Anna Koivusalo is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Philosophy, History and Art Studies at the University of Helsinki. This interview is based on her new book, The Man Who Started the Civil War: James Chesnut, Honor, and Emotion...
Confederacy
Congressional committee recommends new names for nine Army bases named after Confederates
Here is Helene Cooper at The New York Times: A Black sergeant who battled German soldiers during World War I. The Army’s first Hispanic four-star general. A woman who served as an Army surgeon during the Civil War. A commission...
The Author’s Corner with Angela Esco Elder
Angela Esco Elder is Associate Professor of History at Converse University. This interview is based on her new book, Love and Duty: Confederate Widows and the Emotional Politics of Loss (The University of North Carolina Press, 2022). JF: What led...
Who was Jim Limber and what was his connection to the Confederate Lost Cause?
Here is Sydney Trent at The Washington Post: The little Black boy in the Civil War-era photograph stands atop a gilded chair, grasping its tall back with his small fist. His clothing is quotidian — striped pants and a matching...
The Author’s Corner with John Sacher
John Sacher is Associate Professor of History at the University of Central Florida. This interview is based on his new book, Confederate Conscriptions and the Struggle for Southern Soldiers (LSU Press, 2021). JF: What led you to write Confederate Conscription and...
The bones of Sullivan Ballou
If you have watched the Ken Burns documentary The Civil War you might remember Sullivan Ballou. The Union officer stole the show with the letter he wrote to his wife Sarah a week before he was killed at the First...
The Author’s Corner with Fay Yarbrough
Fay Yarbrough is Professor of American History at Rice University. This interview is based on her new book, Choctaw Confederates: The American Civil War in Indian Country (University of North Carolina Press, 2021). JF: What led you to write Choctaw Confederates?...
Allen Guelzo on how to tell the story of Robert E. Lee
One of our generation’s best historians of the Civil War is the author of the forthcoming Robert E. Lee: A Life. In a recent piece at The New York Times, Allen Guelzo writes about the challenges of writing a biography...
Richmond’s Robert E. Lee monument will come down tomorrow
Here is the Associated Press: A towering statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, will be taken down on Wednesday as a symbol of racial injustice, more than 130 years after it was erected in tribute to...
House of Representatives votes to remove Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol
For some historical context on Confederate monuments check out our interview with Karen L. Cox in the latest episode of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast. The vote was 285 to 120. This means that 120 Republicans wanted to...
Episode 85: Reckoning with Confederate Monuments
Historian Karen L. Cox argues that “when it comes to Confederate monuments, there is no common ground.” In this episode, we talk with Cox about the history of Confederate monuments and how the recent racial unrest in the United States...
Where should we put Confederate monuments? How about cemeteries?
I just ran across Marc Fisher’s piece at The Washington Post on a Virginia “Johnny Reb” statue that was removed and taken to a local cemetery. Here is a taste: “I’m not sure cemeteries get us any closer to a...
Frederick Douglass: “We must never forget that victory to the rebellion meant death to the republic”
150 years ago yesterday, Douglass delivered this Decoration Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery. Decoration Day was the predecessor of Memorial Day. Learn more about it here. Here is Douglass: The Unknown Loyal Dead Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, on Decoration...
Are American conservatives advancing a new “Lost Cause?”
Paul Waldman writes: “Everywhere conservatives look, their view of America’s racial story is being challenged.” Most of our culture war debate right now seem to focus on school curriculum and race. Here is Waldman at The Washington Post: As conservatives...
Allen Guelzo defines the “Lost Cause” of the Confederacy
The noted Civil War historian Allen Guelzo offers a nice working definition of the “Lost Cause” in a piece at The Gospel Coalition. He writes: “In its fullest flower, from 1865 to 1915, the Lost Cause emerged—from a legion of...
The Author’s Corner with James Byrd
James Byrd is Professor of American Religious History, Chair of the Graduate Department of Religion and Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Research at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. This interview is based on his new book, A Holy Baptism of...
The Tennessee Historical Commission voted to remove a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest from the state capitol. State legislators are not happy about it
For the record, Nathan Bedford Forrest was a Confederate Army general and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Now here is a taste of Kyle Horan’s story at NewsChannel 5 in Nashville: Not even two weeks after...
Putting the January 6, 2021 insurrection in historical context
Catherine Halley of JSTOR Daily offers some great resources. Here is a taste of her January 7 piece: Yesterday our friends who teach sixth grade were asking: how do I talk to my students about the insurrection that just happened...
Quote of the day
John Stuart Mill on why the rebellion of the Confederacy was not justified: “Did ever any other section of a nation break through the solemn contract which united them with the rest, for no reason but that they were defeated...
Will Trumpism endure?
Yale Historian David Blight argues that “Trumpism has already become a lethal Lost Cause.” Here is a taste of his piece at The New York Times: If, as many Civil War scholars have suggested, the Confederate Lost Cause was born...