Obiter Dicta

Trump, War and the Constitution
Has the United States become what President Donald Trump recently condemned? Can the president fight any war he wishes? Can Congress...
CSA

News From Around the South, 6/9 to 6/16
VIRGINIA: Trump Orders Virginia Army Installation Renamed Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg and Lt. Col. Charity Adams may be having their names removed from...

“The Most Incompetent Man in the Confederacy”: John Pemberton In Over His Head
ECW welcomes back guest author Lucas Simmons. John C. Pemberton ended the Civil War with a less-than-stellar reputation. Confederate surgeon John A. Leavy remarked after the battle of Champion Hill that his commander was either “a traitor or the most incompetent man in the Confederacy.”[1] The truth, at least to me, seems to be somewhere in the middle; he was not a traitor as he is remembered,...

The Last Major Confederate Surrender: Smith, Buckner, Shelby, and Price Debate Their Options and Submission in New Orleans, May 26, 1865
Dating when the American Civil War ended is a point of debate. All that can be agreed upon is that the fall of Richmond and Petersburg, followed...

Book Review: Unforgettable Sacrifice: How Black Communities Remembered the Civil War
While some studies on Civil War memory appeared in the early and mid-twentieth century, those associated with the beginnings of a widening scholarly...
Recent Articles
Trump, War and the Constitution
Has the United States become what President Donald Trump recently condemned? Can the president fight any war he wishes? Can Congress fund any war it chooses? Are there constitutional and legal requirements that must first be met before war is waged? These questions...
“The Most Incompetent Man in the Confederacy”: John Pemberton In Over His Head
ECW welcomes back guest author Lucas Simmons. John C. Pemberton ended the Civil War with a less-than-stellar reputation. Confederate surgeon John A. Leavy remarked after the battle of Champion Hill that his commander was either “a traitor or the most incompetent man...
No Kings
What does it say when Alex Padilla, a sitting member of the United States Senate, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Immigration, is wrestled to the ground and handcuffed like a common criminal? Not a rapist, not a murderer, but a member of...
News From Around the South, 6/9 to 6/16
VIRGINIA: Trump Orders Virginia Army Installation Renamed Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg and Lt. Col. Charity Adams may be having their names removed from the signs at Fort Gregg-Adams, but the post’s commanding general has told their families that she was “committed” to...
Slouching Toward Authoritarianism
The deployment of California National Guard troops and active-duty U.S. Marines onto the streets of Los Angeles is an assault on federalism, violates federal law and manifests a dangerous pattern of governmental behavior in defiance of constitutional principles and...