History Commons^™

Thinking Of The Ending And Beginning Of A War, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

My lecture in class this week focused on Reconstruction, the end of war and the continuing Civil War. So I've been thinking a lot about those final moments of the Civil War and the coming of the continued century worth of conflict. And that means this photo has been on my mind, the quintessential inversion of the rebel capital, as Lincoln is forever enshrined there, a constant reminder of how the war ended and how the war still continues with different means on different cultural fronts. [excerpt]

Loyalty: Democracy And Gettysburg's Union League, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

"The ball is rolling," the Sentinel crowed, "and it is no time now to faint or falter in the good and noble work of crushing rebels and traitors abroad and at home, and bringing back to its original glory our time-honored Union."

The Union would be saved, the Sentinel was sure, by the pure and sustained love and loyalty of her people. Gettysburg was showing her mettle in that department in the waning days of April 1863, as citizens gathered to follow the lead of others to the east in forming a Loyal Union League in the Adams county seat. …

Building The War One Brick At A Time, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

I've been waiting for this moment since 1996. Back then, when I was 11, My favorite toy came out with figures from my favorite era. The LEGO Western line was an amazing crossover of my love for history and my love for tiny ABS building blocks. [excerpt]

Big Interp: Processing Massive Meaning, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

There's been this term bandied about in the historical circles I've been running in of late: Big Data. As far as I've gathered, it's the byproduct of our information age, when more and more data gets fed into more and more machines and is accessible at the fingertips of more and more inquiring minds. [excerpt]

Dark Town's Wealth: A 150-Year-Old Rock-And-Roll Concert Review, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

I have a lot of odd things scattered around my house, weird ephemera and bric-a-brac that I've picked up here and there as I've studied history.

Some of them are treasures, like CDVs of long-dead College professors and original pieces of decking from the USS North Carolina. Some are less treasures and more, well, junk. Most folks toss old newspapers within a few days of reading. In the Civil War Era, I'm sure many a page of newsprint went to start an honest mother's hearth in the morning or a pile of moist kindling in some godforsaken camp. [excerpt …

On The Battleground At Gettysburg: A Journey To Remember, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

I was very pleased to be one of the two speakers at Sunday night's inaugural "Journey to Remember" event sponsored by Gettysburg College. A group of students and community members trekked up the hill from the campus, resting on Oak Hill at the base of the Eternal Light Peace Memorial to hear myself and Janet Riggs, the college's President and a fellow alum. The student organizers asked me to place that place into historical context. [excerpt]

We're Not Important: Historian In An Operating Room, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

Sometimes, historians (both public and academic) seem to have this oddly overblown sense of self-worth. I'll admit that I'm prone to this every so often. I'm wont to note that historic sites are temples of democracy, that interpreters ultimately are in the business of creating citizens and saving America and that in defining the past we find the present and chart the course for the future. [excerpt]

Wilmington: A World Turned Upside Down, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

There's an old myth that, as he ordered the flag brought down and the post at Yorktown surrendered, General Cornwallis ordered his fife and drum corps to play The World Turned Upside Down a traditional British Christmas song written in protest of the aristocracy outlawing raucous celebration. In its lyrics, the paupers are made kings and the kings made paupers. The song was more than likely not played during the surrender. But myths are often potent and always telling.

Choice Poetry: Valiant Manhood's Flinch, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

Throughout the war, the front page of Gettysburg's newspapers, regardless of your political stripe, had an evergreen column. Poetry graced the upper left corner each week. Sometimes raucous, often love-lorn, chiefly patriotic, the poems must have buoyed many a Pennsylvanian spirit as America floundered in the depth of Civil War.

Most of the poems were mainstream schmaltz, passed from paper to paper as each editor read a line or two he liked and thought his readers might appreciate. The poems spread like a particularly odd malignant cancer from organ to organ. [excerpt]

An Unexpected Hiatus And A Few Remarks, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

After a hiatus I've felt guilty about for days, I'm returning to the keyboard to rejoin the blogosphere. A bout of my own sickness and some family sickness kept me away from the keyboard. But I return, turning up once again like a bad penny. I've got plenty of things in the works, from Twitter to the New York Tribune, from the proto-Scott-Joplin to continuing my deep dives into Gettysburg's past. But for now, I wanted to take you inside the late, great Future of the Civil War conference held this weekend at Gettysburg College. My battle with a nasty …

Interpreting Different Cheesesteaks, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

I wandered around Philadelphia last week on travel for work, which meant I had the opportunity to indulge in my favorite Philly pleasure. Besides Rocky, Comcast and Benjamin "Macho Man" Franklin, the City of Brotherly Love has given us all one other joyous invention: the cheesesteak.

