Clipped fromThe Brooklyn Daily EagleBrooklyn, New York18 Sep 1862, Thu • Page 3

American Battlefield TrustAnnounces Members ofInaugural Youth LeadershipTeam

Ten teens from across the country willspend the next year advocating forhistoric preservation nationally and intheir own communities

Jim Campi, American Battlefield Trust

September 11, 2019

Washington, D.C.— The AmericanBattlefield Trust’s first-ever YouthLeadership Team (YLT) has begun its year-long advocacy engagement with a whirlwind,three-day trip to Washington, D.C. fororientation and training. The 10 participantswill now return to their communities withnewfound knowledge, eager to beginpreservation and interpretation projects oftheir own, communicating the importance ofbattlefield preservation and making atangible impact.

“By supporting this group of emergingleaders, we hope to create a ripple effect forbattlefield preservation, visitation, andhistory education in our nation,” said Trustpresident James Lighthizer. “They are theface of battlefield preservation for a newgeneration, empowering other young peopleto create change within their own schoolsand communities.”

YLT participants were chosen through acompetitive application process, beginninglast spring. Successful candidates werenotified and invited to Washington in earlyAugust to meet the staff, learn more aboutthe Trust vision and refine their individualproject proposals in consultation with theseexperts.

“History is such an interesting subject thatgets overlooked,” said participant MakaylaDecker. “It is very important know ourhistory and by being part of thisorganization, I hope to spark interest in notonly the people of my community but alsomy younger generation.”

The group will return to Washington in lateSeptember to meet with their electedofficials as part of the Trust's first YouthLobby Day.

“At a time when popular opinion holds thatyoung people are not interested in subjectslike history, the testimony of thesepassionate teens will bear powerful witnessto the contrary,” said Connor Townsend, theTrust's associate for audience developmentand the YLT project lead. “They arearticulate and eager to share this messagewith the world.”

During the course of the academic year, theywill pursue individual projects in their homecommunities, supported by Trust staff.Among the initiatives being undertaken byYLT members are organizing living historyevents, raising funds toward land acquisitionand establishing clean-up gatherings — plusmore 21st-century offerings like a podcastseries. During the organization’s 2020Annual Conference next May in Chantilly,Va. they will present their findings andresults broader membership.

“Many teens and adults don’t even knowthat an important Civil War battle occurredin Hart County, Kentucky,” said participantTaylor Bishop. “So what I am going to do istry to fix that. In early October I'm going totake at least 30-35 high schoolers and a few8th grade students to the battlefield atMunfordville, giving them a name of a manthat was either killed, wounded or fought in

that battle. So that way they get a closerconnection to the Civil War.”

The full roster of the 2019 Youth LeadershipTeam includes: Taylor Bishop, 15, ofGreensburg, Ky.; Olivia Brinkman, 17, ofPatchogue, N.Y.; Makayla Decker, 16, ofDillsburg, Pa.; Jessica Grajeda, 17, ofGoodyear, Ariz.; Owen Lanier, 15, ofGloucester, Va.; Scott Lee, 15, of LosAngeles, Calif.; John Mugabe, 16, of RockHill, S.C.; Sarah Schwartz, 16, of FortMyers, Fla.; Hays Turner of Middleburg,Va.; and Karalyn Viszoki , 16, of MonroeTownship, N.J.

Maggie Holmgren

Top Row (left to right): Sarah Schwartz,Owen Lanier, John Mugabe, MakaylaDecker, Hays Turner

And bottom row (left to right): OliviaBrinkman, Jessica Grajeda, Taylor Bishop,Karalyn Viszoki, Scott Lee

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Judge: Confederate statues willstay in Charlottesville

By Associated PressSeptember 13

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A Virginiajudge has blocked the city ofCharlottesville’s effort to removeConfederate statues.

The Daily Progress reports the three-daycivil trial that ended Friday included ajudge’s ruling preventing the removal ofstatues of Robert E. Lee and StonewallJackson.

The planned removal of the Lee statueprompted a white nationalist rally in 2017 inwhich counter protester Heather Heyer waskilled.

Residents had sued Charlottesville, citing astate law that protects war memorials. Thecity said that law violated the U.S.Constitution because the statues send a racistmessage.

Circuit Court Judge Richard Moore ruledWednesday that the law’s intent was historicpreservation not discrimination. He issued apermanent injunction preventing theremoval.

Moore said Friday he’ll award the plaintiff’sattorneys’ fees but will weigh argumentsbefore determining the amount.

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Information from: The Daily Progress,http://www.dailyprogress.com

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. Allrights reserved. This material may not be

published, broadcast, rewritten orredistributed.

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Norfolk officials sue Virginia ineffort to remove Confederatemonument

By Paul Duggan. Washington PostAugust 19

The city of Norfolk, which wants to removea Confederate monument from its downtownbusiness district, filed a federal lawsuitMonday challenging a Virginia law that cityofficials say is blocking their plan torelocate the statue to a cemetery.

The law, enacted in 1904 and amendedseveral times in the past century, bars theremoval or alteration of public warmemorials in the state. In Charlottesville,Confederate-heritage enthusiasts have reliedon the preservation law in litigation that hasstopped officials there from taking downtwo Confederate statues.

The efforts in Norfolk, Charlottesville andelsewhere are part of a broad push in recentyears throughout the South to banishConfederate imagery from public spaces.Critics argue that rebel statues and othericonography honoring Old Dixie aresymbolic of institutionalized whitesupremacism.

In 2017, the Norfolk City Council passed aresolution saying it intended to move atowering, city-owned Confederatemonument from a downtown intersection toElmwood Cemetery. But the resolution saidno action would be taken while the statepreservation law remained in effect, because

violating it could expose the city to financialpenalties.

The lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. DistrictCourt in Norfolk alleges that thepreservation law unconstitutionally hindersNorfolk’s right to free expression.

“The purpose of this suit is to unbuckle thestraitjacket that the Commonwealth hasplaced the City and the City Council in,” thecomplaint said. “Because the Monument isthe City’s speech, the City has aconstitutional right to alter that speech” bymoving the statue to a less conspicuouslocation.

It is “a right that the Commonwealth cannottake away,” the lawsuit said.

After the Charlottesville City Council votedto remove a statue of Confederate Gen.Robert E. Lee, statue defenders sued the cityin March 2017, citing the preservation law.

Five months later, on Aug. 11 and 12,hundreds of white supremacists descendedon Charlottesville for the Unite the Rightrally. Stunned by the deadly street violenceand outpouring of racist and anti-Semitichate that weekend, the Charlottesvillecouncil voted to also remove a public statueof rebel Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall”Jackson.

In rulings this year, a judge inCharlottesville Circuit Court decided thatthe preservation law applies to theCharlottesville statues. The next step for thecity is an appeal to the Virginia SupremeCourt.

The Norfolk City Council reacted to the2017 Charlottesville violence by passing theresolution to remove the 112-year-old statuefrom a downtown intersection. Two activists

then sued the city in state court, trying toforce it to act on the resolution, even withthe preservation law in effect. That statelawsuit was dismissed last month.

Telling the Untold History

When Civil War reenacting began inthe 1960s, it was largely the provinceof folks who wished to uphold the OldSouth myth. Folks like that are still on

the battlefield, but lately, a morediverse group of people — with abroader understanding of Southern

history — have begun to pushreenactments toward deeper, truer

purposes.

Story by S.E. Curtis | Photos by Pat Jarrett

When I walked into the bathroom towash some Lee-Jackson Day cakefrom my hands, I saw two teenagegirls primping in the mirror: fixingtheir skirts and slipping tiny pearlbuttons into eyelets on their gloves.One blonde. One brunette. Both veryserious about their outfits. Thebrunette said, “You know, I think mybonnet would go better with yourdress.” The blonde replied, “Well, wedon’t really wear straw bonnetsindoors in January, do we?” Heraccent was somewhere betweenScarlett and Melanie instead of whatshould have been her nativeShenandoah Valley twang. With thatcomment, the blonde smoothed thefabric of her sleeves and walked outthe door. The brunette untied the bowof her vintage chapeau and left it onthe sink’s counter before followingher friend into the carpeted ballroomof the Holiday Inn Express inLexington, Virginia.

In the South, we are affected by history in away no other region in this country canclaim. While the Northeast builds up andover its reminders of the past and the rest of

the country is too young to understand, theSouth is lousy with artifacts, memorials,historical markers and the names of “heroes”branding our municipal buildings, parks andstreets. In fact, we rely economically on thepreservation of said past and the constantconversation generated by it. Tourists spendmillions of dollars on tours of antebellumestates and carriage rides through historicneighborhoods.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversationabout the history of this region without itdevolving into an argument overinterpretation. When I lived in New York, Ifound myself constantly defending thehistory of the South, not because I believe inthe glory of the antebellum era, but becauseI was convinced that my Yankee friendsdidn’t have the whole story. They had beenmisled or at least not given all the facts. But,of course, so had I.

After I moved back to the South —specifically Staunton, Virginia — in 2011, Idecided I want to understand the dissonancebetween the way we see our history andourselves and how the rest of the countrysees us. So I began conversations.

My friend, Paul Singleton III, an African-American art therapist and poet, told me hefelt constantly reminded of the brutal historyof Staunton, where he grew up. There areobvious references, such as Robert E. LeeHigh School (one of 71 schools around theSouth that are named for Lee), and moresubtle anachronisms, such as the servants’entrances built into the houses and mansions.Relics of this history are everywhere. Ofcourse, in most of the South, thesemonuments (intentional or not) arecommon — a daily manifestation of a pastwe choose to suffer with, ignore or worship.Staunton holds tightly to this history in spiteof its present progressive tendencies. The

history of the town and the surrounding areaappeals to tourists. That appeal, of course,benefits the local economy.

When my conversation with Singletonturned toward Civil War reenactors, who area common sight in the Shenandoah Valley, Iassumed he would group them in with theother historical emblems. Instead, he had adifferent view.

“I have an interest in researching new waysto heal intergenerational trauma,” Singletonsaid. “I see in Staunton a community stillgrappling with the trauma of war. I thinkthis is the purpose of the reenactments ofbattles; Civil War reenactments serve aspublic theater that aids the process of grief.”

Singleton told me a reenactment could beviewed as a ritual along the lines ofBrazilian theater director Augusto Boal’sTheater of the Oppressed. Boal’s idea was tocreate theater that literally engages theaudience in struggles related to social andpolitical issues. Similarly, in a reenactment,both the reenactors and the spectators areinvolved in the battle and everyone wantshis or her side to win. Even if that meansrooting for — against what should be theirbetter judgment — the pro-slaveryConfederacy. One of the techniquesinvolved in the theater of the Oppressed iscalled “Breaking Repression.” BreakingRepression involves an actor submitting to amoment of oppression against his or herown desires. This process is repeated and re-enacted with different scenarios until theactor fully understands the ways in whichtheir oppressor behaves, and learns to reacteffectively to those situations.

