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)

Buying the bulldog edition of the Times

I would love to know the full story behind this:

One of the nation’s largest American Indian tribes has sent letters to about 2,800 descendants of slaves once owned by its members, revoking their citizenship and cutting their medical care, food stipends, low-income homeowners’ assistance and other services.  The Cherokee Nation acted this week after its Supreme Court upheld the results of a 2007 special vote to amend the Cherokee constitution and remove the slaves’ descendants and other non-Indians from tribal rolls.  The 300,000-member tribe is the biggest in Oklahoma, although many of its members live elsewhere.

I hope you have been enjoying your Labor Day weekend.  As I said yesterday we have been taking it easy.  In a little while we’re going to Little India with friends to have lunch and do some shopping.  I needed a few days to just relax and not think about the Civil War too much.  On Saturday David Blight’s American Oracle arrived in the mail from Ye Olde Online Book Shoppe. I am going to start it tomorrow.  Later this week I’m also going to submit proposals for an article and a conference paper.  This weekend, though, is just about relaxation.

One of my things this year has been buying Civil War Centennial tschoskes online. This is all going to be fodder for a future post, but one of my favorite acquisitions is a baseball card of General Grant from Topps’s Civil War News series.  The graphic nature of some of the cards is jarring.  Here is a short video.

Enjoy your day.

My tenure became official today.  It was a long process—nearly ten years—that included a return to graduate school.  My second interview was on September 10, 2001.  The next day was 9/11; a few weeks later I had made the move from public to academic librarianship at a campus in downtown Brooklyn nearly within sight of downtown Manhattan.

A decade is a pretty good slice of life.  When I began here I was single; now I am married and my father passed away in the meantime.  Last November I walked my acceptance of tenure letter down to the administrative office on what would have been his seventy-first birthday.  I’ve gotten a lot of help and advice from friends and colleagues over the years.  I have been especially fortunate to have a department chair who has supported me throughout the process.

It’s a beginning as much as an end.  The work goes on.  The new academic year started this week and I already have a number of projects in the works, which I will share on the blog.  Now is an interesting time with the sesquicentennial in full swing.  We will see what the future brings.

We had our water…

and our candles.

We had our small torch and reading lights in case of a power outage.

We double-checked the batteries.

We had stocked up earlier, but this was the bread aisle at the local supermarket.

For the first time I believe in history, the New York City subway system–all 722 miles–was shut down in its entirety due to natural causes.  The city did a remarkable job throughout the storm.

We never lost power and used the time to rewatch Abraham and Mary.

Thankfully we had the Iron Brigade on our side throughout the worst of it.

By late Sunday morning we were finally able to get out and get some fresh air.

There were many branches knocked down but this was the worst of it.

The automobiles were not damaged in any serious way.

All told we consider ourselves fortunate.  Wherever you are, if you were touched by the storm we hope you are as well.

Hey everybody, it is the calm before the storm here in Gotham.  Everything is shutting down and the Hayfoot and I are going to ride the storm out at home. Sunday is going to be the Big Day.  I for one am going to catch up on some reading and probably break out some 54mm regiments in Blue and Gray on the living room floor.  I am somewhat at ease going into the storm because I turned in the draft of a small writing project earlier this evening.  I was going to put the final touches on it next week but with the storm coming I wanted to get it done.  One less thing to worry about.  Have a good weekend and I will back on Monday.