us that the battery we so much feared had opened from the entrenchments. I ran to the entrance to call the servants in; and immediately after they entered, a shell struck the earth a few feet from the entrance, burying itself without exploding. I ran to the little dressing room, and could hear them striking around us on all sides. One fell near the cave entrance, and a servant boy grabbed it and threw it outside; it never exploded. And so the weary days went on . . . when we could not tell in what terrible form death might come to us before the sun went down.”

Once the food ran out the citizens and soldiers resorted to eating mule meat, dogs, and even boiled shoe leather. Some accounts tell of skinned rats being offered in the markets for sale.

The Daily Citizen, the local newspaper, continued to be printed during the siege. When the paper ran out they began to print on used wall paper. Two days before the citizens of Vickburg would hear their ordeal was over the paper’s editors published a comical news item regarding Grant:

[T]he great Ulysses—the Yankee Generalissimo, surnamed Grant—has expressed his intention of dining in Vicksburg on Saturday next, and celebrating the 4th of July by a grand dinner and so forth. When asked if he would invite Gen. Jo Johnston to join he said. 'No! for fear there will be a row at the table.' Ulysses must get into the city before he dines in it. The way to cook rabbit is 'first catch the rabbit.' &c.

At least they were keeping their sense of humor. Unfortunately, the Confederate soldiers had nothing left to give by the point. Pemberton polled his men. They indicated they were still in the fight, but Pemberton knew physically they could not continue. Their bodies were broken.

On July 3, 1863 General Pemberton and General Grant met to discuss the unconditional surrender----Because Grant did not want to stretch his own resources he allowed the 30,000 Confederate troops to be paroled instead of inprisoned. One source states the Confederate Army of Vicksburg simply evaporated.

It was on the Fourth of July, 1863 that Vicksburg citizens were finally free to return to the ruins or what was left of their homes. As they wearily trudged home the joyful Union troops were also in the same streets proudly parading their victory as well as celebrating the news that the Union had also had a huge victory at Gettysburg.

Later when the Union had a chance to view the paper Grant was able to have a response to The Daily Citizen inserted in a following edition:

Two days bring about great changes, The banner of the Union floats over Vicksburg, Gen. Grant has 'caught the rabbit;' he has dined in Vicksburg, and he did bring his dinner with him. The 'Citizen' lives to see it. For the last time it appears on 'Wall-paper.' No more will it eulogize the luxury of mule-meat and fricasseed kitten—urge Southern warriors to such diet never-more.

It is no wonder to me why the citizens of Vicksburg were turned off by the Fourth. In his book Triumph and Defeat: The Vicksburg Campaign, Terrence J. Winschel states the people of Vicksburg were more adversely impacted by the war than any other people of any other city. Vicksburg inhabitants were civilian prisoners in a dungeon of fire and destruction.”

Some sources state the people of Vicksburg did not begin to celebrate the Fourth again openly until after World War II. General Eisenhower visited the town in the late 40s on the Fourth and a parade was given for him.

Today when you visit Vicksburg there is no evidence of the caves, but the bluffs are there, and if you know about what happened there you can’t help but attempt to picture those bluffs full of caves, bombs, and destruction.

There will be a fireworks display on the fourth in Vicksburg, but I would imagine there will be a few people there who remember their ancestors on the Fourth and the terrible period of time when they burrowed into the bluffs.

Civil War Resources

I found the video below on YouTube regarding Antietam and thought I would share it. This creative work shows that YouTube has some really great uses in the classroom with students….if only we could get past those pesky blocks.

I also wanted to document a wonderful Civil War resource called Civil War Album. The picture seen here was snagged from CWA. It was taken on the summit of Kennesaw Mountain looking towards Little Kennesaw. At CWA you can click on almost every major battle and see all sorts of images and maps. This is a great source for virtual tours. I’ve been checking out the Jonesboro link quite a bit lately. I'm looking for any pictures that might have been taken during Sherman's march towards Jonesboro....when the railroads were torn up at Red Oak, Georgia. If anyone knows of any please let me know. I grew up there and the area's early history interests me.

