Category: Civil War memorials

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Willful ignorance

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it
Trooper Meditating Beside a Grave, 1865, Winslow Homer, Joslyn Art Museum

Tomorrow is the celebration of the consecration of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg, PA, where President Abraham Lincoln delivered what is now known as the Gettysburg Address. Since that day in 1863, when Union Soldiers marched with Lincoln from the bustling town to the cemetery, people have marked the occasion with a solemn parade on the Saturday closest to November 19.

At first, it was Civil War veterans themselves who organized the remembrance. As they petered out, it became reenactors, from both north and south, coming together to make a powerful statement of unity.
Union and Confederate veterans shake hands at the Assembly Tent at Gettysburg, US Library of Congress
This year will be no exception, but participants and visitors have been told to not bring backpacks or coolers to the parade route or other scheduled events. They’ve also been warned not to engage with ‘anti-Confederate groups’ that might be in the crowds on Saturday afternoon. This is because they’ve received a ‘credible threat,’ which is now being investigated by the FBI, state police and local cops.
This is only the latest threat against Civil War reenactors. In October, a reenactment of the Battle of Cedar Creek was marred by threats and the discovery of a pipe bomb. Manassas, VA, cancelled its annual tribute to the two bloody battles fought there due to similar threats. Also canceled was a similar reenactment at McConnels, SC.
Reenactors are the dramatists of history. They tend to be fascinated with specific periods, learning about them with great accuracy. I know specialists from the French and Indian War, the Revolution, nautical history, and the domestic economy. But the most visible reenactment community is the Civil War one.
Sharpshooter, 1863, Winslow Homer, Portland Museum of Art
They are, in my experience, history buffs with a strong creative streak, well-read and meticulous. They’re not donning the blue and grey to advance any kind of political agenda. They’re harmless. For many people, seeing a Civil War reenactment is a cheap and painless history lesson.
“A 2012 ACTA survey found that less than 20 [percent] of American college graduates could accurately identify the effect of the Emancipation Proclamation, less than half could identify George Washington as the American general at Yorktown, and only 42 [percent] knew that the Battle of the Bulge occurred during World War II,” reportedNational Review.
If Americans weren’t so woefully ignorant of their own history, could a book entitled Did Lincoln Own Slaves even exist? It was written by a college professor in response to his students asking dumb questions. That should indicate the depth of our cultural illiteracy problem.
Organizers have played down the threats to Civil War events. They don’t want to alarm the public unnecessarily. But as citizens, we need to calmly consider why they’re happening and what we ought to do about them.
Song of the Lark, 1876, Winslow Homer, Chrysler Museum of Art
“I believe it’s part of the monument issue, about rewriting history,” one reenactor told me. The parade isn’t about reenactors strutting their stuff, she added, but about recreating the historic parade itself. 
“Truly, you can’t change history, only the story that’s told,” she noted.
Intimidation always threatens free speech. “I am afraid that the threats will make it so expensive for the local governments that we will no longer be welcome to put on the events. Then they win,” another reenactor told me.
The Civil War is something we should never revise, downplay or forget. Almost one in 30 American citizens died in the fighting.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” wrote George Santayana. I’d add a coda to that: Willful ignorance is the worst offense possible against your fellow citizens. We all end up paying for it.
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Brother against brother

Many of those Confederate War Monuments were made by flinty Yankees from Connecticut.

Three versions of the same Union Soldier from J. L. Mott Iron Works, courtesy of Carol A. Grissom from the Journal of American Institute for Conservation.

Every town in New England, seemingly, has its Civil War monument, an infantryman staring over the town square. There are 150 of them in Maine alone.

The one in Castine is made of granite from the Hallowell Granite Company. It was paid for by subscription in 1887, costing a total of $1525. This company also did the one in Camden, which cost $1400 in 1899. Lewiston’s cost the princely sum of $5000. It was cast in bronze from a model by Franklin Simmons, who also sculpted Portland’s memorial. Waterville’s is a mass-produced copy of Martin Milmore‘s “Citizen Soldier” and cost $2700 in 1876.
Saco’s is identical to that of Mercer, Pennsylvania. The pair were made by the WH Mullins Co., which would later go on to greatness manufacturing the mid-century Youngstown Kitchen Cabinet line. Saco’s memorial cost $2600 in 1907.
Simmons and Milmore were both prominent sculptors. I’m not criticizing their artistry, but they did catch a financial wave in the monument business.
Monroe, ME’s Civil War monument, courtesy State of Maine.
Then there’s the town of Monroe in Waldo County. Its memorial came from the Monumental Bronze Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut. This was a company of true Yankee businessmen, who designed and built a cheap, modular Civil War monument that could be up and grieving before your neighboring town even got its subscription organized.
Starting in the 1870s, inexpensive cemetery monuments began to be made of zinc. They were marketed as being more durable than stone. Many of these, in fact, remain in surprisingly good condition.
Next time someone tells you they don’t make things like they used to, point out this crooked plinth on the Civil War soldier in Monroe ME. Photo courtesy Carol A. Grissom.
The Monumental Bronze Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut (subsidiaries in Des Moines, Iowa; Detroit, Michigan; Chicago, Illinois, and Canada) was a leader in this industry. They had a patented technique for a matte finish that imitated stone. These markers were sold as “white bronze” and included thousands of markers, off-the shelf statues of the virtues Faith, Hope or Charity to weep over your tomb, and the ubiquitous Civil War soldier.
They were not by any means the only company casting Civil War monuments. J. W. Fiske & Company of New York, the nation’s largest purveyor of decorative cast iron, also entered the lucrative Civil War monument trade. But they sold exclusively in the North.
Advertisement for one-size-fits-all Civil War monuments.
Monumental Bronze entered the Southern market, as impoverished as it was. In the late 1800’s, they sold two versions of the Civil War soldier infantryman. Their faces, uniforms and posture were identical. The only difference was that the Union model had US on the belt buckle, while the Confederate model sported CS.
There are about 2500 of these in the former Union States and 500 in the former Confederacy. Since white bronze appears blueish-grey, they could be taken for either the blue or grey uniforms of the combatants. Their appeal to the South was simple: they cost $450 for a life-size version or $750 for the 8.5’ version, versus the thousands of dollars that custom-made granite markers cost.
I’ll leave it to othersto theorize on the subversive nature of these monuments. To some, they seem like a candle to the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. To me, their standardized features say a lot about the conflict, which pitted brother against brother, friend against friend.
Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment, 1884, Augustus Saint-Gauden, courtesy Wikipedia.
Boston is home to the best of Civil War memorials—the Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment by Augustus Saint-Gauden. The Massachusetts 54th was the first African-American regiment fielded in the Civil War. Saint-Gauden’s memorial is a brilliant tribute, but you don’t have to look very far to find racist attitudes in it, too. I don’t think it’s going anywhere, but does it lose its meaning if its adversaries have been melted down for scrap medal?