behind AotW

The 21st Century has been getting in the way of the 19th around me, more’s the pity, as I have been blessed with showers of Antietam-related material recently. Two of these cloudbursts just coincided; Colonel William B. Goodrich of New York at the focus.

Fellow blogger and Antietam Ranger John David Hoptak kindly sent me his biography of the Colonel, freshly written for the Antietam Volunteer Newsletter, to fill a gap on AotW. It’s up now. It is very fine.

Goodrich has the unfortunate distinction of being the only Union Brigade Commander killed in action at Antietam. Formerly commanding the 60th New York Infantry, as senior Colonel he was put in charge of his Brigade in the XII Corps on 16 September, the day before the battle.

It was back in February that I first saw the Colonel’s face, however, courtesy of the first of a series of emails full of local newspaper lore and her own research from avid genealogist Connie Sterner. Connie is master of the North Country (NY) history site, which apparently began, as these things do, as a small project and got completely out of hand!

In a new article calling for more academic attention to military history, Professor David Bell reassures:

Of course, promoting such historical knowledge does not mean subsidizing more books on subjects like cavalry tactics at the Battle of Antietam–which the public itself already subsidizes quite nicely …

He could have found a better example of a clichéd pop history topic (hint for next time: look for keywords like Blitzkrieg or Gettysburg).

Given the almost complete tactical insignificance of cavalry at the battle of Antietam, there are few, if any, published works specific to the subject.

Forget it, he’s rolling.

This is only a tiny part of an otherwise excellent article. And, yes, I recognize that Bell’s just taking a poke at “guns and drums” books – those of little interest to real scholars.

As one of the unwashed mass across the academic vs. public divide, I suppose I could blog a response to that perception or wonder aloud about Dr Bell’s contention that academics should “trust in the instincts of the general public”.

But who’d care? Instead, I’ll amuse myself with this small gaffe.

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Notes

The article quoted and linked above is Military history bites the dust. Casualty of War from The New Republic (online edition), by David A. Bell. Post date 05.09.07 | Issue date 05.07.07.

Per the magazine: David A. Bell is a contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The First Total War: Napoleon’s Europe and the Birth of Warfare As We Know It. He’s also professor at Johns Hopkins.

Thanks to Dr J A Klinghoffer, blogging on HNN’s Deja Vu, for the quotes from Dr Bell’s piece which clued me to it.
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Cultural Reference

See a clip of the movie speech excerpted in the title of this post.

Andrea Keller Helsel emailed highlighting threats to our National Cemeteries as discussed Tuesday in Congressional testimony before the House Committee on Veteran’s Affairs.

Andrea’s with the National Parks Conservation Association, and they’ve issued a press release on this subject. They’re urging that Congress adopt a budget which includes a US$200 Million increase in Park funding for FY2008 (begins October 2007).

Take action to do what you can to help, won’t you? You could start by signing the online petition.

Antietam National Cemetery dedication, 1867
(from WHILBR and Susan Trail)

“Shiloh Nick” from Denver has begun a blog called Civil War Musings. Prolly should have checked with Mike first :)

Nick looks to be a serious battlefield stomper. Please welcome him to the blog-world and we’ll hope for great things!

I visited the battlefield Visitor’s Center (VC) last Friday evening for a special event, and, as is always the case at Antietam, came away with some unexpected gems.

These include seeing Antietam on the Web used ‘in the field’ on a wireless PDA, hearing news about progress on Virtual Antietam, getting my mitts on the new Park brochure, and being charmed by a nightscape from the mountaintop …

Got an email yesterday from Guns and Ammo magazine pitching something called “Subscriptions for Soldiers”. The subject line reads

Valued Subscriber, the troops need your support.

Then after some flagwaving and heart-string tugging, a link is provided to an online sales page where I can donate money to pay for subscriptions:

For only $10 you can help us shoulder the cost of sending a gift subscription to active service members serving at home and around the world. We have gathered thousands of requests for magazine subscriptions from our servicemen and women and now we need your help!

… We currently have 22676 service member requests …

…Your gift subscription will be given anonymously. Due to privacy and security concerns, Primedia will not release your name and address to the recipient of this gift and will also not release the recipient’s name and location to you or anyone else.