Dear Anonymous

It has been a few days and I’ve allowed others to respond to an anonymous comment that was placed on a previous post titled, George, We Hardly Knew Ye. I certainly appreciate the well-rounded opinions that were submitted.

Each August I ready my classroom and proceed to meet my new students and their parents at our annual open house. I try to stress to parents how different fourth grade will be from third. For example, social studies curriculum hovers around 12-15 objectives in third grade while the fourth grade objectives balloon to 56. Certain objectives expand even further by listing up to 20 different elements. I have examples of my unit tests out for parents to view as well as released copies of the state test so that they can see what their child is in for. The textbooks are out for examination and all of my Native American trade books are on display ready for students to delve into on the first day of school. Most parents are generally excited that their child will be learning American History and always want to share with me which events were their most favorite in school.

I can always predict that at least one parent, sometimes Caucasian while other times African American, will lean over and will conspiratorially whisper, “Do you teach the right version or the wrong version of the Civil War?” I always respond that I teach all of the causes of the Civil War…..the issue of slavery, the economic differences between the North and South, and state’s rights. This generally satisfies the parents. I relay the above example not to incite more emails from Anonymous (you can read the full text here), but to illustrate that all of us have bias where history is concerned.

One of my contributors, Allen Drury, had some advice that fits nicely here. He commented that when we study history we must put it in the context of the times. We need to see history from the viewpoint of those that lived it. I believe that is what a good history teacher does. I attempt to do it everyday. I also believe in a quote that the Portable Princess provided, “History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.”

Anonymous states:

I used to wonder how slavery could go on for almost 400 years and not one person in the history books is blamed for it!!! Not to mention who were the people who stole all the land from the Indians and Mexicans.

I’m assuming Anonymous is referring to slavery in North America, but in all actuality slavery in North America goes back even further. The Aztecs used slaves as victims in their sacrificial rites. Native Americans had wars with neighboring tribes. The victor took property including slaves.

Every history book I’ve reviewed over the last few years clearly states that the Spanish, faced with a labor shortage, began to bring enslaved Africans to the New World. Houghton Mifflin’s text for fourth graders states, “The Spanish brought enslaved Africans to replace the thousands of American Indians who had died” on page 112. It’s fairly clear to me who originally brought African slaves here. Slavery is first mentioned in my newly adopted text on page 93 where Portuguese exploration into West Africa is discussed. The text clearly and truthfully states, “Slavery had existed before the Portuguese arrived, but the Portuguese increased the number of enslaved people brought to Europe.” My students are intrigued to find out that African slavery began due to tribal warfare and existed on the African continent before the arrival of the Portuguese.

Anonymous continues:

I guess the people who did these things were the ones who wrote the history books, no doubt!!

Yes, Anonymous. Of course the Spanish and Portuguese wrote their version of history. Every culture involved in historical events has their point of view and they catalogue it. I agree with the Plant Man that bias will always exist in texts and it’s the job as the historian to examine as many sources as possible to obtain a true objective picture. There are many forms of bias. Some texts are biased culturally while some have gender bias. Others devote too many pages to some events while others are barely mentioned. Some texts simply replace one form of bias for another.

As we have discussed the American Revolution my students have looked at events from both points of view. We discussed the Boston Tea Party. We talked about why King George was so upset that he encouraged Parliament to pass the Intolerable Acts. Students identified the fact that the chests of tea were symbols to be smashed by the Sons of Liberty while the British were incensed that the tea was private property and tax dollars had been lost. John Hancock was certainly brave as he strode to the front of the room and placed his “John Hancock” on the Declaration of Independence, but the British viewed this as an act of treason. Students begin to grasp that point of view is extremely important and that it is ok to not agree with the actions of a historical figure.

Anonymous continues:

The history books have no input from the slaves or Indians at all. If they did then maybe there would be some truth to them.

Huh? Read a book lately? Pages 58-59 of the Houghton Mifflin book extends our lesson regarding Southwest Indian tribes and introduces students to Victor Masayesva, Fred Begay, and Leslie Marmon Silko who are all Native Americans and hold very important jobs in American society today-----a filmmaker, a nuclear physicist, and a writer respectively. During our exploration of slavery my students have at their disposal the words of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth----need I go on?

