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 in the NY Times by Paul Finkelman, senior fellow in the Penn Program on Democracy, Citizenship and Constitutionalism at the University of Pennsylvania and a scholar-in-residence at the National Constitution Center.. An excerpt …
“The most obvious constitutional result of the Civil War was the adoption of three landmark constitutional amendments. The 13th ended slavery forever in the United States, while the 14th made all persons born in the United States (including the former slaves) citizens of the nation and prohibited the states from denying anyone the privileges and immunities of American citizenship, due process or law, or equal protection of the law. Finally, the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, prohibited the states from denying the franchise to anyone based on ‘race, color, or previous condition of servitude.’
“These amendments, however, have their roots in the war itself, and in some ways can been seen as formal acknowledgments of the way the war altered the Constitution. Other changes came about without any amendments. Thus, the war altered the Constitution in a variety of ways. A review of some of them underscores how the Union that President Lincoln preserved was fundamentally different — and better — than the Union he inherited when he became president.”
An article in the NY Times by Ted Widmer, assistant to the president for special projects at Brown University, and the editor of “The New York Times Disunion: Modern Historians Revisit and Reconsider the Civil War from Lincoln’s Election to the Emancipation Proclamation.” An excerpt …
“When did the Civil War end? Many have answered never. As late as 1949, in an address at Harvard, the writer Ralph Ellison said that the war ‘is still in the balance, and only our enchantment by the spell of the possible, our endless optimism, has led us to assume that it ever really ended.’”
An article by Daryl Worthington published on the NewHistorian website. An excerpt …
“On 2nd June, 150 years ago, Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith signed the terms of surrender offered by the Union. The commander of Confederate forces west of the Mississippi, Smith’s agreement to the terms saw the dissolution of the last Confederate army, finally bringing to a close the US Civil War.
“The US Civil War had officially come to an end on 9th April, 1865, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox. Nevertheless, over the following months several strongholds of Confederate forces continued to hold out in the conflict, most notably west of the Mississippi, and wage guerrilla warfare against Union forces.”
Here’s an article by Onofrio Castiglia that appeared in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star daily newspaper. An excerpt …
“When considering the millions of men who fought in the American Civil War, one local group highlights the fact that some of them were not men at all—but women, in disguise.
“Recently, Steve Killings, board president of the Academy for Veteran Education and Training—an educational nonprofit group located at Historic Jordan Springs—said that the organization is trying to erect a monument to honor the more than 500 women who posed as men so they could fight.
“According to the Civil War Trust, more than 3 million soldiers fought in the war.
“Killings said that there is no memorial anywhere dedicated to the little-known group of women who fought as valiantly as their male counterparts, and not as nurses or seamstresses, but as combat soldiers.”
An article by Leoneda Inge on the North Carolina Public Radio website. An excerpt …
“Events commemorating the 150th Anniversary marking the end of the Civil War are wrapping up across the south. It is noticeable that most of the visitors attending these events are white.
“But organizers at the Stagville State Historic Site in Durham made sure their event over the weekend would be more diverse. They say “Freedom 150” focused on the lives of the former slaves once the Civil War came to an end.”
A blog post by Daniel Davis at the Emerging Civil War blog.
“Over the course of the last year and a half, one of the officers who has grabbed my attention is Maj. Gen. Joseph Mower. Having served in the War with Mexico, Mower compiled an impressive combat record during the Civil War, fighting at Island Number 10, Iuka and Vicksburg. He participated in the Red River Campaign and the March to the Sea. He probably had his finest hour at Bentonville, where he turned Gen. Joseph Johnston’s left flank and came within a hair of cutting off the line of retreat of the Confederates. What is all the more extraordinary is that Mower began the war as a Captain of a company in the 1st U.S. Infantry and ended as the commander of the XX Corps in the Army of Georgia, all without a West Point education. Similar to many of his contemporaries, however, Mower does have question marks on his record. Last week’s visit to Corinth left me to further contemplate them and their possible answers.”