Singleton said that by dressing up and takingpart in battles and other historical events,reenactors can work through the pain andloss their ancestors may have felt. White

Southern reenactors may feel oppressed andconquered because their Confederateancestors lost the war. At worst, theirfamilies have had to suffer through not onlydefeat, but also Reconstruction and 150years of socioeconomic hardship. So theyuse an aesthetic means in the present toexamine this past in the hope of creating adifferent future. In their minds, they are theunderdogs. Through this kind ofperformance, they are yearning for catharsisand a change in outlook.

In a way, reenactments and the ubiquity ofConfederate memorials account for the waycertain white Southerners view the UnitedStates, its history and its politics. We havebeen fighting these battles since 1861 andalways expect that one day we willunderstand our “oppressors” in order toescape the disappointment of the future.Consider that, according to Robert LeeHadden, who literally wrote the book onreenacting, “Reliving the Civil War: AReenactor’s Handbook,” what we now knowas modern reenacting took shape during the1960s. This time period, of course,coincided with both the centennial of theCivil War and the Civil Rights movement.Perhaps in response to upheaval and change,these first modern reenactors took theopportunity to examine the moment inhistory when, in their minds, it all went

wrong: the moment the Confederacysurrendered.

Civil War reenactments are as popular nowas they have ever been, and — odd though itmay seem — they are no longer solely theprovince of white Southerners clinging tothe “lost cause.” What does the changingdemographic of participants in historicalinterpretations say about the way we learnand think about history? What doreenactments and reenactors teach us aboutour history, our present and what can we doto further our progress?

Over the last few years, the climate ofreenacting and historical interpretation in theSouth has evolved and diversified. Perhapsmost importantly, more African-Americansengage with Southern history throughreenactment and want to be a part of how itis interpreted and used.

Pat Jarrett, whose photographs accompanythis story, first met Louis L. Carter Jr. at the150th anniversary of Appomattox, when hemade a photo of him right before themoment in the reenactment when Gen.Robert E. Lee dismounts Traveller andhands over his saber. Carter, who lives inWashington, D.C., reenacts as Sgt. Maj.Christian Fleetwood, a free man of colorwho enlisted in the 4th Regiment of the

United States Colored Infantry. Fleetwoodwas awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor in1865 because of his valor and courageduring the Battle of New Market Heights.

Louis L. Carter Jr.

Carter believes a Civil War reenactor’s goalshould be to educate and to explain whatactually happened and then to illustrate howthat affects this country today. He says hispersonal role as a black Civil War soldier isto teach the public about the lifestyle,military service and general values throughaccurate and authentic presentations. Ofcourse, there are many more whitereenactors than African-American, just likethere were more white soldiers 150 yearsago. Carter asserts that the best outcome of areenactment would be that the public isprouder of who they are and that theirancestors helped to make this great country.Most importantly, when he reenacts, he isgiven the chance to correct history and totell the forgotten or untold American stories.

Carter believes that when these moredifficult parts of history are overlooked, theSouth and the U.S. at large is held back.Carter calls slavery “our American

Holocaust” and says that his regimentreenacts to initiate conversation about that.

Unfortunately, much of the historicalinterpretation and reenactment of the CivilWar glosses over slavery. Some of the worstand most violent episodes are left out topreserve the so-called honor and reputationof the Confederate dead. But this timewornnarrative is now being turned on its head byreenactors like Gates and his regiment,along with other individuals and groups whoare investing their time and money into thishobby so history it portrays includes morediverse narratives.

The Is Not The American “DowntonAbbey”

Michael Twitty, a culinary historian andfood writer, uses his own kind ofreenactment and historical interpretation toconfront the typical narrative, as well.Twitty stages reenactments he calls“Antebellum Chef,” in which he uses food-preparation methods based on the practicesof enslaved cooks throughout the South.Antebellum Chef is Michael Twitty’s“performance” in this Southern Theater ofthe Oppressed.

When he walks into a place where he isgoing to interpret, one of the first things he

does is to pour libations and ask permissionfrom those who once occupied the space tohelp him to tell the truth. Through his dress,ingredients and tools, Twitty opens up theconversation and demonstrates what it waslike for a slave in the kitchen of a plantationestate.

Twitty’s work is, in itself, a revolutionaryact. Many of the plantations where he workshave only recently started to acknowledgethe estates’ slave populations, let alone addslave narratives to their tours and exhibits.But Louisiana’s Whitney Plantation, whichfocuses on the history of slaves and the slaveculture born on its grounds, draws moreAfrican-American tourists than any otherhistorical site of its kind. Twitty’s presencein the context of such plantations, as theembodiment of a slave, brings manydifferent reactions.

“He who controls the interpretation of thehistory controls the narrative completely andwhat people walk away with,” he says. “I’mgoing against this narrative. My job is tobring to life what the life of an enslavedperson looked like so that you can take apicture of it with your iPhone and share thisknowledge.”

Michael Twitty, photo courtesy of MichaelTwitty

The simple act of Twitty wearing period-accurate clothing and standing over a 60-pound pot of soup as it boils over a fire hasbeen met with resistance from those whoprefer the history of the South to remainwhitewashed. He often tells a story about adocent at a plantation who asked him not toshare any stories about slavery and to justsay that he is the cook and that’s it. But toleave out the stories of and facts about theslaves, who built the buildings in which hestands and worked the gardens from whichhe pulls ingredients, is not only a lie, he says,but also an act of aggression toward thosewho need to learn and understand our sharedpast.

During a demonstration, if Twitty stumbleson a brick floor and spills whatever hecarries, people often laugh at him.

