TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Category: Civil War Memory

  • Even Shorter Takes

    Indiana University Press is having a sale, which includes their Civil War books. Definitely worth a look. We’ve heard a lot about removing statues and even references to American slave owners. Apparently even figures like Sam Houston are under the gun, even though Houston opposed secession and refused to have anything to do with the […]

  • Short Takes

    One of the most famous Civil War cemeteries gets a facelift. Well, not really—it’s the Sad Hill cemetery from the epic Spaghetti Western The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Given that the movie is set during Sibley’s 1862 campaign in New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado, it’s probably “Confederate.” Sad Hill cemetery is the setting […]

  • They Came for General Lee

    They came for General Lee, and before him General Beauregard, after which Mayor Landrieu got up and gave a long speech about what a fine fellow he was for erasing the city’s history. Seeing how the Crescent City is perennially broke, I’d be curious as to how much the removal cost, especially for police overtime, […]

  • Dispatches from the Battles of New Orleans

    This time it’s Jeff Davis. Same MO—heavy, militarized police presence with body armor and snipers on the rooftops. Everyone is masked and the logos and license plates covered, statue moved to “an undisclosed location.” Pat Gallagher, who lives in Jefferson Parish, said she decided to go out to the intersection because she is concerned about […]

  • The Night They Drove ‘Ol Dixie down

    The first of four Confederate monuments came down in New Orleans, but you have to wonder what the hey was going on. The minions of the Crescent City looked more like thieves in the night, with a very large touch of paranoia. Workers wore bullet-proof vests, helmets and facemasks as they went about the work, […]

  • Reflections of Glory

    Watched Glory and parts of it several times before the holidays, AHC was pretty much showing it non-stop, which gives you time to dissect things more completely. Conclusion: made in 1989, it holds up pretty well, and I think it’s one of the best Civil War movies from Hollywood. It also got Denzel Washington into […]

  • Secession Again?

    Secession is in the air again, ironically for the same reason the South seceded in 1860—dissatisfaction with the results of the presidential election. In 1860 it was Abe Lincoln; in 2016 it’s Donald Trump. And it’s not the South this time (which seems quite happy with the result), it’s California, which is not. Just as […]