A reader left this comment on my previous post: “A bit off-topic, but what do you think of the NPS transferring Gettysburg Superintendent John Latschar to an in-house desk job after thousands of pornographic images were found on his work computer?”
It’s a fair question. I’ve got plenty of opinions about some of the recent changes at Gettysburg—the [...]
Archive for the ‘Civil War’ Category
Evaluating Latschar
Posted in Civil War, Museums and Historic Sites, tagged Gettysburg, Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center, Gettysburg National Military Park, John Latschar on October 23, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Civil War at the Gap
Posted in Civil War, Museums and Historic Sites, tagged Civil War, Cumberland Gap on October 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
When you hear “Cumberland Gap,” you probably think of Daniel Boone and the role the pass played in westward expansion. But the Gap has quite a Civil War history, too. It was the right anchor of the Confederacy’s defensive line in the West and changed hands four times.
This weekend Cumberland Gap National Historical Park is hosting a [...]
Saving a Civil War site in Knoxville
Posted in Civil War, Historic Preservation, Tennessee History, tagged Civil War Knoxville, Knoxville on October 1, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I was down in Knoxville this evening and picked up an issue of Metro Pulse, a weekly paper on life in and around the city. There was an interesting story on an effort to preserve a site associated with Longstreet’s unsuccessful attempt to take the city in the fall of 1863. Here’s an online version if you’d like [...]
Electric Map 2.0
Posted in American Revolution, Civil War, Museums and Historic Sites, tagged Cowpens, Electric Map, Gettysburg, Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center, Gettysburg National Military Park on September 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
A couple of days ago I posted about a news item that Eric Wittenberg mentioned on his blog. To recap, the folks at Gettysburg National Military Park are thinking about reviving the Electric Map in the form of a film presentation.
Critics of the map said that it was too big and too antiquated, and I [...]
Reincarnating the Electric Map?
Posted in Civil War, Museums and Historic Sites, tagged Electric Map, Gettysburg, Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center, Gettysburg National Military Park on September 17, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Eric Wittenberg draws our attention to an interesting news item from Gettysburg. They’re throwing around the idea of bringing back some version of the Electric Map in a conventional, movie-theater format.
I’m not sure what they’ve got in mind, but the news item makes an implication that has me scratching my head: “The Electric Map was [...]
Lee’s virtual office
Posted in Civil War, History on the Web, Museums and Historic Sites, tagged Lee Chapel and Museum, Robert E. Lee, Washington and Lee University on August 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Lee Chapel & Museum has added a neat feature to their website. It’s a virtual tour of Lee’s office that allows you to examine each of its objects in detail, with explanations of how they fit into the larger story of his time at W&L.
Digging up one battlefield, tearing up another
Posted in Civil War, Historic Preservation, Tennessee History, tagged Civil War, Civil War Knoxville, Fort Sanders, historic archaeology, Historic Preservation, Wal-Mart, Wilderness Wal-Mart on August 25, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Here’s a story that ran on the NBC affiliate out of Knoxville last night. Archaeologists are excavating the site of Confederate works from the siege of Knoxville and assault on Ft. Sanders.
Here’s another one about the Orange County Board of Supervisors striking a blow for low-wage, dead-end retail jobs; corporate competition for locally-owned businesses; and even more [...]
Take a second to help a battlefield
Posted in Civil War, Historic Preservation, tagged Battle of Franklin, Civil War, Franklin, Historic Preservation on August 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
If you’d like a quick, super-easy way to preserve a battlefield, then take a look at this post on Eric Wittenberg’s blog and follow the link there. All you have to do is type a few words into an online form, and it won’t cost you a dime—but it’ll help keep some important Civil War ground intact.
The economic cost of non-preservation
Posted in Civil War, Historic Preservation, tagged battlefield preservation, Historic Preservation, Wal-Mart, Wilderness Battlefield, Wilderness Wal-Mart on August 4, 2009 | 1 Comment »
In the ongoing controversy over the proposed Wal-Mart at the Wilderness battleground, as in so many similar disputes, it’s easy to get the impression that people who oppose development are standing in the way of the community’s economic well-being. Historic preservation, we’re told, comes at the expense of jobs and tax revenue. The implication is that historians hundreds [...]
A sample of Neo-Confederate historiography
Posted in Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, History and Memory, tagged Abraham Enloe, Abraham Enlow, Abraham Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's paternity, Civil War memory, Edwin M. Stanton, Lincoln assassination, Lost Cause on July 22, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Ladies and gentlemen, I submit for your edification a few selections from the catalogue of The Confederate Reprint Company.
The Genesis of Lincoln by James Harrison Cathey. This startling tome informs us that “the man known to the world as Abraham Lincoln was actually the offspring of an illicit relationship between Nancy Hanks and a married man named [...]