“They see me as a big black oaf,” he says,“but I ask them, ‘Do you know what youwould have done to me if I would havetripped back then? You would have whippedme for spilling your soup.’” One of his maingoals during an interpretation is to confrontthe history in people’s heads, holdingnothing back.

“This is not the American Downton Abbey,”he declares.

An uncomfortable feeling permeates the airwhen it comes to the “peculiar institution”of slavery. Twitty says African-Americanshave only recently become more involved inpreserving the history of slavery andattempting to work through the trauma. Hewelcomes the black community’s slowgravitation toward historical sites that wereonce visited mainly by white tourists.African-Americans have begun holding

family reunions and events for companiesand schools at antebellum sites where theirancestors may have been enslaved. Theydon’t visit these sites or participate ininterpretations or reenactments to bereminded of or shamed by the painfulhistory, but instead to work through thetrauma and measure progress.

photo courtesy of Michael Twitty

Battling the Confederates in theAttic

At first glance, one might think most whiteCivil War reenactors are committed to theLost Cause, that they fight these battles overand over in hopes of someday seeing Grantfinally handing his sword over to Lee.

But Waverly Byth Adcock, a phlebotomistand devout reenactor, had no dream of livingin the antebellum South. When he began toresearch his own family’s past in preparationfor reenactments, he discovered that, despitehis own simple, middle class upbringing, hisfamily not only owned slaves, but alsocommitted brutal acts as punishment. Unlikesome of his reenacting compatriots,Adcock’s genealogy made it impossible forhim to argue that the Confederate cause wassimply home and hearth.

Then, last year, Virginia Quarterly Reviewcontributing editor Jesse Dukes wrote aremarkable piece called “Lost Causes,” a

story in which Adcock was a majorcharacter. Dukes praised Adcock for his“well-researched, complicated andthoughtful view of the war,” but concludedthat Adcock and reenactors like him were“willfully innocent.” Dukes specificallycalled out Adcock for using the argumentsthat the entire nation is guilty of slavery andthat the Confederate battle flag can be usedas a learning tool. Dukes asserted thatreenactors such as Adcock ignore the largerimplications of this way of thinking.

Instead of taking offense, Adcock began tostep back from his previously heldconvictions concerning the old “heritage nothate” argument.

Adcock began, instead, on a quest ofhonesty and a more holistic view of history.He said it was important to him to stay trueto both sides of his history. Though he couldhave dismissed the damning parts of hisfamily’s past, he said, he decided to err onthe side of the whole truth.

After that article was published, Adcock toldme, he put on his uniform to remind himselfand his audience about how far we’ve comeas not only a region, but also a country. Forhim, reenacting was a way to remember andgrow from the sins of his ancestors. It wasnot only a hobby, but also a kind of penance:“Dressing up in a blue uniform or a greyuniform is our way of owning up to amistake that we made — that the nationmade. We own up to the responsibility ofwhat our ancestors did.”

Adcock also said the act of taking part inthese interpretations of history is whatattracted him in the first place. Being able toshare history with an audience is importantto him.

“It goes back to that tangible history,” hesaid. “Kids really respond to that. Theyrespond to being able to put their hands on awet rifle, touch a uniform, wear a hat, drinkout of a canteen, and see how peoplelived.… Then you get them thinking. That’sthe important thing.”

Waverly Byth Adcock

Of course, the ancestors of most reenactorsaround here were tenant farmers and theworking class. Arguably, their ancestorsheeded the call to take up arms for theConfederacy while being misled by theConfederate government: Businessmen,landed gentry and politicians stood to losemore than they did. There is little doubt that,for the Confederacy, it was a rich man’s warand a poor man’s fight.

But at tourist destinations like battlefieldsand plantations, the narrative leans heavilyon the idea of the Southern Aristocracy.Because of the longstanding influence ofConfederate heritage organizations (such asthe United Daughters of the Confederacy)on the way history has been presented in theSouth, some people may be under theimpression that there was a strict two-classsystem: the white aristocracy and the blackslaves. This, of course, causes more traumathan progress.

But those who are thoroughly steeped in the“glory” of the antebellum South are notfazed. They cannot grasp the idea that theirancestors probably have more in commonwith the slaves they fought to keep chainedthan the social elite they fought to keep inpower. Perhaps this is the subconscious griefthese reenactors are working through. Notonly did their ancestors fight and die for adubious cause, but also their sacrificesneither affected the outcome of the war norbettered the future of their families.

At last April’s celebration of ConfederateMemorial Day in Staunton, Adcock made aspeech in front of a crowd of Sons ofConfederate Veterans, United Daughters ofthe Confederacy and other organizations, aswell as a smattering of reenactors, includingsome playing the parts of Gens. Lee andThomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Adcock toldthe crowd their organizations should notfocus on arguments about where a flagshould hang or what the exact cause of thesecession was, but instead on preservingwhat makes the South great.

“We cannot pick our history,” he told thecrowd. “In order for us to learn from ourmistakes or triumphs, we must embrace theentire story of our past. The good and thebad, all of these things make us who we aretoday.”

But Adcock seems to be an exception whenit comes to the community of reenactors. Itis true that many seem to be in it primarilyfor the joy or reenacting, even if they tend toconveniently “forget” the embarrassing parts.These reenactors sip coffee made of burntcorn, wear $100 period-accurate buttons,and spin yarns about how their patriarchsfought for home and hearth.

Then there are others, reenactors whomAdcock calls “Polyester Confederates,”

people who are, in his words, “basicallyKlansmen without the hoods.” Thosereenactors are concerned with political andsocial ideologies connected to theConfederacy and offer no apology forfighting for slavery or racism. But on thefield, there’s no real delineation betweenone kind of reenactor and the next. All ofthese men and women share camps and“serve” in the same regiments withoutconversation or consequence. This weighedon Adcock’s conscience.