These devils actually convinced us that they are angels and heroes! They did not even like poor whites...they were an elitist class....I cannot think of anyone in history as we know it more selfish, greedy and evil than the founding fathers.

Kevin wrote that he’s concerned with an increase in Founding Father bashing and I tend to agree with him. dcp advises students of history need to keep events and actions in perspective. However, you can’t fool a nine year old. They challenge me all of the time. “How could Thomas Jefferson write about freedom when he owned slaves?” I agree. The Founding Fathers are a quandary to many people. I’m honest with my students. I tell them it is ok to not agree totally with someone and still admire some of their actions. George Washington played a pivotal role in many of the founding events of our nation. We should forget those contributions because he held slaves? Do we forget his contributions because he participated in something that was legal at the time for him to do? I say no. I say teach the good and the bad. Help students understand the context of the time.

Anonymous continues:

Isn't it funny how Charlton Heston plays a slave in 'The Ten Commandments'and fights the evil Egyptian slaveowners but in real life he supports the exactly same kind of evil men by quoting the founding fathers in the 'Bowling For Columbine' movie. He might be a racist but he is definetly stupid.

I don’t quite get this part and agree with Al. It would seem that Anonymous exists in some type of disjointed universe. I’m simply not going there.

Anonymous, we need to remember that textbooks are not the be all and end all of history instruction. My textbook is just one tool I use to help children discovery history. As Polski3 commented texts are meant to be survey only----a more specialized telling would result in a book with 20,000 pages. Not only that--- Janet weighed in that texts cannot be totally complete because it would be extremely time consuming.

I teach history from various points of view and attempt to place students in positions where they make connections and discover interesting tidbits about humanity. I teach to develop students who know how to use various resources to reach an opinion. I want them to continue the skills they learn in my classroom for the remainder of their lives. My main goal is to produce able-bodied citizens who can think for themselves after reviewing the facts. I don’t teach history to indoctrinate students concerning who I think was right and who was wrong.

Anonymous, my contributors have given you some homework. You might want to read some works by John Hope Franklin, Carter Woodson, or Kant. You might want to check out a book called Lies My Teacher Told Me for some perspective.

And….what makes me feel great as I finally end this post is I’m certain that my nine year old students are in a much better position than Anonymous because they know how to look up information on their own and how to evaluate a source.

I will sleep well.

Sex in the Classroom

Early on in my teaching career I was attempting to discuss the events that gradually led up to the Civil War. My textbook at the time gave a heavy emphasis to slavery and did not mention the whole scope of events that led us down the path of war. I wanted my students to see how our growing nation was a cause to the war. Once the United States embarked on adding territory and new states to the Union sectionalism was inevitable. So I mentioned the word sectionalism in class. Immediately I had embarrassed looks, averted eyes, and a titter here and a guffaw there. “Oh my,” I thought. “What did I say?”

I continued talking. I showed students maps. I gave a nice explanation of sectionalism. I connected the word to another word we had learned earlier in the year…regionalism. Still, every time I said the word sectionalism students sat up straighter, had funny looks on their faces, and were finally at the point of a major meltdown. I gave up. “Ok, what’s going on?” I asked.

One young man bravely volunteered. “Mrs. Historyteacher, are you saying the Civil War was caused by sex?”

“Sex! Sex? When did I say sex?” I frantically searched my mind picturing myself as the lead story on the five o’clock news.

Everyone agreed at this point. “Yes, you said sex.”

“Yep, I head it.”

“How can sex cause a war?”

I thought that an explanation of Helen of Troy and the problems she caused would be inappropriate at the time, so I finally asked a dependable young man to tell me exactly what he heard.

“Well, you said sexionalism was a cause to the Civil War.”

So, it finally dawned on me what I had done wrong and I quickly backtracked to correct my error. I learned that day that when you introduce new vocabulary words to students that might sound like another word it would be most helpful to write the vocabulary word on the board before you begin to speak, and while you are speaking it, it would also be beneficial to walk by the word occasionally and point to it for emphasis.

I posted on sectionalism a bit more at the American Presidents Blog. Take a visit there and learn a little about the Election of 1824. There's also a great post there titled "White House...and Internet...Phantoms" that is very interesting.