SOUTH CAROLINA: Civil War Shipwreck Wine Tasted By Experts
Joe Lapore, from the Waitt Institute, holds a bottle recovered from the Civil War blockade runner ship Mary-Celestia, which sank off Bermuda in 1864.
The verdict: A heady sulfur bouquet with distinct notes of saltwater and gasoline.
–Philly.com
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ARKANSAS: Damming the River of History
There’s a bill currently under consideration in the Arkansas Legislature’s House committee on State Agencies and Public Affairs: HB 1229, An Act to Create the Arkansas Military Heritage Protection Act; and for Other Purposes.
On its face, this bill has noble intentions, namely preservation of our history and honoring the military service of many Arkansans. Unfortunately, it’s also chocked full of potential latent consequences.
Confederate Soldiers Monument, State Capitol Grounds.
The bill begins by defining what a monument is: “Monument’ means a statue, a memorial, gravestone plate, nameplate, plaque, historic flag display, school, street, bridge, building, park, preserve, or reserve that: (A) Has been erected for, or named or dedicated in honor of, a historical military figure, historical military event, military organization, or military unit… .”
The bill then goes on to enumerate a list of 17 specific monument types that may not be “relocated, removed, altered, renamed, rededicated or otherwise disturbed.”
To be sure, the service and sacrifice of Arkansans should be properly memorialized, but this bill sets up a situation where a given memorial is more than just set in stone.
Human frailties being what they are, heroes are easy to elevate, but the lens of time doesn’t always support that ascendance. Do we really want to create a situation in which we forever lionize a person for deeds of the day, only to later discover that the hero of the moment had faults that outstripped their heroism?
Not that any Arkansan would, but it is possible that a person could perform an act of great bravery in the heat of battle and also commit war crimes; or be a member of a terrorist group like the Ku Klux Klan. Most people are complex constructions. Sometimes that complexity contains dimensions that don’t accord with a permanent and immutable memorial on the courthouse lawn.
There are also less socio-political reasons this might be an unwise law. Towns grow. Their spatial needs change. Some monuments occasionally need to be relocated — for their own protection or greater veneration.
This bill would prevent that. A monument once crowded into the back of the courthouse parking lot might be better honored if it were the centerpiece of a public park. This bill is deaf to that potential.
Many supporters of this bill believe that hippie liberals want to erase important aspects of our shared history. These same foes of heritage want a sanitized, revisionist telling of our common story. Maybe some do, but the vast majority likely just want an acknowledgment that history is pliable. History is a matter of perspective; and perspective changes across time.
An example of this can be found in Greenwood, South Carolina. There a tempest is brewing over a small plaque on a World War I memorial. The soldiers are listed as either white or “colored.” The well-intentioned mayor (and others in the community) want to change the plaque to “integrate” the names. A backlash has ensued.
As historians, National Park Service interpreters and many activists have noted, that separation speaks to an important aspect of the time the memorial was erected. It shouldn’t be undone.
South Carolina has a law almost identical to the Arkansas bill. As the Associated Press reports, its purpose was to appease people who worried 15 years ago that Confederate memorials and street and park names in honor of generals would be torn down in wake of the Confederate flag being removed from the Statehouse dome and being put in front of the South Carolina Capitol alongside a Confederate soldier monument. The flag is still a sore point for the NAACP and other black leaders.
What the people of South Carolina are figuring out and what Arkansas legislators need to learn is that history is a mighty river. You may dam it. You may control the flow. But ultimately it controls itself; we don’t.
–Pine Bluff Commercial
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TENNESSEE: Local Money Goes to Civil War Sesqui Events
Commemoration, remembrance and reconciliation will be the themes of a Civil War reunion and jubilee this spring in Knoxville.
With the help of city, county and state funds, the event will wrap the sesquicentennial observance of the Civil War in Tennessee.
alvin Chappelle, chair of the Knox County Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission, gives comments as a new Civil War Trails marker was dedicated between the old Knox County courthouse and the City County building Friday, Dec. 5, 2014 in Knoxville, TN. The marker was presented by the Knox County Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission and the East Tennessee Historical Society. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL)
In February, the Knox County Commission contributed $15,000 to the events here, which will run from April 30 to May 3.
“You don’t want to forget your past,” Commissioner Mike Brown said. “This is our history.”
Events planned include a recreation of the Blue & Gray Reunion, which hits home for Brown.
“My family was split. We had some on the North and some on the South,” Brown said. “One brother was guarding another brother in Andersonville Prison (in Georgia). It was a troubling time.”
East Tennessee was a Union stronghold in Tennessee, but there were still many rebel supporters in the area.
Shortly after the war ended, Knoxville hosted reunions for both sides.
“Knoxville held (the) 1890 and 1895 Blue & Gray reunions,” siad Calvin Chappelle, executive director of the Mabry-Hazen House and heritage tourism coordinator. “They came back as a way of moving forward.”
Even with both sides of the Civil War represented, those early reunions lacked one key group — the black soldiers who also fought in the war.
“The 1st United States Colored Heavy Artillery regiment was mustered here,” Chappelle said. “A number of those soldiers are buried here.”
This time the recreated Blue & Gray Reunion and Freedom Jubilee will recognize veterans and descendants of that unit.
Other events planned for that weekend will include speakers, living history exhibits and the state’s signature sesquicentennial event on the postwar Reconstruction era.
“Between South Knoxville and downtown and East Knoxville, there will be a good deal of programming,” Chappelle said.