First off, I’m not a subscriber. Never have been. That makes this feel a lot like spam. At very least, it gave me a bad first impression. I’ve emailed someone at the magazine for comment on that.

Second, I feel this a cynical use of patriotic sentiment and concern for our service members:

… an exciting new program that gives you a chance to personally show the hardworking men and women in America's armed forces how much you truly appreciate their sacrifice … You get to show Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines how much you care.

Reminds me of the door-to-door magazine subscription rackets claiming to help “inner city youth avoid drugs” or “deserving kids earn college scholarships”. How could you be against those noble goals?

Though it presents like a scam, the program is operated by Primedia, the magazine’s parent company. There’s also a link to the program from Guns & Ammo‘s webpage. Large scale donors are identified here and include quite a number of gun manufacturers. I don’t know what that tells us. Perhaps they’re advertisers interested in growing the reader base?

So, this is certainly good for Primedia, probably for some in uniform, but perhaps not the best way to show your support of the troops.

If this is something you feel good about, please go donate. I’m a bit put-off, myself.
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Bonus Questions

If this is, in fact, a great program for the troops, how could Primedia have handled publicity so it wouldn’t seem so slimy? Or do you think I’m overreacting here?

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Added 12:45pm 4/25

Someone from new G&A owners InterMedia Outdoor, Inc. kindly replied to my email inquiry and confirmed the legitimacy of the program and apologized if the email to me “was in error”, pointing me to the opt-out function.

60 Pastors of the Brethren Church met on South Mountain 10-12 April and

took the time to soak in the rich history of the area, especially the Antietam battlefield highlighted by the Dunker Church, a part of our spiritual heritage.

Dunker Church, Antietam (National Park Service photo)

The Church’s announcement about the event also notes

It was from the steps of this church that Abraham Lincoln spoke following the battle.

I need to do some research to see what event that might be referring to. You’ll remember that the President visited the battlefield in October 1862. I don’t remember reading of his ‘speaking’ there. The Park website says only that

One tradition persists that Lincoln may have visited the site during his visit to the Army of the Potomac in October 1862.

The modern Brethren Church is one of at least 3 bodies descending from the German Baptist Brethren–also known as ‘Dunkers’– founders of the congregation at Sharpsburg who worshiped in that simple little church building on the Antietam Battlefield.

Being webmaster of Antietam on the Web has its challenges, but big rewards, too. Once of the greatest is the steady stream of correspondence I get from people all over the world who have pieces of the puzzle to share.

Just before stepping off the grid for vacation a couple of weeks back, I had a note from a delightful person in Arizona who’s family owns the painted portrait you see here.

MGen Thomas C Devin, artist unknown; poss. Healy (c. 1870, courtesy of the owner)

This noble warrior is Thomas Casimer Devin (1822 – 1878), here in the uniform of Major General: the (honorary) rank he attained by brevet in March 1965 and by appointment in the US Volunteers after the War was over.

He was Colonel in command of the 6th New York Cavalry at the battle of Antietam in 1862, and led a detachment from his Regiment in that action, their first significant combat of the War.

We’ll touch later on the battle of Five Forks for which he is celebrated here, but first let me skip ahead to the punchline of this post. Take a peek down in the bottom left corner of the picture and note the flag draped at Devin’s right knee. Yes, those are actually dinner forks …

Segway tours of the Antietam National Battlefield?

I don’t know how I feel about it. Superintendent Howard says it’s a good idea …

More from the Frederick News-Press article.

Added 4/18/2007: National Parks Traveler Kurt Repanshek wonders about this, too.

The Government of the Confederate States is pledged by the unanimous vote of its Congress … never to cease this War until Maryland has the opportunity to decide for herself her own fate, untrammeled and free from Federal Bayonets …

So states the lovely recruiting poster seen above (click picture for larger version). It was issued by Maryland Confederate Colonel Bradley Johnson on his arrival in Frederick, Maryland on 8 September 1862.

Today’s Frederick News-Post features the historic document in an article about the Museum Shop, Richard and Vicky Kornemann’s art sale and conservation business in Frederick.

I hope the document’s owner will make it available for public viewing–it looks like a great piece.