The massacre at Charleston’s EmanuelA.M.E. Church and the ensuing controversyover the battle flag came two months afterAdcock’s speech in Staunton. The negativeand defensive reaction from his owncommunity was the final straw for Adcock.He decided to put away his uniforms andrifles and give up the hobby. He confessedthat the amount of “hate and vitriol”spewing out from the media, his friends andother reenactors was incredibly exhausting.At the risk of being ousted from hiscommunity and group of friends, Adcockexpressed what was on his heart.

His words were met with even more vitrioland insults. Adcock told me he felt like ahero for sticking to his guns in the face ofadversity.

Hero or not, a man who listens to and learnsfrom discourse, evolves and stands by hisconvictions does deserve respect. Adcockkeeps a low profile these days and, thoughhe feels the loss of friends and his hobby,still stands by his convictions and hopes tocontinue to teach others about this period asan amateur historian. He hopes to combatmiseducation and ignorance.

The Normative Narrative

Reenactors are such a common sight in theShenandoah Valley because many battles ofthe Civil War took place here. Two of theConfederacy’s most famous generals, Leeand Jackson, made their homes in Lexington.The Shenandoah Valley was called the“breadbasket of the Confederacy” andcontinues to be a destination for Civil Warbuffs and tourists.

In Staunton, the sign for the StonewallJackson Hotel is neon red and 30 feet tall.As you crest the hill between the old asylum(now condos) and the abandoned powerplant, the sign is a beacon announcing yourarrival in the Queen City of the Valley. It isa highlight of the downtown Stauntonskyline and has been indivisible from theidentity of the town for more than 60 years.Even in the latter half of the 20th century,when the building had fallen into disrepairand had a reputation as a flophouse, the signremained, though unlit.

When the hotel was renovated and reopenedin the early 2000s, the owners decided tokeep the sign and the name. When I askedwhy, a representative simply told me that the

name was recognizable in the Valley andthat the owners were capitalizing on alreadyestablished branding. It’s true that the name“Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson” is one of themost recognizable monikers here.

I live in a building that sits catercornered tothe hotel, and, honestly, it never reallycrosses my mind. To me, the StonewallJackson represents the fancyaccommodations in town for rich touristsand business people. But to a visitor whodoesn’t see the names and imagery of theCivil War every day, the luminescent nameof a slaveholder lighting up the sky on thecorner of Richmond Road and the Lee-Jackson Highway might be a cause for pause.

Staunton has garnered national attentionfrom Travel + Leisure, GQ, SmithsonianMagazine and other media outlets for ourfood, arts scenes, museums and architecture.On the first floor of another building namedafter Jackson, the Stonewall JacksonSchoolhouse, there’s a cafe that servesgrass-fed beef burgers from the famousPolyface Farms here in Augusta County andcraft beer from all over the United States.The Stonewall Jackson Hotel offers packagedeals in partnership with the AmericanShakespeare Center next door.

And yet, my friends from Up North neverwant to come visit me because they are waryof lynch mobs. I admit that I stumble whentrying to explain the nuances of why livingin Staunton is preferable when a slaveowner’s name welcomes all visitors whodrive into town.

“We as White Southerners….”

More Stonewall Jackson ephemera can befound 30 miles south of Staunton inLexington. Both Jackson and Lee are visiblyrevered in this town’s churches, memorials,municipal buildings and institutions ofhigher learning. Lexington is also one of ahandful of cities across Virginia that stillopenly celebrate Lee-Jackson Day. Whenthe city refused to allow Confederate flagsto hang on the main street through townduring one Lee-Jackson Day celebration,opponents of the decision hired a plane tofly the message “Shame on Lexington —Honor Lee & Jackson” over the parade.

East of Staunton, in Charlottesville,Councilwoman Kristin Szakos led thecharge earlier this year to repeal Lee-Jackson Day as a paid city holiday.

“On Facebook and in emails during the pastmonth, Charlottesville residents haveexpressed their dismay that we publiclyhonor two men who bravely fought for thecause that would have kept the ancestors ofone in five of our neighbors in bondage,”Szakos told the council. She grew up inMississippi as the daughter of Civil Rightsworkers and is intimately familiar with thecontroversy that surrounds historicalinterpretation. When she suggested in 2012that Confederate statues be taken down,“balanced out” (with other statues) or simplymoved from downtown Charlottesville to amore historical or educational setting, bothshe and her children were the targets ofthreats.

Concerning Lee-Jackson Day, most of theopposition, she said, came from neo-Confederates from outside of theCharlottesville area. A man from Richmond,Indiana, asked her why she “would evenconsider any action to remove anything‘Confederate’ from [her] city” (theformatting is his, not mine). She replied thatthere isn’t any problem with someonecelebrating whatever heroes they choose.But she was going to vote against having theCity of Charlottesville celebrate thatparticular history through a paid localholiday. She also suggested that, if he felt

the need, the Indiana man should approachhis own city council and talk to them aboutinstating Lee-Jackson Day as a city holiday.

“We as white Southerners have the luxury ofignoring monuments and markers ofConfederate history and heritage,” she toldme. That statement stuck with me after ourconversation.

To white Southerners, the statue of Robert E.Lee in Lee Park in Charlottesville (or any ofthe other 500-plus Confederate monumentsall around the South) might seem only astatue of a man who fought for what hebelieved in and lost. But to African-Americans, it is a statue of a man whofought to keep their ancestors enslaved. Wecan argue all day about Gen. Lee’s merits onthe battlefield, but it’s impossible toextricate him from that fact.

