I have been consumed with some projects lately, which has left me no time to blog. Thanks to James and Brett for keeping the flag flying. I’ll try to surface from time to time and post some items of interest pertaining to the Late Unpleasantness.
From Alexandria, LA comes a interpretive segment at a local plantation about everyday life during the 1860s. Did you know what bouisillage was, what it was used for, and how to make it? Neither did I. Just as an aside I was born in Alexandria and remember as a kid going to some of the Civil War forts on the Red River. Astute readers will know that the city played a central role in the Red River campaign of 1864.
From prolific CW author William C. Davis comes a book on the short-lived Republic of West Florida, which is not where you think it is. Although the article does not mention it, the rebellion saw the first use of the Bonnie Blue flag, later used (unofficially) by the Confederacy.
CNN takes a look at how the Civil War continues today. Considering it’s CNN, it’s not a bad article and includes some of the things I’ve mentioned before.
Nullification, states’ rights and secession. Those terms might sound like they’re lifted from a Civil War history book, but they’re actually making a comeback on the national stage today.
They never really left. How much power should the government have, and how should it use it in relation to the states? I do disagree that there is no political center left. Where were all these people in, say, 1968?
An article in my local paper takes a look at the attitudes of Western Carolinians before and after Fort Sumter. The Old North State was the last state to join the Confederacy and did so reluctantly. However after Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers the only question was which side you would be on.
The Wall Street Journal reviews a book on “Mrs. Mattingly’s Miracle,” in this case a miraculous recovery from cancer. The CW connection is that she is the sister of Thomas Carberry, mayor of Washington, whose house on the 7th Street pike furnished and elevated platform for Confederate sharpshooters during Jubal Early’s 1864 raid. More on the neighborhood, Brightwood, from a local real estate agent.
If you’re interested in the details of what guns were used in what movies, there’s an entire web site devoted to it, including two Clint Eastwood CW epics, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly and The Outlaw Josie Wales. Did you know Clint used rubber guns in some scenes in Josie Wales?
Adam Goodheart has an excellent article adapted from an forthcoming book about the political situation in St. Louis in 1861, with specific reference to the German immigrants. Worth reading.
And a look at some students at Chapel Hill, NC, in the 1860s. As the article notes, undergraduate life was a bit different then.
More when I get the chance.
UPDATE: A quick look at the conduct of the Delafield Report, featuring a young captain named G. B. McClellan, whose tendency to shoot his mouth off got him into trouble even then. I think the author is too harsh on the authors as it did bring back a lot of good information, and is a gold mine of information about period military affairs. Among the innovations the report brought back was the rifle pit, first used at Sevastopol. The original report is here if you want to read it. Did you know that Little Mac derived much of his cavalry manual from the Russians?
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