Civil War in American public memory

1. Civil War in American public memory Whose stories, whose history?

2. Consider: • Changes over time relevant to: • Content and ideology • Form • Sponsorship and venue • What do these memorials/public history activities tell us about the Civil War? About its meaning?

3. 1860s-1880s: mourning citizen-soldiers 1880s-1920s: reunion and reunification; glory of the Lost Cause 1930-1950s: new modes of remembrance 1960s+: telling new stories 2011 commemoration of 150th

4. 1860s-1880s mourning citizen-soldiers

5. Focus on mourning and marking deaths • Cemeteries • Soldiers’ memorials • Prominent role of veterans’ groups • North/South rituals similar – but little sense of common cause • Memory of the war evoked by partisan political organizations – GAR, KKK

8. National cemetery system Authorized by Congress 1862 Administered by War Department By 1865, 14 cemeteries designated; 73 by 1870 1863 – Gettysburg dedicated – national cemetery with battlefield park 1864 – Arlington National Cemetery

10. 1863 Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association formed – “no more fitting and expressive memorial of the heroic valor and signal triumphs of our army…than the battlefield itself, with its natural and artificial defenses, preserved and perpetuated in the exact form and condition they presented during the battle” • Lincoln: “a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that the nation might live”

11. Gettysburg • By 1869, beginning of monuments – Soldiers’ National Monument (at site of Lincoln’s speech)

12. By 1888 almost 100 regimental monuments (Union) – most by veterans’ groups • 1880s first Confederate monument added First RI Artillery, 1886

13. Reunions/gatherings at Gettysburg • 1870s – Northern GAR chapters met there • South’s “criminal responsibility” • 300+ Union/northern monuments, 2 Confederate • 1888+ North and South reunions • “Today there are no victors, no vanquished. As Americans we may all claim a common share in the new America born on this battlefield.” • 1913 – largest gathering of Civil War vets – all surviving, honorably discharged (50,000)

15. By 1890, more than 200 single soldier statues in the US

17. 1880s-1920s Reunion and redemption

18. Reunions of veterans – Union and Confederate Monument building – glorious Lost Cause Reconciliation across regions/political divisions

19. "There are no better teachers for those who come after us than the silent monuments on the battlefields, marking the places where men died for a principle they believed right, whether they wore the blue or the gray uniform."          Major Wells Sponable, 34th New York Monument dedication (1902), Antietam Battlefield, Maryland

20. Memorial associations United Confederate Veterans (1889) United Daughters of the Confederacy (1894) Sons of Confederate Veterans (1896)

21. Museum of the Confederacy (1896) "The clothes, the arms, the money, the belongings of the Confederate soldier, and the women whose loyal enthusiasm kept him in the field, are properly objects of historical interest. The glory, the hardships, the heroism of the war were a noble heritage for our children. To keep green such memories and to commemorate such virtues, it is our purpose to gather together and preserve in the Executive Mansion of the Confederacy the sacred relics of those glorious days. We appeal to our sisters throughout the South to help us secure these invaluable mementoes before it’s too late."

22. Confederate women

24. Confederate monument, Arlington National Cemetery

26. “May the hands that fought be the hands that clasp and the hearts that bled by the hearts that rejoice.”

28. Faithful slave monument, Fort Mills, SC

29. African american counter-narratives

30. 1876, Emancipation Memorial, Lincoln Park, Washington, DC

33. 1930s-1950s new forms of remembrance

34. Passing of remaining veterans – passing of living memory Movies, street names replace monument building Increased role of federal government as collector and keeper of stories and storied places

36. A New Deal for the Civil War Gettysburg, Antietam, etc. (battlefield parks) transferred to National Park Service CCC, PWA, CWA projects WPA-FWP projects to collect stories

37. 1960s-present Telling new stories

38. Tradition and resistance New social history – esp. African American history and the role of slavery Context and interpretation Personalizing engagement

39. The South Rises Again Georgia flag, 1956-2001 S.C. state capitol with Confederate Flag, 1962-2000 Flying in the face of resistance – Confederate flags and reassertion of states rights

40. Georgia state monument, Gettysburg, 1961 Mississippi state monument at Gettysburg, 1973

41. New modes of engagement Reenactments and reenactors Experiences Make learning history fun and personal Filling gaps and challenging audiences

42. Roots (1977)

43. Re-enactments Living history sites – Colonial Williamsburg’s slave auctions; Conner Prairie’s “Follow the North Star”

45. Stone Mountain, GA

46. Before Freedom Came (1991)Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond. • The first comprehensive exhibition on African and African-American life in the antebellum south.

48. African American Civil War Memorial and Museum, DC

49. Commemorating 150