Review: "Burying the Dead but not the Past: Ladies' Memorial Associations and the Lost Cause"

Earlier, I posted a great video from Caroline Janney of Purdue about women's involvement in the Civil War. She also has written a book called "Burying the Dead but not the Past: Ladies' Memorial Associations and the Lost Cause."

Many people think that Southern women's involvement in memorializing both the dead and the cult of the Lost Cause (read: "we may have lost, but we did it nobly, dang it") did not begin in earnest until the 1890s when the United Daughters of the Confederacy was established. Janney shows that this actually began during the war itself when nursing and sewing circles and the like evolved just after the war into Ladies' Memorial Associations. The LMAs were primarily the domain of middle and upper-class ladies who had such time and resources, as well as lingering anti-Yankee feelings.  There were LMAs all over the old Confederacy (which often helped each other financially), but Janney focuses on those in Virginia - particularly in Richmond, Lynchburg, Winchester, Petersburg, and Fredericksburg. It goes on even after the establishment of the UDC, which supplanted the LMAs, up until about the First World War.
Ladies' Memorial Associations sprang from a great need in the postwar days: to reinter Confederate soldiers with proper burials as well as to commerorate them, along with the Lost Cause. Part of this was out of anger toward Union men who disinterred the bodies of their own men from Southern ground for reburial, which sparked feeling that Confederate graves were being desecrated. Large cemeteries for the purpose of reburial were established, such as Hollywood and Oakwood in Richmond.
The postwar years were still part of the Victorian era, in which women were "supposed" to be apolitical, and not involve themselves with politics as men did. However, in the LMA's work in memorializing fallen Southern soldiers, it kept the idea of the Lost Cause alive because ladies often did work with living former Confederates. Because LMAs were run by women (and not men, as most of their Northern equivilents were), it looked like they were simply remembering their loved ones rather than keeping the ideology of the former Confederacy going for future generations.

"Burying the Dead" is a great resource for those students and scholars of Southern women's involvement in the postwar era. As with many scholarly works, it may be a bit dry for the average reader outside the field. However, for those so inclined, it is a great addition to your Civil War/Reconstruction book collection.

Research day

Today was spent at both the main and Lawrenceville branches of the Carnegie Public Library, where I found a goldmine of sources (mostly newspaper articles of various dates). I feel very confident about conference now.

I popped over to visit Arsenal Park while I was there and took a few more pictures:

"Off Limits" video of the Allegheny Arsenal

http://www.travelchannel.com/video/pittsburghs-bloody-tragedy

The Travel Channel show "Off Limits" did an episode about the Allegheny Arsenal, in which the host also explores its subterranean tunnels, reputed to be a stockpile of weapons for the Union.

Harper's Weekly cover of women in arsenals

Civil War Arsenal

Here is a cover of Harper's Weekly in July 1861 with what is the best known image of women working in arsenals - here, cartridge fillers at the Watertown Arsenal in Massachussetts.

In her wonderful book "Army at Home: Women and the Civil War on the Northern Homefront", Judith Giesberg analyzes this image.  In it, there is nothing at all unseemly about working women. These women appear to be nicely dressed and under close male supervision. However, the male supervisors at this same arsenal would, in 1864, be accused of sexual harassment and favoritism by some of its female employees.

Article: "No exaggerating horror at arsenal explosion"

Eyewitness 1862: No exaggerating horror at arsenal explosion

Here is a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article from a few years ago about the shock and disbelief that local citizens felt about the Allegheny Arsenal explosion.

Review: "Pittsburgh's Forgotten Allegheny Arsenal"

This short tome is chock full of information and anecdotes, reflecting what an important place the Allegheny Arsenal once held in the Lawrenceville community. Author James Wudarczyk is one of several local authorities on the subject, who are working hard to ensure that the Arsenal, and those who lost their lives in the 1862 explosion there, are never forgotten.

The Arsenal was established in 1814 because the Pittsburgh area needed a new base of military supplies. Its location at the head of the Ohio River facilitated the shipping of supplies further west. Some important dignantaries visited the Arsenal, including several presidents, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Charles Dickens. Receptions were held here which were large community events.

When the Civil War came, of course, its place became that much more important for the Union war effort. Civilian workers took advantage of the opportunity to work here as cartridge makers, mainly to support their families, but also out of patriotic feeling for some.