Reenacting vs Reacting

In contrast to the reenactors and politicianswho seek to confront the accepted whiteSouthern narrative, the Virginia Flaggers arean organization that use protest as a form ofperformance. They show up at any eventthey perceive as an “attack” on Confederatehistory and heritage. I use the wordConfederate here because this is where therift lies. The so-called “history and heritage”

of a group like the Flaggers is not theSouthern or Confederate history that I havebeen taught. As a member of one of the firstgenerations of Southern schoolchildren tolearn from (less) censored textbooks, I’m alittle skeptical of the “facts.”

I met with Barry Isenhour, who is often thepublic voice of the Flaggers, on a coolSunday morning outside of Richmond’sMuseum of the Confederacy. Isenhour worea leather vest adorned with Confederate-related patches and buttons, which madehim pretty easy to spot from down the block.He greeted me with a firm handshake and apress packet. My name was handwritten atthe top of the envelope above the sticker ofthe seal of the Virginia Flaggers. The sealbears the phrase “Sic Semper Tyrannis” andhas three sets of hands (each with a differentskin tone) holding the flag of Virginia, theConfederate battle flag and the first flag ofthe Confederate States of America.

The contents of the packet included twopamphlets: “Why Some Are Attacking theFlags” and “The Virginia Flaggers.” Therewas also a flyer for this year’s Lee-JacksonDay in Lexington and a CD called “TheTruth Concerning The Confederate BattleFlag: A Commentary by Pastor JohnWeaver.” We sat on a bench in the backyardgarden of the Confederate White House(which, for the record, is gray). Luckily, itwas warm enough to conduct the interviewoutdoors since Isenhour was recently kickedout of the museum for carrying the battleflag into its foyer.

After easing into the conversation throughthe awkward channels of “we don’t call itthe Civil War” and “Lee didn’t have slaves,Jackson taught them how to read and write,and Jefferson Davis adopted a black child,”Isenhour and I waded into the topic of whatexactly the Virginia Flaggers do.

He explained to me that the Flaggers aim toeducate people: “A lot of myths came out ofthe 1990s when the NAACP found that thiscould be a good fundraising thing. Thesepeople started deconstructing SouthernPride … and you get into this stereotype thateveryone with a Cross of St. Andrews hatesthe government and wants to kill everyblack person.”

Isenhour says his group approaches historyin a more authentic way than the rest of thecountry.

“It’s easy to point a finger at the bogeymanthan it is to look at history,” he said. “Westand on a corner and try to explain to youwho the Confederate veteran was … and wewant to explain the history of this flag.”

Barry Isenhour

When I brought up slavery, he was quick tocorrect me on how slaves were treated. Hesaid that in the North, if a man got his armcut off at his job, he would be out of luck,but if a slave suffered the same, he wouldhave been taken care of and given anotherjob. He used a slave named “Toby” as theexample for this situation and spoke of him

using a voice that sounded like a mixbetween Foghorn Leghorn and Uncle Remusfrom “Song of the South.”

But we kept running into impasses.

“But they were slaves,” I said.

“Yes, but they were treated better than mostwhite people in other parts of the country,”he replied.

“But they were still owned by whitepeople...”

“Yes, but they had health care!”

“But they had no rights. It was against thelaw for them to read or write. And they werebought and sold like animals.”

“But not everyone owned slaves!”

“But the economy was built on free labor.”

“See, that’s the brainwashing. It wasn’t free.Again, they had health care, free clothes,room and board!”

“But they were still slaves, right?”

I asked him why it was important to keepmonuments of Civil War soldiers aroundand to celebrate men like Lee and Jackson.He said, “These two men, in my opinion,represent the best of America and theirgeneration. This is the same as celebratingVeterans Day. Memorial Day is actually aConfederate holiday. To us — it’s abouthistory and honoring. If someone wants todo Martin Luther King Day, I don’t care. Hewas great. He was an American and had anincredible impact on the country.”

Keep in mind that the Virginia Flaggers areoften seen “flagging” around Richmond,

Virginia. This capital city has threebuildings that are part of the Museum of theConfederacy System: the Museum, theConfederate White House and theConfederate War Memorial Chapel. Not tomention other Civil War tourist attractionslike Hollywood Cemetery, MonumentAvenue, and the American Civil WarMuseum at Historic Tredegar. There is noshortage of tangible Confederate history inthis capital of the Confederacy.

The Flaggers and other neo-Confederategroups are so bedeviled by any move towardbroadening the view of history in the South,they can’t see that the inclusion of differentstories doesn’t make them wrong, but showsthe complexities of this region and its people.They are so busy claiming tragedy that theycan’t see the play isn’t over yet. There arebetter and richer scenes to come. There willalways be cause to revisit our past, but weshould take care not to revise it. The kind ofpreservation the neo-Confederates seek isthe enemy of growth.

But Isenhour is performing his own dramain this Southern Theater of the Oppressed.He feels literally attacked by dominantAmerican culture and those who wouldinterpret history differently. I think we cansee from the events of the last few monthsthat a little backlash concerning thesesymbols and interpretations can be a positivething. Isenhour accused my generation ofbeing both brainwashed and druggedconcerning Confederate history and culture.He said that the most ignorant and unwillingaudience is “... white liberal kids betweenthe ages of 20 and 30 who come at us withsuch viciousness; they will not talk with you,they just spit on you and call you horriblenames.”

The irony is not lost that this kind ofbehavior is reminiscent of the people who

waved Confederate flags during the CivilRights Movement.

