CSotD: Not with a bang, but a whimper

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1. Sherwood

   “…nobody seems to bother parsing the documents of the time with anything approaching that level of reverence.”
   Just a little before the Civil War centennial, my dad started a project that he ultimately completed a few years later: reading every issue of our hometown newspaper from 1860 through 1865 that survived in the town library in an effort to better understand what views ordinary people were afforded of the conflict as it went on. I accompanied him on a few of his evenings there, and the one very clear memory I have is of a little filler down at the bottom of a column on an inner page, first week of July, 1863: “Lee’s army is said to be encamped near Gettysburg, a small town in southern Pennsylvania.” That gave me goosebumps.
   Dad scorned dress-up re-enactors.

2. Mike Peterson

   Reading contemporary accounts really does help recreate the moment, but, yes, also brings up a few of those. I remember compiling the 100 years ago, 75 years ago, etc. feature for the paper and coming across “The USS Maine is paying a courtesy call on Havana Harbor,” but also a chill in reading for several days the almost cheerful reports of the Marines having landed on Okinawa with minimal resistance … a sense of “steady, steady … wait for it …”
   Something to be said for all those “dead trees,” isn’t there?

3. Mike

   As for the issue of reenactors, I did a major piece on Burgoyne’s campaign that ended at Saratoga a few years ago. One of the things the historians told me was that the centennial of the Civil War brought in a new, very strong tendency towards researching the details of history — what they wore, what they ate, how the “little people” went about the business of war. It was a major departure from a study of history based on generals and their orders. Reenactors are definitely geeks, but they are geeks who actually perform a useful function!

4. Mike

   Let me be clear: Burgoyne’s campaign actually ended at Saratoga in 1777. It was “a few years ago” that I created the major piece on it.
   Things are confusing enough. I don’t want to add to it.

5. Sherwood

   Also to avoid unnecessary confusion: Dad scorned a lot of things, many of which served useful functions or were otherwise undeserving of it.

6. hildigunnur

   Ruling with fear works – and is being done. Why, oh why the no-liquids rule in flight when you need litres of stuff and staying in the aeroplane WC for hours to actually make something dangerous. The list is endless but they don’t want to let go of the fear.