And then there was that fateful day of September 17, 1862, where a series of explosions (the cause is still uncertain, all these years later) claimed the lives of 78 workers, mostly women and girls.

Wudarczyk follows the events of that day as well as those in the days that followed. He, citing Allan Becer's findings, shows that there were discrepencies between the testimony at the coroner's inquest and the military inquiry - even from some of the same witnesses. Colonel John Symington (commandant) and Alexander McBride (superintendant of the main lab where the explosions occurred) hypothesized that leaky barrels from the Dupont company leaked powder onto the roadways and something (like a horseshoe or wagon wheel) set it off. Where at the coroner's inquest, the cause was found to be negligence by the higher-ups, the military inquiry said no cause could be determined: perhaps because of the wealth and influence of the Dupont empire, no further investigation took place.

After the war, the Arsenal served as mostly a supply depot. However, it did play a small role during the 1877 railroad strikes, when a unit of local militia was denied sanctuary there. It also generated some supplies during the Spanish-American War.

Come the turn of the century, though, the usefulness of the Arsenal was being questioned. Many in the community, including relatives of the explosion victims, wanted it to remain. Soon, the land began to be sold off in pieces for such uses as the Marine Hospital. After World War I, supplies there were sold to the general public. And in 1926, what remained of the Arsenal was sold to Howard Heinz, through an agent. Arsenal Middle School and Arsenal Park were soon established here, among other facilities. Soon, even the iconic gatehouse was demolished, despite local protests, though some of the stones from it now fence the park.

It is through such works as Wudarczyk's that will hopefully ensure that the Allegheny Arsenal will never be forgotten, given the importance it once held and the lives lost there.

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From the Civil War Women Blog: Civil War Christmas

http://www.civilwarwomenblog.com/2006/12/civil-war-christmas.html

From the Civil War Women Blog (which I can zone out for hours reading) comes a blog about celebrating Christmas during the Civil War. Particularly in the South, which was hardest hit economicaly, families used whatever they had to make the holidays happy.

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I know, I've been quiet...

...but I have this awesome article about a "Mythbusters" type exhibit planned at the Heinz History Center, hoping to find out what caused the Allegheny Arsenal explosion, which will be really cool to see. Click below:

http://m.triblive.com/triblive/pm_5903/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=euzacrwA

In other news, I will be speaking about the Allegheny Arsenal next week, Wednesday the 9th, at my alma mater Edinboro University. Time and place still TBD. But I'm very excited about this opportunity!

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Page: PA Genealogy Trails History of the Allegheny Arsenal

http://genealogytrails.com/penn/allegheny/allegheny_arsenal.html

Here is a very well written page about the history of the Allegheny Arsenal by the Pennsylvania Genealogy Trails site. Take a look.

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Page: PA Civil War Trails, Women and the War

http://www.pacivilwartrails.com/roadtrips/women-and-the-war

I've mentioned PA Civil War Trails road trips in a previous post, but it bears repeating because this page has a theme of women and the war. It gives suggestions of places to go, and the first trip - the Pittsburgh area - includes Arsenal Park, where the Allegheny Arsenal once stood. So if you never have, hop in your car and go!

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Thesis: "A Memory Forgotten: Representation of Women and the Washington D.C. Arsenal Monument"

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/artstudents/21/

Melissa Sheets of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has written a thesis about the monument memorializing the women who died in the Washington Arsenal explosion. She concludes that the monument is sort of a medium between private grief, which was predominant during the war, and large, public, government sponsored memorial which took hold in the years following the war. She notes that 6 of the 20 victim's families opted to have their loved ones buried elsewhere. Still, the monument and the incident which prompted it are largely forgotten today.

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H-Net Conference on Women and the Civil War

http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=187025

Because the conference focuses on the Allegheny Arsenal explosion and the women who died there, I *need* to go. But what should I present? Help me out!

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Page: Congressional Cemetery website

http://www.congressionalcemetery.org/newspaper-clips-1860-1869

The Congressional Cemetery website has a number of contemporary newspaper articles about not only the cemetery, but also the Washington Arsenal explosion. The all-female victims of the 1864 explosion were buried here and later honored with a monument.

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Page: Virginia United Daughters of the Confederacy erect monument to victims of Brown's Island explosion

http://vaudc.org/browns_island.html

This is from the site for the Virginia division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. In 2001, they erected a memorial to the female victims of the explosion on Brown's Island in 1863.