The Contentiousness of History

As I reported this story, I wanted tounderstand why people such as BarryIsenhour feel so threatened by a moreinclusive version of history. People likeCouncilwoman Szakos cannot take CivilWar memorials away; laws forbid it.Though she voted to take Lee-Jackson Dayoff the city’s paid holiday list, that doesn’tmean celebrating it is illegal. As Adcocktold me, “If you want to go spend Jan. 21 atLee’s grave, then you should go do it.Lexington needs the tourist money.”

Historian David Goldfield writes in his book,“Still Fighting the Civil War”: “What isneeded is not so much a merger of Robert E.Lee and Martin Luther King Jr. as a betterunderstanding of both, an appreciation thatone can accept the other’s past withoutdistorting it or denigrating others.” I don’tknow if the celebration of Gen. Lee’scomposure, brilliance, honor and devotion toVirginia is a good enough reason. Therehave been many composed, brilliant,honorable and devoted men and women inhistory who do not have a holiday namedafter them or dozens of statues of their

likenesses. Maybe this is what BarryIsenhour hates most about people my age —our reluctance to suspend disbelief. Hethinks just because we don’t haveConfederate pride, we don’t have Southernpride either.

But my own complacency toward those whowant to celebrate the Lost Cause is inherent.Am I brainwashed because I attended JosephFinegan Elementary in Atlantic Beach,Florida, which bears the name of aConfederate brigadier general? Or because Ilive down the block from the StonewallJackson Hotel? I consider myself aprogressive person, but I don’t think twiceabout these relics of a Southern narrative.

Like any good Southern gal, my childhoodwas spent going to historic battlefields,monuments, and museums, as well aslearning about the inhumanity of slavery andthe trials and tribulations of the Civil Rightsmovement. However, my photographerpartner on this story, Pat Jarrett, is fromOhio. His father was a history teacher whomade it a point to teach his children aboutthese subjects, but my education was waymore steeped in Civil War knowledge andmyth. I understood the paradox of the“duality of the Southern thing” from ayoung age and have been troubled by itsince.

There are Southerners who feel this topichas been talked about too much. To them,the statues are charming anachronisms andneo-Confederates aren’t even worth a “blesshis heart.” They believe if the conversationcould finally stop, so would the extremistvoices. I’m not sure that “close your eyesand they’ll go away” is the best reaction.There will always be people in this countrywho worship Confederate heroes, callkitchen slaves “just cooks” and who wish topreserve a mythical Southern Way of Life.

In the end, I walk away with this: the CivilWar is over. The Confederate States ofAmerica no longer exists as a sovereignnation (if it ever did). But racism and thesubjugation of human beings live on in thiscountry. Therefore, the interpretation mustgo on.

Michael Twitty uses our obsession withhistory to wipe the sheen off oldinterpretations of the antebellum South,instead demonstrating the immense amountof hard work, struggle and toil required ofslaves. By simply taking part in areenactment, Louis L. Carter Jr. expands thenarrative of a battle and broadens the scopeof history. When Waverly Byth Adcockteaches elementary school children about theCivil War, it’s about the hardships of warand the time period; he’s not preaching thedisgruntled opinions of those who revere theLost Cause.

When I spoke to Michael Twitty on thephone, he asked: “What does the South haveanymore? We’re running out of fields.We’re running out of nature. What we haveleft is the food, the music and the history.…This is a world we made together, not apart.But the interpretation of our history up untilthis point keeps us separated.”

History is contentious. Howard Zinn, anhistorian and writer who taught at SpelmanCollege in the late 1950s and early 1960sand wrote a book about the South called

“The Southern Mystique,” writes in hisessay “Objections to Objectivity” from hisbook “Failure to Quit”:

There’s no such thing as impartial history.The chief problem in historical honesty isnot outright lying. It’s the omission or de-emphasis of important data. The definitionof “important,” of course, depends on one’svalues.

In the past few years, a more diverse groupof people has taken up historicalinterpretation and reenacting. They arebroadening the scope of history, to includewhat was missing or glossed over — notonly the violence against and degradation ofAfrican-Americans, but also of the lowerclasses. They do it not only to work throughthe trauma of their ancestry, but also foreveryone else’s benefit.

Now, on the battlefield or in a plantation’skitchen, many different voices andnarratives can be heard. African-Americanreenactors can win battles or “die” for thefuture of their people, while whiteSoutherners dressed in gray can come toterms with the complacency, ignorance orworse of their Confederate ancestors.Through their work, the neoclassicalarchitecture of antebellum homes and thesacred grounds of the battlefields take onnew, broader meaning. We can preservethese sites without preserving the attitudesthat founded their construction andconsecration.

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History Rewind: ThePetersburg Campaign, withWilson Greene

August 25, 2019 by Mike Kennedy .Blueand Gray Education Society

Battle of Petersburg Crater / From adrawing made by Lieutenant Hendersonafter the battleBattles and Leaders of the Civil War [ca1887] / NPS

In September 2019, the Blue & GrayEducation Society will host an intriguingnew tour focused on the PetersburgCampaign, A Campaign of Giants: TheBattle for Petersburg. The host is none otherthan Wilson Greene, a world traveler andwell-known Civil War historian. Greene haswritten some two-dozen articles on the topic,plus six books, including A Campaign ofGiants,the first of a three-volume history ofthe Petersburg Campaign.

Greene’s interest in the Civil War wassparked in his childhood, and grew inintensity after a family trip to Gettysburg.After graduating from Florida StateUniversity, he studied as a grad student atLSU under noted historian T. HarryWilliams. Greene is a co-founder of theAmerican Battlefield Trust, originally knownas the Association for the Preservation ofCivil War Sites, and spent five years as theorganization’s first director. He also servedas director of Pamplin Historical Park in

Virginia. Greene talked with us about thePetersburg Campaign and the BGES tour.