Caroline E. Janney, a history professor at Purdue University, is the state’s keynote speaker for the event.
Her address is scheduled for April 30 at the Bijou Theatre. The Fisk Jubilee Singers will open the evening.
The “Reconstruction Tennessee” Speaker Symposium will be from 1-2:30 p.m. May 1 at the Knoxville Convention Center.
–Knoxville News-Sentinel
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FLORIDA: Witness History at Natural Bridge
You could call members of the Leon Rifles obsessive, but they would probably agree with you. Obsessive, that is, over every miniscule detail that goes into the annual reenactment of the Battle of Natural Bridge.
“Some of the muskets involved were actually in the Civil War,” explained Natural Bridge Historic Society President William “Buzz” Gifford. “Some are 150 years old and still working.”
Union Muskets are checked before battle on Sunday. 148th Anniversary and 36th Annual Reenactment; Battle of Natural Bridge; took place in Woodville on Sunday, March 3, 2013. The Natural Bridge Battlefield Historic State Park hosted hundreds of history buffs and interested onlookers on a crisp, cold day at the historic Civil War site. The event commemorates the 148th anniversary of the Civil War battle, which took place 12 miles south of Tallahassee. Early on the morning of March 6, 1865, shots rang out in southern Leon County where the St. Marks River temporarily flows underground then reemerges, thus forming a natural bridge. Over the course of the day, Union troops, including the 2nd and 99th United States Colored Troops (USCT), attempted to charge over the Natural Bridge. Each charge was repulsed by murderous artillery and small arms fire by the Confederate defenders. By dayÕs end, Union forces retreated to the protection of the Federal fleet at St. Marks. Tallahassee became the only Southern Capital east of the Mississippi River not to succumb to military capture during the American Civil War.
(Photo: Mike Ewen/Democrat)
It’s that type of commitment to accuracy that makes the reenactment an essential destination for even the casual history buff.
This year is the 38th annual re-enactment of the Battle of Natural Bridge — but the 150th anniversary of the actual Civil War battle. On March 6, 1865, Union troops who had landed at St. Marks were defeated by Confederate troops in what proved to be the last Confederate victory of the war.
The Leon Rifles, comprised of about 32 men, will be joined on Sunday afternoon by groups from Jacksonville, Fort Walton Beach, and Georgia to reach approximately 300 re-enactors participating in the staged battle. Also participating will be Tallahassee’s Second Infantry of the U.S. Colored Troops Re-Enactors, the state’s only black Civil War re-enactors. In 1865, almost all of the 500 Union troops were black.
Among the 300 men on Sunday will be six cannon crews – those that are charged with handling the pyrotechnics associated with cannon fire on the battlefield. The cannon crews must time each cannon blast perfectly to simulate the destructive explosions.
When one cannon fires on one side of the battle field, it triggers an explosion on the other side of the field from a black powder charge placed on the ground. The powder is placed on a piece of aluminum, preventing the blast from damaging the historic ground.
Efforts to preserve the grounds are for good reason. Numerous mini balls, or bullets fired from the .58 rifle muskets, from both Union and Confederate guns, have been found on the Natural Bridge battlefield. Archaeologists have also found “canister shot” from a cannon and fragments of “solid shot;” a particularly interesting Natural Bridge artifact was a chain that came off a Union canteen.
Historical accuracy isn’t just limited to the battlefield. The weekend-long reenactment at Natural Bridge features replica Union and Confederate camps. Visitors are encouraged to wander through the camps, getting a feel for what life would’ve been like for Civil War soldiers between battles. Gifford said many people bring cameras, snapping photos of soldiers and even asking them questions.
“Settlers,” or period-dressed civilians, also will be on the grounds Sunday, doing blacksmithing demonstrations and selling wares like clothing and food of the era. There will be candle-making, medical demonstrations and authentic Civil War-period music. Visitors can even get their picture taken by a photographer with a glass plate camera, the same-type camera used during the Civil War.
What: 38th Annual Reenactment of the Battle of Natural Bridge
Where: Natural Bridge State Park, 7502 Natural Bridge Road, Tallahassee, just south of Woodville
When: Friday through Sunday. Festivities begin with school tours on Friday. The re-enactment camps open on Saturday, and Saturday afternoon is punctuated by a military “skirmish” at 3 p.m.
The main event, the 38th Annual Reenactment of the Battle of Natural Bridge, 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
–Tallahassee Democrat
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NORTH CAROLINA: Center to Tell Story of Civil War in N.C.
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Historians hope a new center in Fayetteville will tell the story of North Carolina in the Civil War.
The North Carolina Civil War History Center is planned to be a state-of-the-art learning center to tell the story of historic events from around the state, The Fayetteville Observer (http://bit.ly/1E5ov28 ) reported.
The $65 million complex is planned on the site of the Fayetteville Arsenal, destroyed by U.S. Gen. William Sherman 150 years ago this month. The arsenal was built in 1838 and was used to produce weapons for the Confederacy, making it a primary target for Sherman as he marched north. Sherman burned it as he left the area.
The center would replace the Museum of the Cape Fear.
Philip Gerard says North Carolina had large battles and small skirmishes.
Center spokesman David Winslow says organizers are trying to collect a story from each of the state’s 100 counties.
The group has raised about $6 million. They hope to have raised $7 million by the end of spring. They hope the center could open in 2020.
–WRAL.com
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