This is an article from North Country Public Radio by Nina Martyris, a freelance journalist based in Knoxville, Tennessee. An excerpt …
“Cookbooks published during the Civil War era provide vivid, contrasting portraits of how the conflict affected diets and social lives in the North and the South. A house divided against itself, indeed: There was very little in common between the kitchens of the Yankee North and the Confederate South.
“Over the four-year course of the war, the cotton-and-tobacco-growing South was steadily starved into submission by the Union's naval blockade of the Atlantic Coast and the Mississippi River, which cut off vital supplies of grain, pork and, most lethally, salt. Meanwhile, ports in the North remained open to trade with Europe. While parts of the South came close to famine, the North continued to dine well and even exported surplus food. All this was reflected in the food literature of the time.”
This is a link to an episode of the History of American Slavery courtesy of Slate.com. In this link is an MP3 audio file of “The Atlantic slave trade during its heyday and the remarkable life of Olaudah Equiano.” You can listen to the audio on this web page or download it to listen on your favorite portable device. In episode 2 of The History of American Slavery, a Slate Academy, hosts Rebecca Onion and Jamelle Bouie explore the shape of slavery during the late 18th century. They talk about the heyday of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the birth of the British abolitionist movement. They begin their discussion by remembering the remarkable life of Olaudah Equiano, 1745?–1797.
This is a book review by Alan C. Guelzo. The book he reviews is The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, by Edward E. Baptist. An excerpt …
“It might seem strange, given how much has been written on American slavery just over the past half-century, that yet another book, in its title, could propose that The Half Has Never Been Told. But the half that Cornell historian Edward Baptist believes has “never been told” is revealed in the subtitle: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism. The half that remains to be told is about capitalism’s complicity in slave labor—at which point we realize that this is not a book about slavery after all; it is a teeming, visceral condemnation of capitalism … “
A post by Ashley Webb on the Emerging Civil War blog. An excerpt …
“In late October of 1861, the Union Naval fleet set sail for Port Royal, South Carolina, hoping to advance Winfield Scott’s plan to blockade the Confederate ports and prevent trade with European countries. Similar to the Chesapeake Bay, Port Royal was a strategic supply route into South Carolina and Georgia, as well as one of the wealthiest Confederate ports because of its sea-islands cotton. The brief naval battle at Port Royal that took place in November 1861 unsettled the Confederate hold on the islands, and led to a hasty retreat for both the Confederate troops and the plantation owners, abandoning all property and possessions. The question soon became about what to do with the 10,000 slaves left behind … “
A post by Ashley Webb on the Emerging Civil War blog. An excerpt …
“Edward Pierce, an agent to the Federal Government sent to visit Port Royal and the surrounding islands of South Carolina, wrote an in depth anthropological style report on the African American population abandoned by retreating Confederate troops and evacuating plantation owners. Reprinted in the New York Tribune in February of 1862, Pierce documented the daily lives of the slaves, while taking a preliminary inventory of the available land, labor, and cash-crop production at each plantation … ”
Parts 1 – 4 were posted in last week’s list of articles. A series of blog posts by Ned B. at TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog. TOCWOC (The Order of Civil War Obsessively Compulsed) is a group Civil War blog formed in September 2007. Its purpose is to enlighten and entertain readers on every aspect of the Civil War, whether it be Social, Political, Military, or other history. An excerpt …
“Grant’s first order to Banks reached him on March 26 at Alexandria, Louisiana, where the forces for the campaign had concentrated. Though delayed by the navy’s effort to get the boats over the rapids, Banks still hoped he could reach Shreveport around April 10 and return Sherman’s troops after that.1 Meanwhile Grant had returned to Washington DC. His thinking about the spring campaigns had progressed substantially. In particular his desire for a campaign against Mobile had solidified. On the last day of March, Grant wrote orders to Banks that altered his previous instructions … “
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.
