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Full-Text Articles in History
Reviving The Past: The Battle Flag In The Confederate Memorial Period, Olivia Ortman
Reviving The Past: The Battle Flag In The Confederate Memorial Period, Olivia Ortman
The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History
In the years immediately following the Civil War, the Confederate battle flag mostly disappeared from public view. In their diaries, Southerners wrote about hiding flags and other Confederate symbols for fear of Union retaliation. In most cases, Southerners intuitively understood that these symbols were now taboo, but occasionally, they stated that Union troops explicitly forbade displays of the battle flag. Some Southerners did still flaunt the flag as a means of defiance against Union troops, as mentioned in my last post, but most people quietly tucked it away. A mere five years after the war ended, though, the flag …
Decoration Days And Memorial Days, John M. Rudy
Decoration Days And Memorial Days, John M. Rudy
Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications
By the time he came to Adams County in 1909, John Esch had been a Wisconsin representative to the U.S. House of Representatives for two decades. But today was not just any ordinary day in the life of a congressman. Esch came to speak in the Soldiers' National Cemetery; it was Memorial Day. "Except for the difference in the number here," the Gettysburg Times noted after a note on shrinking attendance, "Memorial Day 1909 was little difference from those of former years." (excerpt)
Locks And Cash: Whose Black History? (Part 2), John M. Rudy
Locks And Cash: Whose Black History? (Part 2), John M. Rudy
Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public
A few weeks ago, the Hanover Evening Sun ran an article on the Lincoln Cemetery in Gettysburg and the locks which hang on its gates. This is by no means a new item of interest. The locks have girded the gates of the cemetery for three years. Still, the article (no longer on the Evening Sun's website but archived here in a PDF) raises a few interesting questions about the delicate balance between preservation and interpretation. [excerpt]
"...Never Forget What They Did Here": Memorial Day 2011, John M. Rudy
"...Never Forget What They Did Here": Memorial Day 2011, John M. Rudy
Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public
One of my pleasures on this holiday is to buy and place a flag on the monument to the 14th U.S. Regulars in the valley of death. Along the banks of Plum Run, the Regulars held back an onslaught from a pell-mell group of charging Confederates in what would be the final phase of the fight in the Wheatfield and Devil's Den area on July 2nd, 1863. As they retreated back across the swampy lowlands, Confederates hot on their heels, their own gunners on the slopes of the hill had no choice but to fire into the mangled mess of …