Canister!
Small stories that don’t warrant full posts:
- Congratulations to Brian Matthew Jordan, who recently joined the faculty at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, on being named a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in History for his book, Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War.
- My colleague Rob Baker continues his series on dealing with the Confederate flag in the classroom. Wish I’d had a teacher like that.
- Over at Buzzfeed, Adam Serwer has an essay that neatly summarizes the story of Andrew Chandler and Silas Chandler, and shows how the oft-told story of “the Chandler Boys” ignores both the historical record and Silas’ own family tradition in favor of the version passed down in the white Chandler family.
- Suzanne Sherman went with her family to Virginia last year, and took a tour called “Slave Life at Monticello.” Imagine her shock and dismay when she discovered the tour was about slave life at Monticello.
- Jefferson Davis is being moved from the hall of presidents to the Civil War section in the oldest, and possibly saddest, wax museum in the United States.
- H. K. Edgerton wants you to donate to support his upcoming campaign in Florida.
- It has nothing to do with the Civil War, but Vimeo has a really good mini-documentary on the Battle of Jutland, a century ago next month.
- More apropos, the Civil War Trust has a great animated map outlining the Vicksburg Campaign (h/t Al Mackey).
- A display of state flags in an underground hallway in the U.S. Capitol complex will be replaced, over concerns about Confederate imagery used in them. Mississippi is getting most of the heat these days, but in fact the flags five other states — Alabama, Florida, Arkansas, Georgia, and Tennessee — also use elements of the Confederate flag in designs adopted after the war in 1861-65.
- Speaking of Alabama, it turns out that family-values, fiscal-conservative Governor Robert Bentley had a state police helicopter and crew spend the day after Christmas 2014 flying from Montgomery to Tuscaloosa to Gulf Shores (and then presumably back to Montgomery) to deliver his wallet after his soon-to-be-ex-wife kicked his cheatin’ ass out of the house. Sorry, I don’t have a punch line for this one.
Got any more? Put ’em in the comments.
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Dead Confederates, A Civil War Era Blog 
Too kind
I’ve seen Tennessee listed as having “elements of the Confederate flag”. The elements used have nothing to do with the Confederacy. Does having a red field constitute “elements of the Confederate flag”.
The white stars on blue, bordered in white, on a field of red, are very reminiscent of the CBF.
Does the arrangement of the elements make it automatically tied to the Confederacy? Granted if it were more overt, like Georgia, Mississippi, and Arkansas, it would be obvious. But, the 3 stars have a specific purpose in their number and arrangement. The blue circle has a purpose of unity. And I couldn’t imagine flipping the red and blue.
I haven’t found anything by the designer commenting on his intent to harken back to the Confederacy. Colonel LeRoy Reeves of the Tennessee National Guard said,”The three stars are of pure white, representing the three grand divisions of the state. They are bound together by the endless circle of the blue field the symbol being three bound together in one-an indissoluble trinity The large field is crimson. The final blue bar relieves the sameness of the crimson field and prevents the flag from showing too much creation when hanging limp. The white edgings contrast more strongly the other colors.”
Full disclosure: I’m a total homer with my judgement clouded by pride in my state.
Gov. Bentley also used a state aircraft to fly with his, uh, top aide to Las Vegas to see Celine Dion (http://tinyurl.com/hxlg2lg) and to Washington to see the Obamas (http://tinyurl.com/hyjwz7v).
A few more examples like that and we might have to make him an honorary Texas politician.
BTW, Ken, I just noticed that your comment is the 7,000th approved comment on this blog. There’s no prize, I’m afraid.
There’s a wide audience for faux outrage.
Suzanne Sherman’s article on the imposition on white tourists of information about slavery at historic sites where most of the residents were slaves is a must-read. It was so demented I had to check to see if The American Conservative, which published it, was a parody site. Nope. It has real editors with ties to the libertarian right who have actual editing credentials.
Her discussion of Madison’s not freeing his slaves because he was a caring human being and her condemnation of Lafayette for wanting Madison to violate race laws have to be read to be believed.
Sherman is an editor, writing coach, ghostwriter-for-hire. This seems to be her only piece for The American Conservative, so I wonder if she torqued the piece specifically for that audience. I have no idea what her personal politics are, but it’s a pretty ridiculous essay.
Governor Bryant of Mississippi has refused to sign a proclamation to honor Mississippians who fought for the Union during the Civil War. It’s unclear if he did so because the NAACP requested it, or if he is trying really hard to be remembered as the modern Ross Barnett.