A. Wilson Greene

BGES Blog: You refer to the Petersburg asa “Campaign.” Others call it a Battle or evena Siege. Why do you believe Campaign isthe most accurate term?

Wil Greene: Really, it’s a matter ofsemantics. But a battle is a single action, andPetersburg consumed nine and a half months.So I believe calling it a battle is out of thequestion.

A siege, on the other hand, includes severalkey components. The army under siege hasto be surrounded. That did not happen inPetersburg. Siege tactics are also veryspecific from engineering and strategicstandpoints. Grant authorized siege tacticsfor a grand total of 36 hours, and they werenever actually implemented. Finally, a siegesuggests a static arrangement. ThoughPetersburg if often portrayed that way, itwasn’t really the case.

BGES Blog: The Petersburg CampaignTour takes place in a month from now, fromSeptember 25 to September 28. Tell us alittle about it.

Wil Greene: The tour coincides with thefirst volume of my Petersburgtrilogy,ACampaign of Giants. We cover thefirst three offensives of the PetersburgCampaign. I enjoy this tour because we takepeople to sites that they’ve likely never seenbefore. We really get off the beaten path.Even with something like the Crater, weoffer a fresh perspective.

BGES Blog: Talk more about the threeoffensives you mentioned.

Wil Greene: We devote a full day to eachoffensive. The first took place from June15to 18, 1864. It starts with Union troopscrossing the James River and launching theirinitial attacks on Petersburg’s easterndefenses. It was incredibly bloody. Unioncasualties numbered about 13,000, whilethere were about 4,000 for the Confederatearmy.

Day two of the tour covers two separateoperations—one infantry and the othercavalry—that occurred from June 22 to July1. The cavalry raid was one of the largest ofthe entire Civil War. Though the Uniontroops were defeated, they did manage todisrupt critical Confederate communicationlines.

The final day of the tour traces two battles,First Deep Bottom and the Battle of TheCrater. Both involved what would becomeGrant’s pattern: attack north of the JamesRiver and extend the Union reach south ofPetersburg. The Battle of The Crater wouldbe Grant’s last head-on offensive until Aprilof 1865. He viewed this strategy as toocostly in terms of casualties. In fact, Grantcalled The Battle of The Crater “the saddestaffair” he had witnessed in the war.

Petersburg National Battlefield reenactorsrepresenting the Confederate Unit,Pegram’s Battery demonstrate to visitorshow a 12 pounder Napoleon cannon wasfired / NPS

BGES Blog: The Petersburg Campaign sawthe birth of the widespread use of trenchwarfare. Why? Was this in part due to whatGrant’s reaction to The Battle of The Crater?

Wil Greene: To maintain support for theUnion effort, Grant understood that he hadto show constant progress and prove that theCivil War was winnable. Deadly battles didnot help that cause. Trench warfare allowedcommanders on both sides to take a moredefensive posture. For the Union, that meantthe ability to hold lines with fewer troops.For the Confederacy, it meant the ability tosimply hold on and survive.

It’s worth noting that quite a bit of thesetrenches remain, on public and privategrounds alike. We’ll take a good look atthem during the tour.

BGES Blog: As you noted, the PetersburgCampaign was a long series of attacks andcounterattacks that lasted 292 days. Did thechange of seasons affect military strategy?How was morale on both sides?

Wil Greene: The change of seasons had asignificant impact. During the winter in thePetersburg area—November throughMarch—the temperature during the day wasusually above freezing, but it fell below thatat night. This created very difficultconditions for wheeled vehicles. Troopswere often immobilized, and theConfederate army was relegated to a strictlydefensive position.

Grant was well aware that he had to makecontinued inroads to sustain a winningstrategy. In early February 1865, when theweather unexpectedly warmed up, the Uniontook the opportunity to launch an offensiveresulting in the Battle of Hatcher’s Run. Itwas part of Grant’s strategy to cut offConfederate supply lines and take control ofall the railroads.

Union morale was usually high despite verypoor living conditions. The troops weredefinitely bolstered by the re-election ofPresident Lincoln. The opposite was true forConfederate troops. They sawunprecedented levels of desertion during thistime.

The cabin where General Grant made hisheadquarters / NPS

BGES Blog: Virginia had a large blackpopulation, more than 500,000 in all. Whatrole did African-Americans play in thePetersburg Campaign?

Wil Greene: Many people forget thatPetersburg was the second largest city inVirginia and the seventh largest in theConfederacy during this time. It also had thelargest percentage blacks as a proportion ofthe free population. Interestingly, hundredsof these men volunteered for theConfederate army. They were perhaps tryingto get on the “right” side if the Confederacywon. They were refused as soldiers, ofcourse, but worked tirelessly to buildtrenches.

The Union employed two divisions ofUnited States Colored Troops, some formerslaves from Virginia and other Southernstates. In fact, Petersburg was the first timein the war’s Eastern Theater that African-Americans made a significant contributionin battle.

BGES Blog: Place the PetersburgCampaign in proper context. How is itviewed historically in terms of its impact onthe Civil War?

Wil Greene: We all know that eternal andunanswerable question of the Civil War:What was the turning point? I would arguefor the Petersburg Campaign. Up until thispoint, the Confederate resistance seemedunconquerable to many and led topessimism from the Union. Coupled withthe re-election of Lincoln, Petersburg provedthat the Union could and would win.

The sun breaking through the clouds at CityPoint, Petersburg / NPS

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