Food, Fuel And Fodder: Civil War Carbon Footprints, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

Thursday morning finds me presenting to a group of fellow NPS folks on the possibilities of the interpretive futures. So I've dragged out some older, weirder interpretive dreaming from a few years back. It's something I worked up for my friend and boss David Larsen to prove that topics like Climate Change can be discussed from any perspective and in any context. But this sort of dreaming can't stay locked in drawers, left on the backs of envelopes and stuffed away in digital filing cabinets back at work. So here's a peek at what I'm presenting. It's a way of …

In Plain Black And White: Race & Gettysburg, Winter 1863, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

"Kinkyheads," the Gettysburg Compiler gleefully quipped at the bottom of a column in its February 23rd edition, "is the new title used for Abolitionists." This was, of course, "in contradiction to 'Copperheads.'"

Race was the live wire of Gettysburg's political scene. For the roughly 10% of the borough's population that was black, that live wire must have shocked daily. [excerpt]

Presidents' Day In A Land At War, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

Monday is Presidents' Day, our modern conglomeration of the celebrations of Washington's and Lincoln's Birthdays. Of course, no one but Mary Todd, Tad and some friends were celebrating Lincoln's birthday in 1863. Dying has a way of making special family events into cherished national holidays. Hence Washington, father of the nation who was already cold in the ground, warranted celebration and accolades on his birthday. [excerpt]

Her Meaning, My Meaning, Our Meanings, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

One of the most special places in the world to me is that random collection of marble and skyscraper steel at the end of the National Mall known as the Lincoln Memorial. I've had so many amazing experiences there. They're small experiences, but they're amazing. Seeing America, us, walk through those columns and up at that man.[excerpt]

War Against Slavery Without A Black Soldier In Sight?, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

I've been lying to people. OK, not exactly lying, just not telling the whole truth. One of my favorite lines to use when I worked in Washington at the Lincoln Cottage was that the, "most important part of the Emancipation Proclamation came near the end, where it says that black men, the former slaves, can serve in the army and navy, that they can fight for their very own freedom." [excerpt]

Out Of Sorts: Finding The Passion Behind The Article, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

The individual letters used to layout and print a newspaper in the 19th century were called sorts. Each letter was a sort. But the individual sorts that make up the words don't always give you the full story behind an article. They often aren't quite enough. [excerpt]

Old, Worn Bibles: What Did She Feel?, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

A simple photo for today, taken back in September standing in the Dunker Church. A visitor, giddy and laughing, gets so close to the Dunker Bible standing inside of the footprint of the Dunker Church on the eve of the anniversary of battle. Why? What is it that made her so happy? [excerpt]

Sunrise With Lincoln And Meanings With Chuck, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

I walked 150 years on Monday. I walked across a great chasm of history. Physically, I walked from the Arlington Cemetery Metro Station across Memorial Bridge, then continued down the National Mall to 4th Street, where I witnessed one of the most peculiar regularly scheduled celebrations that Americans observe: the Inauguration of the President. But along the way, I met the past alive on the landscape. I watched the sky turn from murky black into hopeful, bright pink and orange sitting alongside the savior of the nation. Lincoln and I watched as the early light of sunrise silhouetted the brightly-lit …

"...Let The Spinning Wheel Turn": A Piece Of Gettysburg Lost In Rebeldom, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

Everything eventually comes full circle. The past meets the present meets the future. And we find echoes of the past in the things we do today. It's not a new sensation.

In the early days of January, 1863, one Gettysburgian found an echo from his town in the most unusual (but not unexpected) of places. "It was a cool day yesterday," a soldier, writing under the pen-name Fergus reported to Compiler editor H. J. Stahle, "and as I passed along the street leading towards Winchester, I observed a large two-horse carriage that had arrived in town with a load …

On Larsen: Friends, Philosophers And Historians, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

It's been a melancholic week for me. My boss Katie's blog post on Tuesday set my mind spinning back to a friend we lost two years ago. When the Civil War Institute noticed some video footage of Larsen that's on YouTube, it only cemented those thoughts into my mind. The video started racing around the blagosphere, and the thoughts percolated. And the words used to describe Dave were daggers to my heart: "National Park Service historian." [excerpt]

Bells On Bobtail Ring: A Cold Day In Hell, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

"Snow and sleighing," are, a correspondent in the Franklin Repository opined in January of 1864, "delightful words to the young, and foolish, and careless." Still, the elder correspondent was keen to, "thank time! we have outgrown such follies." [excerpt]

25425 & 20500: Zip Codes For A Revolution, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

I put on my coat and headed out the door today around lunchtime. My excuse was to grab a sandwich to munch on at my desk, but I was really hunting something very different. The Post Office is right along High Street down the block from work and Tuesday was the first day they've been open this year. [excerpt]