Top Ten Posts of 2019: #6-10

Counting down the top ten posts from 2019!

#10: Constitutions of the United States and Confederate States: A Comparison

“When the southern states seceded from the United States in 1860 and 1861, they conceived themselves as a new nation, the Confederate States of America. While they were breaking away from the Union, they saw themselves as continuing the tradition of the Founding Fathers. Many southerners believed that the northern states had strayed away from the original intent of the Constitution and had failed to uphold the protections contained within it, especially the right to property. When the new Confederate States came together to form a constitution, they based it on the U.S. Constitution with some revisions it to account for amendments, legislation, and events that had happened since the first document was written. They also added sections and language that specifically protected the institution of slavery.”

#9: “The Printing Press Cannot Remain Idle”: The Ohio Twenty-Second, A Civil War Soldier Newspaper

“Captain George Washington Hulick sat comfortably in the offices of the former Clarksburg Register. His boots rested upon the editor’s desk, a cool breeze floated in the air, and from the window he could see the green hills of western Virginia and the pretty young girl in the window across the way. Capt. Hulick and the other Union officers in the room freely availed themselves of a confiscated bottle of whiskey. Comfortable and fortified, Hulick and his comrades set about writing and printing The Ohio Twenty-Second, a soldier newspaper established by the recently-recruited regiment of which Hulick was a member.”

#8: Review: Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth by Kevin Levin

“It starts with a picture. A photo of two men—one white and one black—dressed in gray uniforms and armed to the teeth, a show of manhood and bravado before setting off to the front lines of the American Civil War. The photo shows Andrew Chandler, son of a wealthy planter in Mississippi, and one of his family’s slaves, Silas Chandler. Silas accompanied Andrew into the army as his camp slave, or body servant. Silas Chandler is at the center of the myth of the black Confederate, and this single photo has been widely used as proof that black men were armed and fought with the Confederate army. The reality is very different, argues Kevin Levin in his new book Searching for Black Confederates, and Silas was never a soldier for the South. Black men never fought as soldiers for the Confederacy, but that idea is increasingly used to defend the South and argue that the Civil War was not fought over the issue of slavery.”

#7: Review: Calculus of Violence: How Americans Fought the Civil War by Aaron Sheehan-Dean

“For decades historians have debated the military significance and legacy of the American Civil War. Was the conflict the last Napoleonic war or was it the first modern war? When looking at the traditional military history of the Civil War, historians often track a change over time from the spaced-out battles of the early years to the continuous warfare of the 1864-1865 campaigns. Looking at that trajectory it is easy to claim that the war became more violent as it progressed from 1861 to 1865. Aaron Sheehan-Dean brings a new dimension to that question. By opening up the study of violence in the Civil War to non-traditional warfare and making comparisons to international events, The Calculus of Violence argues that the American Civil War was violent or restrained at different times and places during the war, that violence occurred along a spectrum over the course of the conflict but did not move in any linear progression. Sheehan-Dean also demonstrates that the Civil War, considered devastating to the United States at the time, did not compare to other uprisings and conflicts around the world that were far deadlier.”

#6: An Interview with John Reeves, author of The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee

“The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee tells the story of the forgotten legal and moral case that was made against the Confederate general-in-chief after the Civil War. On June 7, 1865, just two months after his surrender at Appomattox, Robert E. Lee was indicted for treason by a Virginia grand jury and faced death by hanging if convicted. He also suffered harsh criticism in the press for his apparent hypocrisy on the issue of slavery and his alleged mistreatment of Union prisoners. Somehow, Lee escaped punishment on the treason charge and went on to become one of the most highly regarded Americans in our history. The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee tells the little-known story of the government’s failure to prosecute the South’s beloved military hero, a result that had wide-ranging ramifications for the future. The book also considers why we erased this story from our national memory for so long. In just the past few years, Americans have begun to reevaluate the legacy of Robert E. Lee, so this story is quite timely, I believe.”