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Page: Historical Marker Database, Women War Workers

http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?MarkerID=29739&Print=1

The Historical Marker Database has an excellent page about the contributions of women war workers at Washington Arsenal (now Fort Lesley McNair) and in particular, the explosion there in 1864. It details what happened that day and where the marker can be found (inside the fort).

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National Archives Mid-Atlantic Division Online Exhibit: Blasting Through the Silence: Allegheny Arsenal Explosion and the Creation of Public Memory

Http://www.archives.gov/midatlantic/exhibits/allegheny-arsenal/

I am so excited that the Mid-Atlantic division of the National Archives in Philadelphia has put together this online exhibit about the Allegheny Arsenal explosion and its legacy. It is very well-done, and the painting at the beginning is especially striking. I still need to hit them up for primary sources about it one day. It presents sources that lets the reader be the judge about what caused the explosion.

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Article: The Most Appalling Disaster: Jackson, MS Arsenal Explosion

http://battleofraymond.org/howell.htm

Until now, I had no idea an arsenal in Jackson existed, let alone that an explosion took place there. But that it did, and I will have to add this to my ever-growing pile of research. This incident, which took place November 5, 1862 in an old schoolhouse that was used for the making ("choking" was it was often called) cartridges. The accidental explosion killed 34 people, about half women and girls. Over the years, this has largely been forgotten, but hopefully I can find all I can about it for my work. H. Grady Howell has done an excellent job here.

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From another great blog: "Women and Girls in the Brown's Island Explosion"

This is a well-written post from another excellent blog, Civil War Women Blog, about the Brown's Island explosion. After reading this article, take a look at other entries. The topics range from famous Civil War women to the more obscure, such as general's wives. I'm sure you too will spend hours reading it.

http://www.civilwarwomenblog.com/2008/01/women-and-girls-in-browns-island.html

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Article: Ten Common Myths About Women in the Civil War and How to Dispel Them

I found this article fascinating. It is written by Jane E. Schultz, professor at Purdue and author of "Women at the Front: Hospital Workers in Civil War America" and dispels ten common misconceptions and generalizations about Civil War women. So it is useful for us writers and researchers.
PS - Happy Easter, dear readers!

http://www.fpri.org/footnotes/1315.200807.schultz.mythswomencivilwar.html

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Movie Review: "The Conspirator"

I would like, if I may, to stray a bit from my blog's theme to another of my pet projects. I have been interested in Mary Surratt, the first woman executed by the United States Government for her alleged role in the Lincoln assassination, since high school. Since then, I have written a good-sized paper and done much research on her (unfortunately, the digital copy of that paper was lost when my college laptop died; still have a hard copy, though). So as you can imagine, I was geeking out with anticipation for the release of "The Conspirator." I was unhappy that it was not playing in my hometown, but when I visited one of my college friends in Erie last weekend, she and I saw it together. It met my expectations, and then some. If you haven't done so, I highly recommend it. This film is possibly the most historically accurate one I have ever seen.

Robin Wright portrays Mary Surratt ably, as a Maryland widow who moves to Washington to support herself and her children by taking in boarders (as was common at the time) and gets swept up in the doings of John Wilkes Booth through her son John, a Confederate courier. James McAvoy portrays one of her appointed attourneys - and a Union veteran - Frederick Aiken (another of her lawyers, John Clampitt, is not included in the movie, probably to keep from bogging down the plot in too much detail). Aiken is initially reluctant to defend her, but he comes to believe in his client's innocence. Initially, Booth, John Surratt, and other conspirators seek to kidnap and ransom Lincoln. But when Lincoln proposed giving some freedmen the right to vote, Booth's plan changed to murder. How much Mary knew of either plot, and whether or not she was much involved, is still debated today. The movie is largely sympathetic to her, but it still allows the audience to judge for themselves her guilt or innocence. To experts on the subject, there are some glaring inconsistencies with the original events: the omission of Mary Surratt's other priest, the appearance of the Old Penitentiary Building (it didnt have a moat), and the appearance of some of the key players themselves.

"The Conspirator" draws some contemporary parallels about how people in power can use fear after cataclysmic events (in this case, the end of the Civil War and Lincoln's assassination) to justify drastic measures against civilians, whether or not they be guilty.

You can watch the trailer for "The Conspirator" here:

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