This post contains a list of Civil War/History articles published this past week around the Internet. Click on the title to go to the full article.
An article by Gregory P. Downs, associate Professor of history at City College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and the author of “After Appomattox: Military Occupation and the Ends of War.”
“The United States extended the war for more than five years after Appomattox. Using its war powers to create freedom and civil rights in the South, the federal government fought against a white Southern insurgency that relied on murder and intimidation to undo the gains of the war.”
Fun post by Phil Edwards on vox.com list some theories to answer the question. An excerpt …
“So why did people in old photos look like they'd just heard the worst news of their life? We can't know for sure, but a few theories help us guess what was behind all that black-and-white frowning.”
Late post by Jason Roe from the Kansas City Public Library’s blog. Topics …
- Lee Surrenders: "Our Confederacy has Played Out"
- "Terrible News" of Lincoln's Assassination
- Laying Down Arms on the Western Border
Article by Brian Burnes in the Kansas City Star about Raphael G. Rombauer, one of four Hungarian-American brothers living in St. Louis at the start of the war. All four brothers fought for the Union. An excerpt …
Elizabeth Young of Kirkwood, Mo. is Rombauer’s great-great-granddaughter. Alerted to the unusual status of her relative’s ashes, Young retrieved them last September from a St. Louis mortuary, where they had been stored for more than a century.
Rombauer’s remains were buried in Park Cemetery in Carthage Missouri on Saturday, April 11, 2015.
Beverly Shaw from the Civil War Round Table of Western Missouri came across this article in the Independence Examiner about the use of pioneer journals to pique the interest of middle school students in Independence, MO. Audrey Elder, was instrumental in thinking of this engaging way to study history.
Another article brought to my attention by Beverly Shaw. It’s a well-written opinion piece by Leonard Pitts Jr., Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the Miami Herald. An excerpt …
“On the day after the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, Abraham Lincoln appeared at a second-floor window of the White House. He was acceding to the wishes of citizens who had gathered to serenade their president in this moment of victory. They called for a speech but Lincoln demurred. Instead he asked the band to play ‘Dixie.‘
“The song — a homesick Southerner's lament — had been the de facto anthem of the Confederacy during 48 bloody months of civil war, but Lincoln declared now that the South held no monopoly on it. ‘I have always thought Dixie one of the best tunes I have ever heard,’ he said. It was probably his way of encouraging a nation that had ripped itself apart along sectional lines to begin knitting itself together again.”
An article in the Washington Post by Allen Guelzo, the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era and Director of the Civil War Era Studies at Gettysburg College. An excerpt …
“The lead .41-calibre bullet with which John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln on the night of April 14, 1865, was the most lethal gunshot in American history.”
An article in the New York Times Disunion blog by Martha Hodes, a professor of history at New York University and the author, most recently, of ‘Mourning Lincoln.”. An excerpt …
“As horrible as Lincoln’s murder seems to us today, it is hard to fathom just how earth-shattering it was for many people at the time. It was shocking enough that this was the first presidential assassination in American history. But it also came at a moment — less than a week after Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox — when Americans were either celebrating victory or despairing at defeat.”
An article by Matt Ford, an associate editor at TheAtlantic. An excerpt …
“Confusion reigned as telegraphs and steamships slowly spread the news across the Atlantic and the Americas over the course of weeks and months. When the full horror of Lincoln’s murder became known, letters of condolence came pouring in from trade unions in Italy, from town councils in Britain, from Masonic lodges in France, and from all other manner of groups and citizens throughout Europe and the New World. The legislatures of France, Italy, Belgium, Prussia, and Britain penned lengthy memorials to the fallen president. Foreign consuls and ministers flooded into American diplomatic posts from Brazil to Russia to share their sympathies.”
An article by Rudi Keller in the Columbia Daily Tribune. An excerpt …
“As a journalism student, I had occasionally read his “Fan in the Stands” column, which appeared during the Missouri Tigers football season. I didn’t know the man behind it was an accomplished journalist with 20 years as wire editor at the Tribune when he retired in January 1986, or that he was a Civil War scholar working on a book about Missouri Confederates.”
An article by Rudi Keller in the Columbia Daily Tribune. An excerpt …
“A memorial to Boone County’s Civil War dead was installed in 2001 on the Boone County Courthouse lawn. More than 100 of Boone County’s black soldiers who died in the war aren’t included in the list of names.”
Missouri 150 Years Ago
Every week, Len Eagleburger (co-edited by Beverly Shaw) edits a newsletter called “Ozarks Civil War Sesquicentennial Weekly.” One of its sections is entitled “Missouri 150 Years Ago.” These are the links to articles which appeared in the Columbia Daily Tribune newspaper published in Columbia, Missouri.
· Guerrillas target German merchant in Cole County attack
· Draft taps 240 men from Boone County for Union Army service
· Columbia celebrates fall of Confederate capital
· Columbia infrastructure needs top priority for new officials, editorial states
· Moniteau County man murdered at home by four assailants
· Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House
· Randolph County militia tracks bushwhackers across northern Missouri
· Past differences set aside as Missouri mourns death of Lincoln
James W. Farley died on Monday, April 13. He was a Platte County attorney, 
