Day: May 31, 2012

News and Notes, May 31, 2012

Brooks D. Simpson1 Comment

Let’s just take a walk and see what we find …

  • Andy Hall offers a rather telling analysis of yet another attempt to manufacture a story of a black Confederate soldier.
  • Like many other people, it was not until I read the link to Kevin Levin’s recent post about Memorial Day in Fredericksburg that I found that our friends the Virginia Flaggers (all five of them) were present.  The Flaggers made a big deal of this, of course.  However, Michael Aubrecht’s observations are on the mark.  As I’ve said before, the Flaggers do make their way into news accounts because their presence serves a purpose in those accounts.  It’s free publicity.  That said, as Michael points out, the Flaggers failed to pay tribute to fallen Confederates and other notables (including Dabney H. Maury) at the nearby Confederate cemetery (which I’ve visited in the past).  So it seems I care more about honoring Confederates than do the Flaggers.
  • Those who want to honor the past might take one last look at the usenet group alt.war.civil.usa (now in Google Groups).  Oh, I’m sure it will remain on some form of life support, but the last few months have seen the departure of one of its most provoking posters and nasty exchanges among the few folks who remain.  However, a group that was once a lively place for the exchange of views about the American Civil War has been reduced to depending upon spammers to reach 100 posts a month (as of last count, only 52 posts appeared in May 2012), with a few long time participants discussing the nature of southern identity as a retired professor rediscovers what the rest of us already know on a periodic basis.  Then again, he went to school with Newt Gingrich.
  • Read this and reflect on what it says.  Nice job, Andy.