Hey everybody, the Hayfoot was out of town this weekend and a friend of mine came to our fair borough to hang out.  Naturally we went to Green-Wood Cemetery on what turned out to be an unseasonably warm and humid afternoon.  Here are a few pics.

One runs into Civil War veterans at every turn.  I have always loved these Grand Army of the Republic markers, which are ubiquitous.  The GAR was an extraordinarily influential lobbying group well into the 20^th century.

This headstone is made of metal.  It is the only one of its kind I have seen in the historic cemetery.

(Image/David Monniaux)

I look like I am channeling Rodin here.

This soldier was mortally wounded at First Bull Run and died in August 1861.

The detail on the headstone is magnificent, but sadly the marble has weathered considerably in the past century and a half.  In a few short years the lettering will be gone.  That is why the cemetery’s work laying new headstones is vital.

Young William Rogers, all of twenty, was killed a year later at Sharpsburg.

Samuel Chester Reid: Navy hero, designer of the United States flag

With vistas like these how could it not be a good day?  And afterward it was back home for the lunch the Hayfoot had prepared for us before leaving town.

Thanks for checking in.

I have not started it yet, but over the weekend I checked John Coski’s The Confederate Battle Flag: America’s Most Embattled Emblem out of the library.  I am never quite sure what to make of cases such as this.  Instances like these appear to be a direct provocation, though I do not know the details of this specific case.  I believe that the First Amendment allows symbolic speech and that flying the flag falls under this category.  I would argue that individuals have a right to exhibit the symbol, but should show restraint and wisdom when doing so.  Governments on the other hand are a different story.  This is especially true in states where the symbol was added to state flags during the Civil Rights era in response to desegregation.  I have wanted to read Coski’s book for some time and this article is a reminder of the topic’s currency.

(New Orleans, 1963/Image courtesy Chuck Battles)

Given the headlines of recent years it is understandable why some believe that our era is one of exceptional violence. In his forthcoming book, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined, linguist Steven Pinker informs us that in fact the opposite is true.  Here is a brief excerpt.

(Image of Chancellorsville dead by Andrew J. Russell/LOC)

President James Garfield

The Mediocre Presidents (Song)

We are the mediocre presidents.

You won’t find our faces on dollars or on cents!

There’s Taylor, there’s Tyler,

There’s Fillmore and there’s Hayes.

There’s William Henry Harrison,

Harrison: I died in thirty days!

We… are… the…

Adequate, forgettable,

Occasionally regrettable

Caretaker presidents of the U-S-A!

-The Simpsons

Last week my wife was at her graduate school taking a break when she overheard two profs discussing where President James Garfield was assassinated.  She immediately texted to see if I knew the answer.  (The train station in Washington, D.C.)  I became interested in Garfield after reading Adam Goodheart’s 1861: The Civil War Awakening.  Garfield plays a significant role in Goodheart’s narrative and the author is especially adept at describing the intellectual underpinnings of Garfield’s abolitionist philosophy and how he entered Ohio politics and then the Army.  I was intrigued just enough to read Ira Rutkow’s small biography James A. Garfield, which is part of the late Arthur  Schlesinger’s American Presidents series.  When done well slim tomes such as these serve as part biography and part meditation setting the record straight on the subject at hand.

General James Garfield

Rutkow spends a great deal of time on the assassination attempt and the poor medical care Garfield received afterward that led to his death.  Now author Candace Millard has a new book on the assassination and its aftermath.

One thing I do not think I understood until reading Rutkow’s book was the degree to which the Gilded Age presidents were hampered by the relative newness of the Republican Party.  When Garfield became president in 1881 the party was less than three decades old.  The lack of precedent on such issues as patronage had tremendous implications for the country and hampered governance at a time when leadership was needed most.  It was the patronage issue that led to Garfield’s assassination.  I do not think a wholesale revision of Gilded Age America and its leaders is in order, but it is a richer history than we tend to believe and one that deserves more consideration.  Who knows?  We may even end up giving Garfield, et al more kudos for their modest but hard won accomplishments.

(Images/Library of Congress)