Dead Confederates, A Civil War Era Blog

Monday, in my post on the premiere of Mercy Street, I wondered aloud if the character of Frank Stringfellow — who will appear in later episodes of the series — had any connection to Henry Martyn Stringfellow, a Confederate artillery officer who later settled here in Galveston County. I didn’t realize that Frank Stringfellow was a real person, and a relatively famous one at that. It turns out that he and Henry were first cousins, and separated by only three years in age. Henry grew up in Petersburg and Hanover County, while Frank was born in Culpeper County, further north. Both attended the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Henry before the war and Frank, after.

Neat. Thanks to commenter David Corbett for pointing me in the right direction.

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I just finished watching the first episode of Mercy Street online. I liked the episode, and I do think it’s a promising start. Others Everyone else has weighed in on the show already, but here are a few thoughts on the first episode (with some minor spoilers), in no particular order:

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As I said, not unexpected. But what makes this bizarre to me is that the school board decided to postpone action on the names of Albert Sidney Johnston Middle School, John H. Reagan High School, and Jefferson Davis High School, all three of which are named after Confederates far more prominent than Major Dowling. I understand the desire to re-evaluate the way we view Confederate leaders today, in 2016, but Dowling is far more relevant and creditable to Houston’s early history than Davis, Jackson, or Lee are.

Seriously, if HISD wants to make a public gesture aimed at emphatically underscoring the moral onus of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis is your guy. Removing Dick Dowling’s name while retaining Davis’ is simply inexcusable.

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The other day we heard the South African folk song, “Daar Kom die Alibama,” a tune reportedly inspired by the visit of that ship to Cape Town in 1863. In fact, as one of the most famous ships of the war — or infamous, according to one’s predilections — C.S.S. Alabama has been the subject of many tunes over the years. Here’s one describing her fight with U.S.S. Hatteras, about thirty miles over that-away from where I sit typing, 153 years ago today. Enjoy.

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Short items that don’t warrant full posts of their own.

• The New York Public Library has released a massive collection of non-copyrighted images online, in high-resolution, free for anyone to download. Included in this are many Civil War period images, including original sketches prepared for Frank Leslie’s Illustration Newspaper (above, “Capture of a Contrabandist on Lake Pontchartrain,” by Francis H. Schell).
• At least two dozen people attended Saturday’s big Confederate flag rally in Columbia, South Carolina. Can you feel the momentum?
• Speaking of Columbia, it didn’t get much attention at the time, but the criminal case against Bree Newsome, the activist who took down the Confederate flag in front of the State House last summer, was dismissed back on December 10.
• The trailer for Free State of Jones is out, and it looks exciting. It’s based on Vicki Bynum’s book, and I can’t wait to see it. Matthew McConaughey even looks like the real Newt Knight.
• Over at Defending the Heritage, the vindication of the South through Facebook memes continues apace. This week, it’s a melacholy image of Confederate soldiers, huddling for warmth around a campfire during the “last desperate days” of the war. Of course, it’s actually part of a painting by Winslow Homer of U.S. cavalrymen, with the more obvious Federal uniforms cropped out of the image. More specifically, it depicts the camp of the First Division of the Second Corps of the Army of the Potomac, in the Spring of 1862. Details, details. Full-resolution image here.
• Did the South’s rapid rise out of decades of grinding poverty in the last fifty years contribute to the high incidence of heart disease prevalent across the region today? Researchers from Ohio State think maybe it did.
• In election news, it looks like the white nationalists are going all-in for Donald Trump in Iowa.
• The six-part PBS miniseries Mercy Street, set in a military hospital in Alexandria, Virginia, starts next Sunday.
• In Savannah, archaeologists and the Corps of Engineers made the difficult decision to return 135 tons of redundant artifacts from the recovery of C.S.S. Georgia to the river, where they can be retrieved at a later date. Another 142 tons has already gone to the conservation lab at Texas A&M University; that’s more than the mass of two M1A1 Abrams tanks. It’s not an ideal solution, but given the tremendous volume of material involved, it may be the only practical solution.
• Next weekend the Virginia Flaggers will be headed to Lexington to celebrate Lee-Jackson Day. They’ve toned down their chest-thumping about their boycott of city businesses — you know, the one they don’t themselves observe — which is probably just as well, considering that city tax revenues from restaurants were up almost 16% over the previous year, coming in at a over a million dollars. You can download the full financial report here; the revenue figures are on p. 23.

Got any more? Put ’em in the comments.

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It’s a different war, but over at the Journal of the American Revolution, Don Hagist calls BS on the old saw that British regulars were not taught to aim their weapons.

I love history like this.

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Image: Private of the 17th Regiment of Foot, 1777, by Don Troiani.

The incomparable Ed Bearss will be speaking to the Houston Civil War Round Table on Thursday, January 21, 2016. Mr. Bearss will speak on the Kentucky Campaign and the Battle of Perryville.

Non-members are welcome to attend. The cash bar opens at 6 p.m., dinner is at 7, with the Mr. Bearss’ presentation to follow. As always, reservations are required. The charge for dinner is $30, with a limited number of lecture-only seats for $10. Call Don Zuckero at (281) 479-1232 or email him at Reservations@HoustonCivilWar.com by 6:00 PM the Monday preceding the Thursday meeting (i.e., January 18). The Hess Club’s address is 5430 Westheimer, a short distance west of the Galleria. The club is situated on the corner of Westheimer Way and Westheimer Court. Free, convenient, and handicap-accessible parking is across the street. Valet parking is also available.

For those who have not heard Mr. Bearss speak in person, it’s a memorable experience. Don’t miss it!

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There’s always something new out there you didn’t know, isn’t there?

Recently, thanks to user SquirrelHudson at Civil War Talk, I discovered the traditional South African folk song, “Die Kom die Alibama,” which is generally credited to have been inspired by the visit of the Confederate raider Alabama to Cape Town in late 1863. While that origin is disputed by some, it’s nevertheless a song that catches the ear, which undoubtedly attests to its popularity after all these generations.

So here we have a song ostensibly inspired by a Confederate ship, built in the United Kingdom, with Afrikaans lyrics, sung by South Africans of Malay descent, played on traditional African instruments. What a crazy world this is, and how better we all are for it.

I’ve already had seconds on the black-eyed peas; 2016 is gonna be a good year. Y’all have a Happy New Year, too.

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If it’s a day that ends in Y, the True Southrons™ are feeling oppressed:

So the complaints are:

Boston gets to do this. We don’t.

Um, no. You certainly do “get to do this.” Indeed, you’ve done it. There have been at least two pro-Confederate flag, pro-secession rallies at the South Carolina State House in the last few months.

They have a mural still in their State House. We don’t (here in SC).

The mural in Boston dates back more than a century. If there’s nothing comparable in the South Carolina State House after all these years, whose fault is that, exactly? It’s not like y’all haven’t had time to get it done.

Can’t even have one Flag at the Soldiers’ Monument.

The flag was taken down by the elected representatives of the citizens of South Carolina, the same body that put it there in the first place. It was not imposed on y’all by anyone; it’s a testament to South Carolinians’ revanchist temperament (“too small for a republic. . . .”) that it lasted as long as it did.

For the love of God, stop whining.
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Captain Charles Frederick Hughes (1866-1934), commander of the U.S. battleship New York with Santa and two of the children visiting the ship on Christmas Day, 1916. Library of Congress photo.

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